Page 16 of To Teleport, or Not to Teleport?
I offered him a kind smile. “She’s okay. Thanks for asking. Two of her ovens were damaged in the storm. Grayson is trying to fix them now.”
“Ain’t he just the hero of the day?” Kenny hissed quietly.
“Excuse me?” I snapped, my blood simmering at his words.
Kenny smiled, fake compassion lining his eyes. “I was just saying to myself what a hero Grayson’s turned out to be. I’m sure Cami is relieved to have him back.”
His words gave me whiplash. “Huh?”
“I know he’s been spending extra time there, so I assumed something was going on between the two of them. I suppose if he’s back after everything, it’s good he’s setting down roots with a nice girl and being a productive member of this town.”
There was so much I needed to unpack with his words, but all my brain could focus on was Cami and Grayson being an item.Iknew that wasn’t true, but it didn’t stop jealousy from burning my insides like a red-hot poker slicing through flesh.
Add Kenny insinuating once again that Grayson was guilty of the same crimes as his father, and I was nearly boiling.
My skin was hot as my cells zoomed around feverishly, and I knew I’d either attack the fartknocker or teleport into a black hole, with my luck. I searched my mind for some sort of reply that didn’t end with him bloody or me no longer existing.
“Cami’s dating the McCune boy?”
I winced at the sound of his voice. Roger, a rabbit Shifter, was the town therapist and sex therapist. I knew he came to the school occasionally for either one on ones with students requesting it or team building activities, but he wasthetown gossip.
“Hey, Roger. I didn’t realize you were here. Cami and Grayson are not dating.”
“But he just—”
“They’re not!” I snapped.
With wide eyes, Roger jumped back at my outburst. “Right. I better leave if I don’t want to be late to my next appointment.”
I sucked in a deep breath, hoping to center my addled mind, but was rocked with a new vision. I groaned at the image of Roger submitting to his well-known porno addiction. “Balderdash! Can men not keep their hands off their noodle doodles?”
Kenny’s gasp was unlike Roger’s squeal. After thoroughly mortifying both men, and possibly any others who still hung around, I covered my face in shame. When I lowered my hands, I was no longer in the teacher’s lounge.
“Son of a biscuit!” Tears filled my eyes as I took in one of Cami’s dismantled ovens.
“Lee?”
I jumped at the sound of his voice. Turning to my right, I found him and Cami standing close, Kenny’s words floating to the surface of my thoughts. A flood of emotions clogged my throat, and without my permission, big fat tears filled my eyes. Something metal dropped in the distance seconds before Grayson wrapped me in his embrace.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
“Are you okay?” Cami asked. “What happened? Why’d you teleport again? Was it on purpose this time?”
“This isn’t the second time?” Grayson asked Cami over the top of my head as I held onto his firm body, taking in the comfort he was freely offering me.
“No, it seems since you returned, she’s done it like three, maybe four times now.”
I groaned, embarrassed my cousin had told him so much.
Grayson held me tighter. “Let it out and then we’ll figure things out. I’m right here, baby.”
Shoving at his chest, I swiped at my eyes with my left hand. “Yeah, until you’re not.”
“Lee, I told you I’m not leaving y—”
“Ugh! Stop, just stop. As if having no frickin’ control over my newly acquired teleportation, I don’t need you… need your… Ah!”
He grabbed me by the waist when I attempted to storm off and lick my wounds elsewhere. “Nuh-uh, either you talk to me or to her, but you’re not running off when you’re this upset. Clearly something happened and—” He lightly squeezed me and paused when his right pinky swiped at the skin under the hem of my shirt. I barely bit back a moan. “Talk to us,” he said against my ear as he wound his arms around my middle, pressing his front to my back.
