How Ezra was supposed to find time was beyond me. He had two-a-day practices coming up, baseball and football camps, and let’s not forget about the fact that he still had to eat at some point in there.
That was truly why I’d decided to go with him.
He didn’t like leaving me for his only free two hours a day that we didn’t spend either eating, taking a shower, or doing other things that didn’t include sleeping when we were in bed.
There really wasn’t enough time in the day for all that Ezra had on his plate.
I could see why he didn’t want to teach his sex-ed class last year—and wouldn’t be doing it this year, either.
Speaking of the sex-ed class, the harassment charge that had been filed against me had gone away just as fast as it’d come. After speaking with some of the students, they’d all cleared my name and said that there was never anything that went on in that class that was inappropriate.
Meaning if I wanted, I could take my sex-ed class back over next year.
I knew that I could.
It all boiled down to whether Ezra would allow me to.
He was so protective of me, and always cognizant of my fears.
Those fears had slowly been put to rest over the summer as I spent more and more time with some big boys on the football team and during the camps. I wouldn’t say that I’d be completely comfortable being in a room with his football players, but I’d definitely be open to the idea of one day doing it—which, a long time ago, wouldn’t have even crossed my mind.
Ezra poked me on the ass, and I blinked and looked up. “What?”
“You ready?”
Was I ready? Ready for what?
“Sure,” I shrugged. “Just don’t kill me, okay?”
He didn’t have to kill me. I nearly killed myself.
Turns out, I was right about the handstand push-ups. I found out when Ezra helped me do the handstand, and then let me go.
I started to go down into the push-up when my legs started to travel sideways.
My finally out of the cast arm started to give out on me, and I fell.
My face smashed into the mat, my arm went awkwardly to one side. My legs went in a different direction.
Oh, and let’s not forget that the wall I was leaning against had a rack of wall balls—one of which had hit me in the face yesterday—against it.
My feet hit the bottom of the rack, and after all that embarrassing stuff with having my face meet the mat, the wall balls added the final insult and finished me off.
Oh, and they got it all on video.
***
“I’ll come to your CrossFit class if you take me out to get donuts afterward,” I bargained.
“We don’t have time to get donuts,” he countered. “How about you get the donuts before the class. You can eat them in the corner like the little piggy you are.”
My mouth fell open in affront, and I gasped. “You did not just call me a piggy!”
It was actually kind of funny, not that I’d be telling him that.
“If it walks like a donut, and talks like a donut…”
I launched myself at him, and he made an oomph sound as my body hit his. He might’ve had a chance to catch me had he not been laughing so hard at the look on my face.
“I cannot believe you just said that!” I cried, punching him in the arm repeatedly.
He caught me before I could connect a third time, rolling me so that I was smooshed into the couch cushions and his body was pinning me in place.
I wiggled, trying to break free, and he pushed himself down harder.
“It’s okay,” he muttered, his mouth only inches from mine. “I like the way you smell when you eat the donuts. And licking the glaze off your lips is about as exciting as it gets for me when I’ve given up all carbs.”
Did I forget to mention, on top of him working his ass off all day long, he’d also given up one of God’s greatest creations—carbs?
“I bet each flake of glaze is like two whole carbs,” I joked. “You better stay away from me until I can go change my shirt.” I pushed my hands up underneath of us and cupped the girls—which had gotten bigger over the last couple of months as I took up his carb intake. It seemed the fitter he got, the fatter I seemed to get.
Though, to be honest, I wasn’t too upset on where the fat was going—to my ass and boobs.
Those had always been lacking.
He growled and ground his hips against me, his eyes now on my chest instead of my face.
“I can’t fuckin’ wait to marry you,” he informed me.
My brows rose. “You’d have to ask first, darlin’.”
I’d say yes. I’d say yes a million, gazillion times.
Yet, he always alluded to asking, and never straight up asked.
I always got the ‘I’m going to do it when you’re not expecting it.’ And at this point, I wasn’t expecting a single thing from him. He was all talk and no action, my man.
Well, kind of.
His eyes were on my tits now, and I could feel an impressive erection pressing against the inside of one of my thighs.
My heart, which always took off at the look that I could now see on his face that meant I was about to be busy, had taken off into unsafe levels.
Yet, I didn’t say a word.
Not when he was staring at me like I was the next best thing to the brownies he’d given up a month and a half ago.
“Do you love me more than brownies?” I asked him.
His eyes lifted, and they were hooded and hot.
“You know I do,” he answered simply.
“What about Dr. Peppers?” I wondered, a small smirk kicking up the corner of my lip.
His eyes narrowed on that smirk. “More than Dr. Pepper.”
“What about those little kolache thingies you used to get at the gas station?” I teased.
He growled low in his throat. “You are about to get your ass spanked.”
I was really pushing all of his buttons here.
Ezra was what you could call hangry. All the damn time.
So not only had he given up sugar, but he’d given up bread, noodles and rice.
He was on a low carb, low calorie diet that was really doing impressive things to his physique.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t be strong like him.
