SOMETHING LIKE LUST (Chicgo Grizzlies #2)

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

ADELINE

I stare out the window of the teachers’ lounge at the fancy Mercedes SUV. It’s too tinted for me to say for certain, but I know in my gut it’s Damon. I mindlessly rub my belly. I haven’t blown up yet, but the bump is definitely noticeable. Which meant coming clean with my coworkers and principal two months ago. There’s a good chance I won’t see the end of the school year before this baby makes his or her arrival.

“Is he going to sit out there all day?” Isla says in her typical judgmental voice.

Thankfully, it’s just her and our other teacher friend Sami in here with me, but soon more of the teachers will file in for lunch, and word will spread that Damon Siska is sitting in his car in our parking lot.

I’d rather chew glass than confess that he knocked me up after a one-night stand.

“How did he find me? Why is he here?” I mumble.

I’ve gotten his calls since the Chicago Grizzlies won the bowl last weekend. The first message was odd after having not spoken to him in six months. “Hey, call me.” I assumed he might’ve been looking for a booty call, but what would a champion-winning running back need with me? Surely he has his pick of women.

I didn’t respond because I doubted he was looking for a pregnant hook-up. From my experience with him, he’s like a damn acrobat in bed, constantly changing positions, with the stamina of a superhero. No complaints from me. By the time my o****m came, I saw stars from coming so hard.

His second, third, and fourth messages were much more forceful, and by his fifth, he said it was unfair for me to not answer his calls. I don’t know what the heck he meant with that comment, but I do know I’m not ready to see him. Because that will mean coming clean about the situation I’m in. And though I’ve been psyching myself up to do so for months, it’s going to change everything, and I don’t know that I’m ready for that. Again.

When Elijah showed up at my classroom door yesterday with a note that said Damon was here, I almost passed out. I literally had to close my eyes from feeling lightheaded. This is coming to a head, I know it. Today, he’s been out here for hours. Our security guard-s***h-fan of his, Vic, informed me shortly after school started that Damon was here, and I have no doubt he’ll be here when I leave. There’s no place for me to hide.

“How did he find out?” Sami asks, chomping on her carrot stick. “I’m still in disbelief that the guy I slept with wasn’t him and that you got pregnant by the real Damon Siska.”

When we first met Damon last summer, Sami didn’t believe it was him because she’d had a one-night stand with a guy she’d thought was Damon Siska from the Chicago Grizzlies. Turns out it was just a guy who kind of looked like him and liked to use that fact to his full advantage.

“I don’t know.” I shake my head, still staring out at the vehicle.

I can’t lie and say I was thrilled when that stick turned up with two lines. I immediately threw up, and not because of morning sickness. All in all, I’ve had a great pregnancy. Ever since I first felt the little flutters in my belly, I’ve been growing more excited, if not nervous.

“I thought you went to Chicago and told him?” Sami continues. She’s also reading her latest gossip blog on her phone when real drama is unfolding right here in front of her.

“Oh, she went to tell him,” Isla says. The way she drops her feet from the chair she’s resting them on, I know she’s prepared to tell Sami the whole story, but thankfully, some other teachers come into the room.

Teachers like Henry. He smiles at me, his gaze dropping to my stomach. That’s the way it is these days. Opening up the fridge, he takes out his prepared lunch, then he walks over to me, glaring out the window. “Still here, huh? Talk about making a spectacle. Every student is making bets on who it is and who they’re here for.”

The day I hooked up with Damon, all of the teachers were at the Colts game in the city. I’m sure some noticed I disappeared midway through, but I don’t think anyone realized it was with Damon, though Henry has alluded he did.

I smile, not offering Henry much else. Leaving the window, I stalk over to the table with Sami and Isla, no longer able to talk freely.

Sami pushes her veggie plate toward me. “You need to eat.”

I nod. “I had a big breakfast.”

“Liar.” Isla pulls an apple out of her lunch bag.

