Golden Trail (The 'Burg #3)(136)

“Yeah, Dad,” Jasper whispered.

“You’re in this house, alarm is armed. At all times, Jas.”

“Right.”

“Roc’s on his radar and Tripp laid claim to her today. Because of that, when light dawns, he’ll know where she sits with this. That means, I’m not around, you have her back too.”

“Gotcha.”

“He got any other favorites?” Layne asked and Jasper nodded.

“Alexis McGraw.”

“The redhead today?”

“Yep.”

“Any ideas how to keep her clear?”

Jasper shook his head. “She’s in deep. She thinks he’s the shit. They’re always together.”

“Fuck,” Layne whispered.

“I’ll think about it. She used to have a thing for Seth. Maybe –”

Layne cut him off. “Seth’s got enough to deal with.”

“Yeah, which means, I figure, takin’ his mind off of that shit will do him good,” Jasper returned. “We’ve talked about this, before Tripp and me started undercover and Seth thinks it’s creepy as all get out too. I reckon he’d come on board and he’d be cool, Dad. After yesterday, he’d do just about anything for you and Rocky. Alexis is a freshman and Seth is a senior but she’s cute and it isn’t unheard of. Jamie’s a senior and he’s datin’ a freshman and Seth and Jamie are tight.”

Layne nodded and asked, “Any bright ideas of how to shut the rest of it down?”

“Yeah,” Jasper whispered and stood, clearing the weight bench and bringing him close to his old man. “We don’t have to play it cool anymore, I start a campaign. Kids think it’s weird, teachers think it’s weird but no one’s talkin’ out about it. It’s all real quiet. Whispers. I talk out about it. Make like I’m goin’ as a joke. Get Seth and some of the team to go with me. Start f**kin’ around at Youth Group and, at school, make it uncool other than to go for shits and giggles, a place to f**k around and pick up girls.”

“I don’t know, Jas, bold play but could have the opposite effect, make the devoted more so and make it popular for kids to go, even if they’re f**kin’ around which might put more girls on the line. It also puts Tripp out there if Giselle is religious. She’ll want to think he’s into that too and her family will definitely want to think that if he wants to spend time with her.”

“Just because Giselle’s family is religious doesn’t mean she has to go to Youth Group,” Jasper replied. “Tripp can play her and, in the end, she’s still a shy girl who’s got a chance at the only freshman on the football team. She pushes it that she prefers to be with Tripp, her parents’ll cave. The other shit, leave it to me.”

Layne smiled and asked, “Lots of parents cave?”

Jasper smiled back. “Totally. Especially the girls. How do you think I hit so many? Before Keira that is.”

“Jasper Layne, football stud,” Layne muttered, still smiling.

“Off the market stud,” Jasper muttered back, also still smiling. “Just like his Dad.”

Layne chuckled as he lifted a hand and curled it around his boy’s neck, pulled him in and gently bumped foreheads with him before he let him go.

“All right, Bud, you play it how you feel it but you communicate with me, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You call your Mom today?” Layne asked.

“Yeah, twice,” Jas answered.

“Good man,” Layne murmured. “Homework done and tomorrow, thank your Gram for cleanin’ your room. She deserves it especially since, for most humans, it was a no go zone and I reckon Keira will be spendin’ time in it and we won’t want to rush her to the hospital after she’s exposed to the fumes.”

Jasper shook his head, grinning. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Boy,” was Layne’s only reply as he turned to walk away but he thought better of it and turned back. “Did you get your sentences diagrammed?”

Jasper’s grin died and he looked confused. “What?”

“Your sentences. Did Roc help you get them diagrammed?”

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” Jasper mumbled.

“Jas?” Layne called his son’s attention to him. “Did you have sentences to diagram?”

“Yeah,” Jas answered and Layne stared at him so Jasper’s eyes went to the double doors, he walked the two feet Layne had moved away and he whispered, “Two weeks ago. I got a C on the assignment. Next time, I’ll ask Roc to help before I get the final grade.”

Layne swallowed down laughter before he muttered, “Good call.”

Then Layne turned back to his room and walked to it as he heard Jasper say, “’Night, Dad.”

“’Night, Bud,” Layne replied and opened the doors.

Rocky was diagonal on the bed, on her stomach, papers spread in front of her, pen in her hand, bare feet swinging in the air and Layne knew Jasper didn’t have to whisper his secret because she had earphones in her ears, an MP3 player on the bed and between the sound and her concentration on the papers, she hadn’t noticed he came in.

He rounded the bed wide until he got to her side and then moved in. He put a knee to the bed and was dropping forward with a hand on either side of her when she cried out, jumped and started to turn but his torso hit her back and he pinned her to the bed.