Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Your soulmate is the person who can tolerate you when you’re hungry.
—Eddy to Weaver
Eddy
I studied my naked body in the bathroom mirror, taking in every angle as I twisted this way and that.
It had, officially, been a month since I’d been attacked by that bear.
A month of healing hadn’t done very much, at least in my opinion, to my outward appearance.
The scarring on my body from the bear’s claws and bites looked just as hideous now as when they’d first happened.
My ribs were better.
My arm, apparently, was doing better.
However, the uneven skin and the way that I looked like I’d literally been mauled by a bear on my left side made me want to puke.
“Hey, Eddy! We have to leave in thirty minutes. Are you even awake?”
Bos…Berkley.
Berkley.
You have to call her Berkley.
“Yeah, Bossy! I’m up. Getting dressed now.”
“Hurry up and come eat! Dad made pancakes!”
I smiled as I stepped into my underwear.
I was just pulling them up over my hips when the door quietly opened behind me and a muscular form slipped inside.
“Hey,” he said as he came to a standstill with his back against the door. “You okay? You were up an hour ago. I thought you’d be dressed by now.”
I didn’t bother to cover up.
The man had seen everything I had.
Both the good and the bad.
I didn’t need to hide from him.
“I’ve tried tons of things on, and none of my sleeves hide the scars on my arms at all,” I grumbled. “I only have a few on my legs, but even with my longest leggings, you can still see the scars.”
He came up behind me and placed both of his hands on my hips.
I studied how his unblemished skin looked against my marred skin.
“You’re beautiful,” he said softly, his hands moving in so that he could move them up to cover my breasts.
My insides warmed, and I couldn’t stop myself from pressing back against him.
“That’s not very nice,” I pointed out.
He grinned wickedly at me. “You’re going to the doctor after school, right?”
I nodded.
“Maybe you can ask him what he thinks about you having gentle sex…” He pinched my nipple softly, not enough to make me jolt or anything, but enough to make my thighs tighten.
Things pulled against sensitive skin as I pressed my thighs together, but not enough to make me want to stop.
“I’m sure he’ll say I can’t,” I grumbled.
“You never know.” He dropped my breasts and walked to the pile of clothes on my bed, pulling out a pair of black leggings with a pocket, a black Jesper County Soccer t-shirt, and a black sweatshirt that said JC Soccer on it. “This.”
There was no reason not to wear what he’d given me, so I changed into it quickly.
“No bra?” he asked.
“It hurts still,” I admitted. “Can you tell I’m not wearing one?”
“I mean, I can. But I’m looking pretty hard,” he admitted. “Go ask Bossy what she thinks about it. She’ll tell you if she notices it.”
“She might not notice it, either. But you do realize that I work with a bunch of high schoolers, right? Ones that are boys, and have hormones on top of hormones?”
“What about a wrap?” he suggested. “You have a few of those bandage wraps left that you had wound around your arm that first night.”
“Oh,” I said. “That’s a good possibility.”
He moved to the bathroom and came back with one of the wraps. “Tug that shirt up.”
I did, exposing my breasts to him again.
He bent down and licked one distended nipple, and I hissed.
When he stood up, I noticed the very distinctive bulge in his jeans.
One that I’d noticed every single day since he’d told me he had feelings for me. That he loved me.
“We’re going to both die of blue balls,” I grumbled as he stood to wrap the fabric around my breasts.
When he was done, I said, “I think that’s perfect.”
He gently tugged the sweatshirt back into place, then before I could get my bearings, he was pressing his mouth down onto mine.
I moaned into his mouth when his tongue slipped inside.
I’d just leaned into him, desperate for more, when Boston yelled, “Food! Now!”
“Little cock blocker, I swear,” Weaver muttered against my mouth.
I snorted and pulled away. “I’ll reiterate that I’m very, very interested in sexual relations, and I would very much like it if I was cleared.”
He stepped back, but not before I caught the way he had to readjust his jeans. “I’ll be out in a minute. I don’t want my kid to see me this way. It’s indecent.”
I studied his cock behind his jeans before saying, “Super indecent.”
An hour later, I was walking Berkley into the office.
“You’re back!” Principal Ryan called out as he rounded the desk. “I’m so glad to see you better. You looked rough as hell in the hospital.”
“You came by the hospital?” I asked.
“Sure did.” Two more people came out of the office. Assistant Principal Newsome and the front desk attendant that happened to be married to the assistant principal, Leeanndra.
