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“It’s been completely refurbished.”
“Maybe I just didn’t want to tempt you. My breasts are gorgeous, as you now know.”
His gaze is riveted on my face, then moves over my body slowly. My heart jolts with the smoldering flame I see in his eyes. It startles me. It’s as if he agrees with my statement.
“Is this because I said you were desirable last night?”
“No,” I answer him like it’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. “It was aSchitt’s Creekthing. You wouldn’t understand.”
“You and I can’t happen.”
I resist the urge to punch him in the balls. “Are we really at this again?”
He gives me a pointed glare. “Just checking.”
“For the record, I wouldn’t send you a naked pic if you were the last man on earth. You don’t deserve to see these breasts. You wouldn’t even know what to do with these gorgeous things.”
“You sure about that?” he challenges.
By the cockiness in his tone, I’m not so sure I am. Like I said before, Rob can be nice, but he’s also so damn mean at times that he probably knows all the right and the very wrong things to do with a woman’s body.
I’m suddenly feeling very warm in my sweater.
“Enjoy your day,” he croons with a wink as he takes the lunch I packed for him, pops a piece of cantaloupe into his mouth, and strolls out of the kitchen.
Molly walks into the kitchen soon after. “You’re gonna want to change. Your face is bright red. Way too hot for a sweater.”
I couldn’t agree more.
* * *
Molly and I drop Jesse off at driver’s ed and are told to come back for him in four hours. While he’s learning how to man the road, us girls go shopping in the small-town shops that line this rural town. It’s a short row of stores, yet it reminds me of my hometown of Newbury. There’s something special about these villages. People are friendlier, neighbors look out for one another, and there are always the best ice cream shops.
I make Molly cross the street a few times on her own, watching as she sprints like a lunatic. I send her across and back to me until she’s walking with her head looking both ways, yet not charging for the sidewalk like her pants are on fire. I also have her pay for our purchases because the child never has to use money for anything. Yes, she knows how to count currency from school, but the idea of handing a cashier a fifty and getting change back is foreign to her. As a reward, I tell her to keep the change.
Molly and I are sitting on a bench, enjoying chocolate cones, talking about ten-year-old happenings, when we see a car drive by with a familiar brunette boy with upside-down romaine lettuce hair in the passenger seat. The interesting thing about seeing Jesse in the car is that I’m pretty sure that is not a driver’s ed vehicle.
“Come with me.” I usher Molly and walk quickly toward my car that’s parked on a side street.
She jogs behind me. “Where are we going?”
“I just saw your brother, and I don’t think it was in a driver’s ed car.”
“How do you know?”
“One, he wasn’t driving. Two, there wasn’t signage on it. Usually, there’s some sort of sticker or a license plate that lets you know a student driver is inside.”
Molly gets into the passenger side. “Are you sure?”
“Nope, but I have a feeling I’ve been out-snaked by Jesse, who isn’t at driver’s ed, like he said he would be.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because that’s what I would have done.” I put the car in drive and then turn to her. “Don’t judge.”
I drive down the street toward the direction the car drove in. It was a beige Honda that had four teenagers inside, no adults. I look up the road and down some side streets, searching for the car. I spot it entering the drive-through line of a fast-food chain. While it sits in line, I park my car and get out.
“Stay here,” I order Molly.
