The Red Zone

by Knight, Amie

  But I just kept shhing and rubbing his head because I knew that sometimes the best thing you could do for someone was to let them have a moment to just lose it. To just have the meltdown of the century. And I had a feeling that this one had to do with a lot more than Ella and her razor.

  After a good solid minute, he finally calmed enough to raise his head and look up at me. Sweet, worried, brown eyes practically melted me. “There you are,” I whispered, pulling my hands from his hair and laying them in his lap.

  “You doing okay?”

  He shook his head slowly. “No, Red. I’m fucking this all up. I’m failing on every front. Football, life, Ella. Just everything.”

  God, he was breaking my heart wide-open. The poor man needed a friend and I wanted to be there for him. I really, really did, but I also remembered high school when I’d been there for him and he’d left me high and dry, his kiss still on my lips.

  But still I couldn’t help it. Just like then, his soul called to mine and all I could do was answer.

  “You know, Luk. So many of my parents feel the same way. Like they are failing when really all they are doing is the best they can.”

  His forehead wrinkled like he was thinking.

  I brought one hand up to his hair and ran it through the side and he leaned into it, clearly needing the closeness. “Are you doing the best you can?”

  I already knew the answer to that. I just wanted to make sure he knew. Because Lukas had never done anything by half measures.

  “I am,” he croaked out. “But it’s not good enough.” He sat back, pulling away from my hands in his hair, and I stood up and moved back to the wall behind me and leaned against it.

  “Why isn’t it good enough? Because it isn’t what your mom would do? Or because it isn’t what your dad would do?”

  He looked at the ceiling and let out a long breath. “I don’t know, Scar. I don’t think I can do this.”

  “Let me ask you something, Luk.”

  His head came forward and he looked me square in the eye.

  “Is there anyone in the world who loves Ella as much as you do?”

  He didn’t immediately answer, so I kept going. “Does your aunt Merline know that Ella does Zumba every morning? Is she going to DVR all of her soaps? Does she have a big, strong chest that Ella likes to lie on at night when y’all talk? Does anyone who is left in this entire world know and love Ella as much as you do?”

  His face crumbled like he was in inexplicable pain. I couldn’t understand it. Why the thought of him loving Ella so much seemed to make him so sad, but I still went to him. And I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed his face into my stomach even though it wasn’t appropriate at all, but because he needed it.

  It was his muffled voice into my stomach that delivered the saddest blow. “It’s sad. Isn’t it? That I’m all she has left. Just me, fucking up everything.”

  I shook my head and slowly lowered my knees to the floor, checking to make sure I wasn’t kneeling in hair, until we were eye to eye. I took in his anguished face, the hard lines that hadn’t been there ten years ago, the crinkles around his eyes from smiling. The sweetness I always saw in the depths of his baby browns and I thought that his baby sister had hit the jackpot with this one. Because as far as I could figure, there probably wasn’t anything in the world better than being unconditionally loved by Lukas Callihan.

  Taking his cheeks in my hands, so he would keep his eyes on mine, I whispered one of the truest statements I’d ever uttered. “I don’t think it’s sad at all, Luk. I think it’s beautiful how much you love her. How you worry. How you care. How you love her enough for both of your parents and then some. And trust me, she knows it and loves you back just as much. Don’t doubt yourself, Mister Quarterback. You got this.”

  “Fuck, Red.” His voice was all choked up and his forehead hit my shoulder softly, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him. It was a solid ten seconds, because I counted, until his arms came around me. And we hugged because sometimes the best medicine was just a hug and a pep talk from an old friend.

  “You good now?” I asked, grinning.

  “I’m good.”

  I felt his nod against my shoulder.

  “Well, good because we still have to clean up this hairtastrophe.”

  He rumbled a low laugh. “You’re clever, Red.”

  I backed out of our hug and eyed him. “You’re just now realizing this? If you recall, you would have flunked French without me.”

