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“Oh my God. Why so violent?”
“It’s so dumb. Two kids got suspended a few weeks ago ‘cause Troy hit Gabe too hard, and he fell and cut himself on the edge of something. So now you’re not supposed to do it. But they still do.”
Jessica shook her head. “I’m sorry to say, it’s gonna take a while for the boys to start acting like humans again. Some of ‘em never really make it back.”
“They dab for life,” Cara lamented solemnly.
“They dab for life, definitely.” Jessica looked up and crossed herself.
Cara giggled.
This Jessica had gotten Cara to laugh. Brent realized that he hadn’t heard Cara laugh in quite a while. And as Brent finished reading through the paperwork, Cara laughed twice more and started talking about her lacrosse season.
Brent could only stare. For the first time in ages, Cara sounded like a normal ten-year-old girl. It was unsettling to realize that Ms. Ramirez may have been partially correct; he didn’t entirely know what was going on with Cara.
“Tell me, Jessica.” Brent strolled over to the sofa as he tucked the papers back into the envelope. “How much is Billings paying you?”
“What?” Jessica tilted her head to the side.
“I’ll double it. No more running around town, fooling around with silly errands.” Brent toyed with the envelope, running his finger along the side. “What do you say?”
Jessica shifted on the sofa and looked up at him curiously. “I dunno. It’s a little sudden. I think Mr. Billings might wonder about you poaching his errand girl.”
“Allen and I have known another for a long time. He can forgive me this one trespass.” Brent flashed her a smile. “I need someone to stay with Cara when I’m not available. She’s my world, and you two seem to get along.”
Cara tucked her feet under her. “So, Jess would just hang out with me?”
“For the most part. Today, she could help you with your hair. Tomorrow, she could come to your lacrosse practice and spend the evening with you when you get home.” Brent shrugged. “Then, hopefully, on weekends and days when school is out, she would make sure you don’t have to be alone.”
Cara looked down and played with the end of one of her socks. “It sounds like you’re hiring her to be my friend.”
“The proper word is ‘nanny’,” Brent said. “What do you think, Jessica?”
Cara glanced up at her hopefully, and Brent found himself tensing with anticipation himself.
Chapter Three
Jessica
“Bitch, fill me up!”
Jessica shot a dirty look at her roommate, Ashley, who lounged by the kitchen table with a smug smile on her lips.
“I’m not your intern,” Jessica snapped. She walked by and pushed Ashley’s feet off the table before fetching her harvest grain toast from the toaster.
“You can always use the practice, babe.” Ashley smiled sweetly.
Jessica pursed her lips, then took out two mugs and poured coffee into each one.
She frowned as she blew on the coffee, her grumpy demeanor not entirely due to the ungodly hour. Ashley, damn her, hadn’t even gone to bed yet, but Jessica had to be up and at work by 7:00 a.m. If she had gotten the internship at the San Diego Zoo – which she had wanted, which would’ve actually been applicable to her degree – she might not have minded getting up at the ass crack of dawn quite so much.
As it was, she was headed to a boring office job, and to add insult to the injury of being rejected from the job she wanted, this office job was really just working for her dad.
Jessica loved her dad, she did, but she’d rather spend time with him binge-watching cooking challenge shows while splitting a nice red wine. He had convinced her, though, that she really had to get some real experience, something she could put on a resume, before she graduated next spring.
So, she nursed her coffee as she stumbled around the apartment and attempted to make something presentable of herself. She’d laid her outfit out the evening before: a vertically striped button-up blouse and a below the knee pencil skirt. Her wardrobe ranged from a few going out dresses to study-wear, so she was going to have to get creative for a five-day-a-week job arrangement.
“You look marvelish!” Ashley said, making a kissy face.
Jessica pulled her hair into a bun on top of her head. “Are you still drunk?”
“Jealish?”
“I’m jealous of you getting to stay home today, but your liver is probably jealous of mine right now.”
She should’ve known better than to get an apartment off campus with a couple of her sorority sisters. Ashley wasn’t too bad most of the time. But the concept of a regular daily schedule was beyond her willful actress’ spirit. Jessica turned to the mirror on the back of her bedroom door to give herself one last check.
