In My Father's Shadow

by JL Paul

  Jamie scooted his desk closer and rested his forearms on her desk, smirk still firmly plastered to his face. “You honestly want him taking her to the Fall Festival Dance? Honestly?”

  She narrowed her eyes, darkness overcoming her face. “I don’t care who he takes, actually.”

  Jamie snorted a laugh. “Liar.”

  She shoved his arms off her desk and huffed, turning her back on him in a haughty manner. “You’re so full of it, James.”

  He moved his desk back to its proper place, knowing smile of his face. “He doesn’t want to take her. He’s got it bad for someone else.”

  She glanced over her shoulder and raised a questioning brow. “He told me he doesn’t want any kind of relationship right now. He said he just wants to deal with school and the band.”

  “Mm hmm,” he said as the teacher walked in the room.

  ***

  Disappointment stabbed his heart as he watched Ally go, her ponytail bobbing and weaving behind her. She’d actually seemed like her old self today; totally comfortable in his presence. He had thought that the talk they’d had about the kiss had made things more comfortable – broken some silent sort of tension that had been hanging between them since that day- but obviously something was still on her mind.

  “Hey, Cole,” Jennifer said as she skidded to a halt next to him and weaseled her arm in his. “Who are you taking to the Fall Festival dance this year?”

  He shrugged. “Haven’t thought about it,” he said absently, wondering if Ally would be going and who would be her escort. Sometimes, they’d all attend school functions together – as a group – but dances were always sort of iffy. It usually depended on who had a date. And last year he’d taken Jennifer.

  “You should go,” Jennifer persisted. “We can go again, if you want.”

  “I don’t know.” He looked down at her smiling, hopeful face. “Really, I don’t know if I’m going to go. I have get to class, okay? Talk to you later.”

  He shook his arm free and hurried off to his class. He nodded a greeting to a couple acquaintances before plopping in his chair and opening his book, but he didn’t see words. All he could see were brilliant blue eyes.

  “Where’s your dad?” Ally asked, feet dangling over the edge of the pool.

  “He’s out with Stacy,” Cole responded propping his hands behind him and lifting his face to the sun.

  “Really? They’ve been seeing each other for awhile now, huh?”

  He shrugged. “Sure. He’s been dating her for awhile. I guess he used to date her when he was our age but for some reason, they broke it off. But, you know my dad.”

  Ally took a drink from her water bottle. “Yeah. But maybe this time will be different. I mean, he’s just worried that any girl he dates is going to treat you poorly.”

  “I know,” he sighed. “I wish he’d worry about himself once in awhile.”

  She placed a warm hand on his thigh. “He’s always going to worry about you first, Cole.”

  He straightened with a sigh and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I know, Al, and I’m always going to worry about you.”

  She peered up at him, her brow crinkled in confusion. He smiled, evil flashing in his eyes. He swept her into the pool, causing her to scream.

  She surfaced and pushed her soaking hair off her face while he sat on the edge, holding his stomach as he laughed. “You are so dead, Cole Nathan,” she declared. She lifted a hand. “Help me out.”

  He shook his head. “Not going to fall for it, Al. How stupid do you think I am?”

  She stuck out her bottom lip and bowed her head in a pout. He jumped in behind her, splashing water all over her back. She turned around and rested her arms on the edge of the pool as she waited for him to break the surface. It was early June and not terribly warm yet but the pool was heated and the water felt nice.

  Cole suddenly appeared in from of her and spit water on her face.

  “Cole, you are such a jerk,” she shouted, laughing and swiping at her face. “Who are you going to pick on when I leave for camp this weekend?”

  He moved closer and pushed a clump of her wet hair behind her ear. “I’ll figure something out.”

  Their faces were so close and he thought he could see the blood pulsing through the veins in her neck. Her eyes were bright blue and they captivated him. His finger trailed down her cheek and climbed to the back of her neck. He pulled her head slowly closer and watched, fascinated, as her eyes closed and her bottom lip trembled. He brushed his lips softly over hers as she moved her hands up his bare chest and locked them behind his neck. He eased her closer and pressed his lips to hers again, applying more pressure. He eagerly deepened the kiss as she moved closer, pressing her body flush with his. He massaged her lips tenderly as he trailed his hands down her back. His fingers tangled with the strings to her bikini and gave him a jolt as if they were sizzling with electricity. He pulled back, his eyes wide with fright.

