Chapter Four
Emma
I ’d heard him.
Did he hear me?
“Aww, June really likes you.”
I jerk my brain back to the present and meet Ava Blakely’s warm stare. “She’s a cutie. Aren’t you?”
June hands me another Barbie doll. I place it next to the five others she’s already given me.
“I don’t need to ask Quinn,” Ava says with a grin. “You’re hired. The others I interviewed all lacked something I couldn’t put my finger on. Whatever it is, you got it. Even little June knows that.”
My heart leaps in my chest. When I’d shown up at Ava’s house a half hour ago after school, I’d been intimidated. Their house is massive and stunning. They live on the fancy side of town. Everything in their house has a place. Despite having several little kids, there are no messes.
“Thank you,” I say, smiling back at my new boss. “I’m pretty flexible like I said before. Aside from school and track, I can be here whenever you need me. Holidays and weekends too.”
“And we’re certainly going to take you up on that.” Her phone buzzes and she looks down at it. “Can you watch her a second? My husband is with the boys getting haircuts and he said I need to call him ASAP.”
She hurries out of the room, her voice turning concerned as she calls him. I chat with June, even though she’s a toddler and doesn’t know many words, but my mind keeps drifting to this morning.
After our run, I was buzzing with need for Reid. So much so, I’d rubbed at my clit while I showered. I tried to hold in my orgasm, but I know I made sounds. When I shut off the water, the house was so quiet. I swear I heard him breathing outside the bathroom door.
What does he think about me?
Is he disgusted by me?
I’d been fretting over having to face him on the way to school, but then Brayden showed up saying his dad asked him to run me up there.
Oh God.
What if Reid knows what I was up to?
I’d be embarrassed and want to avoid me too. I can’t believe I did that. Ugh.
June brings me more of her toys. Apparently, this has turned into a game for us. I line each thing up beside the next on the couch beside me. Maybe this job is exactly what I need to get my mind off my mom’s boyfriend.
My phone buzzes from my purse in my lap.
Mom: I can pick you up after your interview. I’m down the street cleaning but am almost done.
Guilt surges through me.
Me: I’m almost finished up here. See you soon.
Ava returns as I tuck my phone away. She’s shaking her head, a silly grin on her lips. “Sorry about that. He made it sound like it was an emergency.”
She holds her phone so that I can see a picture of her boys. They have matching bowl cuts and toothless grins. The haircuts are awful. The man also in the picture is older, extremely handsome, and scowling.
“They’re cute,” I say, because they are.
Ava giggles. “Quinn is not happy.”
“That’s your husband? He’s…” I trail off, feeling embarrassed. “Um, sorry. I thought you were close to my age.”
“We are the true definition of an age gap,” she says knowingly. “People ask him all the time if I’m his daughter or if the kids are his grandchildren. It makes him crazy. Not crazy enough to divorce me.”
“And he’s good to you? ”
She beams. “Treats me like a queen.”
Because I can’t help it, I blurt out, “I’m crushing on an older man. Sorry, that’s TMI, I know. I just…I don’t know. This makes it not feel so out of reach.”
Her smile falls and her eyebrows knit together.
“Trust me. I understand the appeal of a man who has experience and his life together. But…” She studies me for a beat and then sighs in resignation.
“Promise me you’ll be careful. These tales don’t always end up like mine.
Some men just want a young woman for the sex. Sorry to be brash.”
Tearing my gaze from hers, I nod, hoping not to show my disappointment at her words. I can’t even have the sex part. If only she knew the older man I’m obsessed with was my mom’s boyfriend. I highly doubt she’d want me to babysit her kids. That’s pretty messed up.
“Anyway, I’ve got your number now,” Ava says, “so I’ll shoot you a text the next time we need you. Quinn mentioned wanting to take me out this weekend, so I’ll let you know.”
I tell her and June bye and then slip out of the house to wait for Mom. A few minutes later, she rolls up in her beat-up used car. One of the tires has a donut on it.
“Tire problems?” I ask in greeting as I climb into the car.
“Nail.” She shakes her head in frustration. “I had my client put the donut on for me. It’ll have to do until I can get Reid to buy me a new one.”
Her words needle me. “Why Reid? You’ve been cleaning so much. I would’ve thought you had a lot saved.”
“Of course I do,” she says with a chuckle as she puts the car into drive. “You know Reid, though. He just likes to do manly things like that. If I went off and got my own tire, he’d get his feelings hurt.”
Is she delusional?
“I thought I’d take you to your favorite burger place tonight,” Mom says, reaching over to pat my leg. “I’ve missed you, sweetie. I want to catch up. Tell me about track.”
My stomach growls and I do love my mom, even if she irritates me sometimes. I fill her in on what a hardass Coach Long is and how we’re just in training right now. The season won’t officially start until after the new year.
At the burger place, we order our usual and settle into one of the ancient booths.
I sip my chocolate milkshake and study my mother as she tells me about an extra filthy shower she tackled today.
