Fumbling Perfect (Raymere Grove Series Book 1) Page 4

  “No, I guess I’ll do that after the meeting today,” Lilah admitted, already knowing that Simon probably had his volunteer days covered for the entire semester.

  “Same here.”

  Lilah would have said more, but just then the meeting started. Actual conversation with Simon and virtual conversation with Kyler would both have to wait.

  For once, Lilah didn’t care to ask a million questions like she generally did. Ever since Kyler beat her to the library that first day, she was determined to always be there first. As soon as the meeting ended, she intended to rush to the signup board for her required hours for the first six weeks; however, Sophie had different plans. She continued with question after question, infuriating not only Lilah, but the sponsors as well.

  Lilah was saddened when she saw that there were still a few openings for the animal shelter. Every year it had been a place she desperately wanted to volunteer at, but she knew leaving would break her heart. She and her siblings had begged their parents for a dog for years to no avail. It would kill her to go there, fall in love, only to be disappointed at having to say goodbye.

  Instead, Lilah scribbled her name down for a slot at the hospital’s gift shop. Generally, it was run by retired women that simply needed to get out of the house, but last year they had partnered up with the school, allowing for several weekends set aside for student volunteers.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “You’re late,” Kyler grumbled, not bothering to look up from his work.

  “I had a meeting.”

  Kyler raised a seductive eyebrow full of insinuations.

  “For the honor society,” Lilah pointed out, though she owed him no explanation.

  Going back to the pages before him, “You never answered my question.”

  “We should be able to accomplish enough in the two hours, especially if you take all your rudeness and criticism and put that energy into your work.”

  Kyler dropped his pen and stared Lilah down, not saying a word. His face held no emotion, which was unnerving to Lilah. She couldn’t tell what he might be thinking.

  She finally snapped. “Let me guess, you don’t have a date tonight, so you want to suck the life out of me? Believe it or not, I have better things to do besides help you on something you messed up to begin with.”

  Kyler shook his head. “You really are a narcissistic brat.”

  Somehow, that comment stung a little more this time, but Lilah didn’t allow him to see how his words affected her.

  Shortly after that, they fell into common ground, the insults disappearing, and the only talk being that of Hamlet. It wasn’t until Kyler bothered looking out the nearby windows that he saw that daylight had faded. He was quite surprised that Lilah had not complained so far. He wondered how long she would stay there with him. Regardless what he might think of her, he didn’t intend to put her through anymore. The few times their eyes had met in conversation, he could see the tiredness washing over hers.

  He cleared his throat in the silence. “I think that should do it.”

  “Are you sure? This is our last session.”

  Something about that was a little disappointing to hear. “Yeah. I just have to find time to focus on this, as well as my other classes, and not screw up in the next two weeks.”

  As they began to gather their things, Lilah checked her phone. Kyler had no idea why she continued to keep it silenced after school was out. Upon reading something, her brows furrowed, and she took in a silent deep breath.

  “Everything okay,” Kyler found himself asking.

  Maybe it was the tiredness, but Lilah didn’t have a snarky comment in her. “Yeah…no, not really.” She sighed before continuing. “Apparently, I was supposed to take Rover to the park, although my mother forgot to tell me that. She had a thing to go to tonight, and now I need to stop at the neighbors to bring him home.”

  Kyler hesitated. “He can’t stay home alone for a few hours.”

  “He could. She’s just over-protective of him,” Lilah told Kyler as they began making their way to the exit doors. “He’s too smart for his own good. There’s no telling what all he’d get into if left alone.”

  “What kind is he?”

  Lilah’s steps faltered and she shot Kyler a look of disgust. “Kind?”

  “Breed. Whatever,” he clarified.

  Lilah didn’t answer as they approached the door. Kyler exited first, and much to her surprise held it open for her. It didn’t help. She was still annoyed.

  “Why do you look so cranky all of a sudden,” he pointed out.