  “Cole?”

  “Damn it, Al, I’m sorry,” he said as he pushed his wet bangs out of his face. He jumped up on the edge, water running down his body like a waterfall, and climbed out of the pool. He grabbed the nearest towel and rubbed vigorously at his hair.

  “Cole,” she said behind him. “What was that all about?”

  He turned slowly, a little scared and ashamed to face her. She was toweling off, confused eyes trained on him. He sighed and rubbed his sopping hair again. “I don’t know, Al, but it can’t happen again. It just can’t.”

  Her eyes widened momentarily as she wrapped the towel around her body and secured it. She nodded with a frown, her eyes unable to meet his. “Okay.”

  He padded across the wet concrete, his guilty heart breaking at the hurt and pain on her face. He fumbled for her hand and gently tugged her into his chest then wrapped his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head before resting his cheek on top of it. “Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll take you home.”

  “Sure,” she said, in a dead tone. “Whenever you are.”

  “Cole,” someone whispered behind him, busting him out of his daydreams. He glanced over his shoulder and found Mark Spencer waggling a pencil in his face. “You got an extra pencil, man? I just broke mine.”

  ***

  “Something’s off with Ally,” Cole announced later that night to his friends as they gathered in Cole and RJ’s room. “Any ideas?”

  Jamie looked up from Cole’s computer to shrug. “She hasn’t mentioned anything to me.”

  RJ closed his Calculus book and grinned. “Maybe she’s got a crush on someone or something.” He caught Jamie’s eye and his grin widened. Jamie, stifling a smile, ducked over the keyboard.

  Cole, who’d been lying on his bed tossing a baseball in the air and catching it bare-handed, sat up suddenly. He tossed the ball at RJ who caught it easily. “I bet you’re right. She wouldn’t tell us because she’d be afraid we’d tease her.”

  “Well, we would,” RJ said as if stating a widely known fact. “I mean, seriously.”

  “I wonder who it is,” Cole said, gesturing to RJ to throw the ball back. “Do you think she’s told Jeana?”

  Jamie scoffed. “I highly doubt it. Those two are barely on speaking terms.”

  “Yeah,” Cole agreed, his face screwed up in concentration. “And she’d tell us before she’d tell Alec or Ren.” He sighed heavily as a sympathetic smile crept across his lips. “I feel bad for her. She doesn’t hang out with anyone else but us and she can’t even tell us she has a crush on someone.”

  “I know,” RJ concurred. “She can’t sit around with giggly friends and talk about who they think is hot and all that stuff. If she tried that with us, we’d probably puke.” He clutched his stomach as if the mere thought made him queasy.

  “Hmm,” Jamie said as he pointed at the computer monitor. He’d logged into Cole and RJ’s email account for their band and was grinning at one of their emails. “Maybe it’s Parker.”

  “She does sort of ma
ke those goo-goo eyes at him,” RJ added, frowning so hard, deep grooves developed on his forehead.

  “I accused her of liking him awhile back and she got all embarrassed,” Cole said, shaking his head. “I don’t think she likes him.”

  “We’ll just have to see how she acts around him this weekend,” RJ concluded, snatching the baseball from Cole’s hands.

  Cole bit his lip and nodded. Parker was an all right person, but it made his stomach roll when he thought about Ally with that guy – maybe holding his hand or kissing him.

  “You okay, man? You look like you’re about to hurl,” Jamie asked, studying Cole’s face carefully.

  “I’m fine.” He waved them off and dug a duffel bag out of the closet while Jamie exchanged a glance with RJ behind his back. “You guys all packed for this weekend?”

  “Yeah,” RJ said, smirk playing around on his lips. He shot Jamie a sly look as Cole dug some jeans and socks out of his dresser. “Want to go over to the gym and check out Ally’s practice? We can see if Parker’s hanging out.”