I now had to sneak food into the house.
Last week, I’d had food in my purse when I was visiting Morgan, and Ezra had walked in during a surprise lunchtime visit to see me with a pile of the no-no foods in my lap.
I’d acted like they were Morgan’s and had thrust them at him.
Morgan had laughed at me while he’d eaten them in front of me, and that was when I knew that he was going to be just fine—well, as fine as a boy with limited mobility in his legs would ever be.
Ezra moved and started to run his lips up the length of my neck, pausing at the base to suckle lightly on my collarbone. “You’re not paying attention to me.”
I bit my lip and moved my hands away from my breasts, running them up his body to curve around his shoulders. “You weren’t being very interesting I guess. Don’t worry, you have my full attention now.”
His chuckle had my insides turning to mush.
“What is it about you that makes me so goddamn happy?” he wondered.
I didn’t know.
I couldn’t tell him what it was about him that attracted me to him all those years ago, or why it was that I loved him so much. There were just too many things to count.
But I’d give it a try.
“I love you because you’re selfless,” I said softly, my hands going up to cup his bearded cheeks. “I love that you take time out of your summer to spend with kids—all day, every day—for weeks on end. I love that you’ll drop anything to go pick up one of your players. I love that you make me smile. I love that you…”
His mouth slammed down on mine, and all of a s
udden, he was in a rush to get me naked.
I didn’t stop him. In fact, I helped him.
Chapter 21
The worst part about online shopping is having to get up and get your card.
-Text from Raleigh to Ezra
Raleigh
The beginning of the school year
“Who do you have in your class?” I heard one of Ezra’s assistant coaches ask.
Ezra and Allic, the assistant coach, traded class rosters, and Ezra whistled. “You have Mackie? Fuck, that sucks.”
Mackie was back with a vengeance this year.
I could happily kill the English teacher, as well as the science teacher—Camryn, who’d failed him last year.
Out of all of the kids that needed to get the hell out of this school, he was it.
I hated it even more that I somehow knew he was guilty of hurting Morgan, yet he wasn’t punished for the crime.
Morgan was back at school and happier than ever.
“All right, children,” Mrs. Sherpa sighed, sounding tired. “Two things before I allow y’all to head to your classrooms to get set up.”
We all waited, none of us bothering to question what the two things she needed to say were.
She didn’t take long in voicing them, which had been why everyone stayed silent.
“I want to have a great year. We did excellent on our state testing scores last year, and I would like to do the same this year…”
My attention shifted away from Mrs. Sherpa to Coach Casper that was sitting on the opposite side of Allic, and I wanted to throat punch her.
She had her hand on Ezra’s hand, and she was practically leaning all the way over Allic to accomplish it.
Not that Allic seemed to mind. He was actually grinning as he tried to suck his belly—which wasn’t very big to begin with—in so that Coach Casper would have more room.
His eyes were on me, and he was mouthing something that I couldn’t quite make out.
I gave him a puzzled look, and he repeated it.
Her boob is in my hand.
My eyes flicked to the hand that Allic had resting in his lap, and I burst out laughing when I saw that Coach Casper’s boob was, indeed, in his hand.
I would’ve dared him to squeeze it had my laughter not garnered Mrs. Sherpa’s attention.
“Ms. Crusie, Coach Allic, Coach McDuff,” Mrs. Sherpa said, making me glance in her direction. “Is there something you would like to share?”
I looked pointedly at Coach Casper’s boob that was still in ‘Coach Allic’s’ hand and shrugged. “We were talking about a funny story that related to the state test.”
“Oh, please enlighten me of this funny story,” Mrs. Sherpa said.
“It involves bathroom humor,” Ezra drawled, clearly noticing when I needed some help.
Mrs. Sherpa snorted. “Young man, I’m a mother of four, a grandmother of fifteen, and a great-grandmother of two. Trust me when I say that I’m more than capable of understanding and tolerating bathroom humor. So please share.”
Ezra’s eyes met mine, and I had to bite my lip to keep from bursting out laughing.
“I…”
The fire alarm went off before Ezra had to make up some random ass story about state testing and anything to do with the bathroom.
“Everyone remain calm,” Mrs. Sherpa said.
Not a single teacher had risen out of their seat.
I looked over at Ezra again. “No freakin’ out, Coach Duff.”
He flicked my nose with his pointer finger. “What am I going to do with you?”
Allic groaned, and I realized that Coach Casper had finally moved her breast from his hand.
“You’re going to just love me,” I suggested. “And put up with the rest.”
He linked his hand through mine, and then stood up when the alarm continued to go off. “Probably should get out of here, Mrs. Sherpa.”
Everybody followed suit, and I was sad to realize that Coach Casper followed close behind us.
God, what I wouldn’t give for that woman to take a flying leap off a tall building. Preferably somewhere where I would never have to see or hear from her again.
Just as I had that thought, I tripped on the seat in front of me, catching the toe of my foot on the metal rim, and pitched forward.
