Take Me

“Nope, it happened before I even met your sister.”

“You were like twenty-two when you met her. So it must have been something that happened in high school then.”

He had the feeling she wasn’t going to relent until she figured it out. “I said I’m not telling.”

“Did you beat up someone? Steal something? Spend time in juvenile hall?”

“What?” he said. “No. Why do you think it was something bad?”

She shrugged. “Because you won’t tell me. It makes me assume the worse.”

He took a deep breath. “I regret not finishing high school,” he said. “That’s it. It’s not even a secret. Most people just don’t realize how much I regret dropping out.” He wasn’t sure why he’d told her. Probably because the truth was far less criminal than what she was imagining.

“So go finish.”

He’d expected disdain or pity, not a solution. “I’m too old to finish.”

“You’re kidding, right? You could get your GED. You’re smart enough. You probably just need a refresher course.”

“I’m not smart enough. I was flunking out of high school. That’s why I quit. I was going to have to retake my entire senior year, and at the time, quitting seemed better than failing.”

She shifted in the water so she could meet his eyes. “You are smart enough.”

Lost without his sunglasses, he stared over her head. “No.”

“Jacob, I’m a teacher; I know what I’m talking about. You are smart enough.”

He knew his personal limitations. Her insisting things that weren’t true only managed to tick him off. He was done talking about this. “No.”

“One of my best friends teaches an accelerated GED prep course,” she pressed. “You should take it. She’s a really great teacher.”

“I’m not taking it, Amanda, and I’m not going to bother taking a test I know I’ll flunk. Drop it.”

“You shouldn’t go through life with regrets, Jacob. Especially not ones you can fix.”

“Amanda.” He gave her a stern look, and she matched it with a death glare that undoubtedly made the most unruly of teenaged students take notice and obey.

“Just think about it,” she said. “If you decide you want to try, I’ll get you signed up for Leah’s class. She usually has a waiting list, but I’m sure she’d squeeze you in if I asked her for a favor.”

“Why does it matter to you so much? Are you ashamed to be f**ked by a high school dropout?” Her sister certainly used it against him.

“It doesn’t matter to me at all. You’re obviously doing well for yourself. I’m being a nosy, pushy bitch because it matters to you.”

“You’re not a bitch,” he said. He’d encountered plenty of them in his travels.

“Just nosy and pushy.”

She looked at him expectantly and had he been wearing his sunglasses or if she’d been a less perceptive woman, he might have stood a chance of fooling her into thinking he didn’t give a damn about any of this. He hated being told what to do more than anything, but had to admit her idea was a good one. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it years ago. Getting his GED would give Tina less ammunition to use against him and maybe she’d stop reminding Julie that he was stupid.

“If I say I’ll think about it, will you get off my back?”

She smiled. “I’ll call Leah tomorrow.”

“I didn’t say I was doing it for sure.”

“Just in case.” She kissed him and then shifted to lean against him with her head on his shoulder again.

He squeezed her upper arm in one hand and then gently stroked up and down while his mind turned over possibilities. Dropping out of high school was his only real regret, and he didn’t need the diploma to make a living, but he did want it. A piece of paper might prove he wasn’t as stupid as everyone thought he was. He didn’t have the time to study while he was on tour but maybe in a few months when the band took a break, he could squeeze a refresher course into his schedule. Sole Regret would be in the studio cutting a new album in the fall, but during the coming winter he might find the time. He hoped this Leah woman was patient and a miracle worker because it would take both to get the brain tucked inside his thick skull to retain information. He’d never been good at school stuff. For years he’d barely scraped by. His teachers had taken pity on him and let him move up through the system one frustrating year at a time.

He wondered what kind of teacher Amanda was. He imagined her class would be challenging and a lot of fun. Even so, he probably would’ve flunked it. Especially since he would have spent the entire period fantasizing about her hot body.

“Do you like being a teacher?” he asked.

“Yeah, I do. Well, I like most parts about it. I like my students and finding new ways to excite them about science, but all the extraneous administrative bullshit becomes exhausting.”

“I had quite a few crushes on my teachers.” He grinned.

“Why’s that? Do you like women with authority, Mr. Silverton?”

“Nope. I like big brains.” He kissed the top of her head. “Sexy.”

“Oh really? I thought you liked big boobs.”

“Hey, I can like more than one part at a time.”

She laughed. “You can also please more than one part at a time.”

“A man has to draw attention to his talents.”

“You definitely have my attention.”

“Oh, good,” a deep voice said from the shadows next to the house. “You have company. I need to ask her something.”

Chapter 8

At the sound of a man’s voice, Amanda jerked upright with a splash. She gasped when cool air hit her naked br**sts, and she sank deep beneath the steaming water to hide.

“You could call before you drop by,” Jacob said. “I have better things to do than hang out with you on my night off.”

The drummer of Shade’s band, Gabe, stepped into the dim light given off by several solar lights. Amanda hadn’t noticed how dark Jacob kept the area around his hot tub until their uninvited guest sneaked up on them. She was sure the poor lighting was intentional. Probably kept the neighbors from seeing what Jacob had going on in his backyard.

“Looks like an intermission to me,” Gabe said.

Gabe was tall and lean, with a red and black mohawk that would have gotten him kicked out of Amanda’s class for being disruptive to the educational process. She didn’t know him very well, had only met him a few times when Jacob had hosted parties tame enough for extended family—which had once included her. His band had been surprisingly well behaved. Amanda’s mother had particularly enjoyed the bassist, Owen, who could be quite the sweet-talker. That had been before Jacob and Tina had split, of course. Every time Amanda had met Gabe in the past, he’d been wearing a baseball cap over his hair, but tonight he had it spiked straight up. He approached the hot tub and sat on the edge, kicking off a pair of flip-flops and easing his feet into the water. He was wearing a pair of board shorts, so sank his legs into the water to the knee.