New Love: Blue Valley High — Senior Year (The Blue Valley Series Book 2)

by Mj Fields

  “What else did he tell you?” I ask.

  “Oh, I couldn’t.” Jade scowls at me then looks at Lucas. “Sorry, Lucas.”

  “Do you know how that makes me feel, Lucas?” I poke him in the chest.

  “Oh boy,” Jade says, and I know … I know she’s entertained right now. “I’m so sorry.”

  “No, Tessa, I don’t,” he ignores her, answering me. “I do know you enjoyed it and constantly begged for more than just a kiss.” He winks

  “Oh yeah? And just how far did you let things go?” I push him.

  “Oh, I will never tell.” He chuckles.

  Jade stands there, her eyes wide.

  “Just for that, I’m going to …” I stop and tap my lips in contemplation.

  He laughs. “Do what, Tessa?”

  “Lucas, you shouldn’t push her when she’s mad,” Jade cautions.

  To that, I jump into his arms and kiss him.

  When Jade gasps, Lucas breaks the kiss to look at her. “Could you please tell her more?” He then laughs as I kiss his neck, loud and obnoxiously.

  “He told me you didn’t touch the two girls,” Jade says, smiling, really smiling.

  “Come on, Jade; give her more.” Lucas laughs.

  “And that he loves you”—Jade smiles—“but wanted you to find someone who would treat you right, and that sometimes you cry.”

  “All right, Jade, we’re good here.” Lucas wraps an arm around her and pulls her into our embrace.

  “You cried, Lucas?” I ask.

  “There’s that look, Tessa.” He shakes his head.

  “It’s because I love you and—”

  “All right then. I love you, baby.” He kisses my cheek.

  “What is going on with you two?” Jade asks, sounding happy yet confused.

  I smile at her, and her eyes light up.

  “Oh, wow, you’re back together.”

  “Let’s just say it was a very long night.” Lucas kisses my cheek.

  “What’s going on?” Phoebe asks, and I look back, seeing her and Alex approaching.

  “They both finally admitted that they love each other!” Jade cries.

  “Oh no, Jade … Please don’t cry.” Lucas hugs her.

  “No, it’s good. Now I can ask you both to be godparents without feeling bad. That’s what Tommy would have wanted.”

  “Really?” Lucas asks.

  “Why wouldn’t he?” I hate that he feels unworthy.

  Jade smiles as she sniffs the flowers. “So, these flowers weren’t for me, were they?”

  “Yes, they are, Jade.” Lucas hugs her again.

  More headlights, and Becca and Ryan pull in.

  “Hot tub?” Alex asks.

  We all agree.

  Jade is under his arm and holding my hand, and I fall a little bit more in love with him.

  At the door, he leans over and whispers in my ear, “Please don’t wear the one from the other night.”

  I grin.

  Sitting in the hot tub, I wince a bit.

  “Are you okay, Tessa?” Jade asks.

  “Yep.” I nod as I sit next to Lucas, who’s looking at me in a way that says, I’m gonna beat your ass for wearing that suit, or maybe it’s a little something different.

  “Sorry, baby. Want me to rub you better?”

  “Lucas,” I scold.

  “I’d kiss it better, but I don’t have a snorkel.”

  “Lucas.”

  Chuckling, he puts his arm around me and whispers, “Probably a bad idea. You’re very boisterous.”

  “Does that bother you?” I ask, mortified.

  His nostrils flare as he closes his eyes and shakes his head slowly. “Not at all.”

  I lean back and move my hand underwater until it finds its intended target

  “No, baby,” Lucas whispers. I give him a dirty look, and he laughs. “I love you.”

  Phoebe splashes me. “No more whispering. It’s time to spill it. Let us all in on what went down to make this happen?”

  Lucas shrugs. “Tomorrow’s not a guarantee. Tommy”—he looks at Jade, and she smiles sadly at him—“wanted me to stop believing she was better without me. So, with Ryan’s help, I told her how I felt.”

  “How’s she going to fair when Sadi comes at her in school?” Alex asks.

  “Sadi no longer attends Blue Valley High.”

  To that news, I whip around and look at him. “She transferred?”

