Don't Hate the Player...Hate the Game(9)

I skidded to a stop on the bottom step and stared. It was then I realized she wasn’t really an angel. I’d seen her around school many times before. I may have even had a class or two with her. She’d transferred to Creekview when I was junior. That was the year her family moved to town, and Pastor Dan became the pastor of one of the local churches.

Mrs. Nelson smiled. “Noah, I’d like to introduce you to, Pastor Dan Parker.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said, as I shook his hand.

“Nice meeting you too, Noah.” Pastor Dan turned to the angel. “This is my daughter, Maddie.”

At the sound of her name, Maddie dutifully raised her head.

I reached out and took her hand in mine. “Yeah, I think we know each other from school,” I said.

She nodded. “Yes, we do.”

Mrs. Nelson put her arm around Maddie’s waist. “I don’t know what Jake would’ve done without Maddie. She’s been such a help to him this year. Why I doubt he’d earned enough credits to graduate without her.”

I noticed tears glistened in Maddie’s eyes. She leaned over and hugged Mrs. Nelson, and they both wept. I shuffled back and forth on my feet and glanced over at my mom. She had tears in her eyes, too.

If there was anyone more uncomfortable with people showing emotion, it was Mr. Nelson. His face darkened. He interrupted his wife and Maddie by thrusting the duffel bag of Jake’s things into Mrs. Nelson’s arms. “Noah and I got the things you asked for.”

She wiped her eyes. “Thanks, dear,” she replied, pressing the bag against her chest.

Mom cleared her throat. “Noah, I told Mrs. Nelson you’d be happy to take those items down to the funeral home for her.”

I shot my mom a look. The last thing on earth I wanted to do was go down to the funeral home. I didn’t like to admit it, but I kinda had this thing about funeral homes.

“Sure, that’d be fine.”

Mrs. Nelson smiled and then reached over to hug me. “You’re such a good boy, Noah.”

Pastor Dan peered out the window. “Uh-oh, if that’s your SUV, we’re blocking you in. Maddie, why don’t you give Noah a lift down to the funeral home real quick?

Maddie and I both stared at him in disbelief. “W-What?” Maddie stammered.

Pastor Dan nodded. “Sure. I was going to have to drop off Mr. St. Clare’s eulogy for tomorrow anyway.” He glanced at Mrs. Nelson and smiled. “You know, they’ve got to translate it into French for all those Cajun relatives coming into town.”

“Oh that’s right,” Mrs. Nelson replied.

He reached in his briefcase and pulled out a large envelope.

Maddie reluctantly took it from his hand and started for the door. I followed close on her heels.

I slid into the silver Camry still clutching the bag. Without a word, Maddie cranked the car. Christian Worship music blared out of the radio. She flushed a little and quickly turned it off. We started down the road as an uncomfortable silence hung in the air.

Out of the corner of my eye, I checked her out. I was a guy—I couldn’t help it. I started thinking about why I’d never really noticed her—you know the way a guy was supposed to notice a girl, especially one as beautiful she was. Then it hit me. Maddie didn’t wear low cut shirts and tank tops with her jacked up cle**age winking at the free world, and she didn’t have her ass cheeks hanging out of her shorts and skirts. She kept herself covered.

But it took just one glance at her long legs wrapped underneath the steering wheel to make me imagine them in short skirts. With my eyes roving upward, I realized she was also hiding a fabulous rack underneath her dress. Damn, what a waste.

My below-the-belt thoughts along with being in close quarters made me blurt out the first thing that came to my mind—after her amazing legs and Double D’s. “You smell nice.” The moment the words left my lips, I cringed. Way to be an utter lameass, Noah!

“It’s Noa,” she murmured.

“What about me?” I asked.

A smile tugged at her lips. “No, the perfume’s name is Noa.”

“Oh, I get it,” I laughed.

Maddie’s smiled widened. “Jake really liked it, too. He used to joke about it being a biblical experience or something silly like that.”

“Yeah, I’d forgotten you were Jake’s tutor,” I said.

She glanced over at me. A dark look flashed in her eyes. “I was his friend.”

“Yeah, I know.” The truth was Jake had mentioned her to me before, but I’d never really paid attention. Not to mention he and I were both going in such crazy directions senior year. I had just taken it as one of those random “Jake” comments—the kind I’d blow off and then wait until he moved on to something else. But the more I thought about it, he never moved on to anything else. I remembered him stopping to say hey to her in the hallway or at lunch. Hell, when we were with him, we all said hello to her because everyone in the group knew better than to say something bad about her or tease her. If they did, Jake would have kicked our ass.

Maddie brought me out of my ramblings with the tone of her next question. “Are you sure?”

“Sure of what?”

“That you knew Jake and I were friends,” she replied, an edginess creeping into her voice.