Transcending Regrets (No Regrets book 3)

  “Wait––you and Vicky have a kid?”

  “Yep.” He smiled proudly. “Her name is Sienna, and she’s three. I thought you knew.”

  I shook my head, grinning. “I’m sorry, I didn’t. Congrats, man.”

  “Thanks. Oh hey, I have something for you.” On his way to the coaches’ bench he told Jake to go join his teammates. After rummaging through his bag, he pulled out a football jersey and threw it in my hands.

  “Liam. This really wasn’t necessary.”

  He shrugged. “It’s yours, actually. I was looking through some old game plans a few months ago and found it in the bottom drawer of Coach Collins’ file cabinet. I guess he decided to keep it in case you came back.”

  I unfolded the red, white and gold jersey and traced the letters of my name with my eyes, stopping at the missing ‘C’.

  ***

  “You wanted to talk to me?” Coach Collins said, unlocking the door to his office. “What can I do for you?”

  After the team’s practice I sat on the bleachers, and waited for them to head back inside before approaching him. He told me to go wait inside while he picked up the practice gear, so that’s what I did. He took a seat at his desk and invited me to do the same, but I didn’t.

  “I’m not staying. I just wanted to stop by and give you this back.” I reached into my back-pack and pulled out my brand new Giant’s jersey.

  “Why?” he asked. “It’s yours, Langton. You deserve that ‘C’”

  “Actually, I don’t. A captain should never give up on his team like I have.”

  “Come on kid, I’m pretty sure that after everything you’ve been through in the last few weeks, your team’s going to forgive you.”

  “Coach,” I sighed. “I don’t want to play anymore. I’m done with football.”

  “Oliver,” he responded sadly. “That message I left on your answering machine…I didn’t mean it. We need you. Your team needs you.”

  “They’ll manage without me.”

  “Henry wouldn’t want this for you, Oliver. You have hopes and dreams, he would want you to follow through with them.”

  “My father is dead,” I gritted through my teeth. “A person that’s buried six feet underground doesn’t have the ability to care about shit. And even if he did, it’s not like he can do much about anything anymore, now. Can he?”

  He frowned at my bold response.

  “I don’t want to play anymore,” I replied after tearing off the captain’s badge, I threw the shirt on his desk. I started to play with the red ‘C’ twiddling it with my fingers, and when I couldn’t bear looking at it anymore I flung it over my jersey. “And I don’t want this anymore either.”

  “Ol––”

  “And whatever shit you want to try and pull on me to keep me on your team, you can forget about it.” I opened the door, tears of pain and anger prickled my eyes. I was officially starting to give up on everything I loved and moving on with my plans of leaving Carrington. “I’m not coming back.”

  ***

  “I tried to give it to Abby once, but she didn’t want it,” Liam said. “She said that she didn’t deserve it and that the school should keep it.”

  I frowned as he repeated Abby’s words. I couldn’t quite understand why she’d say that she didn’t deserve it. She had worn our team’s jersey at every game since we were in ninth grade.

  “Anyway, I figured you might want it, so there you go.”

  “I do. Thank you.”

  “I’ll be opening a spot for Assistant Coach next September. Think you might be interested?”

  “You do understand that I’m not a teacher, Liam, right?”

  “Yeah, but you were a damn good player and an even better captain. I could use a guy like you by my side. Plus, the kids worship you, dude.”

  “They do?” I questioned.

  He nodded smiling. “You don’t need to say yes now. It’s an offer. Take your time, think about it, and call me during the summer or something.”

  “I will.”

  Stunned by the offer, I turned and watched Liam’s team still running on the field. It was pretty rare to have a football practice during lunch period.

  “So, how long have they been at it?”

  “Thirty-five,” he responded with a mocking grin. “And they deserved every minute of it.”

  “What did they do?”

  “Besides being a huge pain in my ass?” he exclaimed. “They spread a team member’s gear and clothing on the football field last Sunday.”

  “You’re kidding me?” I laughed out loud. “Some things never do change, do they?”

  “No, unfortunately, they don’t,” he chuckled back. “And do you know what the funniest part of it is?”

  “It’s still about a girl?” I guessed.

  “Bingo! Man…do you remember when we pulled that shit on Ashton? Coach was furious.”

  “And I couldn’t have done it without you.” I smiled and looked at the time. I came out during lunchtime in hopes of burning off some steam, but got sidetracked. “Hey would you mind if I trained with them for a while?”

  “Have at it. They’ll be done in about ten though, Mr. Fontaine told me that I could punish them as I saw fit, but that I wasn’t allowed to take their entire lunch period. Apparently they need to eat.”

  I ran with them for a while and about fifteen minutes later Liam blew his whistle and told them to ‘get the fuck off his field’ and be ready for another intense practice after class. I waved him off as he left the gates and continued running for another twenty minutes.

  While I sprinted my last lap around the field I noticed a girl and an older guy arguing on the sidewalk in front of the student’s entrance. They caught my attention because it was obvious by his age that he had no business being around a high school. He was too old to attend and too young to be a teenager’s father. His dark blond hair tied up in a lose bun, pale ripped jeans, and a tight black t-shirt did nothing to inspire confidence, so instead of going to wash up, I stuck around and very slowly walked towards them. When the school bell went off, the student was still not heading back inside as she should. My next period was about to start, but rather than going in I went to see them. As soon as I got close enough, I recognized the black haired girl.