  He nods.

  “Following a threat,” Jade adds.

  “I should have seen it—the truth.” He sighs. “Would have if I wasn’t hell-bent on …” He stops.

  “It’s okay. It’s over,” I assure him.

  Eventually, everyone gets out of the hot tub. Jade did long before and is sitting on the edge with her feet in the water, smiling.

  As soon as the screen door shuts, Jade asks, “So, are you in pain, Tessa?”

  “What?”

  “When you got in, as soon as your who-who touched the water, you looked like a wounded—”

  “Hey, baby, I’m going home.” Lucas stands, and I can’t help but laugh as he gets out. He walks around and gives Jade a hug. Then back to me, he pulls my hair back so I’m looking up at him. He kisses me quickly. “When you tell her, make sure you let her know how it went down.” I pretend to cover my ears as he tells Jade, “She attacked me.”

  “But, did she do it in her sleep?” Jade laughs, and the sound … beautiful.

  “Call me when you get home and—”

  “I know, baby—drive safe.” He kisses me softly. “I love you.”

  “You better,” I say as he turns and I smack his ass.

  He looks back. “Goodnight, Jade. Goodnight, little one.”

  As soon as he is out of earshot, Jade says, “So?”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything!”

  So, I give her that—everything.

  When I get out, she links her arm through mine as we walk to the house. “You just made my heart happy.”

  “I’m going to make sure it remains that way.”

  “So, summer school?” She scrunches up her nose.

  “As many classes as we can possibly get in.”

  Ryan looks up from the table. “If you’re talking about—”

  “School, Ryan.” Jade smiles at him. “Tessa and I are going to take summer classes.”

  “On purpose?” He laughs.

  She nods as she sits across from him. “On purpose.”

  “Gonna be a shrink?” he asks, looking down at the newspaper.

  “What?” She laughs.

  “You’d make a good one,” he says quietly.

  The phone rings, and I grab it off the charger. “Hello?”

  “I’m home. Do you think your parents would let me take you to New Jersey for a few days? Jade can come, too.”

  Holy shit, I think.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I can ask them tomorrow?”

  “Jade needs to get away. Too much of Tommy’s parents will eat her ass up. Spin it that way, but it’s the truth, too.”

  “Okay …?” Again, Holy shit.

  “Alex and Phoebe, too? I think Ryan wants to go; he and I had already talked about it. So, there’s the senior getaway spin.”

  “Wouldn’t that be too much? Your dad—”

  “Will be good with it. Audri, ecstatic. Just let me know in the morning. Oh, and do you think I can take you out for breakfast?”

  “You could come here and eat,” I offer.

  “Mmm …” he groans.

  “Ha-ha,” I joke then whisper, “Promises, promises.”

  “Baby, do not make this a competition.”

  “Actually, we may have to take tomorrow off.”

  “We will see. Talk to you then?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Love you, baby.”

  “Love you, anyway.”

  Snuggling in bed with Jade, she whispers. “It’s worse at night. Was it worse at nig
ht for you?”

  I nod.

  “When is it supposed to get easier?” she whispers.

  “I don’t know. But you have to be able to make peace with it for your baby. You’re going to be an amazing mom, Jade. The best.”

  I wake smiling and look at the clock.

  “Holy ten in the morning!” I jump up and hear a chuckle. Then I jump back and whirl around, seeing Lucas as I hit the bed and fall to my ass.

  “Good morning, baby,” Lucas says, walking toward me, looking amazing.

  “Good morning,” I say, patting my hair down and pulling the blanket over my body.

  Smiling and looking like the cover of a magazine in his jeans and long-sleeved ’Cuse shirt, he steps to me and leans in.

  I lean right on back. “I need to brush.”

  “Really?” he asks before sticking his tongue out, breath mint on the tip of his tongue.

  “Well, in that case …” I suck it off and lift lips to him.

  He pushes me back and drops to his knees before I can say anything, but Oh God, he’s under the covers and my panties are pushed aside.

  “Where …? Where …?” Jesus L. Christ, I think as his tongue presses flat to my clit. “Family, Jade. God …” He does something magical with his tongue, and I squeal, “Lucas! Where is Jade, my family?” I grab the sheets, bunching them up in my hands.

