Highway Don't Care (Freebirds) (11 page)

  “Gabriel!”  I whimpered.

  He continued to work his fingers in and out of me until my
climax slowed.  Pulling his fingers free slowly, he stuck them into his
mouth and licked my orgasm off his fingers.  Moaning, I grabbed him by the
hair and pulled him down on top of me.  He wasted no time before slamming
himself home.  This was how it was with us.  Hot, hard and
furious.  We always tried to go slow, but never did we finish slow. 
Something made it where we couldn’t control ourselves.  Repeatedly he
slammed inside of me.  It shouldn’t be possible, but I was already working
up to my second orgasm.  He pounded relentlessly into me.  Over and
over again, he hit so deep that a little jolt of pain shot through me. 
But I loved it.

  Gabe changed positions slightly and that was it for me.
 I was gone again.  Distantly I heard him grunt out his own climax,
but I was too focused on mine.  Waves of delight were traveling through my
vagina, and he kept hitting the perfect spot with each thrust of his
cock.  Finally, the waves subsided and I opened my eyes only to be caught
by the blue fire that was present lately in Gabe’s eyes.  He leaned down
and gave me a chaste kiss on the lips before pulling back.

  “I love you.”  I whispered to him.

  A brilliant smile broke out over his face.

  “I’ve loved you for over a year now.  I’ve just been
waiting for you to realize you love me back.”  He said gruffly.

  Something heavy seemed to lift off my chest.  Knowing
that he returned my feelings went a long way in making me feel more secure in
our relationship. 

Chapter 7
 

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.  Who’s bringing the chips?

-T-shirt

Ember

  “That woman who wants Gabe works here now!”  I whisper
yelled into the receiver.

  I watched the woman out of the corner of my eye as she went
from trashcan to trash can, emptying each one into her larger trash can that was
part of a big yellow cart. 

  “The brunette or the one that has the hots for Gabe?” 
Cheyenne asked.

  “I already said the one who has the hot’s for Gabe,
dummy!”  I answered.

  I watched her a little more and noticed that she kept
glancing in my direction, but then would turn away hoping that she wasn’t
caught staring.  She finished up with the trash, and then made her way out
of the training room.  I got up and walked to the door, and looked both
ways.  She was gone.  Good.

  “What the fuck!”  I said.  “This is fucking
nuts!”

  “Dude, call Gabe and tell him.  Better yet, just send
him a text.  He is in the middle of painting Dougie’s bike, but I’ve seen
him check his phone five times in the last hour.  I’m guessing it’s
because of you.”  Cheyenne said.

  “Will do.”  I said and hung up.

  I didn’t text Gabe though.  The bike was too
important.  After Dougie’s death last year, a pall seemed to hang over the
group.  There was still joy, but all the lightheartedness that Dougie
brought with him when he entered the room was gone.  The construction of
the bike seemed to bring Dougie back to us, if only by bringing his friends
back together, laughing and telling old stories that involved him. 
Pulling those memories to the forefront, and painting or constructing them into
the bike.

  Instead of interrupting, I got busy.  A football
player came in with what looked like heat stroke and a concussion.  He
must have passed out, and then tackled once unconscious.  In the Texas sun,
it was a very real thing to have heat stroke, even when all you were doing was
a little gardening in the shade.  It could get up to one hundred and ten
on a summer day, and with the humidity added to that, we could possibly have a
head index of one hundred and twenty.  This was no laughing matter, and I
lectured the coaches daily on giving multiple water breaks every hour. 
Being in full pads only ratchets up the possibility of heat stroke.  Every
year athletes died of heat exposure, and I would be damned if I had that happen
to me.

  The paramedics were called, and I explained the situation
to them just before they carted him off in the ambulance.  I watched them
exit the college parking lot, and start towards Longview with their lights and
sirens going.  I took a few deep slow breaths before I marched over to the
football field to give the coach a piece of my mind.  I failed to notice
that I was no longer alone.  It never crossed my mind to not go outside
and say something to that little shit head of a coach.

  I marched through the practice field, interrupting the
plays that were being ran.  Each and every player gave me a wide
birth.  Must have seen the look on my face, because I was livid. 
Spying the little prick across the field, I made a beeline straight for
him.  He saw me coming and called a halt to practice. 

  “Water break!” he yelled.

  All the players jogged over to the opposite side of the
field and crowded the two coolers full of water.