  “Millie,” I scolded.

  She shot me an annoyed glare and went back to whatever conversation she was having.

  “Millie,” I repeated. “Class is about to start and you’re supposed to be inside right now.”

  “See,” she muttered to the man she was with. “Now you’ll get me in trouble. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Damian. Just leave me alone.”

  Damian…

  Both looked up to me and he sniggered. I hadn’t seen him in years. Last time we’d seen each other we were on good terms, but now that I knew about his past with Abby and how he’d helped his father out of jail, my endearment for the guy changed.

  “Don’t worry, Millie, I know him. She won’t get into trouble now, will she Langton?”

  “God…” she lamented. “Do you know everyone in this fucking town? First my gym teacher, then my school principal, my social worker, and now him? You’re fucking annoying.”

  I tightened my jaw. There was nothing more that I wanted to do than to punch Bushmans in the face, but the last thing I needed was to get into it with him. “How about you let her go to class, and I’ll let it slip.”

  She frowned at me and backed away from Damian. When she started to head towards me, she knocked my shoulder, making sure I understood how displeased she was with my presence.

  “Why are you here?” I asked Damian once Millie was out of earshot.

  “That’s none of your business, Langton.”

  “I disagree. You’re on public school grounds during school hours.”

  “Thank you for stating the obvious.”

  “You have no reason to be here.”

  “Says who, you? We’re related if that helps soothe your w
orries. That being said, what are you even doing here anyway? Weren’t you in B.C.? Have you finally decided it was time to claim what was yours but realized it was too late? I guess your buddy Tyler got to her before you could. She’s fucking hot pregnant though, don’t you think?”

  My fists tightened as I took a step forward. “The baby is mine.”

  “I should have figured as much.” He snickered. “I am curious though…has she told you how many times I’ve fucked her while you were gone?”

  He stopped talking and waited on some sort of response. When he realized that I wasn’t going to react, he licked his lips and smiled at me arrogantly.

  “Sometimes when I’m buried deep into another woman, I pretend it’s her sweet pussy tightening around my dick.”

  “Leave.” I growled.

  He smirked. “And that sound she makes when she comes…fuck.”

  “Bushmans, I swear––”

  “I warned you,” he continued. “I warned you someone else would take her, and you didn’t listen. Instead, you decided to bail and break her poor little heart. I still can’t believe what an idiot you were. How could you not know that the girl was infatuated with you?”

  I gave into his taunting. “Why? Why her? You knew what she meant to me. I thought you were my friend.”

  “Your friend?” he snorted. “Fuck that shit. You were a business opportunity, Oliver.”

  “What about her?”

  “She––” he looked up at the sky. “She was Abbygail Evens. The one girl every guy in this school wanted, but couldn’t have because her heart was devoted to her clueless best friend.”

  “Why her?” I growled again.

  “Why not her? She’s fucking beautiful, she’s smart, she’s sweet, she’s mouthy, and doesn’t care about what people think. She’s perfect, Oliver.”

  “She was mine.”

  “Until you left. And then she became the perfect innocent victim.”

  I observed Damian talking, and the more I listened, the more I realized that whatever he was trying to make me believe was a load of crap. His words were harsh, but his eyes told an entirely different story. It was then that I understood that Abby’s theory on Damian wasn’t as black and white as she’d explained it. Part of me wondered if she was completely oblivious or knew about it, and decided to lie to me. My guess was the latter, but in any case, it didn’t matter. What mattered was that I figured him out. His initial plan must have been to use her, but with time, his intentions changed.

  “You fell for her,” I pointed out.

  “I did,” he admitted without regret.

  “How long did that take?” I asked curiously. “A minute? An hour? A day? How long Damian?”

  “How does it feel to know that she belonged to someone else other than you?” he answered. “How does it feel to know that while you were gone, she fell in love with someone else?”

  It was my turn to smile smugly at him. “She never loved you.”

  “Are you sure about that, Langton?”

  “I am.”

  He shook his head and smiled back at me. “Then you’re more clueless than I would have ever pinned you to be.”

  “I know she never loved you because she told me.”

  He shook his head, mocking me with his sarcastic chortle. “Just because she can’t say the words, doesn’t mean she can’t feel the emotion.”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  He walked away proudly. He knew he’d found the perfect way to get to me. I watched him leave, holding back on my urge to run and beat the shit out of him.

  “Love is a complicated emotion, Langton,” he said turning around to glance at me. “Remember that.”

  Chapter 28

  Abbygail

  “So how did the exam go?” Laney asked as we made our way down the street towards the candy store.