Her green eyes that match mine always light up and gleam when she speaks passionately about something.
She’s beautiful and kind and works hard.
But she can be flighty and helpless.
At times, manipulative.
I hate that I feel like she uses Reid and every boyfriend before him. No one wants to think of their mother as a hybrid predator and leech, yet that’s exactly what she is.
“I think you should pay for your own tire,” I bite out, interrupting her story. “Sorry, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Her smile falls and her eyebrows push together. The jut of her lip is the pitiful thing she does when she wants you to know you’ve upset her. I force my gaze to my milkshake, so I don’t lose my nerve. She needs tough love. Each time I go to give it to her, though, she ends up crying and I back off.
“I already told you why I won’t do that,” she says, voice wobbly. “Wait, do you think I’m hustling Reid or something?”
I jerk my gaze up to meet her eyes, needing to see the truth in them. Hurt pinches her expression which is a punch to my gut. “What? Uh, no. I just really like it here. Don’t want to mess things up.”
She nods as if she understands. “Reid’s a good man. Way better than your real father. In fact, I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. What’s good for you—for us.”
The milkshake curdles in my stomach.
There’s an undeniable energy crackling between us and I don’t like it. Mom has a “great idea” and those always end badly for us. Since it involves Reid, I really don’t want to hear it.
We’re interrupted when the server brings us our burgers. Mom’s is a veggie burger plain. Mine, on the other hand, is a greasy bacon cheeseburger with all the fixings. I inhale half the burger, juice running down my hand and wrist, in an effort to avoid this inevitable conversation.
“You know I can’t afford to send you to college,” Mom says, giving me a regretful frown. “I’ve been busting my butt to save, but there’s no way I’ll ever come up with that much for tuition.”
My heart tightens in my chest. “Is that why you’ve been working so much?”
Her eyes dart away from mine. “Mmhmm.”
I want to believe her, but I know when she lies. It may be partially true, but there’s more to it, and she doesn’t want to discuss it.
“So,” she continues, poking at her partially eaten burger, “I think I’m going to have to make this a permanent thing for us.”
“I don’t want to go to college,” I mutter, no longer interested in eating. “I’ve told you this before.”
Mom shakes her head, lips thinning out. “And I told you that you have to. I don’t want you to have a life like mine where you have to rely on a man. I’m sorry, but this is non-negotiable for me.”
She’s serious right now.
Unbelievable.
“I can make my own way,” I argue, irritation burning hot through me. “I’ve got this new job and—”
She scoffs at my words. “With that rich couple? Honey, that’s almost worse than having to rely on a man. Those people, once they realize you need their money, will have you doing all sorts of things to make you need them. I swear, people like them get off on that sort of thing.”
Ava was so nice.
Mom is wrong about this like she’s wrong about everything else.
“I have a plan.” My voice slightly shakes, and I swallow down more milkshake to keep myself from crying. “Can’t you just trust me?”
She shakes her head. “I essentially said the same thing to your grandparents after I got pregnant with you. Right after I quit college so I could bartend. I’m not going to let you make the same mistakes as me. College is a must.”
“College that we can’t pay for,” I deadpan. “Makes a lot of sense.”
“Reid told me he’d saved for Brayden to go to college. Now that he’s gone off and ruined his life, Reid has all that money just sitting in a college savings account.”
I gape at her, unsure if I’m even hearing her correctly right now. “What are you even talking about, Mom?”
She tosses her crumpled napkin onto her plate beside her half-eaten burger. “I’m just saying that maybe we make things permanent with him. That’ll ensure your future. I’ll at least have done something right when it comes to you.”
By using Reid?
I’m disgusted that she thinks I’d be okay with her idea to guilt Reid into giving me Brayden’s college fund. I don’t even want to go to stupid college. And now we’re about to drag Reid into our nonsense.
“No,” I clip out. “I won’t allow you.”
Her eyebrows hike up her forehead and she gapes at me. “Just because you’re eighteen now doesn’t mean I won’t ground you, young lady. You’re being incredibly disrespectful right now.”
“Mom—”
“Emma Renee Abrams, just stop. I’ve made my decision. You may as well quit arguing. All it will do is upset me. I really don’t want to cry in front of all these people.”
It’s always about her.
“Mom…”
She holds up a hand and shakes her head. “I’m going to talk to him tonight. Apologize for being distant and absent. I’ll negotiate with him.”
Why is she treating her relationship like a transaction?
“I’ll tell him I’ll stop working so much if…”
The rest of her words are drowned out by the ringing in my ears. I heard them all right, but they’re not registering in my brain. It can’t be real. He wouldn’t agree to that. Why would she suggest such a ridiculous thing?
“You could be my maid of honor.”
The smile in her voice sours her words even further.
I’ll stop working so much if…we get married.
If. We. Get. Married.
And she wants me to be the maid of honor.
She’s not the only one about to cry in the restaurant.
With a few words, she’s completely wrecked my world.