I stare at the prepared salad I picked up from the grocery store on the way in today. It looks about as appetizing as a piece of cardboard. “I want a Reuben. Why do I want a Reuben? I’ve never eaten one in all my life.”

“Go to Ira’s Deli over on Forest Drive. The best Reubens,” Lloyd says from across the lounge, then carries on with Henry about the Reuben in great detail.

Saliva pools in my mouth, and I know that nothing will satisfy me now until I get that damn Reuben. I pick up my phone to see when the deli closes, crossing my fingers they aren’t one of those places only open for lunch.

“What do you think his plan is? Chase you down at your car?” Isla asks in a low voice.

“It’s kind of hot that he’s here, no?” Sami asks, finally putting down her phone.

“Hot? Seriously, come back down to reality.” Isla wasn’t a fan when I slept with Damon, and when I got pregnant, she did the whole “I told you so” crap she always does when I do something she doesn’t approve of.

“Oh, come on. He clearly just found out, and he tried to get in yesterday but Shaylene denied him, so he’s going to wait outside the school all day until she leaves. Definitely not that jackass Damon I slept with.”

“You are aware his name probably wasn’t Damon, right?” I ask, grabbing a piece of broccoli. I have to remember that the health of my baby is what matters at this point, not my cravings.

I’ve rehearsed telling him for months. First, when I first went to tell him I was pregnant—before I abandoned that plan—and every day since, knowing telling him is the right thing to do. Still, his lifestyle isn’t one I want my baby exposed to, and he doesn’t need the bad press of having a baby mama. Damon’s got a reputation, and from all the scouring I did online, he comes from a wealthy family on the East Coast who will probably think I got myself pregnant on purpose. All of this runs through my head every time I gather the courage to consider reaching out to him.

My gaze meets Henry’s across the room. If I was going to make this colossal of a mistake, couldn’t it have been with an average Joe like Henry?

“I’m not an i***t. I know his name wasn’t really Damon,” Sami says, but she blushes.

Part of me thinks Sami wishes what was happening to me was happening to her.

“I’ll go out there and confront him,” Isla whispers. “Because God knows Vic won’t.”

“No. I have to see him at some point. I just have about three hours before I do.” I lean back in my seat. He has to have better things to do than sit in a middle school parking lot all day. “If I’m lucky, he’ll get sidetracked by a hot blonde.”

They both stare at me.

“You have a better chance of Vic actually doing his job and telling him to get off school property.” Isla looks over my shoulder. “Get an autograph yet?”

I don’t have to turn around to know she’s talking to Vic. He’s been going gaga over this whole “Damon Siska in the house” thing. That’s what he keeps saying, earning an award for telling the most people that Damon was here looking for me yesterday. Although I never told anyone else at work who the father is, I’m sure people have put two and two together. Especially if they think about the Colts game this past summer, where we all saw Damon and Cooper Rice, the Grizzlies’ quarterback.

“No. But if he’s out there when I’m on bus duty, I plan on it,” Vic says.

Isla rolls her eyes. “He’s as pathetic as Lloyd, just in a different way.” She points at the man in question who’s now at the table with Henry.

Sami gives me a look, as if asking what Isla’s smoking.

We watch as Lloyd pours his soup out of his thermos and shoves his tie over his shoulder, slurping the soup into his mouth with the spoon that snaps to the top of the thermos.

“I’m not sure,” Sami starts, but I slide out of my chair.

“I have to finish my lesson plans for tomorrow. I’ll talk to you later.” I abruptly stand, and all eyes are on me.

“I’ll stop by your room and walk you out after,” Isla says.

“I’ll be okay. You guys have enough to do.”

I walk out of the teachers’ lounge before anyone can say anything else to me. I appreciate them all standing by my side, but this is something I should’ve done months ago.

Once I’m back in my classroom, I shut the door to keep everyone out, but it’s time I admit to myself that Damon is here, which means whether I like it or not, we’ll be part of each other’s lives for the long haul.

My forehead falls to my desk. Whose life did I h****k to be in this position? Because this sure as heck isn’t how I saw my life going.