Trace + Olivia Series Boxed Set (104 page)

Rolling her eyes at me she stuffed the last of the toast in her mouth and sauntered out of the kitchen. I feared the teenage years with that one.

“Row, can you brush my teeth for me?” Tristan asked, wiping his hands on a paper napkin.

“Sure,” I ruffled his hair.

Raising Ivy and Tristan had been a lot to take on, but they were worth it. I didn’t understand how anyone could abandon their kids the way my mom had. But alcohol would always be the most important thing to her.

After I helped Tristan brush his teeth it was time to get them in the car and drive them to school. Since I was either in class or working I was never able to pick them up, but I felt it was important that I at least drive them there.

“Ooh! Ooh! Turn it up, Row! I love this song!” Ivy chanted, bouncing in the back seat.

I sighed and turned the volume up.
Royals
by Lorde began to play and I was tempted to plug my ears. They played that song all the time and it was annoying. Why did radio stations insist on playing the same song over and over again? I mean, really?

“And we’ll never be royals,”
Ivy sang along to the song. I had to agree with the lyrics though. I didn’t see how we’d ever be anything other than lower class, no matter how hard I might be trying to get to the top.

I pulled into the school’s parking lot and circled around to the drop-off line.

“Have a good day!” I forced a cheerful tone as they got out of the car.

They said goodbye and then I was pulling away and driving across town to the university campus. It was nothing fancy, but it sufficed, and it was certainly expensive enough. I had the school loans to prove it. I was taking classes that might help me get into their nursing program. I was banking on getting accepted into it. If I didn’t—well, I’d rather not think about it.

I parked in my usual spot in the back of the parking lot. I liked the walk. It allowed me to clear my head.

“Hey!”

I turned and found myself smiling as Jude jogged towards me. I didn’t know how we’d ended up friends, but somehow we clicked. He was tall with brown eyes and light stubble dotting his jaw. His straight brown hair fell messily over his forehead in a way that was effortlessly sexy. His long-sleeved green shirt hugged his muscular chest and jeans hung dangerously low on his hips. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to Jude, but what I felt for Trent was so much more—even if I insisted on denying it.

Jude wrapped his muscular arms around my torso and spun me around.

“Put me down!” I shrieked, beating his solid chest with my mitten covered hands.

“I missed you, Row,” he grinned crookedly and planted a kiss on my cheek.

“You saw me yesterday,” I replied, running my fingers through my hair after he’d set me down.

“So? I still missed you,” he smirked, striding beside me.

“I didn’t miss you,” I looked up at him, fighting a smile.

“What?” He gasped, putting a hand to his chest. “How could you not miss me? Most women
wished
I missed them, and here you are wounding me for professing my feelings. Nice, Rowan. Real nice.”

“Oh please,” I laughed, adjusting the straps of my backpack as we crossed from the parking lot onto the sidewalk. “We both know you were banging some girls brains out last night.”

“True,” he winked. “Could’ve been you,” he chuckled.

I pretended to gag. “No thanks.”

“Are you a lesbian or something?” He joked. “I’ve never met a straight female that didn’t want to hop on this and take a ride,” he stopped walking and rolled his hips in a vulgar manner.

“Not a lesbian,” I shook my head, “just not into man whores.”

“Baby, for you I’d change my ways,” he threw an arm over my shoulder and hugged me against him. A girl passed us and glared at me. She had to be one of Jude’s many conquests.

“And ruin our wonderful friendship? I think not,” I removed his arm from my shoulders.

“That’s true,” he scratched his stubbled jaw. “I really value our friendship.”

“Sure you do,” I rolled my eyes, heading into the building.

“I do,” he assured me, his voice suddenly serious.

We headed into the same classroom and he sat down in the seat beside me. It amazed me that Jude—womanizer, playboy,
Jude
—was studying to be a nurse. I’d think he’d be too selfish for that. But while I might joke about his slutty ways, Jude was a nice guy… to me at least. He was also caring and compassionate. Once, when we’d been working at a hospice, I’d seen him spend an hour just talking to one of the older ladies.

Jude propped his legs on the empty chair in front of him, crossing his legs at the ankle. Our classrooms were auditorium style, which I hated because that meant that the table attached to my chair was less than adequate workspace.

“Professor Hamilton is going to be pissed if he comes in here and sees your shoes on the seat,” I warned.

“I don’t give a fuck,” he shrugged, eyeing one of the girls in the classroom. When she caught his gaze he licked his lips suggestively.

I kicked the legs of his chair and he glared at me. “What the fuck, Rowan?”

“Sorry, I couldn’t control myself,” I shrugged innocently. “I have muscle spasms.”

“Yeah, right,” he rolled his eyes and let his feet drop to the ground. “You disturbed my mojo.”

“Your mojo?” I raised a brow.

“Yeah,” he grinned. “Are you jealous or something?”

“Hardly,” I propped my head on my hand, wishing the professor would hurry up and get here already, “I was trying not to throw up in my mouth.”

He leaned back in the chair, his eyes sparkling with barely contained laughter. “You amuse me.”

“Is that why you keep me around?” I replied. I was used to this banter with Jude. It’s how our strange friendship worked.

“I keep you around because you’re hot and it makes other guys think I’m not checking out their girlfriends,” he said with a straight face and I knew he was being serious.

“Thanks, that makes me feel really good,” I shook my head, trying not to laugh.

“Aw, Row,” he brushed my long hair over my shoulder, “you know I love you.”

“I know,” I smiled at him.

“Good,” he leaned forward, drumming his fingers on the table. Jude was the kind of person that couldn’t sit still to save himself. Sometimes that really irritated me since I was a quiet person by nature. I honestly didn’t understand how we’d become friends. We’d met our freshman year at the university. He’d sat down beside me, flirting shamelessly, and I—of course—shut down his advances. From that moment on, he became my only other friend besides Tatum. “We should go out tonight,” he suggested. I glared, so he added, “As friends of course.”

