Wrong for You (Before You #3)(12)

If Alec still had the ability to blush, he would have. Shamelessly prying or even caring enough to pry wasn’t his thing. What she did during her free time wasn’t his business, but he hated the idea that she might have a date, or even worse, a boyfriend. It shouldn’t matter, but his mind had other ideas and it suddenly became imperative to know more about the woman who fascinated him more than he wanted to admit. “Not prying, just making conversation.”

She sealed her plastic bag and dropped it into her backpack. “I’m tutoring.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I tutor Dean every other Saturday.”

At his blank look, she added, “He’s one of the kids from the Foundation.” She cocked her head to the side. “Have you met any of the kids yet?”

“No.” And if it were up to him, he wouldn’t. At first he wanted to introduce the kids at the Foundation to music like one of the counselors had done for him as a teenager, but now that he had woven so many half-truths about his job and his life, he couldn’t risk any of the kids recognizing him.

“Do you want to?”

“I think I’ll stick to fundraising,” he prevaricated.

“Dean’s a good kid, really smart. He’s fallen behind school, but that only because his mom works the nightshift and he ends up taking care of his sister most of the time.” She pulled her water bottle out of her backpack and took a long sip. A few drops slid down her lips to her chin. “Do you want some?”

“No. I’m okay right now.” He brushed the droplets from her lips and chin and wished, not for the first time, he could taste her lips as they slid against his.

She shrugged, sliding the bottle into the side pocket of her backpack. “I promised to tutor him in math and if his grades improve, he wants to apply for a scholarship to a private high school for his senior year.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

“Yeah. If he gets a college education, he could really help his mom and his sister and give them some stability.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility for a young kid.” He handed her his bag of berries.

“I know, but we can’t always choose our path in life—we just have to try to make the best of the bad choices.”

“I guess,” Alec mused. He thought he made a good decision when he left Taylor home with his mom to chase his dream to be in a band. Ultimately, it all worked out and now he could help Taylor as much as she needed. Sometimes, though, he couldn’t help wondering how much those years hurt Taylor. All evidence to the contrary, he always thought his mom would take better care of Taylor when he left. After all, Taylor was her daughter with her beloved husband while his was the product of an affair that ruined the family. If he wasn’t in his mom’s face every day reminding her of her mistakes, he thought she might pull herself together. She didn’t. Things only got worse. His mom’s addiction spiraled even further into the rabbit hole, and Taylor…well, f*ck. He didn’t know if he could live with himself if he knew everything that happened to her after he walked out of their lives.

Violet studied him for a few moments, then she dusted off her backpack and looped her arms through the straps. “Are you ready to head back?”

Not really. He liked escaping to some area in the mountains that barely had a name and he didn’t have much of anything to do until Monday. He didn’t have any friends left from his high school days and he certainly didn’t have any family he wanted to visit. “Sure thing. I wouldn’t want you to disappoint Dean.”

He watched her face in profile as she laughed. She pushed the low hanging branches to the side as she made her way back to the trail. “He’ll probably be more disappointed if I show up. I’m interrupting his weekend to study math, of all subjects.”

His eyes swept her perfectly proportioned body and the delicate lines of her face. Somehow he knew any teenager worth a damn would have a pretty sizeable crush on Violet. In fact, Dean probably was looking forward to math for the first time in his life. “Oh, I don’t know about that. It’s probably the highlight of his weekend.”

“And what exactly are you implying?” she asked, leaning into his shoulder, shoving him as they walked side by side down the trail.

“That math isn’t so bad when the tutor looks like you.”

She looked away quickly, but he could still see the blush racing up her neck and the side of her face.

“Did I embarrass you?” he asked when she didn’t respond.

“A little,” she admitted.

He smiled inwardly. Most women ate up his compliments and begged for more. “Good time for a change of subject,” he suggested.

“Yep.”

“Okay. Since you’re busy tonight, when do you want to make the muffins?”

“Tomorrow. Ten in the morning.”

“I’m free,” he answered almost too quickly.

“Your place.”

“Why my place?”

“So you have to clean up the mess.”

“Do I need to buy the ingredients, too?” he asked.

Nibbling on her lip, she mulled over his question for a moment. “I’ll get the ingredients. You get the mess.”

“Somehow, I think I got the downside of that bargain, but tomorrow morning it is.” And damn, if he wasn’t looking forward to spending a morning cooking with Little Violet. He wanted to sink into her softness and bask in her goodness for just a little while. Was it wrong to want something he shouldn’t? He didn’t know any longer, but he didn’t want to let her slip through his fingers without tasting her at least one time.