Page 7 of Tell Me Softly
“Understood, sir,” I said, standing up.
“Thiago,” he said, causing me to turn back. “I realize this may be difficult as you’re only a few years older than the students, so they may show some interest in you.” I probably shouldn’t have grinned then, but I did. “You’re not a kid; you’re nearly twenty years old, and whatever you do here, you’re the one responsible, OK?”
“Yes, sir.”
I walked out feeling chastened. Sticking to the rules wasn’t really my thing, and I’d have to be careful if I didn’t want this whole thing to blow up in my face.
***
Coaching was fun––more so than I’d imagined. Taylor was on the team, and it didn’t take long for the guys to figure out we were brothers. There was an instant closeness between me and the guys. I couldn’t help it; I was young, basically their same age. When they ended up dragging me into a game with them, I had to show them who was boss. “You’ve got moves,” Coach Klebb told me afterward, as we talked about the upcoming season while the kids showered. Everything was going great until I was walking to the teachers’ lounge and bumped into the last person I wanted to see: Kam.
We literally ran into each other, and I had to grab her shoulders to keep her from stumbling. My hands tingled where they touched her, and immediately I let her go. We looked at each other for what felt like hours, but was probably just a few seconds. Time seemed to stop as we noticed how each other had changed. She was so much more mature; she had the same traits I’d always known, but filled out, alluring. She was a young woman now, a gorgeous one. A stunning young woman I hated more than anyone.
Her eyelashes were long and dark. Her full lips in their glossy lipstick could have made me lose my grip on myself. I could still see the traces of her dimples even though she wasn’t smiling. Her cheeks were pink, not from makeup, but because she had a tendency to blush when she was surprised or embarrassed. And her body…my eyes wanted to take it all in, but I stopped them. One thing hadn’t changed: I was still taller than her.
“Thiago,” she said, surprised. My name on her lips surprised me more than I’d expected.
I could feel her voice in my groin.
Damn.
I clenched my jaws and told myself not to even look at her.
“Sorry,” I said, trying to move past, but she grabbed my arm and held me back.
“Let go,” I said, and I could tell she didn’t like that.
“I just want to talk,” she continued. She looked at me the way she did when she was little. Like a lost girl, but one who was ready to fight.
I stared down at her fingers wrapped around my arm and told her, gritting my teeth, “Let me go.”
I needed to put distance between us. Nothing good could come of us talking. There were millions of things I wanted to reproach her for, millions of insults I wanted to shout at her. And if I let my rage get the better of me, I could lose this job and all it meant. I’d already lost enough thanks to her.
Frightened or shocked at my tone, she drew her hand back as if she’d burned it.
I turned around and started walking off.
“I’m sorry, Thiago.” I didn’t need to look at her to know she was crying.
“Sorry doesn’t fix anything,” I replied, ignoring the people standing there staring at us.
This was going to be hell.
Chapter Three
Kami
I couldn’t have imagined a worse day. I never thought that seeing Taylor and Thiago again would affect me like that, but it had. A few hours later when I left school, all I could hear the girls on the steps talking about was how handsome Taylor was, how sexy Thiago was, how exciting it was to have the Di Bianco brothers walking the halls.
I hadn’t even known Thiago was there till I walked straight into him. And when I did, I was speechless. It made sense that all the girls were losing their minds over him. He looked like a model. His body had filled out spectacularly with age, and he had a face to die for. The feelings I had for him when I was younger flared up like an ember when I had him in front of me. But his eyes were like ice, and he made it clear that he didn’t even want to pretend I existed. I’d never been so supremely dismissed. He’d been nice to everyone; he even remembered a lot of the kids’ names, and they had welcomed him home with open arms. But he couldn’t even bring himself to smile at me. And that hurt.
At lunch, I had to watch Taylor talking to everyone andmaking a point not to even look over at me. I was friends with the guys on the basketball team––they usually took the table next to me and my friends––and though the guys usually talked with the guys and the girls with the girls, that day everyone joined in the same conversation. And most of it was about Taylor.
“Do you know why they decided to come back?” Kate asked, gaping at Thiago, who was sitting at the teachers’ table with his headphones on, keeping to himself. Taylor hadn’t changed like Thiago: he was the same funny, talkative guy as always. With everyone but me, I mean.
“Kami!” I had ignored Kate’s question, and she nudged me with her elbow. “They were your neighbors, weren’t they?”
“They were. And they are again,” I said, pushing away my tray without even trying a bite.