  He stops briefly and answers in a rush, “Downstairs, downstairs, and in heaven.”

  I try to roll away, and he growls—yes, growls, “Not. Yet.”

  Seconds later, I’m coming unraveled, begging, “Lucas … Oh, please, stop. I am going to scream.”

  “Pillow, baby, bite it.”

  So, I do.

  He stands up, smirk on his face, tent in his pants, and licks his lips.

  “Lucas,” I try to scold him, but the reality that after … that, I just can’t even. Instead, I mutter, “You’re naughty.”

  He reaches out, and I take his hand. “You invited me to breakfast.”

  I look down at his thick erection and shake my head. “Not fair.”

  “What’s not fair, baby? You got …” He stops when I sink to my knees and make fast work at releasing him. “Baby, no need to.”

  With him in my mouth, me sucking, he says no more … And he’s just zipped back up when the door flies open, and I hold my breath.

  Jade. Thank God it’s just Jade.

  “Tessa, your mom is on her way over.”

  “Why?”

  “Ask Lucas. He asked her to come.”

  I look at Lucas.

  “I figured you’d want to ask them together.”

  I cock my head to the side, and he smiles.

  “You know, if you can move in with me.”

  “Lucas, I don’t think—”

  He stops me with a kiss. Against my lips, he says, “I’m just joking. About all of us going to New Jersey. Alex is in. That should help, right?”

  Oh God, I think. “I need a shower.”

  Dad is hesitant, but not about Alex. Mom argues, actually insisting Jade and I go. I did not expect that, but I should have. She’s the one who pushed for Alex to play sports. I owe her. I truly do. Who am I to judge her? Especially since I didn’t and still don’t know the entire story.

  After it’s agreed upon, and Mom calls Becca and Ryan’s parents, everyone scatters to get packed at their homes. Jade is already packed, and Dad and Alex get equipment ready for the work that needs to be done the following week. Alex feels guilty—I can see it—and my heart hurts for him. I, too, feel guilty. Kendall and Jake have barely been out of Blue Valley in two years.

  Lucas sits beside me. “Everything okay, Tessa?”

  I nod and smile.

  He searches my face. “I’m going to help your dad and Alex. I kind of feel bad leaving him hanging.”

  He can tell, too.

  I stand up and hug him. “I love you.”

  “Tessa, you need to go get ready.”

  I nod. “Yeah, I will.” I squeeze him tighter.

  “Not helping the situation in my—”

  I jump back and laugh. “Sorry.”

  “Are you?”

  “No.” I laugh as I head toward the stairs. “Come on, Chewy.”

  Mom walks out of the bathroom when I’m at the foot of the stairs.

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  “It’s okay to let loose a little.”

  Loose … God, I want to dive under the stairs.

  “Alex and Phoebe?” she asks.

  “Perfect,” I gush.

  “She on the pill?”

  “Um, no, and I don’t think that’s even a concern.”

  She shifts her eyes up the stairs. Jade.

  “I’ll talk to her. I’ll make sure before anything happens—”

  “Does Alex have condoms?” she asks, like we’re talking about the weather.

  I snort. “Not likely.”

  “Lucas have some in case he needs one?”

  “Yeah,” I huff, and her eyebrow arches. “I mean, the whole Sadi situation; I’m sure he—”

  “Shush you lips,” she says as she hugs me. “Have fun. Be safe. Call when you get there and before you head back.”

  “Of course.” I hug her tightly. “Love you.”

  “Love you back.”

  As soon as she leaves, I grab the phone. I know Ben and I were never really a thing, but we are friends, and I’d rather he hears it from me than my dad to his, and his dad to him, so I call him.

  “Hey, girl. How are you doing?” Ben asks with a smile in his voice.

  Pull off the Band-Aid.

  “I’m good, Ben. Look, I have to tell you something.”

  “You and Lucas back together?”

  “Ben, I—”

  “Don’t, Tessa. We’re fine,” he says. “As long as he doesn’t hurt you, he and I’ll be fine. This was bound to happen.”