  She decided to take me shopping while the guys went to try out the new gym Oliver had discovered near his apartment complex. We had all met up at their place after my exam, and seeing that I wasn’t where I told them I would be, she, Stephan, and Tyler started asking questions. As soon as I came in, I had to confirm Oliver’s story about my new career plans. It was pretty tough being mad at him since all he did was brag about how proud of me he was. To be honest, the last thing I wanted to do was to go shopping, but when I asked if I could join them, all I got in response were three pairs of angry eyes forbidding me to even think about setting foot inside a gym. My guy friends sucked…

  We dropped off the guys at the gym, giving them an hour and a half before dinner, but after thirty-five minutes I got bored, tired, and hungry so I made the decision of going to the candy store that sold root beer slushies.

  “Tougher than I expected, but thankfully I’m done for the summer.”

  “Are you going back in the fall?”

  “I registered, but I’m not sure if I’ll attend or not. I guess it’ll depend on how well I can adapt to motherhood.”

  She laughed. “You’ll do fine. I’m sure of it.”

  “We’ll see. So…you and Stephan––”

  “Are taking things slow,” she interjected. “He wants to figure out things with Kylie before we start anything serious. Which is fine with me if we consider everything that happened with Justin.”

  I responded with a tight smile; I was really disappointed to find out that she and Justin had split. He looked like he loved her so much. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my place to pry. I knew that one day she would talk to me about it, but in the meantime, I’d wait it out and hope for the best.

  “Are you okay with the whole Kylie thing?”

  “I guess. I mean I don’t have any expectations for now. Is he still leaving next week?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded sadly. I really would have loved to be with him, but Oliver insisted it was better if I let him deal with his issues on his own. “He’s leaving Monday morning. I expect he’ll be back by the end of the week.”

  “Who’s taking over the bar while he’s gone?” she asked as we walked past the gym. From the window I saw Tyler spotting Stephan, and Oliver sitting on a bench press talking with a girl with bright pink hair. “Abby?”

  I frowned.

  “Abby?”

  “Huh?”

  Her head titled to the side. “Are you okay?”

  “Sure I’m fine. Why?”

  “You don’t look fine, I just asked you a question and you totally phased out.”

  She looked through the window to see what I was looking at. “Gah…has he always been this hot?”

  “What? Who?” Clearly she and I weren’t looking at the same thing.

  “Stephan.”

  Yeah, we’re definitely not focusing on the same picture.

  “Eww. Gross.”

  “Where are you going?” she asked, as I walked past her.

  I ignored her question and went inside.

  “Excuse me miss?” the lady at the front desk shouted as I rushed inside the gym without checking in.

  I was so angry with Oliver who was obviously, too engrossed in whatever conversation he was having with Strawberry-Shortcake, to see me walk in. Tyler, on the other hand, spotted me immediately and snickered as he tapped on my best friend’s shoulder. Stephan pulled himself up and welcomed my arrival with his regular brotherly grin. Both of them looked at Oliver and raised their eyebrows, mocking my girly reaction.

  Something in the way they were looking at me made me stop and ask myself what the hell was wrong with me. Whatever was going on in my head was completely out of character. I was ready to head back from where I came when Stephan’s forced cough caused Oliver’s head to shoot up.

  His confused eyes met mine. “I thought I told you not to come––”

  Without thinking an extra second I marched over to Oliver and crashed my mouth on his. The second our lips touched, his tongue pushed inside, devouring my deep moans.

  My heart raced.

  Too long. Too fucking long without him.

  “
Abbygail,” he mumbled against my jaw and neck. I could feel his pulse matching my heartbeat as it drummed against my chest. “Does this mean––”

  I swallowed his next words, and put my lips on his again. I didn’t want him to think. I didn’t want him to talk. I wanted his lips on me. All over me.

  “Abbygail?” he repeated hoarsely.

  “Shut up.” I replied laughing. It just dawned on me that everyone, including the girl with the pink hair, was smirking at us. I grabbed his hand and walked away, pushing past the men’s locker room. As soon as the door shut behind us, I pressed Oliver’s hard body against the lockers. He didn’t even try to resist which only made me want him more. The metal doors rattled, breaking the silence and I smiled.

  “You’re making me nervous,” he voiced with a crooked grin.

  “Good.” I took a predatory step towards him and snuck my hands under his shirt. I couldn’t help the appreciative groans that escaped me as I started to trace the defined lines of his sweaty abs.

  He chuckled and I looked up to his taunting eyes. He was appreciating every second of what was going on. “You understand that there are surveillance cameras and they probably saw us come in here, right?”

  “Ask me if I care.”

  I pulled off his shirt and my lips touched his orchid tattoo. I kissed it softly, remembering its bittersweet memory, and felt his entire body freeze. Oliver’s heart was beating even harder than it had been just a few minutes earlier.

  “I missed you.” I whispered.

  “I missed you more.”

  While my tongue trailed its way up to his jaw, my hands traced down the entire length of his body. I felt his excitement grow as I started to play with the waistline of his gym shorts and he pulled on my ponytail, making me meet his lustful glare.

  “Not now.”

  “But––”

  “Beautiful,” he leaned over and bit the skin between my ear and my jaw, “there is nothing I want more than to make love to you, but I won’t do it here.”

  He was fighting his own desires with each word. Shivers ran down my spine at the sound of his husky voice. He took my lips in another feverish kiss and made his way down from my mouth to my neck line. “It’s about fucking time, Abbygail Evens.”