She loops her arm through mine as we walk to the end of the hall where the staircase is. “Is tomorrow your last day with Maggie?”
“Don’t remind me.” I haven’t updated her on the job situation, so I tell her about Jack and Sienna as we make our way to the bottom floor. “It’ll be on a trial basis at first, but I’m hopeful.” I leave out the part where his hair is always mussed in a sexy kind of way and the veins that run along his forearms are probably considered public indecency in at least seven different countries.
“Get some cinnamon.”
I side-eye her. I’m convinced she has witch lineage. I decide to humor her, per usual. “Forwhat?”
“To blow through your door next week. On the first.” She is matter of fact, like I’m the one who’s strange for not knowing. “For good luck and to channel abundance. You could use it.”
She means the situation with my parents, not just because I’m starting a new job in a few weeks. Every day that passes adds another layer of unease; wondering whether today is the day I’ll get the call that my mother has passed or something near equally horrendous in regard to answers about my father’s murder. I try not to let it show that any of this eats at me, but Kruz can read me.
“Someone needs to blow cinnamon through my limbic system the first of every month.” I laugh at my joke, but she’s unimpressed.
We say our goodbyes, and I set off down the path that leads into town, heading toward Maggie's house to pick up Kronk. A sudden gust of wind cuts through my clothes and I wrap my arms around myself. The cold bites at my cheeks, causing my eyes to water.
I feel it again—like I’m being watched—and it makes me question if maybe the ghost stories are true. Something scrapes at the surface of my thoughts, a small voice—a whisper that tells me to run.
I am logical above all else, even when my mind betrays me like this, which I can’t say has happened often until recently. I look at myself from an outside perspective, analyzing my thoughts and behavior. This is stress, nothing more. And this paranoia comes from my subconscious—the part of me that sneaks up out of nowhere from time to time and feels guilty and anxious that I’m still unwilling to have much of anything to do with my mother even after everything recently.
I remind myself she’s not dying because of me. She’s dying because she has a buildup of amyloid proteins in her kidneys,and the fact that she is dying does not change our relationship or her past decisions.
Or the fact that she’s never shown any remorse.
I shove the unwarranted panic somewhere deep down and keep walking because there’s one thing I’m sure of: I don’t intend to answer whatever it is that whispers.
5
I’M EITHER REALLY STUPID OR REALLY FUCKING SMART
JACK
I hadmy suspicions that Quinn was who I thought she was the moment I laid eyes on her being all but dragged across the food court by her dog—which was actually pretty adorable if I am being completely honest.
I had briefly hoped that I’d crossed paths with another single parent, but when she divulged the fact that she was Maggie’s nanny, that solidified to me that she was the very person whose name has been on everyone’s lips for the last month.
Longer, actually.
I’d heard the rumors about her losing her job with the Kaplan family and was honestly pretty surprised to see that she had Maggie with her. That’s what threw me off at first.
Iknewit was a bad idea to engage, to go as far as I did by not only agreeing to have lunch with her butwiththe intention of offering her a job.
Knew, but didn’t fucking care.
She’s a student. I am a professor.
Nothing good can come of this.
Of course, she’s worked for other professors—but I imagine none of them were so viscerally attracted to her in such a scary way.
And the fact that Quinn Ivor comes with baggage these days…concerningbaggage was something that I couldn’t seem to find it within myself to care very much about while I was trying to convince my blood how very bad of a time it was to rush to my cock.
In the middle of the outdoor food court.
In front of the student center.
Surrounded by a huge chunk of both our peers.
I mean it wasn’t like a full on erection, nothing weird. Just a little twitch.
