Zandra
One glorious month passed with Kane and I sneaking in as much alone time as humanly possible. One steamy night, we’d even gone so far as to exchange our first “I love yous.” Moving forward at what he considered a traditional speed, we hadn’t been completely upfront with our son.
I did have the sneaking suspicion that Fox was getting wise to us though. He would stare at our clasped hands anytime he found us holding hands, a big grin on his face. He would pay attention when we gave each other modest kisses on the cheeks when we parted ways. But he never asked anything about any of it.
I assumed he just liked the time we all got to spend together, especially when we were doing all the things he’d wanted me to do with them. Going to his practices, games, parent-teacher meetings—doing the things that families would do together. All of those had our son on cloud nine.
When you added in spending every Sunday together, doing various fun things as a family, our son seemed very happy with the way life was going. And I had to admit that I was too. And Kane told me he was happy all the time.
The only bump in our perfect road was my job. Without any real education other than a high school diploma, my job search was severely limited. I’d applied for other jobs, but they all paid minimum wage. I couldn’t live on that, so I was still working at Mynt as a waitress.
To say that Kane wasn’t pleased with that was a huge understatement. “I don’t understand, Zandra,” were his exact words when I told him day after day that I hadn’t found anything yet.
I had tried to explain to him the reasons I was having trouble finding a new job that would be more acceptable for the girlfriend of Dr. Price, not to mention the mother of his child. “Kane, you don’t understand. I really only have Mondays free to go to interviews. Every other weekday I spend most of the day sleeping, catching up on my rest.”
His expression would always become grim then. “Yes, I know that. But what you’re failing to understand is that if you go ahead and get up an hour or two earlier, then you might have time to do an interview each day.”
He had no idea that there just weren’t that many jobs that I was qualified for, that I would even get an interview for. And I didn’t know how to explain it to him without feeling pathetic as hell.
So, there I sat at the café we were to meet at for lunch, as I’d gotten up earlier than usual on a Friday to start trying harder, the way he wanted me to.
The waitress came to refill my coffee. Her dark hair had thick strands of gray in it. “More coffee, doll?”
Nodding, I asked, “Do you mind if I ask you how long you’ve been a waitress?”
She looked all of sixty to me, but I wasn’t about to ask her actual age. “I’ve been a waitress since I was sixteen years old. I got knocked up by a loser in high school. Putting a roof over a kid’s head wasn’t easy when I was a damn kid myself, and all alone, too. All’s I could do was work at the donut shop down the street from my parents’ house. They would watch the baby for me most of the time.”
Her story piqued my interest, since it was somewhat similar to mine. “So, your parents allowed you to keep the baby then?”
“Allowed me?” Her thinly drawn eyebrows rose on forehead. “Like they had a choice. I was having my baby. I didn’t care if Clyde Barker was with me or not. I wanted my baby. And my parents had helped my older sister with hers too, so they were pretty used to it.”
“That’s good of them.” I thought about why my parents couldn’t have done the same for me. And when I thought about all that Kane’s family had done, and the fact that they would’ve helped me then, no matter what, then I felt really miffed. “I wish more parents thought the way yours did.”
“Yeah, they were pretty good to Brittany and me.” She pulled out her cell then showed me a picture of her grown daughter. “That’s her now. She’s a dancer down in Florida. My only child. Some mothers might not be proud of the path she’s taken, but I am very proud of her.”
“Of course, you are,” I said with an air of concern. “Why wouldn’t you be? She’s doing her best, after all.”
“She is.” She put the cell back in her apron pocket. “It ain’t her fault that my parents were killed in a car wreck when she was only two, and we were on our own then. It was right after my high school graduation. They were in a head-on collision with a drunk driver, and our world turned upside down in a matter of a few hours.”
I could not speak. She’d floored me. There I’d been thinking that she’d had help and that things hadn’t been too rough for her. Not nearly as rough as things had been on me, I’d thought. In one fell swoop, she’d changed it all up.
Shaking her head, she poured coffee into my cup. I finally found my voice again, “So, what did you two do then?”
The way her eyes glazed over made my heart hurt. “We went to live with my older sister. Her husband raped me one night. I grabbed my baby girl and hauled ass away from there as fast as I could. I ended up in a woman’s shelter.”
“I hope that asshole got what he deserved,” I said with indignation threading through my voice.