  “How many times do I have to tell you?  Water breaks once
an hour!  Moreover, I know it’s over 104 out here.  You’re supposed
to call practice when it reaches over one hundred!  I’m going to have your
job for this.  That boy is lucky to be alive, and its no thanks to
you!”  I yelled, getting right up in his face.

  Coach Martin was forty-five, and thought he was God’s gift
to everyone.  He was a slimy bastard and didn’t care about anything but
making himself look good.  I wasn’t bluffing when I told him I would have
his job.  The athletic trainer had a lot of pull, and I was good friends
with my boss.  He would know that I would never lie about something so
serious.

  “I’ll call practice when I feel like calling practice, and
not a second sooner.  So how about you trot your tight ass back to the gym
where you belong, and leave this to the big boys who actually know what they
are doing?” he said snidely.

  “Know what you are doing?  What a joke.  You
don’t know your ass from your face.  You’re only looking out for yourself
out here.  These boys look up to you for guidance, and when you push them
this hard, they
will
break.  What will you do when you have no
players to play because you were too stupid to call practice when you were
supposed to?”  I seethed.

  Coach Martin didn’t take too kindly to my belittling him in
front of his assistant coaches and the players.  He started to step into
me when he was halted by a very low and dangerous voice.

  “Do not touch her.  If you even think about it, I’ll
rip the jokes you call nuts off and feed them to you.”  A familiar voice
said directly behind me.

  I whirled around and saw Gabe standing straight behind
me.  He was in a pair of worn jeans that had grease stains all over them,
and a black t-shirt that I’m sure had more of the same.  He had on a Texas
Ranger’s ball cap pulled low on his head and a pair of Ray Ban’s covering those
eyes I loved so much.

  His mouth was set in a grim line, and I knew that this was
going to escalate if I didn’t do something to avert his attention. 
Tearing my eyes away from him, I focused on the other forty people. 

  Standing behind me as well was the entire football
defensive line, and they looked pissed.  Jesus.  How was this coach
not bawling in his own puddle of tinkle?  If I’d seen the crew that I had
at my back standing against me I’d be hauling ass in the opposite
direction. 

  “Alright boys, it’s time to call it a day.”  I said to
them.  “You know better.  Y’all should have said something to
him.  There’s a thermometer right by the water coolers.  I fully
expect one of y’all to come see me if this ever happens again.  The next
time it could be you who has a heat stroke, and you might not be as lucky as
Jason was today.”

  Walking towards Gabriel, I stood up on my tiptoes, gave him
a peck on the cheek, and started back across the football field.  As the
head athletic trainer at the college, I had other obligations besides the
football team.  I had two other trainers under me, as well as three
assistants. 

  One of said assistants, June, was at the gym door hopping
from foot to foot looking quite anxious.  She was one of my prized pupils
as well.  She was also in love with Kale.  I’m not sure where they
stood now that he was back in the gang, but I knew a love like that doesn’t
just quit because the person you love is doing something stupid.

  “What’s up, sweet cheeks?”  I asked.

  “I need to talk to you, like bad.”

  “Let’s go to my office.”

  Swiping my card at the gym door, I held the door open for
June, and then made sure the door latched behind us.  I weaved through the
maze of hallways until I got to my office.  Since no one was in the
hallway, I left the door open and motioned with my hand for her to have a
seat.  Choosing to forgo the seat, I grabbed a coke from the fridge and
propped my hips up against the counter, and then looked at her expectantly.

  If anything, she looked even worse now.  It was going
on five minutes of silence before she finally opened her mouth, only to snap it
back closed.  Loosing what little patience I had, I motioned with my hand
to get her talking.

  “Kale isn’t seeing me anymore.  He said last night
that it was getting too dangerous for us to be together.  He told me when
he got his brother out that he would come back to me.”  She said as a few
tears dropped from her eyes, spilling onto her cheeks.

  “Well that’s understandable.  He doesn’t want to get
you hurt.  I know it’s hard, but what exactly do you expect him to do
here?  He’s making a bad decision, but it’s commendable that he doesn’t
want to bring you down with him.”

  Taking a deep breath, she finally got the courage to say,
“He said that they were going to make him kill you.  If he wanted his
brother out, he was going to have to do that before they would let him
go.  He told me because he knew I would relay that information to
you.  He also said you had a man following you around, and that it would
all turn out okay.  I’m not sure if that means he won’t actually shoot
you, or if he’ll be stopped before it goes that far.  Also, I’m four
months pregnant with Kale’s baby.”