  He eyed me from my red hair down to my knees and back up. “Oh, I recall a lot of things.”

  Abort, my brain screamed, so I stood up fast and pretended like he hadn’t come on to me. Because I was pretty sure he had. I threw on the pair of blue gloves and got to rinsing out the bathtub.

  He got up off the toilet seat, grabbed the broom, and got back to work, and I kept an eye on him to make sure he wasn’t going to fall on his face on the floor because I kind of liked his face.

  I was swaying my hips and singing a little Prince while I rinsed the sink when I felt eyes on me. I turned and he was leaning against the doorjamb, broom still in hand.

  “Enjoying the view?” Sarcasm was my scapegoat when I was embarrassed.

  “Definitely,” he answered without skipping a beat.

  “Mmmhmm,” I mumbled, feeling even more uncomfortable.

  “What made you go into special ed?”

  I turned toward him again, thinking I’d misunderstood him. “What?”

  “What made you want to teach children with special needs?”

  And that was a pretty personal question for me, but I couldn’t not tell him. He and Ella were such a huge part of it, he deserved to know.

  I shrugged like those few months hadn’t changed the course of my life forever. “You and Ella.”

  The shock on his face made my own warm and I turned away.

  “What?”

  He’d heard me just fine. He just couldn’t believe it or maybe he didn’t want to. Maybe he didn’t want to think I’d remembered him and Ella and thought of them while he’d gone off to school to play ball and hadn’t given me a second thought.

  I turned off the water and wiped down the edges, giving him my back. “Ella. Playing with her, seeing how you loved her and how much a child thrived when given the right tools, there was only one choice for me. I always knew I was going to be a teacher, but Ella and you, you guys made me realize I was needed in special ed. And I don’t have any regrets. It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” And that was the truth through and through. Were there hard days? Sure. Were there days where I felt like I’d lost my mind? Absolutely. Were there days where I cried my eyes out for those children? Definitely. But the good always outweighed the bad. I loved my job. I loved my life. And I had Lukas and Ella to thank for that.

  He was quiet for too long after that, so after I’d exhausted cleaning every inch of that tub for as long as I could, I finally turned around to find him staring at me still.

  I quirked a sassy red eyebrow because I was awkward as hell and I didn’t know what else to do. I remembered that look. It was the one he used to give me in high school when I’d play with Ella. Now, I recognized it for what it was. It was something beyond worship and a little more than lust.

  “You’re something else, Red,” he said seriously.

  I laughed oddly, my chest vibrating with an awareness of what was to come even though I wasn’t ready. I could still feel it, though. That inevitable pull between Luk and me. It had always been there, the undercurrent of us being something more. And now was no exception. It was there whether I liked it or not. Just like always.

  “I hope that something is good,” I joked, but he didn’t waver in his seriousness.

  “You have no idea.”

  Warmth spread through my body like a wildfire in a dry forest. He thought I was something good. And he was making no bones about it.

  “I want us to be friends again.”

  He s
aid it so easily, so casually, but the statement was loaded with seriousness.

  I pressed my lips together, thinking while he watched on. It seemed like he really could use a friend. We could be just friends, right? Even though I was madly attracted to him? Even though after ten years he was still the boy turned man of my dreams?

  But after tonight, how could I say no? How could anyone say no to this sweet man?

  I stared at him pointedly. “Just friends?”

  How the hell was I supposed to be just friends with the sexiest man on the planet?

  He nodded, his eyes staying on mine. “Just friends. But friends hang out and do things together.”

  I nodded back. He wanted to be friends? So be it. In fact, I was in need of a male friend for tomorrow night and I couldn’t chance it with Ollie’s clog hoppers again.

  I was a grumpy, grumbling ass mess and I had no one to thank but Scarlett. The one damn person I wanted to see. I scanned the street parking in downtown and prayed I found a spot so I wouldn’t be late.