“I can’t. I’m working, you know that,” I sighed.

“You’re always working,” he grumbled, “when do you have time to just… chill?”

“Never,” I answered without hesitation.

“That fucking sucks,” he rubbed his hands over his face and stifled a yawn.

“It’s called life.”

“You deserve a break, everyone does,” he commented.

“I don’t have time for breaks,” I shrugged, pulling a pencil out of my backpack and a notebook. “It is what it is.”

He opened his mouth to argue but the professor finally decided to make an appearance—ten minutes late I might add.

I turned away from Jude and set about taking notes.

I was running late and I
hated
being late, but I had gotten stuck in traffic thanks to a train passing through town.

I ran into the library bathroom and locked myself in the wheelchair accessible stall. I changed out of the clothes I’d worn to class and into my work clothes, stuffing my jeans and sweater into my backpack so I could change into them again after my shift ended.

I opened the stall door, washed my hands, and jogged down the hall to the backroom where we stored our stuff.

I ran back up to the front—winded at this point—and stopped in front of Mary, the head librarian. She was an older lady, in her sixties, with short gray hair. She was one of the kindest people I knew, but I hated to disappoint her by being late, especially since she was the one who had hired me.

“I’m so sorry I’m late,” I gasped.

She looked at me for a moment and her eyes flicked over to the clock on the desk. “You’re two minutes late,” she stated.

“I know, and I’m really—”

“Shush, child,” she lowered her reading glasses, “I hardly constitute this as
late
, besides, you’re usually early. Don’t worry about it.”

“But—”

She raised a brow and the look in her eyes silenced me. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Rowan. Now quit wasting my time with your apologies and put those books back on the shelves,” she pointed to a cart full of books.

“I’m on it,” I assured her, taking the cart and grabbing the first book.

“And Rowan?” She called before I was out of earshot.

“Yeah?” I turned to look at her.

“If you’re late again, don’t apologize. Just get to work,” she smiled kindly.

“Sure thing.”

I started the mindless job of replacing the books on the shelves. I loved being surrounded by books. They were the only thing in my life that always managed to make me happy. Reading allowed me to escape from my shitty life, even if it was only for a few hours. It was nice to… disappear for a while.

Before I knew it, the cart was empty. I rolled it back and there was another waiting for me.

By the time I finished the library was closed.

“Are you staying to study?” Mary asked, handing me the envelope with my check in it.

Technically I wasn’t allowed to stay after hours, but Mary trusted me and didn’t mind.

“No,” I shook my head, frowning. I
really
needed to study and get my homework done since I had trouble doing it at home, but I needed to stop by the grocery store and get some food. I knew my mom wouldn’t have bothered to make Tristan and Ivy anything to eat—even if she tried there wasn’t any food in the house. “I have to go to the store.”

“Oh, okay then,” Mary smiled and patted my arm as she flicked off the light on the desk.

“I’m going to change,” I told her, already heading toward the backroom to grab my bag.

“I’ll wait for you, sweetie,” she shrugged into her winter coat.

“No, no, you go on ahead,” I assured her with a wave of my hand.

“Don’t be silly,” she pulled on gloves.

“Mary,” I stopped with a hand on the door. “I leave here by myself a lot of nights. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Don’t be stubborn now, young lady,” Mary warned.

“Alright,” I sighed, “give me a minute.”

I changed out of my clothes in record speed and met Mary at the front. She closed the large library doors behind us and locked them. The library was located in a historical part of town and first opened it’s doors in nineteen-thirteen. It was massive and one of the most beautiful buildings I’d ever seen.

Mary and I walked down the sidewalk and over to parking lot. I waved goodbye and got behind the wheel of my ancient—but reliable—Honda Civic.

I was exhausted, but my day was far from over. I still needed to stop by the local Wal-Mart to get groceries before I went home. I’d have to deposit my check first thing in the morning so I didn’t get a bill for overdrawing my account. That would majorly suck.

The parking lot was packed, even at six in the evening. I ended up having to park all the way in the back of the parking lot, which sucked since it was so cold out and my lightweight coat did little to protect me from the frigid wind and snow flurries. My long legs carried me quickly into the store. I grabbed a shopping cart and pulled the grocery list from my pocket.

My first stop was to get frozen lasagna. I would have rather gotten the ingredients to make it homemade, but it was far too expensive. I was used to living on a budget. I swung by and grabbed a package of deli turkey before heading down the bread aisle. I scanned the prices, looking for whatever was cheapest. Ivy and Tristan had learned early on that we couldn’t afford to be picky. Whatever was the lowest price was what we ate.

I bent down and scanned the lowest shelf. “Aha,” I mumbled under my breath when I found what I wanted.

“I never knew bread was so interesting.”

The hairs on my spine stood on end.

No. Freaking. Way.

I stood slowly, the plastic bag that held the bread was clasped tightly in my hand. I turned, shaking slightly, and my eyes connected with Trent’s.

“Evening, Row,” he smiled cockily, tilting his head. He was dressed casually in jeans and a black leather jacket with a baseball cap perched on his head.

“What are you doing here?”

Shit. I’d said the exact same thing when he’d shown up at the library. I really needed to stop talking around him.

“Getting bread, obviously.” Looking at me, he reached out and grabbed a random bag of bread. Several other loaves tumbled to the floor, but neither of us moved to pick them up.

“Obviously,” I whispered, at a loss for words. I looked behind me, hoping for a means of escape, but running away—again—would have been childish.

“Mind if I walk with you?” He asked, smiling crookedly.