Page 27 of Breakaway

The waitress approached, a stacked brunette wearing a tight, low-cut T-shirt. She gave them all the eye. “Hi guys. How are y’all tonight?”

“Great.”

“You all play for the Wolves, don’t you?”

“Yep.”

“I knew it. I’m a big fan.” She beamed at them. “Can I get you something to drink?”

They ordered beers and gave her their food orders at the same time. When she left, Griff rose from his seat. “Gotta drain the main vein. Be right back.”

Jase watched him leave, then reached across the table for the cell phone Griff had left sitting there. “He’ll never learn.” He touched the screen. “And still not password protected.” He opened Griff’s email and tapped in a message, laughing softly. Then he set the phone back.

“What did you do?” Frenchy grinned at him.

“You’ll see.”

Griff arrived back at the table at the same time as the cute waitress. This was the type of chick he was usually attracted to. But tonight, he kept thinking about a tiny blonde pixie.

Griff’s cell phone chimed. He absently picked it up and swiped the screen. Taking a sip of his beer, he read the screen. “What the fuck?” He scowled.

“Something wrong?” Jase casually leaned back in his chair holding his own beer.

“She thinks I gave her some kind of disease…are you fucking kidding me? Wait, what?” He read more. “Why does it hurt when I pee?” He lifted incredulous eyes to Jase. “You fucking asshole!”

“What?” Frenchy still had no clue.

Jase collapsed in laughter, almost falling out of his chair. “What did she say? Let me see.” He reached for the cell phone but Griff yanked it out of his reach.

Griff told Frenchy, “He emailed Chantal ‘why does it hurt when I pee?’ She emails back, ‘You bastard, you better not have given me something! Go to the doctor!’.”

Frenchy cracked up too.

“Fuck you, Heller.” Griff tapped in another email back to his girlfriend, while Jase wiped tears. “I’m telling her it was you and you better fucking own up.”

“Ah, that was beautiful.” Jase mentally patted himself on the back. He didn’t prank the guys as much as he used to but it was still good to have some fun once in a while. “I was thinking about putting it on Twitter, but I figured the team might not be too happy about that. So consider yourself lucky.”

“I need to learn how to set a fuckin’ password,” Griff muttered. “The last time he did this, he sent my girl a text that said, ‘My ass hurts too much for sex tonight’.”

Jase and Frenchy both fell over laughing again.

Try as he might, Jase couldn’t get the sexy little teacher out of his head for the next week, until he was back at Abraham Lincoln Middle School a week later, sitting in her classroom with a bunch of sixth graders.

He watched Remi with another group as he sat in a corner of her classroom. He seemed unable to drag his eyes away from her, and his concentration kept drifting off into images of her naked, his hands on her…dammit. He had a hard enough time paying attention without a major hot distraction like her.

He should just ask her out again. He’d wanted to. He’d planned to call her. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

And yet, the intimidation factor was high. Teachers were smart. Bossy. Know-it-alls. Teachers made him feel like a speck of dirt on the ice.

Why he kept thinking about Remi, he’d never know. She was clearly unimpressed with the fact that he played a game for a living. He’d caught that comment about how surprised she was that he was involved in the reading program. She probably thought he didn’t even knowhowto read.

A familiar knife twisted in his gut at that thought. He had to get over all that old crap.

Dammit. A teacher.

She laughed at something one of the kids said and at that moment looked up. Their eyes locked on each other across the room. His heart knocked in his chest.

He tore his gaze away from her, sucked in air and tried to focus on the kids he was supposed to be paying attention to. Christ, she’d really think he was illiterate if he couldn’t even read a short story with the kids, and she’d really think he was stupid if he couldn’t focus long enough to put a few sentences together about what they’d read.

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