There were plenty of places in the world where she could teach. But only one place where she’d be judged.
Still, options were options. And being put on the waiting list for Notre Dame had narrowed hers.
“Thank you, sir,” she said. “For everything.”
Once the warmth of spring arrived, everyone wanted to be outside. Besides the growing chatter about prom dates and dresses, and the finagling of graduation party dates because-God forbid-best friends wouldn’t be able to attend each other’s parties, the interest in Wilson’s lacrosse team soared. And why not? It was action packed and full of laughs as the lacrosse newbies tried to work out the kinks. There were no expectations for the team, and the atmosphere was more like a party, both on the field and in the stands.
The third Friday in April, Tinley arrived at a Warriors lacrosse game wearing a very high hemline and a very low neckline. She had five friends in tow, all variations of blond, each one prettier than the next. And all of them showing off a whole lot of skin. While Vivi sat at the top of the stands in her “buttoned-up teacher clothes” as Lane called them, she felt her age for the first time ever. Seventeen was fresh and carefree, while twenty-one was tired, stressed out, and feeling a little hopeless.
The seniors had voted for the teachers they most wanted to chaperone the prom, and Vivi was voted in as first alternate. The other staff members told her that was high praise since it was only her first year and most students didn’t even know her. Whoopee, she thought begrudgingly. First alternate. Unless somebody got sick, she would not be chaperoning the prom.
Probably all for the best, Vivi thought as she watched Tinley make a spectacle of herself in the middle of the stands, waving frantically to get Lane’s attention.
Was I that annoying back in high school? Vivi wondered. Probably. There wasn’t much she’d heard come out of her cheerleaders’ mouths that she didn’t remember thinking or voicing at one time or another. And so often, that thought had made her cringe. Girls were girls were girls, she supposed. She just hoped she’d be able to handle herself with a little more decorum in the stands at Notre Dame. If she ever made it into the stands at Notre Dame.
Yeah, that conversation hadn’t been pleasant. Lane had been so patient with all of this, but that patience was wearing very thin right now. Even though their nightly Skype sessions were fun and sweet and seemed to go well, the limited times they managed to be alone together were becoming stilted and strained. Finally, Lane had admitted he was afraid to touch her. That every time he tried, she’d pull away. And that realization broke her heart. Because she was sending mixed signals. Of course she was. And he understood it intellectually. But, emotionally, Vivi worried it was tearing them apart.
Because they couldn’t cuddle, or kiss, or even hold hands like normal couples. And the physical tension between them was like static electricity. When Lane said he felt like if he got too close he’d explode, Vivi knew exactly what he meant.
So telling him she’d not been admitted to Notre Dame, something Lane had refused to consider, didn’t go well. They’d spent a lot of time imagining how different life would be for them “next year.” And now, well…
And since their May sixteenth birthday celebration in Myrtle Beach had to be postponed when they realized graduation wasn’t until May 30th, it just seemed like their situation was never going to end.
Six weeks to go, and Vivi felt defeated.
When the game ended, she watched Lane and his teammates line up to shake hands with the opposing team. Vivi stood, eager for his helmet to come off, eager for him to find her in the stands and gift her with his smile. But this time, the moment his helmet came off, Tinley was there, throwing herself into his arms and pulling his head down for a kiss. It wasn’t necessarily a loooong kiss, although time really seemed to stand still as Vivi watched it. Tinley was making a show of her and Lane for her friends, Vivi was sure. Still, the emotional punch Vivi felt watching her cousin kiss Lane vibrated throughout her system.
She had to sit down.
And watch.
Maybe Lane tried to find her in the stands. Maybe it looked like he was scolding Tinley right before he began playing the part of her boyfriend, letting Tinley take his arm and lead him over to her friends. He definitely looked adorable, even sweat-covered with his hair askew, smiling and chatting with the blondes from Henderson.
They would love Lane. How could they not? And they would all envy Tinley. Just as Vivi did at that moment.
As the crowd dispersed around them, Vivi heard Lane introduce Lam and a couple of his other teammates to Tinley and her friends. There was a discussion about a party that night. A bonfire back in an old tobacco field, way off the radar. Lam had a truck that could get them out there. They’d bring lawn chairs and coolers. The girls talked about snacks.
Vivi watched and listened as plans were made, as the flirting began, and as Tinley kept touching Lane. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to weep over the fact that she couldn’t be included in their plans or that she’d thrown away her last year of being a student, or that the chasm that separated her and Lane at this moment made her look at the one thing she’d refused to see.
Vivi DuVal was an adult, an educator, and a professional.
Lane Kettering was still in high school.
Chapter Twenty Four
“Miss DuVal,” Lane called out, because he’d had enough of Tinley’s crap. Every head turned in Vivi’s direction. They hadn’t noticed her sitting alone at the top of the stands. “Care to join us tonight? I hear Henderson girls can be a handful. Might be a good idea if they had a little adult supervision,” Lane joked.
“Who’s that?” one of Tinley’s friends asked.
“That’s Tinley’s cousin,” Lane said. “Hottest teacher in the school. Tinley, ask her to come.”
“Yeah,” Lam agreed. “Ask her to come.”
