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 trashcan, emptying each one into her larger trashcan 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, 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 cried.  “This’s 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 agreed 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.  I had only spent time with Dougie when he visited while on leave, but he was so easy to love. 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 been 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 heat 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 to 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.  They must’ve 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 at least once an hour?  And I know for certain 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 it’s 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.

 

“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’re doing,” he said snidely.

 

“Know what you’re 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 directly 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; they looked pissed at the coach.  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 wove my way 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 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 sadly 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.  Ember … 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 brooked 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 became 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’re 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 who had shin splints from the cross-country boys’ team, and the last was a freshman girl with a knee injury from 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.  To this day, the teammate that was helping me still says it was the grossest thing she’d ever seen.

 

“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 bend, 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 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.  Two hours later, he was still scanning the area.  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.  But what did I know?

 

“Ready.”  I said to him, bending over one of the tables to reach for my sweatshirt.

 

Once my tummy hit the table though, I felt a presence at my back, pinning my hips to the table.  Gabe’s hips were up snug against mine.  He ground his erection into me, and I swear if the table wasn’t underneath me, I’d have fallen to my knees.  Which, to be honest, might not have been a bad thing.

 

I peeked over my shoulder to notice that the training room door was closed.  When that happened, I don’t know. 

 

“We can’t do this right now.  I work here Gabe.”

  

“Seeing you strutting around in these tight little pants drives me nuts.  What the hell are these anyway?”  He asked.

 

This was not a discussion I wished to have.  How do you tell your boyfriend that you’re wearing Spanxx?  What do you say, that they’re for fat people who want to suck their fat in?

 

“Ummm, uhhh, I don’t really want to tell you to be honest.”

 

His hands tightened on my hips as he said, “I don’t really give a fuck what they are, just keep wearing them.  They drive me fucking crazy.  Do you wear underwear with these things?”

 

“Yes.  Not wearing underwear would give me a camel toe.  No one wants to be seen with a camel toe.  Those are so not cool.”

 

A brief laugh escaped, but didn’t deter him.  He grabbed the waist of my pants and yanked both pants and panties down to my thighs.  These babies were so tight that I wouldn’t be able to move my thighs but a few inches apart.  That didn’t seem to bother him though, because his seeking fingers had already found my sweet spot.

 

My back arched while my eyes rolled back into my head as he curled his two fingers and worked me.  It wasn’t long before I was pushing back against his fingers, trying to get him deeper inside of me.  I was seconds away from coming when he pulled out.  One second his fingers were inside of me, and the next he was slamming his cock into me.

 

“Jesus!”  I gasped.

 

He froze and said, “Too much?”

 

“No, it was just a surprise.  Keep going.”  I pleaded, as I pushed back against him.

 

He did it slowly though.  Gabe and I drifted more towards fast and furious when it came to sex.  It felt the best that way for us.  Today, however, with my pants keeping my knees close together, and him moving in and out of me slowly, it felt abso-fucking-lutely amazing.

 

I could feel every ridge and vein on his cock as he pumped it in and out slowly, over and over again, until I was ready to shout at him to go harder; just as I was about to demand that of him the doorknob jiggled.

 

My body tensed, ready to push him away, but Gabe didn’t stop in his ministrations, only ramped up his efforts.  He gave a little twist at the end of each thrust that had me seeing stars.

 

“The guy’s bike who brought her this morning is still parked in her spot.  So where is she at?”  I heard someone ask.

 

Holding on to the edge of the table with one hand, I buried my head into the crook of my elbow, willing myself not to scream.  This was torture in its truest form.  I was working up to one hell of an orgasm, and I needed to be quiet.  This could get me fired in a heartbeat.  I loved this job, but nothing short of death could stop me right at the moment.  Any second I would blow, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold in my scream. 

 

I could still hear the two people speaking only ten feet away, with a flimsy door between us, but in the next instant, they weren’t even on my radar.  Gabe must have sensed that my orgasm was imminent because he reached his hand around and covered my mouth, trapping the scream before it poured out.

 

Once my orgasm made itself known, Gabe started to slam inside of me, just how we both liked it.  Again and again, he pounded into me, spurring my orgasm to continue.  Gabe grunted and slammed into me one final time, planting himself deep inside of me, before pouring his come deep.

 

He let go of my mouth; my face dropped onto the leather of the training table beneath me.  Gabe slid slowly out of my body, and tucked himself back into his jeans, zipping and belting them up. 

 

I watched with my face still planted on the table.  That was exhausting, and I could really go for a teensy tiny nap right now, but it was not in our cards.  He gave my ass a good slap before backing away and heading to the door.  I squeaked and hauled my undies and pants back over my ass.

 

“I wasn’t going to open it; I just wanted to hear if they were still out there or not.  You were pretty loud there towards the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if they heard you” Gabe teased.

 

“It wasn’t my fault!  It was your fault.  None of this was my idea!”

 

“I didn’t see any fight on your part!”  Gabe chuckled.

 

I’d rather forgotten about the messiness that comes with sex, and now I could feel all the wetness leaking out of me, onto my pants.  I’m sure there was a nice little wet spot on the crotch of my Spanxx.

 

“Let’s get out of here so I can go change my pants.  I’m leaking.”  I said before heading to the door.

 

Gabe’s arm hooked around my waist before I could get it open and I was hauled back into his arms.  His lips skimmed down my exposed neck and goose bumps puckered up all down my right side.

 

“Are you saying you feel dirty?” he asked quietly.

 

“No, not dirty.  Just squishy,” I laughed out.

 

“I happen to like it there; I like knowing I was inside you.”  He whispered into my hair, and then gave me a three tap on the butt that meant it was time go.

 

Gabe did the three tap a lot.  When he was leaving, he would tap my butt three times before he let go of me and left.  In addition, when I was sitting on his lap, he would tap me three times to let me know he wanted up. 

 

Disentangling myself from him, we walked hand and hand down the corridor, and out into the scorching heat of the Texas sun.  If you think you’ve experienced heat, you haven’t.  Yes, there are those places that reach higher temperatures than Texas’ one hundred and ten degrees, but that’s dry heat.  Here, you have humidity on top of it.  All you had to do was walk outside and you were drenched in sweat.

 

We walked to the Death machine, and Gabe swung his leg over, mounting the bike.  He kick started the engine and that familiar vibration rocked my body.  Adrenaline poured through my veins, and I hopped on, wrapping my body around his.  He handed me my helmet, and we both strapped them on before he took off. 

 

He took the turns low, and my body swayed as one with his.  I loved being on the back of his bike, with my arms wrapped around him.  It felt like everything was okay.  There were no death threats from gangs, no coaches trying to push my kids too hard, and no crazy chicks making nutty eyes at my man.  Pure perfection.  But, of course, my dear Gabriel did ruin my high.

 

We got to Free and pulled up into the main garage area.  He hauled me off the bike, walked me over to the toolbox, dropped my hand and said, “Fix it.”  Before he turned around and left me standing there.  I did get a good laugh though.