  I didn’t know what I was going to be late for, but what I did know was I was going to get to see the woman I was thinking about nonstop. What I also knew was I wasn’t allowed to pick her up so we could ride together. And finally, I knew there was a lack of fucking available parking in downtown Summerville and I was going to lose my ever-loving mind if I didn’t find a space soon.

  I finally found one about a block from the address Scarlett had given me the night before. I should have been apprehensive, but I was mostly just excited. I’d decided earlier in the day that there wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for my Red. Because I knew without a shadow of a doubt that there wasn’t much she wouldn’t do for me and Ells.

  As I walked up the lit sidewalk of my hometown, warmth filled me up. I had missed this place with its small town feel. Warm streetlamps lined the walkways while people milled about, going from shop to shop and restaurants. It wasn’t like this in Florida. This sense of home. It was different. It had felt fast-paced with my budding stardom pushing me forward constantly. Here, it just felt easy. Comfortable. And practices were getting better. I was still getting my ass handed to me, but it felt like the hits weren’t coming as hard, in life and in football.

  And as I walked up to a building with a huge storefront of lit windows with a beautiful girl standing out front, I was feeling like life wasn’t just getting better. It was getting damn good. Even If I was firmly in the friend zone at the moment.

  I walked closer to the girl with the red hair, who was inching her way more and more into my heart every day. She stood there in a long green dress that matched her eyes perfectly. That dress may have covered her, but it hugged all of her gorgeous curves like a glove and made her porcelain skin look like a silk backdrop. It took everything in my willpower to not stand there and stare with my mouth hanging open. So, I forced my eyes up and to her painted coral lips and peach cheeks, and my breath caught in my throat. Her thick, red hair hung loose around her shoulders and my cock instantly hardened behind my jeans. She was easily the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen. It seemed unfair that she’d also be the best woman I’d ever known besides my mother. She was perfect in every way and I wanted nothing more than to walk her back to my car and take her back to my place, my bed where I could do everything I’d been thinking about doing to her for years.

  I was standing there gawking like a lovesick fool when her voice snapped me out of it.

  “You look nice.” Her voice was small, her hands wound around each other in front of me. Looking adorably nervous, she reminded me of the anxious, sassy kid I’d met in the library all those years ago. Jesus, how the hell was I supposed to be friends with her? This would never work.

  I ran a hand through my hair and looked down at my black T-shirt, dark jeans, and the only pair of black dress shoes I owned. I didn’t really look nice at all. I looked casual and she looked fucking gorgeous.

  “You look amazing.” My eyes traveled the length of her again and landed on her high-heeled gold sandals. Her peach painted toes peeking out. Even they were adorable. I wanted to eat the woman whole. Right there on the street in front of the entire town.

  “Thanks,” she said quietly, still twisting her hands around each other nervously. I couldn’t stand it another minute, her nervousness, not touching her.

  I stepped forward and pulled her hands apart with my own until I held her soft ones in the palms of my rough ones. “You should have let me pick you up,” I teased.

  She’d been insistent I’d meet her here. I’d wanted to pick her up and bring her because it was the right thing to do and because I wanted to see her and be with her as long as I could.

  She pulled her hands from mine. “This isn’t a date, Luk.”

  I grinned. “You’ve made that abundantly clear, Red. But don’t friends pick each other up from time to time?” I knew I was pushing my luck, but God, I loved pushing her. Her back talk and sass drove me crazy in the best possible way.

  “They do. But most of my friends don’t look like you.” She eyed me up and down.

  I didn’t think my grin could get bigger. Wrong. “And what do I look like?”

  Her cheeks were pink when she answered, “You know what you look like, Mister Quarterback.”

  Mister Quarterback. Fuck, but I loved when she teased me back. I stepped closer and the scent of fruit invaded my senses. I had the immediate urge to lick her from the tips of her toes, right to her mouthy lips that I adored. “But I really don’t.” I poked out my bottom lip.

  She stepped forward and started walking toward the door to the building we were standing in front of. I fell in step beside her and nudged her with my shoulder like old times. It felt good. Right. “Come on, Red. Don’t leave me hanging.”

