Page 10 of Caught Running
Brandon’s jaw dropped. “Wow. Nowondershe was so pissed. I remember that hissy fit very clearly, and I was all the way across the cafeteria. Sure as hell went a long way to making me swear off ... “He snapped his mouth shut and shook his head. “You were smart,” he finally added.
Jake cocked his head questioningly at the truncated sentence, but left it alone. He smiled fondly at the memory. “I almost married that girl later,” he told the man with a smallsmile. “She couldn’t take the ‘brutality’ of the sports, though. And I couldn’t take ... well, the thought of being married.”
The smile reappeared. “Almost married, huh?” Brandon tilted his head, looking over Jake. “You’ve got closer than I have,” he added with a shrug, finishing off his sandwich.
“Too busy with the learning, huh?” Jake ventured.
Brandon played with his glasses, tapping them on the papers. This discussion wasn’t where he wanted to be—it edged too close to dangerous territory. “Yeah, I guess. College, grad school while teaching, moving back here. That and no real interest in dating,” he said. “I wasn’t exactly coveted by girls in high school, as I’m sure you know.”
“Nothing bad about that. You don’t have Misty on your tail fifteen years later, hmm?” he pointed out.
Shaking his head, Brandon made a face. “How someone that pretty can be so ugly, I don’t know,” he said, his voice filled with obvious distaste.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Jake crooned with another gulp of beer. “I mean, for some reason I’ve been thinking about high school a lot lately,” he admitted. “Thinking about what shits all kids are and how many friends I could have had but didn’t ‘cause I wore a letter jacket. You still see it today.”
Among the teachers as well as the students, Brandon added silently. “Well, I can honestly say I never thought I’d be sitting at your kitchen table grading papers and drinking a beer,” he said, thinking back to how defined the cliques had been when he was in school. Except for very few, those lines just didn’t get crossed, and the groups didn’t mix. “In high school, you just don’t know how to break those walls down,” he added quietly. He knew from experience, and now he sensed Jake knew, too. “But I’m sure I was just as much a shit as you were,” he poked, trying to lighten the tone of their discussion.
Jake bristled mightily and then sighed, the beer and pills loosing his tongue more than he would appreciate when tomorrow came. “I wasn’t such a bad guy,” he mumbled defensively.
Brandon looked at him closely when Jake dropped his eyes. No. No, he hadn’t been, not really, not compared to many. A sudden tenseness filled Brandon, and he knew he needed to leave. He wasn’t sure he liked this sudden interest his body seemed to be taking in Jake’s body.Gah. “It’s late, I need to get home and get more work done. I’ve got baseball practice after school tomorrow. Imagine that,” he said, standing and shoving all the papers in his back pack, that whole shell-shocked look returning.
Jake looked back up and watched Brandon with his dark eyes. “Something I said?” he asked curiously.
“Something you ...? No,” Brandon said, sinking back into the booth, sliding on his glasses to hide behind them just like he did at work. “I’m just not really good with people,” he said. “This whole baseball thing will be a real challenge for me. And not just learning the rules.” He’d been an introvert for so long, it was really hard for him to break the habit. Teaching was different.
“With people?” Jake echoed, brow furrowing in deeper confusion. “Oh,” he murmured as if trying to understand but not really getting it. “Yeah, no. No, I’m sorry,” he went on as he stood up slowly. The gel pack on his ankle made a loud squishing sound in protest but he ignored it. “I’ll walk you out,” he offered.
Standing up again, Brandon grabbed his back pack and headed to the door, feeling awkward once again. This was why he didn’t do social things. He stopped outside, turning to look at the tired man in the doorway. “Thanks for the sandwich. I hope you feel better tomorrow.”
“Heh,” Jake responded as he leaned against the door frame. “I’m sure I’ll be right as rain come morning,” he asserted with confidence. “Hey, don’t forget to bag your phone tomorrow,” he told the man with a cheeky grin.
Brandon just stared at him, totally at a loss for what to say. Bag? His phone? He blinked in confusion.Oh!It clicked, and he chuckled, rolling his eyes. “Sure. I’ll have to remember not to laugh when Troy announces it. It would besuperciliousof me not to follow instructions,” he teased, shuffling a little.