  “Rover is not a dog! He’s my little brother,” she screamed, as if he should have known that.

  Kyler’s jaw dropped. Who in the world named a kid Rover?

  He tried to begin an apology but a ding from Lilah’s phone, that she must have only recently turned the volume up on, came through and interrupted.

  Another deep and frustrating breath came from her. This time her eyes clenched shut and her nose wrinkled up in disgust.

  Before Kyler could inquire as to what was wrong, “Can I get a ride home?”

  Kyler tried to hide his amusement. That had to have been the hardest thing in the world for her to ask. There were so many ways he could have teased her or pushed her buttons, but for some reason, he didn’t feel like it, at least not tonight.

  “Sure.” As they made their way to his truck, “Do you want me to stop somewhere to get you and your brother supper?”

  Lilah laughed.

  Kyler took offense. “What’s that for?”

  “I know what you’re doing,” she said with narrowed eyes as she approached his passenger door.

  He took a step closer, slightly throwing her off. “And what is that?”

  Though his presence was closer than she would have liked, Lilah quickly recovered from the initial surprise of having him near. “You’re trying to be nice because you know that I have to talk to your coach tomorrow.”

  “Actually, for the last hour I’ve listened to your stomach make noises like it’s about to give birth to a monster. I figured you might be hungry, and if your parents aren’t home, you might not have a hot meal waiting for you.”

  Lilah held her breath as Kyler stepped even closer. She could smell whatever body wash he had showered with after football practice. It sent chills through her that she desperately wanted to stop. She nearly fell into his truck when his arm reached out and she forced herself to take a step back.

  When she awoke from whatever hellish daze she had allowed herself to fall into, Kyler stood there, the passenger door open, waiting for her to get in. “That’s fine though,” he concluded. “Believe what you want.”

  The drive was awkward this time, maybe not for Kyler, but definitely for Lilah. She had to shake the feeling, the idea. Kyler was just trying to get into her head before she talked to his coach. Offering to get her dinner, or supper as he called it, opening her door, taking her home without one rude comment, it was all a game to him to get what he needed. The sad thing about it all, she had absolutely no reason to give his coach a bad report, aside from the fact that she disliked Kyler. He had genuinely tried the last few days. Would he continue after this week? Who could say.

  Chapter 6

  Lilah fully intended to wait until the end of the day before talking to Coach Turner; however, after she checked her school email Thursday night, she knew that wasn’t an option. Therefore, Friday morning, Lilah woke a little earlier than usual. She wanted to be sure to talk with Coach Turner during the team’s morning practice in hopes that Kyler would see, and she could make him suffer just a little bit at not knowing.

  As Lilah arrived at the field, she spotted Coach Turner instantly on the sidelines. He was quite hard to miss. He still looked every bit like the player that he was in his glory days.

  “Damn,” Gavin hissed, disrupting the concentration of a few players.

  Kyler was annoyed at their lack of focus, but upon looking up, found what they were so distracted
by.

  In the golden early morning sunlight, walking along the track outlining the field, was the one person who could make or break his day. The way the light shined on her shoulder length chestnut hair, made it appear redder than he was used to seeing in the florescent lights of the library. She didn’t dress like most of the girls he knew either. She wore a long-sleeved pink dress shirt, buttoned all the way to the neck, adorned with some frilly and girly bowtie, which was then paired with a skirt that flared just a pinch. It was short enough to highlight her legs, but still long enough to pass the school’s fingertip test. Though she was in the distance, with each step she took, Kyler was certain that he could hear every click of her tiny heels.

  “She’s so hot for a nerd,” Sean acknowledged. “Too bad evil runs through every bone in her body.”

  “Whatever,” Gavin scoffed. “Nothing about her is nerdy.” He completely ignored the evil part.

  As if to back up his master, “She always has her head buried in a book. That’s a nerd,” Louis pointed out.

  “I wonder what she’s doing here, and talking to Coach,” Sean speculated.