Luckily Ezra didn’t even break stride as he caught me up in his arms and continued to walk as if he didn’t just save me from taking a header into the older than dirt auditorium floor.
“Jesus Christ,” Coach Casper muttered underneath her breath. “Drama queen much?”
I tossed a glare over my shoulder at the woman who had come up to Ezra’s other side.
“Are y’all going to teacher night tonight at Poison Jacks?” she chattered as she walked along with us.
I gritted my teeth and started up a conversation with Camryn, who’d come up on the other side of me.
She’d arrived late, and Coach Casper had taken the spot that I’d saved her next to Coach Allic. Coach Allic, who had a major crush on my best friend and could barely speak when she was near.
It was honestly quite cute and made me feel bad that Camryn only had feelings for my brother—feelings that my brother most assuredly didn’t return.
“Hey, did you get assigned a new room like she said you might?” Camryn asked.
Thankful for the break in having to listen to Coach Casper’s annoying voice, I chattered with Ezra and Camryn as we made our way out the auditorium door.
The moment we were outside, I started for the usual area that my class was assigned to go to during emergency drills but came to a standstill when Ezra came to a bone-jarring halt—me being forced to stop as well or risk losing a limb since my hand was still in his.
“What are you doing?” I asked, confused.
That was when Ezra stopped and curved his arm around my neck, pulling me into his chest.
Camryn came to stand on my other side before Coach Casper could insinuate herself into the spot, and I was thankful that my best friend knew me so well.
“Coach Casper said that Poison Jacks was really good. Do you want to go?”
I could’ve happily killed Ezra in that moment.
It hadn’t escaped my knowledge that that woman was poisoning everything I’d worked so hard to achieve.
Not only was she after Ezra—a man that I’d had my eye on for so long that it should be weird how much I adored him—but she was now after not only my job but my life.
I couldn’t prove it, but I felt like something was off.
She was the sweetest person she could be when other people were around, but the moment that you only had Coach Casper—aka Crazy Cunt—she turned into the antichrist.
Seriously, there wasn’t a single redeeming quality about the woman that I could find.
“You did not just say that to me,” I growled.
Ezra’s brows went up. “I didn’t say that?”
“Ezra,” I breathed in and out deeply, trying to calm myself. “I freakin’ asked you to go there, and you goddamn said that it didn’t look like ‘your kind of place.’”
Ezra’s face cleared. “You said it was some pirate place.”
“It is,” I snapped, seconds away from losing my temper. “It’s a goddamn pirate-themed restaurant…called POISON GODDAMN JACKS!”
I visibly saw Ezra wince.
“I didn’t know that was the place,” he admitted.
And before I could smack him upside the head, he dropped down to his knee and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Please forgive me.”
I sighed.
I couldn’t stay mad at this man for long.
“Whatever.”
There was possibly a smile breaking out over my lips, but I wouldn’t admit to it.
“Now get up before you embarrass me.”
His eyes started to gleam.
“Why would you be embarrassed?” he questioned.
/> “Hey, Coach!”
I turned to see the football team on the field, having evacuated from the field house while we’d exited the auditorium.
Johnson tossed something at Ezra, who caught it with ease.
I looked back at Ezra and answered him while I shook my head.
“Because when you’re down there, you look like you’re about to prop…” I trailed off when Ezra palmed the black box that Johnson had just tossed at him.
“Like I’m about to propose?” he asked, flipping the box open.
Inwardly I was screaming my ass off. Outwardly, I was speechless.
“Raleigh Crusie, will you marry me?”
I blinked. “I…”
“You’ll…”
“I’ll…”
He rolled his eyes.
Camryn punched me in the kidney.
“Say yes, dumbass,” she hissed behind me.
How could I say anything but yes?
“Fuck yes!” I cried out, throwing my arms around his neck and tackling him to the ground.
“Language!” Mrs. Sherpa cried out, sounding amused regardless.
“We should recruit her for the JV coaching staff. She just tackled him better than any of the ninth graders I’ve seen all week,” Allic suggested.
I was too busy kissing Ezra to care.
“Can I put the ring on you now?” he asked between kisses.
Blindly, I reached my hand up without once disengaging my mouth from his.
“All better now?” he asked, his eyes shining with mirth. “Does it make you feel better that you’re soon going to be mine and everyone will know it?”
I didn’t even have to think about it.
“Oh, yes.”
But when I finally peeled myself off of him to admire my ring, a dark feeling stole over me when I caught the hostility in Coach Casper’s eyes.
Where everyone else was smiling…she was quite effectively pissed.
Ruh-roh.
Chapter 22
Do you ever feel like your body’s check engine light is on and you’re still driving it like ‘nah, it’ll be okay?’
-Text from Raleigh to Camryn
Ezra
With one final thrust, I buried myself to the hilt and came so hard that if I wasn’t already laying down, I would’ve fallen.
Hissy Fit (The Southern Gentleman Series Book 1) Page 18