“Like I know what that means,” Jake scoffed with a grin. “See ya tomorrow, man. Don’t forget your clothes.”
Starting down the stairs, Brandon raised a hand and nodded. He got settled in the car and drove off, all the while feeling very self-conscious because Jake stood there in the doorway, watching him the whole time. Jake waited until the headlights were gone, then turned back into his house and shut the door slowly. It was a habit learned from his father, to watch a visitor leave until they were out of sight. He didn’t even know that he did it. With a sigh, he trudged toward the stairs and the shower on the upper level. Something about Brandon was ringing in his ears, but he couldn’t place it. It left him unsettled and cranky, and Jake didn’t like being either.
The drive home seemed to whip by because Brandon’s head was full of new images and ideas—baseball, tight white pants, health class, Jake Campbell. He stopped the car in the driveway and climbed out automatically, looking at the rustic white bungalow surrounded by wild flowers. So different from Jake’s house. But tonight, Brandon thought they might have discovered they had at least a tiny something in common. He headed inside, deciding to finish grading the essays and the other block’s work before taking a run around the lake. It was going to be a long night. The first of many.
The science teacher leaned on the third baseline fence next to Jonathan as the younger man mused over the reasoning behind some of the drills Jake was running to evaluate the kids at tryouts. About four had dropped out from yesterday to today, fewer than expected, according to the freshman coach.
On the field, Jake was a force. Even Troy the pretty boy was eclipsed by the sheer power of Jake’s personality, and Brandon could readily see that popular homecoming king in the head coach. But now the allure was transformed into a man comfortable with his confidence and not afraid to put it to use. Again Brandon tamped down the flicker of interest beyond professional involvement. He was determined to quash it, to not let the idea even see the light of day.
Although Jonathan had offered, Brandon had run the suicides again today. He remembered Jake’s pain from the night before and was unwilling to let the head coach do the running. Three guys instead of two outran Brandon this time, but he’dnot even been a half step behind. Maybe he’d do some speed drills in the park to practice.
Jonathan pointed out how the kids were practicing sidestepping, and while Brandon recognized the effort, he could tell the balance involved wasn’t a strong skill for most of the players. It didn’t help when Jake’s voice lashed out.
“You don’t even have a glove in your hands!” Jake bellowed. “How the hell are you gonna field a ball if you can’t stay on your feet?” he questioned as he walked through the lines of boys doing the complicated drill. The first and foremost reason for it was to teach them the most effective way to turn and run by ingraining it in their muscle memory. But it also doubled as a good base running drill, and as a way to weed out the waverers who had stuck through after yesterday.
“Pick your feet up!” Troy shouted from the other side of the grid of players, the two of them double-teaming as they circled the kids like vultures. Jake glanced over at the fence where the other coaches were calling out encouragement to the kids, thinking how the staff formed a pretty decent good cop/bad cop crew. He caught sight of Brandon, standing there beside Jonathan and murmuring to each other, and he looked away quickly before he could let himself be distracted. He remembered some of the things he had told the man last night, things he shouldn’t have said to anyone probably, and he flushed a little with the memory. He made it a point of keeping his private life private for a reason. And really, this sudden interest in the man, it wasn’t a good thing.
“Well, I’m not sure I’d do so well with that my first time, either. But I’ve got pretty good balance,” Brandon said. He glanced up to see Jake look over them and then go back to the kids. “Should we be doing something?”
“Nah, wait till the drill’s over or we’ll just be in the way,” Jonathan answered with a wave of his hand. “And watch thekids. Pick out the weakest ones from the herd, that sort of thing.”
Brandon nodded slowly, adding what he was seeing to the information he’d gathered last night. On a whim, he’d jotted some thoughts last night in a small pocket-sized notebook that was now in his back pocket. “Did you play ball in school?” he asked.
“Yep, right here at Parkview. I was a freshman when Jake was a senior,” Jonathan answered with a nod as he squinted into the sun. “Every once in a while our coach would have us stop practice and watch the varsity just to learn,” he laughed. “God, what a crop of talent they were. What some of those guys could have done if they’d been given the chance,” he mused, watching Jake stalk up to a kid who had fallen and yank him bodily off the ground by his belt.