September Fall. Jenny Plumb

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      Her touch seemed to calm him down a little. He took a deep breath, nodded, and then opened his hand to hold hers. "The guys had to hold me back, but I got in another solid kick before they pulled me away. I yelled a lot of threats and called him every name I could think of. The cops arrived not long after that. They cuffed me and read me my rights, and one of them checked Rubin over. My lawyer said I was stupid for not keeping my mouth shut, but I told the cops exactly what had happened." He shrugged. "Then I was hauled into the station and booked. That's when I called my dad, and he sent over a lawyer. I spent the night in jail, but I was released on bail the next day, at my arraignment."

      "Sounds to me like you caught a criminal and saved a bunch of women," Sadie said gently, squeezing his hand. She could see his tense shoulders relax marginally and his angry scowl smooth out just slightly.

      "Thanks," he said softly.

      After an awkwardly long pause, he said, "What happened to your foot?"

      She glared down at her foot and then looked back at him with a defeated expression. "My two best friends and I went on a hike at Multnomah Falls, the day after our last final. There was a sign up that said the trail to the top was closed due to recent landslides, but we decided to try getting to the top anyway. We didn't think it would be all that bad, and if the trail was blocked at some point, we figured we'd turn around."

      Shaking her head, she focused on her cast and muttered, "It was stupid of us. Part of the trail had been wiped away, and the part that was left was about five inches wide and six feet long. We tried to lean against the rock wall and make our way to the other side. Part of the ledge broke off when I was on it, and I fell. It was a steep section. I only fell about six feet initially, but I didn't really land after that six feet; it was more like I bounced off the side of a boulder. I just kept rolling and falling for another twenty feet, hitting rocks, dirt, boulders, and broken tree limbs. My fall caused several of the rocks to start falling with me, like a small landslide, and once I finally stopped moving, a huge rock landed on my foot and smashed it."

      He squeezed her hand that was still in his. "I'm sorry."

      "It took three hours to get me off the side of the hill. My friends immediately called 911 for help. But the medical team had to get several men to carefully climb down without causing more of a landslide so they could pull the rock off my foot. They said I'm lucky I was wearing hiking boots. I probably would have lost the foot if I hadn't had a sturdy shoe on. Then they had a helicopter take me to the hospital. I had three broken ribs, a bunch of scrapes and bruises, and half the bones in my foot were broken."

      "Wait a minute," he said, leaning back to get a full view of her. "I saw that on the news." He scrutinized her face for a few seconds, and then suddenly his eyebrows went up and he let go of her hand. "Sadie? Sadie Patterson?"

      She couldn't decide if she should be offended by his expression of shock or not. She nodded and muttered, "Yeah."

      "That means… shit, that means we, uh…" He put a hand on the back of his neck and his face turned pink.

      "Yep." She turned to face the front of the class.

      After several seconds of excruciating silence, Adam said, "I'm sorry I didn't recognize you. Your hair—"

      "Is gross. I know."

      Adam leaned towards her again and put a hand on her thigh. "No. Just different, not gross. I prefer long hair, but it doesn't look bad on you."

      His touch was now more confident and intimate than it had been seconds ago, and it helped her forgive him. She turned towards him and said, "I hate it, but when you're stuck in a hospital bed and you can't wash your hair for weeks, long hair isn't practical."

      "I bet. Are you…" his hand moved back to his own lap, "…still dating Garrett?"

      "No. He graduated just before summer, and he knew I had two more years of college left, so we'd already decided to break up before I fell. He was really sweet and tried to visit me in the hospital a few times, but I asked him to stop, because I didn't want him to see me all bruised and doped up on pain medication. He still texts me sometimes. He got picked up by the Arizona Cardinals."

      Before Adam could respond, Dr. Stryker announced that break time was over. Sadie turned towards the front, but Adam leaned closer and whispered, "Hey, did you drive yourself here?"

      "No." Legally, she could still drive since her right foot was fine, but her mother had gotten pissed when she suggested driving herself to this.

      "Did you want a ride home once it's over?"

      Grinning, she nodded. "That would be great."

      He smiled too, and Sadie got her phone out of her pocket. She sent a quick text to her mother. Adam from the football team is in class with me. Getting a ride home with him.

      Her mother's reply was almost instant. That's wonderful. It's about time you started hanging out with your friends again.

      Sadie rolled her eyes but stuck her phone back in her pocket and focused on the teacher's lecture about healthy ways to express feelings.

      When the class ended, Adam watched Sadie grab her crutches from the floor and maneuver herself out of her chair. She was still attractive in an 'I'm not trying' kind of way. Her face was symmetrical, she had a small, straight nose, light brown eyes, and full lips that naturally curved up at the corners. He didn't particularly like the short hair, but hair grew. He could barely remember the night they'd fucked. They'd both been wasted, but he did remember her boobs. They were quite large for an athletic woman who didn't have much fat anywhere else her body. She was definitely a C cup.

      He noticed her movement stop and looked up at her eyes. He saw her smirk and knew he'd been caught staring at her chest. He smiled, because she clearly didn't mind.

      "I'm going to go to the bathroom, and then I'll be ready to go," she said.

      "Okay." He walked along beside her as they left the room and started down the hall. "It's almost noon. Did you want to get some lunch before I take you home?"

      "I'd like to, but I have another doctor's appointment for my foot this afternoon. Maybe on Thursday after class?" she suggested.

      "Sure, Thursday works for me. My dad's always at work during the day, so we could hit a drive through and eat at my house. I live about ten minutes from here."

      She tilted her head to the side and looked at him closely for a few seconds before nodding. "Yeah, okay."

      "Great." He watched her go into the bathroom, checking out her ass while devising plans to get her in his bed on Thursday.

      Chapter 2

      Sadie found herself thinking about Adam repeatedly over the next couple of days. She knew there was a good chance that he'd want sex, and the more she thought about that possibility, the more she hoped he would. When she was getting ready on Thursday morning, she shaved her good leg and above the cast on her bad one for the first time since getting out of the hospital. That simple act helped her to feel sexy again for the first time in months, and she decided to put on some makeup as well. Then she put on a fitted tee-shirt and a skirt instead of her cut off sweat pants, and she felt almost like herself again.

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