Page 49 of The Cheerleader is Off Limits

CHAPTER 11

RIVER

Present Day

I am in a foul fucking mood.

And everyone can tell.

My students sense it in my classes for the rest of the day. My coaching staff senses it. The guys on my team sense it.

It’s the first day of school, and I’m acting like I’ve been dealing with students’ bullshit for nine months and am ready for summer vacation.

But I can’t focus on anything else.

Sloane is in high school.

My high school.

She’s nineteen.

Two years younger than I thought.

And I thought she was too young when I thought she was twenty-one.

“You look distressed.” I hear my seven-year-old niece’s chipper voice. I remove my hand from in front of my eyes and reluctantly open them, and I spot Isla sitting on the couch next to me with a pen and a small notepad, because her latest thing is that she wants to be some sort of therapist like Ellie.

“I really am. But do you even know what that means?” Her brows pinch together slightly like she might be thinking of the answer.

“Yes.” She nods before pulling her headband down and sliding it back up over her brown hair to re-straighten it. She was slowly growing out of hersunglasses-all-the-timephase, but now she was into all the hair accessories and wanted to dress like her older sister, Margot, and Ellie.

I lean on my elbow to face her because, as bad as things are right now, Isla is probably the only person who I will never allow to bear the brunt of my foul mood. “Alright, tell me what it means.” I nod.

“Bad,” she says while scribbling something in her notepad.

“Pretty much,” I tell her.

“Are you going to cry?”

“Maybe.” I snort because if there was ever a time that something would make me cry, it’s this situation.

Her eyes widen, and she puts a hand on my arm. Isla has never been a big crier. I actually think she may be the toughest of the three kids when it comes to that, but she is very empathetic, and I’ve watched her comfort both of her siblings when they were upset. “Do you need a hug?” she asks, and I nod.

“I think so, Isles.”

She climbs into my lap and gives me a tight hug before pressing a kiss to my cheek. “It’ll be okay, Uncle River. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No, honey.”

“Is it because I’m too little? Because I’m seven now. I get stuff,” she says with a matter-of-fact tone, and I chuckle in response.

Leave it to Isla to make me laugh when it feels like the walls are closing in around me.

“I know. You’re so smart, Isles. But this is just an adult problem.”

“I see. Well, maybe talk to Ellie. She’s good with problems,” she tells me as she moves to sit next to me on the couch, and I see she’s written my name in her notepad.

“I’m just going to wait for your dad.”