She only shook her head, making the gray strands flash in the overhead lights. “I didn’t tell a single soul what he’d done to me. I knew my sister wouldn’t believe me. I knew he would say I was a liar. So, I left and knew that it’d just be me and Brittany alone in the world from then on. And I never trusted any man ever again.”
“You never got help?” I felt terrible for her and reached out to touch the back of her hand as she held the glass coffee pot.
Shaking her head, she said, “How can you get help when you refuse to tell anyone what’s happened to you?” Then she looked right at me. Her lips formed a straight line as her dark eyes narrowed. “As a matter of fact, I can’t believe I’ve just told you that. I’ve only ever told a few of my closet friends.” With a huff, she turned and sped away as if I’d done something to force her to tell me her deepest, darkest secret.
With no idea how I could make her feel any better, I thought about my own dilemma. At least I didn’t have anything as dark and evil as that hiding in my past. Everything that’d happened to me was out in the open. At least now it was.
Everything was looking up for me, except the job situation. There could be far worse things in my life holding me back, and I knew that.
When Kane pulled up, he parked in the front right next to my Mustang, which I’d yet to trade for another, more kid-friendly car. Without a new job, how could I make such a change without knowing what my income would be?
Besides, Fox liked that car. He thought it was cool. Kane could get over it. At least for a little while, I thought.
Smiling at me as he entered the café, Kane ignored the gawking young women who stared at him with mouths agape. Women of all ages couldn’t help but gawk at the man—and though it always piqued that jealous side of me, I really couldn’t blame them. He was gorgeous.
He came straight to me, leaning over to kiss me right on the mouth. “Hey, gorgeous.”
“Hey, yourself, handsome.” I pushed a menu to his side of the table as he took a seat across from me in the booth. In the month that we’d spent as an item, I had gotten very comfortable with the man.
“Did you find anything for me to eat here, Zandra?” His eyes scanned the menu.
“I was thinking that grilled chicken salad might be up your alley. And there’s a steak too, but I doubt it’ll be up to your high standards, Dr. Price.” I reached over, moving my fingers over the back of his hand seductively.
“I doubt that too.” He put the menu down. “Grilled chicken salad it is, then.” Taking my hand, he pulled it to his lips, leaving a kiss on it. “I know it’s Friday, but I thought you might call in sick tonight. I’ve got this itch I need you to scratch, and it’s getting really bad.”
Heat filled me. “Another itch, babe? Man. That makes four this week.”
Not an ounce of shame existed in him. He’d come over before I left to go to work each night that week. And now it seemed he wanted the whole night with me.
“My aunt and uncle are taking Fox on a weekend adventure, and it starts right after school today. That means I’ll be home all alone. Home.” He leveled his eyes at me. “In my bed. The bed I hope you’ll share with me one day. The bed I’d like to finally get you into, if just for one night or two.” He winked at me. “Better yet, call in sick Friday and Saturday. I’ve just come up with an excellent idea, and I’ll need those extra hours.”
Laughing, I knew how the man’s mind worked, and knew his idea would be plenty interesting—and plenty arousing. “I can’t, Kane. I wish I could, but I just can’t. It’s a new month, and there are new bills to pay. I’ve gotta work this weekend. Sorry, hon.”
Lacing his fingers with mine, he looked into my eyes. “I’ve come up with an idea that I hope you’ll love as much as I do.”
“What is it?” I asked as I gazed at him.
He’s just so damn cute!
“Let me pay for you to go to school. You can do anything you want. I’ll help you with everything. Together, we’ll get you an education, Zandra. And you won’t have to work at all, because I want you to focus on school. Move in with Fox and me. Be his full-time mom. If you’re going to school, you’ll even be on the same schedule as him, going to school when he does.”
His words set off a fire in my belly. It filled it up, entirely. And then it made my blood hot. And that hot blood flooded my veins like molten lava. “No!”
How can he think I want him to take care of me?
“Why not?” he asked. He held tight to my hands even as I tried to pull away.
“I don’t want to become your charity case, Dr. Price. I can do this on my own.” He let go of my hand, letting me pull away from him.
With a huff, he rolled his eyes. “Zandra, how can you say that? You haven’t done anything so far. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just mean that you’ve never had the support system to do anything other than you’ve been doing. I can give you that.”
“I’ve done fine on my own all these years, Kane.” I got up, throwing my napkin on the table. “I’ve been fine figuring things out alone.”
With a blank stare, he asked, “And how’s that been working for ya?”
I didn’t like the tone of that question and figured storming out was the only thing I could do.
Right?