“She’s not going to want to come,” Tinley said. “She’s a teacher. She can’t come.”
“Says who? Besides, I thought all you DuVal cousins partied together.”
“We do, but…that’s family stuff.”
“How ‘bout it, Miss DuVal?” Lane said as Vivi approached, coming down the stands slowly, smiling at him. God, he loved her smile. Especially this one. It was the one that conveyed loud and clear that he was still her hero. Good to know after that kiss her cousin planted on him. Freaking little ingrate.
“I’d love to come,” she said. Lane had to laugh at the horrified looks around him. “But I’ve got a late date tonight, so…no thank you.”
“A date?” Lane asked.
“A late date,” she said.
“Sounds interesting.”
“I’m hoping so.”
“It’s not Mr. Liskey, is it?” Lam asked. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”
“Lambert Weber, how does Mr. Liskey look at me?”
“Like you’re a rib-eye steak, coming off the grill all hot and juicy.”
Lane smacked Lam as Vivi burst with laughter. “He does not,” she denied.
“Does too,” both Lane and Lam claimed together.
“Hmm, maybe he’ll ask me to prom,” Vivi teased, all wide-eyed and excited. “Nice game, gentlemen. Have a good weekend everybody.” Then she lowered her best bossy-teacher stare at her cousin. “Be good, Tinley.”
Lane watched her go, admiring her backside in those stretchy black pants. When he turned his attention back to Tinley, he found her seething. “What?” he asked.
“You asked a teacher? To come to a bonfire?”
“She’s your cousin. It would have been rude not to.”
“And she’s hot,” Lam added.
“There is that,” Lane said.
Tinley was not appreciating them mooning over their statistics teacher in front of her friends. She deserved it and more, ambushing him like this. But she was Vivi’s cousin, and the two of them were striving to become friends…and she could out them, maybe, if he didn’t play nice, so Lane dec
ided to cut her a break.
“Come here,” he said, pulling Tinley in for a wet, sweaty hug. She and her lack of clothing deserved that too. “Tonight will be fun. We keeping this small or are we telling the world?”
“Small’s good. Gives us Henderson girls a chance to meet your Wilson friends.”
“All right. My friends are looking forward to meeting you, too,” he said, feeling generous. He’d text her his personal list of rules and regulations later. “Am I picking you up?”
“That’d be nice.”
“Is your father going to be there?”
“Maybe.”
Lane sighed inwardly. Little Miss Tinley was going to get her way come hell or high water. Hollywood had his work cut out for him with this one.
“Eight o’clock?”
“I’ll be ready. Do you need my address?”
“Nope,” Lane said. When she got all smug and pleased about that, he added, “I’ll just ask your cousin.”
“You need to stop it with all this cousin crap,” Tinley scolded Lane as they walked through the field toward the makings of a bonfire.
“And you need to keep your lips as far from mine as humanly possible.”
“Hah!”
“I’m not kidding. I did not appreciate you trying to suck face with me in front of Vivi.”
“You need to get over her. She’s older than you for God’s sake. She’s a teacher!”
“And Hollywood is an asshole.”
“Hollywood?”
“Harvard Michaels,” Lane enunciated.
“You’re jealous,” Tinley smirked. “You’re jealous of me and Harv.”
“If I’m jealous, it’s of whatever happened between Harv and Vivi.”
Tinley put a hand out, stopping their progression.
“What?” Lane asked, exasperated.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Tinley said. “I’m sorry about kissing you in front of Vivi. I didn’t know she was there.”
“How does that matter?”
“I was playing it up for my friends. They’ve been dying to meet you since New Year’s Eve and since you wouldn’t come to me, I had to bring them to you.”
“Our agreement was for prom. My prom. It did not include Facebook posts or meeting your friends.”
“Yes, but then I needed a cover and figured what could it hurt? So please, don’t embarrass me with any more public acclamations about how hot my cousin is.”
“Fine,” he snapped.
“Fine,” she snapped back.
They continued walking.
“I thought dating Lane Kettering was going to be so much more exciting,” Tinley sighed.
“Well, if we were actually dating, I’d care about what you thought.”
“Okay, seriously. We need a truce. I mean, if we’re stuck in this together, we may as well make the most of it, right?”
“Fine,” he grumbled.
Tinley huffed, twirled, and stomped away.
“What’d I say?” Lane asked, walking off after her.
“Yeah, so it started off pretty rocky,” Lane told Vivi on the phone later that night. “Bossy has met its match with your cousin. She was setting up chairs, dictating where people should sit, even told Jamie how to arrange the wood for the bonfire. I thought I was going to have to gag her to prevent Lam and Jamie from tying her up and burning her at the stake.”
Vivi laughed.
“But once the fire was blazing, and she got half a beer in her, she dialed herself back. She’s actually quite funny when she’s not telling people what to do.”
“She really is funny.”
“Oh! I wish you’d seen this. I don’t know how it started-I think some music came on-but all of a sudden Lam and Tinley started doing that old cheerleading skit from Saturday Night Live. One of them started doing some cheer dance and the other joined in, and the next thing you know they were feeding off of each other until they had the rest of us in tears we were laughing so hard.”