  “You’re not mad at me?”

  “No, Tessa, not ever.” His sincerity makes my heart sink.

  “Thank you, Ben,” I whisper.

  “Tess, be good to yourself,” Ben whispers back before he hangs up.

  Arms wrap around me from behind and lips press to my neck. “You done with that?”

  “Of course. It’s just not fun to hurt someone.”

  “Is he hurt?” Lucas asks.

  “No, he’s being Ben,” I tell him. “Nice.”

  “Cool.”

  Chapter Thirty One

  Am I pissed she called him? Sure, since his name gives me the exact reaction as nails on chalkboard. But Tessa did the right thing, not just the easy thing. So, I’m more upset at myself for being pissed.

  Ryan sits in front with me. Jade, Tessa, and Phoebe are in the back seat. Becca ended up staying back, she had piano lessons or something and couldn’t make it, so Alex took the jump seat that Dad installed in the back. Said it was perfect to stretch his legs. Not saying he’s full of shit—he may really like to stretch his legs—but I think it has more to do with him being the gentleman that he is, and it makes it easier because the three girls in front of him, he loves. Even though he hasn’t used those words about Phoebe yet, it’s obvious.

  Also obvious is something is there between Jade and Ryan. That something is shadowed by Tommy, which is understandable. Ryan is no more the spill-your-heart-out kind of guy than I am … to anyone but Tommy and Tessa.

  I should have feelings about this, but the only thing I feel when I consider it is that Jade’s life is peaceful. Tommy would want that, and he’d want her to be happy. I get that, because Toby would have been perfect for Tessa, even though I loved her so much it hurt. Guess that’s part of growing and loving—knowing that someone else means more to you than yourself.

  Also part of being grown up is admitting to yourself when you fuck up. Tessa’s feeling like that now because of her phone call to Benji—fuck him—and I need to let her off the hook that she’s strung herself up on. Before I do that, though, I need to be in her one more tim
e.

  “Anyone feel like lunch?”

  “Me!” Jade yells over absolutely no one, and I can’t help but laugh.

  We all pile out, and I grab Tessa’s elbow. “A minute?”

  I nod to Ryan. “Meet you in there.”

  I know this place, having stopped here a dozen times while in a hurry to leave Dad’s yet in no rush to get back home. It’s clean.

  “Where are we going?”

  I open a door to the bathroom that’s entrance is outside and ask, “Quick one, baby?”

  Before she gets it, I kiss her while kicking the door shut behind me and locking it. Then I reach beneath her skirt.

  Bare, hot … mine.

  I whisper to the heavens, “And she listens. What did I do to deserve this?”

  “We can’t—”

  “We are.”

  And we do.

  When we walk into the restaurant, she asks, “What was that all about?”

  “An I’m-sorry-I-was-an-ass-and-let-you-beat-yourself-up, but-that-is-all-mine-and-I-needed-in-so-you-didn’t-stop-feeling-me fuck,” I explain.

  She looks at me like I’m crazy. And I am, about her, and then we head to the table.

  Alex and Phoebe are looking at the menu; Ryan is, as well; and Jade, she’s grinning. Tessa is still looking at me like I’m insane. It’s sweet.

  “Best Shepard’s pie on the East Coast,” I tell them as I pull out her chair.

  I get out of the vehicle and walk around to open the door for Jade—Tessa is sitting in the middle—but before I have a chance, I have monkeys on my back.

  “Lucas!” They giggle when I grab one, and then the other, into a hug.

  “Hello, little princesses.” I tickle them then blow raspberries on their chubby little cheeks.

  I watch them all pile out, and Audrianna grabs Tessa, pulling her into a hug, excited to see her. Happy for me.

  “Tessa, how are you?”

  “I’m great.” She smiles as she watches me with the girls. “How are you?”

  “Never better, Tessa.” She kisses her cheek then looks at everyone. “Welcome. Let’s get you all settled.”

  Inside, Audrianna shows them to their rooms. Alex and Ryan are in one of the guest rooms, and the girls in another. My sisters have already called dibs on tenting in my room. Not an ideal situation, but I love that they associate me with something fun.