  She turned to me, lips pursed, clearly annoyed, and I chuckled.

  “Fine,” she said, swinging the door open. “You look like sex on a stick. Happy now?”

  I laughed big and loud because she seemed pissed off about me looking like sex on a stick.

  We walked in and she whispered, “And how the hell did you ever get into that T-shirt? Is it painted on?”

  She was all red-faced and huffy, and I couldn’t help but laugh harder. We walked to the middle of a big room. I had no clue where we were or what we were here for, but I knew she liked my T-shirt a lot. Or maybe not the shirt but what was under it, so I stretched my arms over my head, gave a few flexes of the pecs and biceps, and threw her a wink and grin.

  “You’re shameless.”

  I took a small bow. “Thank you. And if you like, I can show you later how I got into this shirt. Or I can show you how I get out of it.” I waggled my brows.

  “Friends,” she said forcefully, but I saw the slight tilt of her mouth. She was smiling. She couldn’t help herself. Because I was sex on a stick and funny.

  I was still patting myself on the back for winning her over and being awesome when others entered the big empty room and a man called out in an accent I couldn’t place, “Okay, everyone. Let’s get started!”

  Scarlett turned to me with an evil grin on her face and put her hands up. I looked around as the music began to play. Music for a waltz I recognized. I spun in slow circles and watched the other couples start to dance before my eyes eventually landed on mischievous green ones.

  “It’s okay, Luk. I’ll teach you.”

  Her words said she would teach me, but her voice said she was laughing at me and that she was being sassy as fuck. Her hands were in position and her body was full of challenge.

  I stepped forward, man hands easily finding their spots. One at her waist, the other cupping her hand.

  I took the lead like I’d done dozens of times, only this time I wasn’t a foot shorter than the woman dancing with me and she wasn’t my mother.

  I quickened the pace and traveled the floor easily. It had been years, but it all came back to me.

  As we moved around the dance floor, Scarlett’s jaw fell open and her eyes looked like
they were going to bug out of her head.

  I just smiled and spun her around as a man with a pointy mustache walked by and clapped. “Scarlett, your partner tonight is divine, my darling.”

  She gave him a polite closed mouth smile as he wandered around the room before turning back to me and glaring daggers. “You have got to be joking,” she whispered.

  “I never joke about dancing, Red. It’s serious business, you know?” I dipped her low.

  She rolled her eyes at me and I brought her back up. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  I chuckled. “Why didn’t I tell you? You didn’t even tell me what we were doing!”

  “Damn you, Lukas. Why do you have to be so good? At everything,” she said as I danced her around the floor.

  My good mood instantly soured. There was a shit-ton I sucked at. Hell, at this point I was practically drowning in all the things I wasn’t good at. “There’s plenty I’m not good at,” I ground out.

  She shook her head, a tiny crease in the middle of her forehead. “No, Luk. You’re gorgeous. And a good brother, and a really good friend for showing up when I didn’t even tell you what we were doing.” A small smile crept over her face. “And you can paint yourself into a shirt like a boss.”

  My mouth curved up. “Keep going, baby. You’re doing amazing things for my ego. Tell me more about my painting skills.”

  She looked down between us. “Well, you didn’t do too bad a job on those jeans, either.”

  I laughed and twirled her out and back in and her fruity scent hit me hard, making me stupid with want. When I pulled her back in, I asked, “What are you doing after this?”

  “Taking my new dance partner for pizza.”

  I was starving, but it wasn’t for pizza. That wasn’t what I had in mind at all, but I’d take it. Spending time with her would have to be good enough for now. And it was. We danced the class away and then walked a block to a pizza place she loved.

  I watched her eat pizza and drink Diet Dr. Pepper while she prattled on about seeing Prince in concert her senior year of high school and how amazing it was. I was sad I’d missed it. I was sad I’d missed anything with her at all.