“Lee!” I called out, excited beyond belief. “I’m so glad to see you back! How’s the baby?”
“She’s doing so well.” Lee hugged me gently. “I’m so glad to see you back, too. How are you?”
“I’m good,” I promised and stepped back. A complete lie seeing as I was still hurting and dealing with parental issues, but we didn’t need to get into the nitty-gritty of everything. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet your newest student, Berkley Grant.”
Berkley stepped up and did that awkward wave that people did when they didn’t know anyone.
“Ahh, Ms. Grant,” Principal Ryan said as he came to offer her his hand, which Bossy took with a solid shake.
“I’ve heard a lot about you from Eddy’s sister.
” When Nettie wasn’t playing in her professional games, she was back here taking over my soccer duties so my girls could have a coach that knew what they were doing seeing as soccer season for us was in full swing.
“I hear you have quite the soccer gene, too.”
“I guess,” Bossy’s cheeks flamed. “I do love soccer, though.”
Understatement of the year.
“You’re from Texas, right?” Ryan asked.
“Uh, yeah.” Bossy smiled. “Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re being dropped directly into soccer season after leaving home.” He grinned. “Did you play in high school?”
Lucky for us, her grandparents had decided that they were too old for club soccer, leaving her to play for her high school and rec team only. If she’d played club soccer like she was fully capable of doing, and excelling at, she’d have been a whole lot less easy to hide.
Bossy was a standout. There was no way in hell that she wouldn’t have been noticed if she’d been more visible.
“Oh, yeah.” Bossy smiled. “I did. We’d just finished our season when I transferred here.”
“I hear you’re pretty good.” Ryan nodded. “It’ll suck for your old team to have to lose you, but we definitely won’t be complaining to have another great soccer star on our roster.”
Wasn’t that the truth?
It just sucked that I couldn’t put her on varsity due to UIL rules on transfer students.
But, it would be good for her to learn the program and her teammates before she was stuck in a role that the team might resent her for having.
Next year would be her year, but I was sure that Bossy would be perfectly fine hanging out with junior varsity until then.
Plus, her fellow sophomores would mostly be on JV with her.
“Hey, Darcy!”
A young man that I knew quite well peeked his head in the office, surprised to be called out when he’d been walking by to get to his next class.
“Could you show our new soccer gal to her first class?”
Darcy was the JV goalie for the boys’ team.
Though they played in the fall, they continued to train year-round unless they were in other sports.
Darcy was great, and I liked him a lot. He was a good kid with a solid head on his shoulders. He was also sweet and kind, and I had zero problems with him showing my favorite girl around.
He proved his sweetness when he saw me and cried, “Coach E!”
Everyone in the school had called me Coach E.
I’d wanted to distance myself from the Wheeler name when I’d first come on as a history teacher and head coach of the girls’ soccer team.
At the time, I hadn’t been embarrassed of the name like I was now, but I’d been under a thick, dark cloud of my father’s role as a pastor that some liked, and some hated.
I wanted to be my own person, and that was why I’d decided to never go by my last name.
The students’ address had started out as Coach Edith, then Coach Eddy, finally shortened to Coach E in the last few years.
“Hey, Darcy.” I smiled. “Treat my girl right, okay?”
“And who is your girl?” Darcy asked, holding out his hand politely to Bossy.
“Berkley,” she introduced herself. “But my friends call me Bossy.”
Apollo, some of the Dixie Wardens, Weaver and I had discussed whether or not we should allow her to go by the nickname Bossy, and we’d decided that it was okay. Mostly because the only people who had called her Bossy were Weaver and Bossy’s grandparents.
They’d never addressed her as such outside of their own household, either, because Bossy had never liked the nickname because it made her “look bad.”
According to her father, at around age nine, she’d said, ‘No one likes to be known as a bossy person.’
From that moment on they’d made a conscious effort to make sure they didn’t address her as that to anyone but each other.
Now, Bossy had grown into the nickname, and it would keep the confusion down when they addressed her.
She always answered to Bossy.
“Bossy.” Darcy smiled. “I like it.”
Bossy’s cheeks flushed as she shot me a small wave and disappeared into the crowded hall with Darcy.
“Oh, that one is going to be a little killer to all the boys,” Leeanndra said.
“Agreed.” I nodded and turned to the group. “How is everything going? Anything I need to be aware of?”
“Your history sub actually knew her shit and didn’t deviate too far from the lesson plan,” Ryan said.