“You’re just figuring that out now?” I scoff. “You know they’re bound to find or sooner or later, right? Dad works with Maddison Lockhart’s father and she’s the biggest gossip in school. She’ll tell her friend, Heidi who’s Lisa Hutchington’s daughter, and the whole world will know after that. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Great,” mom groans. “Just what I need.”
“Come on,” I tell her. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I was thinking today that maybe this could be a good thing. Now’s the time to go out and do all the things that you’ve always wanted to do. I mean, I know you always wanted to take a dance class but dad would never go with you.”
“While it all sounds good,” mom says as Jesse comes back in with three glasses of wine, “But there’s just one flaw in your idea. I’m still missing a partner.”
Trish smirks. “Take Jesse. God knows he could use something like that.”
His eyes narrow as he looks at us. “What the hell is going on?”
Absolute joy fills me as I allow myself to be the one to break the news. “You just volunteered to take my mom to a dance class. Once a week.”
“What?” he says with wide eyes before looking to my mom and letting out a sigh. “What kind of dance?”
“Ballroom,” she informs him.
“Shit,” he groans under his breath before pressing his lips together. “Fine.”
Trish and I look at each other in confusion before looking back at Jesse, trying to work out why the hell that was so easy. Though, I figure it out pretty quickly, unlike everyone else in the room.
I hear the garage door opening, telling me that Nate’s home and get to my feet as mom claps her hands together in excitement. “Really?” she asks him. “You’ll actually partner with me?”
“Yeah,” he says. “But you can’t tell anyone.”
“You got it,” mom laughs as I grab Jesse and haul him away from my mother. “Oh, honey,” mom says, stopping me from pulling Jesse away. I look back with a questioning gaze to find mom rummaging through her purse. “I stopped by the police station to get an update on the break in, and unfortunately there’s still nothing. It looks like this one is going to go unsolved.”
“Really?” I grunt as a wave of disappointment flutters through me.
“Yeah,” she sighs before holding her hand out. I look down and find a set of keys. “I had the locks changed,” she informs me. “You know, just in case.”
“Oh, good idea,” I say, reaching out and taking the keys from her. “Thanks,” I smile before latching onto Jesse’s arm once again. Mom nods as though she’s just offered me the world and I turn away, dragging Jesse along.
Jesse and I walk out to the garage and I do my best to put those thoughts to the back of my mind. I mean, I have something a little more important to deal with right now. So, we step into the garage and I gently close the door before slamming Jesse up against it and getting up in his face. “I know what you’re up to,” I warn him. “And you can forget it.”
A grin rips across his boyishly handsome face. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re not sleeping with my mom,” I demand as I point my finger into his chest and probably stomp my foot. “If you even think about getting her in bed, I’m going to rip your balls out your throat and pulverise them.”
“Sorry,” he laughs. “She’s on my bucket list and once you’re on it, there’s only one way to get off it.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I hear Nate question from behind me.
I ignore him and narrow my eyes on his whore of a little brother. “I know you have this little rivalry with your brother. Like what he has to do, you have to do to, but this is taking it too far.”
Nate reaches for my arm and pulls me away from Jesse. “Ok, really? What the hell is going on here?” Nate asks, grabbing my shoulder and forcing me to turn to face him.
I let out a huff. “Your brother is going to try and seduce my mom.”
“What?” Nate laughs. “Let him try. You know he won’t get anywhere.”
“But that’s the problem,” I groan. “He will. Mom is going to get lonely without dad. She’s been drunk every night this week and we just caught our moms checking out the pool boy.”
“What?” he grunts in distaste as Jesse coughs under his breath that I was getting in on the action too.
“Yeah, not to mention, Jesse has just become mom’s dance partner.” Nate’s eyes widen but I keep on with my rant. “Mom is vulnerable and hurting, and she’s looking for a way to forget. What better way than wild teenage sex?”