My chest tightened. I’d been volunteering at Redemption for over a year. All of Sharon’s “clients,” as she called them, were homeless moms and their kids. Most of them were in pretty bad shape when they arrived. Scared. Hungry. Running from abusive men.
Sharon liked for me to spend time with the kids, reading to them and encouraging them to play on the ancient playground equipment in the rundown yard behind the shelter.
“What’s up?” I asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice.
Her dark eyes closed briefly behind her red cat-eye glasses. “Oh, it’s just…I’m tired, Trina. Things always look worse when I’m tired.”
I didn’t believe her, but I wasn’t sure how much I should pry. I tore open another box and started sorting. Expiration date 2003? Furious, I threw the can so hard it almost knocked over the trash can.
Sharon laughed. “You ever play softball?”
“No.” I laughed. “Maybe I should.”
She grinned at me. “Never too late, that’s my motto.” She opened the fridge and grabbed two sodas, then gestured for me to sit at the table.
“To summer,” Sharon said. We clinked our cans together. “So tell me about your summer. How’s the babysitting job?” She gestured toward the trash can. “I’m sensing some pent up tension from you.”
So much for burying myself in other activities to keep away thoughts of Slade. I shrugged. “It was a long week.”
“Yeah?” She brushed more dust off her blouse and shot me a grin. “Tell your Auntie Sharon all about it.”
The crazy thing was, I could tell her all about it. We talked about lots of stuff. She seemed so much wiser than me. Probably because she was.
“It’s just…the other nanny. He’s kind of…challenging.” I shifted in my chair, unable to get comfortable. Maybe it was the heat flooding through me as I remembered how Slade had looked at me yesterday.
She raised a perfectly tweezed eyebrow. “He? Do tell.”
“It’s not like that,” I said defensively.
Her penetrating gaze stayed pinned on me. I frowned when I saw her speculative half smile.
“It’s not!” I insisted. “We’re just…” What were we? Not friends. Not yet. Probably not ever. “Partners,” I said. “Just partners.”
“Mm-hmm.” She took a long drink, but kept her eyes on me. “And your partner is challenging you how, exactly?”
“He’s…unpredictable. But the kids love him. We don’t agree on anything. Yesterday he quit, but then he came back. And then I almost quit.”
Sharon folded her arms over the necklaces tangled across her blouse. “That’s a lot of drama for one day.”
I laughed softly. “Yeah, it was.”
“Sounds like emotions are running high between you two. Could be something else is going on.” This time she arched both eyebrows.
“Nothing else is going on,” I said. “Other than we sort of hate each other.”
That wasn’t entirely true. We’d ended on a good note yesterday, after the ice cream. He’d been really…decent. Thoughtful, even. I bit my lip, remembering how he’d held my car door open when we’d said good-bye. How he’d told me not to drive angry, imitating Bill Murray in that silly Groundhog Day movie my mom watched every Christmas.
“That’s what I thought,” she murmured.
“What?” I almost barked. “You thought what?”
“I see it on your face, sweetie. I don’t think you hate this boy. Not at all.”
Air escaped me like she’d popped the Trina balloon. “Okay, so I don’t hate him. But I don’t really like him, either.” I fiddled with the Flintstone salt and pepper shakers on the table. “I can’t figure him out.”
She snorted. “Welcome to the club, honey. You ever figure out the male brain, you let me know.”
“I’ll be the last person to do that.”
She smiled at me as she scooted her chair away from the table. “Well, you’ve got all summer to work on it.” She stood up. “Come on. I’ve got a ton of clothes to sort through.”
I followed her down to the basement, grateful for a task to keep my mind off the impossible problem of deciphering the male brain.
My phone pinged as I pulled another T-shirt from an overstuffed trash bag. Whoever had donated these had been obsessed with Star Wars. So far I’d found three Darth Vader shirts, two Yoda shirts, and two Luke Skywalker shirts.
Climbing wall. Indoor sky diving. Alligator wrestling. Two out of three are actual possibilities.