Page 45 of The Path to Loving Him
The tension between us is thick as her eyes float to my mouth, and my eyes check out her full lips.
I can still feel them all over me, and it’s been weeks.
Fucking weeks and the kisses she spread over my body feel like a sharp branding, a feeling I’m not sure I’ll ever shake.
I clear my throat, bringing her eyes back to mine.
“Um, is that all?” she asks as she tugs on her hair.
“Yeah,” I say as my gaze falls to her lips one last time. “That’s all.”
“Okay,” she replies with uncertainty.
This is exactly why I need to stay away from her.
This reason, right here.
Because I can’t seem to get myself to leave. I can’t seem to tell myself to stop staring at her. And the only thing holding me back from pushing her up against the wall and mauling her is the smallest hint of will that’s telling me I’ll regret it.
That it’ll open up a tidal wave of bad decisions that I can’t handle right now.
The best thing for me to do is get the hell out of here before I do something I regret. Because I can’t stop staring into her eyes, or at her lips . . . or repress the urge to pull her into me.
It’s time to leave now.
“Well, if you need anything, let me know.”
“Sure. Thanks.”
Awkwardly, I nod, then scoot past her, trying not to brush up against her while I take off.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me, Herbert,” I say as I pace my principal’s office. The brightly lit room decorated in academic accomplishments is a stark contrast to the maddened mood I’m experiencing.
“Do you think I’d just say things to piss you off?” Herbert asks as he pinches his brow, clearly not in the mood to deal with me right now, but I couldn’t give two shits.
I place both hands on my hips as Mac sits in the chair in front of me, playing on an iPad with headphones. “I’m beginning to think that you are.”
After the whole shower debacle, I came to the school to get some things set up for the school year when I got a call from Mac’s daycare saying that she scraped her knee and wanted to be taken home.
Normally, I would have told the kid to suck it up and deal with it, kind of like what I tell my boys on the baseball team. But this is Mac. She’s been through a lot, and I want her to know I’ll be there no matter what—even if it’s a minor knee scrape. So I picked her up and took her to my classroom, where I hooked her up with an iPad and headphones. I logged into Disney+ so she could watchTangledfor the millionth time. Her favorite character is Maximus. Are you even surprised?
“Ryland, please, the school year hasn’t even started yet. I can’t deal with this headache.”
“I’m not the one creating a headache, Herbert. David is. He’s the one who hired an assistant without discussing it with us. He’s the one who is giving up my fucking office to the new assistant.”
“Because the assistant office is attached to the locker room, and well, since she’s a female, she can’t really be in the locker room while the underage male players change.”
I pinch my brow. “I understand that, Herbert. Given the situation, I’m more than understanding, but that doesn’t meanshe should take my office. Give her a fucking coat closet to sit in. Have her sit with the women coaches. Why give her my office?”
“I’m working on it, okay?”
“Are you? Because at this rate, she’s going to have my job soon, and I worked damn hard for that job.”
“I know, Ryland. I know.” He exhales and leans back in his chair. “I have to navigate the system, though. It’s more than just giving her a different office. I have to please David because what he thinks impacts my job as well.”
I lean against the office wall, arms crossed. “Well, maybe David should stop living on some power trip and let the people in the job do their job. This is getting absurd.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not how school politics work.”
