Page 8 of Fight for Me
“What aboutBack to the Future?” he asked.
“Nope.”
“The Sandlot?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Star Wars?Pleasetell me you’ve at least seenStar Wars!”
“Some of it,” Lexie admitted with a shrug.
Jake shook his head slowly, as if he simply couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“This is so much worse than I thought,” he deadpanned, and Lexie bit back a smile. “We really should start the marathon right now, but I have to get to work. Are you going in today?” he asked as he rose to his feet.
“Yeah, I am, actually,” Lexie said, gathering her long-abandoned textbooks. “I’ll walk over with you.”
“Good, because we have to get to the bottom of this problem. Either your taste in movies is horrific, or you just had an incredibly stunted childhood,” Jake said, waiting as Lexie rose to her feet.
She hiked her backpack higher on one shoulder and tried to ignore the sharp pain in her chest as the truth of his words hit home.
When they reached their office building, Lexie held the door while Jake helped one of the ladies from accounting with a stack of file boxes. He carried them up the short stairs into the building, loaded them onto a waiting handcart and then pulled the whole thing down the hall. The older woman was positively blushing by the time he finished, and Lexie couldn’t hide a smirk as they climbed the stairs to the third floor.
“What?” he asked, returning her smile with a look of confusion.
“Nothing,” she said, and she grinned wider as she shook her head. “I just think Mrs. Atkins might try to take you home if we stick around any longer.”
Jake flushed, rubbing his neck in a gesture she could already tell was a nervous habit. Lexie decided in that moment to consider him “awkwardly adorable.” It was a dangerous combination.
“I mean, come on,” she teased, seeing an opportunity and jumping in with both feet. “I bet you’ve got the market cornered on little old ladies around here. Do they bring you homemade cookies?”
Jake’s blush darkened, and though he kept his eyes straight ahead, Lexie could tell he was fighting back a laugh.
“I’m just being helpful,” he protested. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Oh, nothing! Nothing at all,” Lexie went on, enjoying his reaction. “I’m just saying, if you ever need a date for Winter Formal, I’m sure any of the ladies on the first floor would go with you. Or offer you their granddaughters.”
Jake laughed then, and something about the deep rumble warmed Lexie’s heart. She couldn’t decide what happened to the guy she’d met Friday, but she certainly liked this version better.
“Thanks for comingin on your day off. I could actually use another pair of hands,” Lexie’s boss, Julie, said later that week. She moved a stack of papers off the massive calendar that covered one side of her L-shaped desk and peered down at the notes that marched across it like tiny ants.
“Admissions is hosting a pep rally for the elementary school ahead of this weekend’s football game. Andy’s got the mascot on hand for photo ops, but we need someone to be responsible forhim while he’s in costume. You know, to make sure he doesn’t trip over the kids and things like that,” Julie said, looking up. “Do you have time to follow a giant hawk around for a few hours?”
“Anything you need,” Lexie replied, glad for an extra chance to be useful. “I’ve actually never met Ronnie. It could be fun.”
The school’s mascot, Ronnie the Redtail, was a comical seven-foot-tall hawk who could usually be found tossing T-shirts into the stands at home games while wearing the school’s signature colors.
“Fabulous. I’ll show you where he is,” Julie said, reaching for her bag.
A few minutes later, Lexie was directed down a hall off to one side of the alumni gym, where she found Andy waiting beside a closed door.
“So, you’re the babysitter, huh? Oh, you’re going to love this,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Lexie asked, resisting the urge to peek through the door’s small window just above her line of sight.
“Just trust me. It’s a special treat,” he said. He grinned as he rapped sharply on the door and opened it a crack. “Are you decent?” he called.
A muffled voice must have answered in the affirmative because Andy opened the door the rest of the way and gave Lexie a view she wouldn’t soon forget. Pieces of Ronnie were scattered everywhere—extra feet and random feathers, enormous jerseys for both the basketball and baseball teams, two giant hats meant for a massive head, and, of course, the head itself. It looked like someone had blown the poor bird to bits.