  Cole shrugged indifferently as he tossed the clothes into the bag but inside, his heart was quivering. He furrowed his brow at Jamie in an attempt to take the attention off of him. “How come you’re not at football practice?”

  “Coach is at a funeral. No practice tomorrow either,” Jamie said, shutting down the computer. “Come on – I want to see if softball camp hampered my cousin’s volleyball game.”

  They wandered over to the gym and entered as quietly as possible. They climbed on the bleachers where a few other students were congregating and spotted Ally at once. She was wearing gray sweat shorts and what looked like one of Cole’s old band t-shirts, tied in a knot in the back to keep it from falling to her knees. Her dark hair was held in a pony tail that swung back and forth when she ran. Even though she wore navy knee pads, he still winced when she dropped to her knees and hit the ball so hard; it nearly took off another girl’s head.

  “That had to hurt,” he muttered.

  Jamie shrugged, grinning at his cousin’s tenacity. “That’s why they wear knee pads.”

  “I don’t see Parker anywhere,” RJ said, scanning the bleachers and winking at a sophomore.

  “Call him and ask him where he is if you want to know so badly,” Cole suggested, a little irritated. He leaned back and rested his elbows on the bleachers behind him.

  RJ snorted as a hint of red touched his cheeks. “Yeah, right. Want me to go all girly and ask him if he likes her?” RJ cleared his throat and raised his voice a couple octaves. “Heya Parker! Do you like Ally? Because I like heard that you like did.”

  Jamie and Cole chuckled and caught the attention of a couple girls on the bottom bleacher. Jamie smiled and waved at them and they smiled back shyly before turning their heads.

  The coach blew her whistle and the girls immediately stopped playing. “All right girls - that’s enough for tonight. Hit the showers and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Ally,” a short brunette called out. “Your boys are here.”

  Ally lifted her eyes and stifled a grin when she spotted them climbing down the bleachers. She covered her face with a towel under the pretence of wiping the sweat, and allowed her smile a chance to stretch before she tucked it away again.

  “What are you guys doing here, scouting out prom dates?” she asked, jutting out a hip and resting a fist on it.

  Cole grinned, taking in her tough girl stance, and tugged on her pony tail. “Nope, but I think Jamie wants to ask your coach.”

  Jamie nodded. “She’s hot!”

  Ally groaned, wadded up her towel and hurled it at him. “Please stop fantasizing about my coach.”

  RJ picked up a volleyball, bounced it three times, and then shot it at the hoop. He missed by a mile.

  “You suck,” Ally laughed as he chased after the ball and threw it at her head. But all her years playing softball honed her athletic skills and she caught it easily, and flashed him a haughty look. She was standing just short of the three point range so she bounced it twice, jumped up, and launched it. They all watched as it fell effortlessly through the net. “Finesse, Richie Junior,” she said with a smirk.

  “Whatever,” he said, blushing. She loped over to grab the ball and then returned to kiss him on the cheek.

  “I can’t play a chord anywhere near as good as you can,” she whispered, though it was still loud enough for Cole to hear. RJ smiled and gave her a wink. “I have to get in the shower. Will you guys wait for me here?”

  Cole caught her gaze and held it, unable to look away. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly and he knew he was more than a little relieved that Parker hadn’t attended her practice. “Yeah, sure – we’ll wait,” he said and she smiled. When his heart gave a peculiar little shudder, he knew he was in trouble.

  Chapter Five

  “This really sucks,” Jamie muttered, slowing the car as the torrential rainfall created a blanket of water on the windshield. He scrunched over the steering wheel, squinting as though he’d be able to see clearly through the rain drops.

  Ally held tightly to the seatbelt stretched across her chest – so tightly that her knuckles were white. “Jamie, do you think we should pull over?”

  The windshield wipers streaked back and forth across the glass at top speed, doing little to keep Jamie’s vision clear. “Do you think we should?”

  “Yes, please,” she begged. “Just until it slows down a little.”

  He maneuvered the car over to the shoulder and put it in park, leaving the engine running so the heat could keep them toasty and dry. He snatched his phone from the console and flipped it open. “I can’t even get a signal out here. Can you?”

