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“Uh… is six o’clock okay?”
“Okay,” she says with a curt nod. “Goodnight, Mr. Brenner.”
“Logan,” I remind her. She looks at me and flashes a tiny smile that makes my privates give an extra twitch.
“Okay, Logan.”
“Great,” I say, and exhale a relieved breath. Better. Much better. “See you then. Thanks.”
In a blink she’s gone, the door swinging closed behind her. I move to the window to watch her curvy form jog away from me and over to the large house next door. It occurs to me a student likely isn’t living on her own in a place like that. She must have roommates. If so, I hoped they all weren’t as much of a knockout as she is. I’d be a dead man in no time, having to jerk off every time one of them so much as looked over the fence.
But my hopeful cock retreats to stand-by mode as I consider the other likelihood—she’s still living with her parents. Now I really feel like a lecherous shit, practically bribing a young girl, luring her out from under the watchful eyes of Mom and Dad with a piece of candy. But I really do need a sitter tomorrow, and I don’t want to ask Lila. She won’t approve of where I’m going.
I’d told a white lie; it’s not a business dinner, but it does involve some unfinished business. And unlike Quinn, it’s with the last person I ever want to see again. The last person I ever want Rose to see again. I wonder if I’ll even recognize her after all this time. Four years could change a lot of things, but I doubted it had changed Jolene; at least not for the better. I’d closed my heart at the same moment she’d closed the door on me… on us. Me and Rose. And I never planned to open it again.
But no matter how thick the barrier, a sliver of light can still seep in. The warm sunny kind, like the light reflecting off Quinn’s crown of golden hair right now, that tricks you into thinking it’s springtime again; lures you into opening it just that little crack. Only to be met with the bitter wind of betrayal and loneliness. No. That door has to stay bolted and barred.
I’m no spring chicken. And I never want to experience another winter of being abandoned by the very people who should have been my shelter. First my mother, then the mother of my child. Hadn’t two killing touches of frost been enough to deaden the seeds of hope and trust? Bury them so deep no ray of sunshine or drop of moisture could reach them?
I can deny it all I want, but I’ve worked outdoors in the elements long enough to know I can’t fight nature. Maybe the old saying is true. Hope springs eternal.
Chapter Five
Quinn
Adventures in Babysitting
“God, I’m sure I flunked.”
Rochelle turns to me as we exit the lecture room, a look of incredulity on her dark-skinned face. “Oh, come on. You? Miss Study Hall? It’s the first quiz of the semester. We’ve barely covered anything. How could you possibly flunk?”
“I dunno, I just don’t feel good about how I did. I didn’t study as much as I should have,” I say, shaking my head. It’s true. Ever since that damn moving van pulled up next door, my concentration’s gone to shit.
“Why not?” Rochelle asks, her fro locks bouncing as we walk. “Don’t tell me you actually have something else on your mind. I can’t even pry you away from your books with the promise of free beer, for Christs’ sake.”
“You know I don’t even like beer,” I remind her.
“Hmf,” Rochelle snorts, fixing me with her narrowed, dark chocolate eyes. “You know you’re an abomination, don’t you, Quinnie? A college student who doesn’t drink beer, and is still a virgin. You’re a freak of nature.”
I wince, but I’ve learned to embrace Rochelle’s blunt but well-meaning insults. They’re all part of the exuberant, outspoken personality that’s my best friend, and she looks out for me in her own no-punches-pulled way. She’s brash, loud, overtly sexy, and no blushing virgin like me. I wished I could be more like her. At my age, my virgin state has almost become a liability. “As opposed to you, who’s just a regular freak?” I tease.
“Superfreak, if you don’t mind,” she says, poking me in the arm. “Seriously, what’s eatin’ you, girl?”
As we leave the building and stroll across the grassy common, I try to put my thoughts and feelings into words that won’t send her into fits of laughter. I’m still embarrassed by the events of yesterday, and even more embarrassed to speak of them, but I have to confide in someone. Who better to tell than my best friend?
I motion Rochelle off the path and under the shade of a big tree nearby. “I did something incredibly stupid yesterday,” I say, lowering my voice even though we’re out of earshot of the many students passing by. “Really embarrassing, and I don’t know what to do.”
Rochelle sets her backpack down on the grass and lowers herself to sit cross-legged beside it, beckoning me to do the same. “Sugar, this sounds like it might take awhile. C’mon, take a load off. Next class isn’t for an hour.”
I sigh and sit next to her under the tree. “I met someone yesterday.”
“Oh, hell no. Let me call CNN. Who?”
“My new next-door neighbor. His name’s Logan.”
“Mmm, I take it he’s hot? What’s the problem?”
“He’s got a kid, A little girl.”
