Authors note: Making the Grade is my fourth, longest and final story in my Hot Tails in Oak Hills series. This story has been divided into five parts for easier reading. Welcome back and I hope all of you enjoy the third chapter. GEV
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It was after eight in the evening and the sun had started set behind the mountain range in the distance and Jacob sat back in his loveseat-sized patio chair and rested his crossed feet on the edge of the low sitting glass-topped square table that sat in middle between the three chairs and the outside fireplace and dropped his head back on the cushion, staring out at the changing colors in the sky, thinking about everything that had happened over the last two months.
He had kicked his cheating fiancΓ©e out of his house, risked his job by having sex with one of his students and made sure that a wrongfully convicted man got out of prison. All in all, it had been a good fourteen weeks. He lifted his glass of iced tea to his lips and took a drink, reaching over the side of his chair to set the glass down on the tray he had placed on the brick floor within arm's reach, scooping up a handful of grapes from the bowl next to the glass and popping several of them into his mouth, wondering if Madison was ever going to come by his house tonight, or even at all.
He had a tough time making it through the rest of the school year, not that he had brought any attention to the fact that he had acted highly inappropriately with a student, but because every time he sat down behind his desk, the vivid image of Madison sprawled across the surface or pressed up against his bookcase flooded his thoughts and he couldn't concentrate, then he remembered where he was and quickly reined in his emotions. When she walked by him every morning for class, he kept his hands fisted in his pockets, breathing in the floral scent that clung to her skin, wanting to taste her, touch her but he had to settle for stealing glances her way whenever he could.
She didn't do anything to entice him, wearing baggy jeans and loose fitting T-shirts, and she did a damn good job of ignoring him, which was what he wanted, but he needed to see those baby blues, needed to see the desire in her eyes when she looked at him but she never gave him the chance, even if she was the last one out of the classroom on occasion. The worst part about all of it was that he couldn't hold her back after class anymore, couldn't make sure she still had those strong feelings for him, couldn't do anything other than just look at her and hope that she was still his.
After she had told him about her family situation back in April, that evening he called his older half-brother that worked directly under the state appointed Attorney General, asking him if he was aware that there was a judge in the area imprisoning innocent people and if he was looking into any appeal cases in the same area, that he had an interest in an assault case where the person was sent to jail last year, never telling him the name, just that he was asking for a good reason.
After a little more convincing, his brother said that there were several cases that he was investigating because there were mistakes in the proceedings that had caught his attention, three in his area but only one was for second-degree assault, the others were for minor crimes, but they all had the same judge and the same ruling of guilty even though the charges should have been less severe, and he asked or rather pleaded to be kept in the loop.
When he had gotten a call from his brother the Monday before graduation, letting him know that he was getting the papers signed by another judge regarding the case he had a strange interest in, getting the man released from jail for wrongful imprisonment, he finally asked him if the name was Ledbetter and to hold off on delivering the papers until the day of her graduation so he could make travel arrangements straight to the high school for her commencement.
After the ceremony, he stepped up on the stage, watching from the platform as she was reunited with her father, feeling his heart swell in his chest when he saw the look on her face, knowing she was crying tears of happiness, a slow smile coming to his own face. He brought up her number in his phone and sent her a text message before he stepped off the stage and disappeared in the crowd. When he received the 'thank you' message from her, he had an intense feeling that she was exactly what he said she was going to be. His.
Jacob heard the musical chime of the doorbell echoing through the house and he slowly smiled, popped the last of the grapes in his mouth as he dropped his bare feet to the brick floor and stood up, walking through the open French doors into the kitchen and through the rotunda to the foyer, opening the front door as he braced his arm on the jamb, staring down at Madison as she looked up at him with those baby blue eyes, looking more beautiful than she ever had before.