Primal Threat - Earl Emerson [42]
“He was watching us play, wasn’t he?”
“How can I stop him? He’s a member here. Plus, I have to see him socially. He comes to the house to see Kasey.”
After she’d gathered up her warm-up clothes, she started crying. Zak put his arm around her shoulders as they walked out of the court area.
“I’m okay. It’s just…I ran into him at Bellevue Square two days ago. And today I saw him over there by the door while we were playing. He talks about taking care of me, but when we were going together he totally took me for granted unless there was another guy threatening to pay attention to me. He’s so jealous. We hardly ever spent any time talking like you and I do. It was always, ‘Let’s go do something with Kasey and the guys.’ Or, ‘Let’s go to my house and fool around.’”
They ended up on a bench in one of the unused outdoor courts as clouds scudded across the sky at intervals, exposing patches of blue behind them. The spotty sunshine warmed Zak considerably. “I’m sorry I’m such a baby,” Nadine said.
“Does your family really think I’m chasing you for your money?”
“I’m sorry he said that. That was just embarrassing.”
“Do they?”
“They don’t know you like I do. Besides, you didn’t chase me. I chased you. That’s how we became friends in the first place. I made it happen.”
“What do you mean?”
She giggled, the laughter a release from the stress and tears. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, I want to hear this.”
“I told Mom to call you for that pool house job.”
“You what?”
“When we were all at your fire station I learned you did remodeling. I told Mom to call you. The only trouble was your father took the job, and he was there for weeks before you showed up. I was still going with Scooter, but I had my eye on you. Maybe it was because you saved me in the wreck. That day you showed up, I got out of the pool, took a super-quick shower, and ran downstairs to meet you.”
“Is any of this true?”
“It’s all true.”
They watched the clouds scudding across the sky.
Zak knew she was working up her nerve to tell him something that had been bubbling beneath the surface every time Scooter’s name came up.
“I don’t even know how I got into this. We were just all of a sudden going together. I mean, we were dating once in a while, and then he wanted me to tell him I wouldn’t see anyone else, and I wasn’t seeing anyone else right then so it seemed like an easy thing to say. And after that he got so he wanted to know where I was all day. At first I was flattered. No guy had ever taken that much interest in me. He used to call my cell phone when I was in class or at practice. I started turning it off, but that only made him mad. And we used to go out on these long dates where he’d drive me somewhere and wouldn’t take me home…”
“Unless what?”
“I didn’t say unless.”
“But it’s there in your voice.”
“Favors, he called them.”
“You don’t have to tell me the rest.”
“No, I need somebody to hear this, and you’re the only person in the world I feel comfortable talking to right now.”
“I’m listening.”
“The whole thing happened in increments. We got into this thing where we would go to his house or if his folks were hanging around we’d go somewhere in his car and he would ask me to touch him. At first I didn’t want to, but he wouldn’t take me home unless I did. He knew I wanted to be a virgin on my wedding night and he said he respected that, but he claimed what we were doing didn’t have anything to do with being a virgin. He said it was a matter of healthy living and if a guy didn’t get some release he could get sick. So I would touch him and then…well…”
“Please don’t tell me this.”
“No, I do. I have to tell somebody. He said every girl he’d ever dated had done it. He said it was what couples did. That it was no big deal. At the time, I was thinking we would eventually get married. He hadn’t asked me or anything, but it seemed to be the place we were headed. I talked to my pastor, who more or less told me any expression of love short of intercourse was okay. When I tried to pin him down on definitions, he got