Lord Have Mercy (The Southern Gentleman #2)(17)

“If you don’t wipe that look off your face, you’re going to scare your boot campers.” My sister’s amused voice came from beside me.

I looked down at her and bared my teeth.

“Ohhh, scary!” She pretend shook.

I snorted. “How was work?”

Her face closed off and she shrugged. “I guess it was all right.”

Today was her first day as a substitute teacher at the school that I also worked at, but she’d worked in the ISS—in school suspension—part of the school, and I hadn’t seen her all day.

“Not what you expected?” I questioned.

She wrinkled her nose at me. “It was something that was completely different.” She paused. “And something that I’d like to do again, to be honest. Plus, I got to see you through the windows going through someone’s car, and then Camryn yell at you.”

I growled at her. “Don’t start.”

She held up her hands in surrender. “Don’t start? Don’t start what? Telling you that you have the hots for a teacher? Or telling you that you made a mistake with Nivea, who, might I add, has called the gym no less than five times today and left three voicemails for you to call her. Revoking her membership was an awesome move, by the way. I commend you greatly. But what will you do if she shows up and ignores your order?”

I didn’t have an answer to that.

Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

“Time to stretch, big brother,” Carmichael sang.

I pulled her into the crook of my arm and gave her a hug around the neck. She made a choking sound, and all of a sudden Croft was there, punching me in the shoulder. “Jesus, dude. Let her breathe.”

My brows rose, and Carmichael flushed a bright red.

I rolled my eyes.

What did women see in Croft?

And since when did he care what I did to my sister? I’d punched her in the shoulder last week and knocked her down onto the padded floor before sitting on her and tickling her to death. All the while she screamed at him for help and he’d looked at her like she was crazy for asking him to get in the middle of us.

Now he was reprimanding me for doing a half-assed chokehold?

Hmm.

What was his game?

It wasn’t bad enough that he had to start paying attention to Camryn, but now he had to do it with my sister, too?

I growled and didn’t even mean to.

Both Croft and Carmichael looked at me with concern.

“Problem?” he asked, eyes now on me and not my sister.

I clenched my teeth and walked away without answering him, but I heard Carmichael explaining as I walked away. Apparently, she thought I was on edge due to Nivea. I wasn’t. I was on edge because I liked a girl and she didn’t like me back.

How juvenile was that?

Apparently, you hang out with high schoolers long enough, and their problems become your problems. Oh, and you start acting like them, too.

The hour-long class was pure torture.

What was even worse was the fact that I wanted to go through another goddamn hour just so she wouldn’t leave.

Raleigh, who was standing next to Camryn looking tired but much more in control of herself than she’d been the first day after her workout, grinned at me as I sidled up next to them.

“How’d you like today’s workout?” I questioned.

Raleigh patted her belly.

“I’m losing my baby belly. I’m happy.” She paused. “I made Ezra wait until I could fit into my bikini before we went on our honeymoon, and it’s been so hard losing weight that I’ve put it off about two months longer than I ever intended. But by the rate we’re going, I’ll be small enough to fit into one by the end of the month.”

“Your boobs won’t, though,” Camryn supplied.

Raleigh flipped her off. “That’s what they made padding for, yes? I think it’ll be okay.”

“So you going to keep going after you’re back in shape?” I questioned.

I really, really wanted her to keep coming. Her coming meant that Camryn would continue to come. That also meant that I’d see her not just at school, but at my gym after school, too.

“Oh yes.” She grinned. “Ezra wants to start coming with me in the afternoons, too. He already comes every morning before work, but he’s really interested in the strongman class that’s being put on for the more advanced members. Though, he won’t be able to do that until after football season. He’s married to his job right now.” She turned to Camryn. “Speaking of, are you coming to the game tonight?”

Camryn looked at her watch. “Oh, shoot. No can do. I’m all sweaty and I have to grade papers.”

“It’s the first week of school. What kind of asshole teacher gives their students work on the first week?” Raleigh asked, sounding serious.

I gritted my teeth to keep from smiling.

“This kind of asshole.” She paused. “They pissed me off today with them pulling their cell phones out and texting while I was talking. Therefore, I made them write a two-page report on what they remembered about their science class last year, then made them turn it in at the end of the period.”

“So just mark seventy on all of them and come,” I suggested. “But don’t record the grade. Or, save the grade as a bonus if they finished the report.”