Chapter Nine

 

Zoey

 

Valentine’s Day was just around the corner. No matter where I turned there were little reminders of the day, of love, of the fact that I didn’t give a fuck about the day or love. It didn’t truly bother me that others were about to take part in the love holiday but more it bugged the shit out of me how it was packaged. The advertising, the commercials, and people asking about your “big V-day plans.” Made it seem like you were nothing if you didn’t have that special someone to make your day perfect.

Completely nauseating.

While others spent hours getting ready and spending obscene amount of money but I’d be perfectly happy at home in comfortable pajamas.

“Any big Valentine’s Day plans?” Wyatt asked just after we all sat down at my parent’s dinner table.

It’d been a few weeks since we’d seen each other and I told him to stay away me. But he’d been part of the family before and he was part of it now even if things had changed between the two of us. We started out as nothing with him being my brother’s friend only, then something sort of like a hookup, then back to less than nothing. No one needed to know what had transpired between us, that he’d touched me so intimately, the things we’d said.

I’d just have to swallow the words I’d really wanted to say to him and pretend that our relationship was the same as it had been before he ever even kissed her.

“Not you too,” I replied with a groan.

“Not me, too, what?”

“Everywhere I turn people are yammering on and on about Valentine’s Day. It’s not a real holiday, you know.” I stabbed my fork into the salad I’d helped Mom make.

“Aww, what’s the matter, Sis?” Riley jumped in. “All alone for the big day?”

I rolled my eyes but didn’t answer. It wasn’t worth it and he didn’t have someone special he would be spending the day with. Someone special—sure. Special for the day. Special for the night. But still someone who would disappear in the morning.

“It’s not a big deal. I’m thinking of doing an anti-Valentine’s Day thing anyway.”

“Is that a spinster thing?” Riley countered again.

This time I clearly heard Wyatt snort so he got a pointed look. It was partly his fault I was a “spinster”, as my brother put it. If he’d made good on any of his spoken or unspoken feelings the I’d have someone to spend the stupid holiday with but instead he had to be all “no touching my best friend’s little sister because she’s a virgin,” and “let’s just piss all over her feelings.”

The Jerk.

“Both of you can shut the hell up,” I finally said once I swallowed the food in my mouth.

“Zoey Goodrich, language,” Mom snapped. “We’re at the dinner table for crying out loud.”

I shrugged. Hell wasn’t even a real curse word anyway. “Again, you shouldn’t have let me hang around those two so much.”

To keep Mom happy, the three of us settled down and let Dad take the conversation over. He asked the guys a bunch of questions about the shop. How things were going, that sort of thing. Then he gave me all of his attention.

“Ready to start the new job, Zoey?” he asked.

At least he stuck to a safe topic. “I’m set. If only they could dump the sub early… ” I sighed. “I’m just ready to get started. Put all that money spent on college to use, ya know? But I am kind of nervous,” I admitted.

“Why?” Wyatt asked watching me intently as he waited for my answer,

I shifted in my seat. It took a lot of courage for me to admit I was nervous. Why should I be? This is what I wanted when I went away to college. To teach kids literature and grammar, though grammar was secondary in my heart.

“I just… I’ll be responsible for educating those kids. Making sure they can understand great literature and that’s a lot of pressure. It’s not being shot at, most of the time anyway, but I still feel like a kid when in there among them.” Student teaching had been rough that way. I hadn’t grown very tall so when I was in the schools, most of the time the other teachers thought I was a new student. One time, a teacher came into the classroom as I stood at the front table and told me I wasn’t supposed to be there. It was for teachers only.

When I’d told him that I was the teacher, he’d gotten super embarrassed and slinked out of the room.

“Enjoy the time,” Riley said before either of our parents could respond. “Once you start adult working, it never stops. Have some fun while you can.”

“Any boyfriends worth mentioning?” Mom asked.

Of course she did. It wasn’t that Mom wanted her spinster daughter to take a husband. She just understood that I sometimes had boyfriends that weren’t worth mentioning and she knew I hadn’t really started dating since the last guy. The guy I didn’t like to talk about.

“Nope. No one worth mentioning.” As I spoke I tried dot to look over at Wyatt and raise an eyebrow. Still, I could see him out of the corner of my eye and while I couldn’t be sure, it looked like his jaw tensed.

Served him right. He wasn’t worth mentioning.

Soon Dad turned his conversation to back to the guys and Mom popped in every once in a while. That meant I was able to eat in peace and not have to think about Wyatt or work or anything at all, including Valentine’s Day.

“So, what’s going on with you and Wyatt?” Mom asked in the kitchen after dinner as we put the leftovers into airtight, plastic containers.

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “What? Why would you ask that?” The question threw me off center. Her asking me at dinner if there was anyone in my life worth mentioning was as far as she usually went.

My mom shrugged. “I don’t know. Things seem different. Are you two…” She let the innuendo hang in the air.

“Mom!”

“It’s a fair question.”

“It really isn’t.” I swallowed hard and lowered my voice before I said, “Wyatt is Riley’s friend. Nothing more.”

Her look fell on me so heavily that it made me squirm then said, “Mmm-hmmm.”

That was the last she mentioned of Wyatt as we went back to work cleaning up from dinner. But her question made me think about what kind of vibes he and I may have been putting out for even my mother to pick up on it.

Note to self: spend less time around Wyatt McCann.