Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 34206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Teal watched his retreating back and heard the door open and close. He’d left.
Her jean leg was still pulled up to just her knee. Did she keep it like that?
The door opened and closed again. Seconds later, Jaxson stood in the kitchen and held a bag on his shoulder. “Come on, have a seat and turn the stove off.”
“It’s fine, honestly. It doesn’t even hurt.”
“I’m still going to clean it. We don’t want that thing to get infected.”
She had no idea if there was a risk of infection. Either way, his commanding voice struck her hard and fast.
Teal brushed past him, heading into the dining room. Still no pictures in the room, and there were a couple of boxes up against the far wall.
“Sit,” he said.
She lowered her butt to the chair and waited.
Jaxson crouched down in front of her.
Holy wow, this was… She had no choice but to focus and to hope that she didn’t make a fool of herself.
****
This was a big mistake.
Jaxson knew he shouldn’t have come to her door.
Bethany had asked him to keep an eye on her, but he wasn’t a babysitter. He was just doing the polite thing. The nice thing.
He’d arrived home and he’d stood at his living room window, watching as Bethany left. Then he’d waited. He’d looked at the kids’ homework, attempting to mark it.
Teal’s name kept going round and around in his head. Then he kept thinking about what he’d heard some kids saying about her falling. He’d been worried all day, and now was his chance to go ask her if she was okay.
That was all he wanted to do. He wanted to make sure she was fine. That the trip hadn’t hurt her.
Now, he crouched in front of her, looking at her knee and seeing that it wasn’t life-threatening, but it did look sore.
“You know, it’s fine,” she said.
“I’ll be the judge of that.” He tutted as he looked at the wound. “You did this before lunch?”
“Yeah, that’s when I had gym.” She sighed. “I was going to take care of it.”
“I’m here now.” He pulled out some clean, sterile wipes. “These might sting a little.” He was pissed that her mother didn’t even seem to take the time to ask about her day, to care that she might have been hurt. “Does your mother know you fell?”
“No.”
“I’ll call her and let her know.”
“No, don’t. You don’t need to.”
He looked up at her. “Teal, your parents need to know if you’re not feeling well.”
“It was just a clumsy moment. That’s all that it was. Please, let my parents just do whatever they need to do.” She winced, and he hadn’t even put the wipe on her knee.
“Does it hurt? I could take you to the hospital.”
“No. I’m just thinking about my parents. If you call them, it will give both of them a reason to not reconcile, and it’s time they got their act together and just make up or divorce.” She sighed. “I don’t want to be used as a reason for them to not make that decision.”
“Divorce,” Jaxson said. “That’s a big deal.”
“Yeah, I know. I mean, I don’t think they will get a divorce.”
“Your mother cheated.”
“Yeah, and my dad cheated before that, and they got back together.”
Jaxson frowned as he looked up at her. “You know that’s not right, right?”
She licked her lips, and he shouldn’t be so fucking aroused by that one action.
“They’re different. I get that. I always knew they were. It’s their thing, I guess.”
“Do you want them to get a divorce?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
He pressed the sterile wipe to her knee, and she winced. “Fuck, crap. That stings.”
“That’s because it is a cut, Teal.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Do you want to talk about your parents?”
“Not really. I know what my parents are like and I know to some people they seem a little selfish, but they’re my parents. They do take care of me in their own way.”
He didn’t see it himself. He applied the Band-Aid to the now-clean cut, but he didn’t want to move away. He didn’t want to stop touching her. Jaxson had an overwhelming need to take care of her.
Sure, Bethany had called him and asked for him to keep an eye on her daughter. From the looks of it, Teal wasn’t too concerned to be spending time alone at her parents’ house. For all intents and purposes, she was quite stable and taken care of.
But he couldn’t help but feel she was being dumped in all these situations against her will.
“Have you talked to other teachers?” he asked. “About this?”
“They think I don’t understand the work.”
“Do you?”
She smiled. “I, yes.”
“Then what do you think the problem is?” he asked.
“No one has ever asked me that before.”
“We can continue to do practice exams, but if the main bulk of the problem is retention or even understanding, then it doesn’t matter how many exams I give you, you’re going to fail them all.”