  “Do I need to break out the nail polish and tea sets, or are we going to run the next play,” Kyler asked with more than a hint of annoyance.

  “Right, I forgot, you only have eyes for Sarah,” Sean teased.

  That was the furthest thing from the truth, but Kyler let it slide, especially if it meant that everyone could get back to playing and stop drooling over Lilah. He didn’t care if they did, just not during practice.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “When I said first thing in the morning, this isn’t what I had in mind,” Coach Turner began.

  “I needed to get here early anyway,” Lilah lied. “So, I figured why not.”

  “You do realize that you’re throwing my boys off their game…”

  Lilah finally looked to the mass of blue and black on the field. She watched as the ball flew from Kyler’s hand, missing whoever he was throwing to by a good three feet.

  “I’ll be honest,” Lilah began very bluntly. Coach Turner recognized the same fire that he had seen a couple weeks ago in Principal Willis’ office. “It was my intention to make Kyler squirm a little from this conversation.”

  Coach Turner gave a deep and hearty laugh. “I’d say you’re doing a decent job then.” He soon turned serious, not liking his time to be wasted. “Mr. Hughes told me that Kyler has gradually handed in a few of his missing assignments over the last few days. While he hasn’t graded them, he said the quality looked to be quite good,” he began.

  “Yesterday was a little exhausting, but he should almost be caught up with the first two to three weeks of assignments.”

  “And he did all the work, not–”

  Lilah interrupted Coach Turner before he could insinuate what she knew he was going to. “I couldn’t care less if Kyler plays or not. I have never, and will never, do someone’s work for them.” She took a deep breath and continued. “As much as I’d love to tell you that he’s every bit the slacker that I imagined, I can’t. He actually put time and effort into his assignments and trying to learn the material.”

  “That’s good to hear. In the past his grades have been some of the best on the team, but I guess that whole senior year not caring attitude gets the best of everyone,” Turner speculated, but swallowed heavily as he saw the look of shock and disgust on Lilah’s face. Of course, he shouldn’t have said that to someone like Lilah McCallister. He cleared his throat. “Well, thank you for helping him out up until this point.”

  Lilah knew what that meant. She remembered the conversation in Principal Willis’ office; however, ultimately it was on Kyler’s terms, and Kyler insisted that he wouldn’t need her services after Thursday. It didn’t matter, she could still put tutoring down as an extracurricular.

  Lilah stopped and turned back moments after she took a few steps toward the track. “Oh, Coach Turner?”

  He grunted in acknowledgement.

  “Could you do me a favor and not tell him that I said any of that,” she asked nervously. When she received a skeptical look, “His ego is big enough, I don’t think it could handle it.”

  Turner laughed, so loud that as the players set up for the next play, they definitely heard him. “Have a good day, Miss McCallister.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “West! Stop hovering and get in my office before you’re late!”

  Kyler quickly said his goodbyes to Miles, Gavin, and Dawson, who were just as anxious as he was about what was happening when it came to the game that night.

  Coach Turner closed the office door and got straight to the point, not even allowing Kyler to take a seat.

  “I know you saw your friend pay a visit this–”

  “She’s not my friend,” Kyler interrupted, feeling the need to clarify.

  Coach Turner grunted, but continued. “Anyway, you’ll be on the field tonight,” he said very nonchalantly.

  Bells, whistles, fireworks, bombs, all those things exploded when Kyler heard that statement. He had to be sure he heard correctly. “Really? Are you serious?”

  “Get to first period. The last thing you need is detention,” Turner huffed.

  Just as Kyler turned to leave, a never-ending smile plastered across his face, “What made you change your mind? What did she say?”

  “So now you’re one of those gossipy cheerleaders? Mind your own business and get out of here,” Coach insisted, though his tone wasn’t as sharp as his choice of wording.