“Wait. I cannot imagine Lam doing a cheer routine,” Vivi said.
“I know. That’s why it was so funny. I had no idea he could do that. He and Tinley definitely bonded over that.”
“Well that’s good, I guess.”
“And her friends were nice too. Sort of reminded me of your friends at the beach. Everybody got along, and because the group was relatively small, everybody got to know each other pretty good. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few more Henderson girls invited to Wilson’s prom.”
“That’d be nice for Tinley,” Vivi said.
“And make the evening easier on me,” Lane claimed. “I wouldn’t say I’m dreading prom, but your cousin is a handful and a flirt.”
“She was flirting with you?”
“Not me. Everybody but me. Which I have to say was a little bit awkward, since I’m the one she’s supposed to be dating. All the guys are looking at me like…is this okay?”
“Is what okay?”
“She sat on everybody’s lap, Viv. And with the music blaring, in more cases than not, it turned into a lap dance.”
“What? Please tell me you’re joking.”
“I wish I were. But, don’t get too freaked out. It wasn’t really as bad as it sounds. Everyone was having a good time. And she wasn’t the only girl sitting on laps. Or dancing.”
“Oh, Lane, I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what? If this is my penance for getting Tinley to intervene with you and Hollywood, I’m happy to suffer a few fake dates. After all, I did get to kiss you at midnight.”
“That feels like a long time ago.”
“It was. Too long ago. So, look. I’ve got to go over to Henderson and invite Tinley to the prom next week. In my desperation to keep Hollywood’s lips off yours, I promised a big, showy invite. And she’s holding me to that. So I want you to be there.”
“I’m not going over to my alma mater to watch you invite my cousin to the prom.”
“Why not? It’s all about you, you know. I might be asking her, but the big, showy invite is really…for you,” he said, meaning it.
“I’ve never had a big, showy invite. What are you planning?”
“Well, you know how Henderson is all about their totally obnoxious state championship winning baseball team?”
“Yes,” she laughed.
“With the help of my new best friend, Josh McCourt, I am commandeering their fancy electronic score board.”
“Josh the geeky teacher/football coach? The one that’s dating my cousin, Molly?”
“The very same. I met him at the New Year’s Eve party. Thanked him for putting that recruiting tape together for me. He’s a big Lane Kettering fan.”
“Isn’t everybody?”
“Not everybody in Henderson. I called him, and he’s helping me out during the varsity game this week. Unlike our lacrosse games, they draw a big crowd. Tinley will be there.”
“So is the score board going to be flashing her name?”
“I’m leaving the details up to Josh. He said he’d make it good, seeing as Tinley is Molly’s cousin. I’m a little worried that I’m getting in deep with your extended family because of this Tinley thing. What is going to happen when we finally tell them the truth?”
“I don’t know,” Vivi said, laughing. “I just hope we get that far.”
“What do you mean, hope? I’m not jumping through all these hoops for nothing, S. B. You are going to have to claim me publicly the moment I have that damn diploma in my hand.”
“We are not claiming anything while you’re holding your diploma. We are going to meet in Myrtle Beach for our long, very much anticipated weekend. And after that, we are going to live our lives normally. But you’re right. We may have to make an announcement at a DuVal family event. Explain a few things so my uncles don’t think you’ve dumped one cousin for another. But other than that, we aren’t making any grand announcements or proclamations. I’m certain that the news about us will spread all on its own, and rapidly.”
> “Yeah, I’ve got a different plan.”
“Lane, I’m not going to be able to come back to work at Wilson next year when this gets out. But I’d like to be able to work somewhere.”
“Yeah, like in Indiana. South Bend, Indiana.”
“You think I’m going to follow you out to godforsaken South Bend?” Vivi laughed.
“If you don’t, I’ll just have to transfer to some lousy football program in North Carolina and give up my big dream.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Start sending applications to South Bend. Or at least, consider it. I’m still not giving up hope that you’re coming off that waiting list.”
“That makes one of us.”
“If all goes well, I’m going to be living in South Bend for five years. You’ve got plenty of time to get into that program.”
“I know. It will all work out.”
“That sounded kind of forced.”
“Did it?” He heard her sigh. “It’s starting to feel forced. A little bit. Maybe I’m just tired.”
“It’s three in the morning. If you drag that sweet ass of yours out of bed and look out the window, I’ll let you get some sleep.”
“What? Have you been outside this whole time?”
Lane saw her window open. He shut down his phone and got out of his dad’s hot rod, watching Vivi’s pretty hair fall around her shoulders as she leaned out of the window.
“Lane,” she whispered.
“Sleeping Beauty,” he whispered back, coming to stand underneath her window.
“You’re like my Romeo. Can you climb up here?”
“I’d have to be more like Spiderman to scale the side of your house.”
“I’ll come down. Wait.”
Lane smiled as her head ducked back in the house. She was coming down. Then she popped back out. “I can’t believe we’ve been talking on the phone while you’ve been here the whole time.” She left then, and he went to meet her at the side door.
“I wasn’t dropping Tinley off two streets over and not doing a drive-by,” he said when she opened the door.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 75