Page 8 of Unrivaled

“Kay!”

He slithers down my body and races to his cubby to gather his backpack and jacket while I sign the notebook saying I picked him up, passing off the pen to another parent when I’m done.

“Come on, Ben. Say bye to Miss Kate.”

He races over and gives her a high five. “Bye, Miss Kate!”

“Bye, Ben!” she says with a smile, offering me a wave as we head out.

I slow as we approach the outside door, wondering if Jackson and Grayson will still be outside. Will Jackson want to meet Ben if he is? Will Grayson recognize me if he glances at me for more than just a quick once over? Will he acknowledge that Ben is his?

My breath freezes in my chest at the thought, and Ben lets out a squawk of protest as my hold on his hand tightens involuntarily. That bastard doesn’t deserve access to a child he abandoned before he was even born. Even if he realizes Ben’s his, as far as I’m concerned, he gave up any rights to claim paternity way back then.

“Sorry, Benny,” I apologize hastily. “Mommy just remembered something.”

He yanks his hand out of mine and races for the door, and I swear I’m going to have a heart attack from this kid.

“Ben, wait for Mommy,” I call to my son. “Only grownups are supposed to open doors, remember?”

He waits patiently, little hands wrapped around the bar, ready to push it open as soon as I reach him. “Hurry up, Mommy! I wanna see Gramma!”

Smiling, I pick up my dragging feet and suck in a breath. There’s no reason to think that Grayson will recognize me this time, if he’s even still outside. And in the future, I’ll just need to not let Jackson walk me to pick up Ben. If Jackson’s not with me, then there’s no chance of Grayson stopping to talk to him, and he definitely won’t stop to talk to me. I’ve successfully avoided him for more than five months. I only need to avoid him for a few more.

When we get outside, it’s clear that all my worrying was for nothing. Grayson is nowhere to be seen, and neither is Jackson, both of them obviously off living their own lives, not giving me a second thought.

Thank god.

* * *

“This was fun!” Autumn chirps as we finish rehearsing our scene. “Let’s all try to be off book by next time. When are we meeting next, Tiffany?” She turns to me, her eyes wide, a smile stretching across her face.

I roll my lips between my teeth, biting back my smile. This chick cracks me up, and it’s totally not on purpose. She’s got this boho-chic thing going on with her flowy tops and crystal pendants and pinky purple wavy hair. Tonight she has part of it French braided back over one ear, the tail of the braid hanging down her back. She’s all sunshine and charm but she’s also very take charge, directing the rehearsal and assigning parts—though with only three of us, there’s not a lot of options. The only real choice is deciding which of the female parts she and I get, though she did check with Jackson to make sure he didn’t want one of those. He’d blushed to his ears and shaken his head, saying he was fine with the male part.

Something about this trim, muscular football player getting embarrassed about being offered a female role only served to endear him to me even more. I’d already decided that Jackson’s a sweetheart with his quiet friendliness. And that moment had just cemented it.

“Okay,” she’d said. “It might be fun to do a gender-bending twist, but I’m good with playing it straight too.”

Which is why her deciding that I’m in charge of the schedule is hilarious. She’s literally running everything else—which is fine with me because I have plenty else to be in charge of, so not having to take charge of this project is a relief—but apparently she doesn’t want to handle deciding the schedule.

I’m the master of calendars, though, juggling my class schedule, Ben’s preschool schedule, plus keeping track of my parents’ work schedules so I know when they’re available to help out with Ben. Since football season is over, Dad’s more free, which makes having these types of non-class time meetings easier for me. As the football coach at Eastwood High School, his free time is severely limited from August through November or so, depending on how far the team makes it in the postseason.

In the spring he just has to worry about his school day schedule of PE classes, so he’s home in mid afternoon and entertains Ben so I can get homework done, including meeting up with study groups or to work on group projects like this one.

Picking up my phone, I look at my calendar. “I could do this time again on Thursday. Would that work for you two?”

They both nod when I glance up, so I type the event into my calendar.

“And Tiffany,” Autumn says as she puts her jacket on and picks up her bag, “Jackson and his roommate Eli are having a thing at their place on Thursday evening. You should come. We can go over as soon as we’re done rehearsing. If we all have our parts memorized by then, I don’t think we’ll even need much more rehearsal.”

I glance at Jackson to see what he thinks of Autumn’s invitation on his behalf. I’m not quite sure how I feel about him anymore since discovering he’s friends with Grayson Kilpatrick. But maybe they’re not actually friends. Maybe they’re just acquaintances. And it’s not like Grayson would go around bragging about how he abandoned the girl he got pregnant with his child his senior year of high school …

I probably shouldn’t hold Grayson’s bad choices against Jackson. Not yet, anyway.

The tips of Jackson’s ears are pink, but he nods and clears his throat. “It’s nothing fancy. We get together and play video games once a week. It’s really relaxed, so you don’t have to stay out late or anything.”

“Oh, do you have early classes?” Autumn asks.

“Something like that,” I offer, not feeling the need to share all the details of my life with everyone. Jackson knows about Ben because he walked me to the on-campus preschool the other day.

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