  Ally released her death grip on the seat belt and dug her phone out of her purse. “I can’t get one either,” she told him, wincing as he cursed.

  “I should have known better than to take Parker’s short cut.”

  “Relax, Jamie,” Ally said, peering out the windows at the trees that lined the dark, country road, bending in the howling wind. “Jeez, this feels like a bad horror movie.”

  Jamie snorted. “Well, we’ve watched enough of them to know better than to get out of the car to explore, allow anyone in -especially someone with an ax - or to say ‘I’ll be right back.’”

  Ally smiled and relaxed a little bit. “We should have both skipped practice then we could have driven down with the rest of them.”

  “There’s no way you would have skipped practice, especially since you have a game next week. Besides, I couldn’t skip - not when the coach was gone for two days.” He patted her shoulder and rubbed his sleeve on the driver’s side window. “We would be halfway there by now but for this rain.”

  “What time do they go on?” Ally asked, gazing at her watch. It was already 6:45.

  “Eight, I think,” Jamie said, frowning at his phone again. “We still have about a forty-five minute drive – or an hour if the weather keeps up this way. And it really sucks that we can’t even call to let them know we’re running late.”

  “It’s not raining as hard now,” Ally told him, looking hopefully out the window. “Let’s just go.”

  He shrugged. “Okay,” he said as the rain lightened up on the windshield. “Don’t worry if we miss the first set – we’ll see it tomorrow.”

  They arrived at the hotel an hour later and had to drive around for a few minutes in order to find a space. The lot was so full that they finally had to settle for parking in the overflow lot and running through the rain for the lobby. They were soaked, dripping, and cold by the time they made it inside. Teeth chattering, Ally was regretting her decision to send her bags, along with Jamie’s, with Cole and RJ. At the time, she thought it would be a smart move – they could just hop in the car after practice and get to the show. But now she just wanted to check into her room and change into some warm, dry clothes.

  Jamie took her hand and led her to the hotel’s lounge/restaurant. It was brimming with patrons who had heard of
Cole’s band either because of his father’s fame or because they were just good.

  The equipment was set up and everything looked ready to go but they couldn’t find Cole or any of the other band members anywhere. Ally took out her cell phone and prepared to call one of them and beg them for a room key when the phone was plucked out of her hand. She spun around in confusion and gasped at the anger marring Cole’s handsome face.

  “So you do know how to use one of these, huh Ally?” he nearly screamed. “We expected you guys here over an hour ago! You guys weren’t answering your phones nor did you call us – we had no clue what was the matter! Damn – I almost called Jay and Mark.”

  Jamie grabbed Ally’s arm before she could hurl a biting retort at Cole. “Dude, it’s pouring and we had to pull over a couple times. We took that shortcut Parker told us through farm country and couldn’t get a signal. Don’t scream at her, man.”

  Cole closed his eyes, took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair. “Fine, sorry. I just…we were just worried because of the weather.”

  Ally nodded, her teeth chattering too much to speak.

  Cole pulled a small, brown envelope from his back pocket and presented it to Ally. “Here are the key cards. Room number is on the envelope. Umm, because you guys aren’t eighteen yet, they won’t let you have your own rooms so we all had to double up. Ren’s rooming with RJ; we put Jamie with Parker and Ally with me.” He waved to someone over Jamie’s shoulder, totally avoiding Ally’s eyes. “Here comes Parker. We already took your stuff up so you can go change.”

  Parker greeted them with a smile and dug a key card out to hand to Jamie.

  Cole grabbed Ally’s arm as she turned toward the bank of elevators. “I put you with me because I thought you’d be most comfortable that way.” She nodded, heart thudding in her chest. “There are two beds in the room but if it makes you uneasy, I can crash on the floor in one of the other rooms.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” she told him, teeth still knocking together. “It’s fine.”

  He rubbed both of her arms and it caused her pulse to skyrocket. “The bags are on the beds and the hoodie I wore up here is lying by my bag. Put it on if you’re still cold -it’s a little chilly in the lounge. We go on in five minutes but don’t worry if you miss anything; you can catch it all tomorrow night.” She smiled, nodded and walked away.