  “Tell me more about this shooting business.  Does he
have death-“

  “No one is going to be shooting you.  It’ll be over my
dead body.  What the fuck is going on?”  A very angry Gabe said from
the doorway.

  I jumped about three feet in the air and dropped my coke on
the ground.  Brown fizz spewed into the air and drenched my thighs. 
My hand automatically covered my racing heart.  Whirling around so I could
see the doorway, I lost my balance and went down.  I would’ve busted my
ass if Gabe weren’t there to catch me.  His callused hands took a firm
grip on my hips, and steadied me until I had my balance.

  June was sitting there in utter amazement.  One
because she just spilled her guts in front of some man she didn’t know, and two
because he was hot.

  “June this is my, uh, Gabe.  Gabe this is my assistant
trainer, June.  June here is seeing Kale, or she was until he broke up
with her today.”  I explained.

  “Nice to meet you.  Now tell me what’s going
on.”  He said shortly.

  His tone booked no room for argument.  Therefore, I
started to explain what June had told me.  I wasn’t sure at what point he
started listening in, so I started at the very beginning, which was when June
met Kale at the beginning of last year.

  “June because an assistant at the end of volleyball season
last year.  She’s now two years into her degree.  She met Kale during
a football game.  They’ve been dating ever since.  He got out of the
gang when he was younger and since his brother-“

  “I know all of that.  Get to the part about him
killing you.”  He said testily.

  “Well, I don’t know very much.  Only that he was
tasked in shooting me.  We hadn’t gotten very far before you walked in.”

  Nodding he said, “Okay.  Let’s get out of here. 
You won’t be coming back here by yourself until this is finished.  Nice to
meet you, June.”

  “Wait!”  June said as Gabe took my hand.  “You’re
the only one here.  Mack and Trammel went home with the stomach bug. 
If you leave, we have no one else.  There are two injuries on tables in
the training room.”

  “Fuck.”  Gabe said dejectedly.

  Taking that as permission to go about my work, I left my
office and went to the training room.  June wasn’t kidding about there
being no one here, which was unusual at the beginning of the year.  I
checked each of the three kids that were in the room.  One was a senior
football player needing an ice bath, one was a sophomore shin splints from
cross country boys’ team, and the last was a freshman girl with a knee injury
from coming down wrong from a jump during volleyball drills.

  Deeming that the knee injury was the worst, I started with
her.  I saw June come in and start the ice bath for the football player,
but I focused on the nasty swelling going on around the young girl’s right
knee.  It was about three times the size of her other knee, and was
already bruising.

  “Did you try to walk?”  I asked her.

  “N-no.  It hurt too much, I d-didn’t e-even try
to.”  She stammered out.

    Understandable.  I did try to walk after
my knee injury, and it is something that will be forever burned into my
brain.  I will never forget my coach and a fellow player helping me
up.  My coach asked me if I could walk.  Since it wasn’t hurting
quite as bad at that moment in time, I tried to take a step with the injured
leg.  Worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.  My upper thigh went one
way, and the lower leg went another.  I could literally see my knee having
a noticeable bend.  To this day, the teammate that was helping me still
says it was the grossest thing she’d ever seen, ten years later.

  “Alrighty then.  Let’s get you in a brace, and then
we’re going to get you to the ER.”  I said to her while taking a leg brace
that wouldn’t allow the knee to bed out from one of the cabinets underneath the
table.  I strapped her into the brace, and then retrieved some ice for her
to place on the knee while we waited for her ride.  The volleyball coach
arrived a few minutes later to take her in to the emergency room.

  While this was going on, I didn’t fail to notice the silent
presence of Gabe at my back.  I retrieved some crutches, gave the coach
some instructions, and then sent them on their way.  Gabe watched the
entire time.  Eyes never stopped scanning.  To tell you the truth, it
kind of gave me the willies.  He really didn’t want me to be here, and if
his posture and demeanor was anything to go by, he wanted me to know it.

  I finished up with both athletes in a little over an
hour.  It was now four thirty in the afternoon, and it was time to be
going.  Sending June home, I replenished supplies and made out an order
form of what all we would need to order from our suppliers within the next
week.  Wiping down all of the tables, I finally deemed the room ready, and
turned to Gabe.  He was still scanning the area.  Two hours later. 
Granted it was a large space, but not much could surprise you since we were
down a long ass hallway in the boonies of the college campus. 
Nevertheless, what did I know?