  Kyler was ecstatic when he left the locker room. As long as he kept up with the assignments and the quality was above seventy percent, he’d be good. As bad as it was to admit it, if it weren’t for Lilah, he probably wouldn’t be playing.

  “What,” an annoyed voice answered on the second ring.

  “Well, someone got up on the wrong side of the bed,” Kyler teased.

  “Shouldn’t you be in class,” Krista speculated.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m headed there now. I just wanted to ask, what time do you go in to work?”

  “Ten. Thankfully the news shows that traffic into the city is pretty mild today,” she began.

  “Yeah, that’s great, but I don’t have much time.”

  Krista huffed, already knowing her brother needed something. Although once he asked for the requested favor, she was a bit taken aback.

  “That’s…weird…”

  “Come on. I can’t leave the premises. I’ll explain later,” he begged.

  “Fine. For a week, when I cook, you don’t complain about the doing the dishes,” Krista bartered.

  “That’s crap. You’re going to use every dish in the kitchen!”

  Krista stopped him. “No complaints.”

  “Fine,” Kyler groaned as he ended the call.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Lilah was getting out the teal spiral and mechanical pencil to begin taking notes for calculus when she happened to notice the bright light inside her bag. She had just said goodbye to one of her friends, the other was in calculus with her, and she very rarely got messages from her parents throughout the day. The tardy bell had yet to ring so she curiously grabbed the device, shocked by what she saw on the screen.

  Kyler: Can you meet me at the beginning of lunch?

  To say that she was confused was putting it mildly. As of this morning, she was done with Kyler West. Not only that, but what he was suggesting was a strange request.

  Lilah: Why?

  Kyler: The bell is about to ring. Can you?

  Lilah didn’t think, only responded.

  Lilah: Fine!

  Kyler: Awesome. Not in the lunch room. Fountain past the gardens.

  Lilah threw her phone in her bag just as the bell rang, and like clockwork, the teacher began running through the roster.

  Of course, Kyler wouldn’t want to meet anywhere near his friends. The gardens were just past the outdoor eating area of bistro sets and picnic tables. There was a fountain in the middle with the sch
ool’s mascot. It was a bear standing on its hind legs with water shooting from its claws.

  Generally, the only groups that hung around outside for lunch were the ones who didn’t want to be in school in the first place or the nature club members.

  Overall, most everyone stayed inside during lunch. At least meeting Kyler at the fountain meant that his friends, nor Lilah’s, could give them a hard time; although, somehow Lilah thought that Kyler might catch the worst of it, what with needing a tutor and all.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  He wasn’t nervous. He had no reason to be nervous. At least that’s what he told himself. He looked down at the kraft box tied up with red and gold ribbons. It was the nice thing to do. Even his mother would have told him that much. He thought about running the idea by her first, but as a general surgeon, he was sure she had more pressing matters that morning.

  Lilah always had some pep in her step, always preferring to get to where she needed to be sooner rather than later. When the senior lunch bell rang, she made an exception. She wouldn’t say that she was nervous, more like confused, extremely confused.

  Kyler watched as she exited the doors near the patio area. She was hard to miss, something about the way she dressed and the way she carried herself. The worst part was, she knew that, and she acted like that made her better than everyone else.

  He took a deep breath and shook his head. He had to be crazy.

  “Hey,” Lilah acknowledged once she was within talking distance.

  She quickly noticed the box next to Kyler along the side of the fountain. She clasped her hands in front of her and shifted her weight, unsure if she needed to sit down for whatever he needed to say. He answered her without answering when he stood.

  “Here,” he said plainly, handing her the box.

  She took it, looking at it for a second, and then bringing her eyes up to meet his. “What is it?”

  “It’s a cupcake.”

  Her face clenched and her eyes dropped back down to the box. She had never received any gifts from the opposite sex, unless of course she could count her father. Even then, he usually hired someone to buy birthday and Christmas gifts for her and her siblings. This was strange because it was for neither occasion.