What You Need(91)
“It’s not fair,” the quiet blond boy said. “His stepdad should’ve been locked up. He’s been beating on Jonesie forever.”
“The court never takes the side of kids,” Quay said, dropping his arm over his little sister’s shoulder. “We gotta protect them the best we can.”
“Sometimes your best ain’t good enough,” Juice said.
These kids had been through hell. They were still going through it. Rather than putting up with it, Lennox had left. I knew it had been a gutsy move, but I didn’t know just how gutsy until now.
“Anyone else have anything to add?” Kiley asked.
Silence.
“All right, then. Let’s move on. Since Brady is a numbers guy, and some of you have problems with math, he has generously offered to do some tutoring.”
Lennox squeezed my hand.
A couple of the kids hung back and looked around as if they’d entered an alien world and were about to be probed.
“And since I know not everyone likes sports, there’s a table set up on the other side of the boxing ring with games like chess and checkers. Next to that we’ve thrown out some canvasses, and there are paints, markers and other supplies.”
The Hispanic girl raised her hand.
“Yes, Maria?” Kiley asked.
“Where is the bathroom?”
“Back by the weight room. The only place that’s off-limits is the boxing ring, so no boxing or MMA-type sparring, okay?” I said.
“What’s upstairs?” Willa the tall redhead asked me.
“I have no idea.”
“There’s plenty to keep you all occupied down here, so don’t go looking for trouble,” Kiley warned.
I rubbed my hands together. “Who’s ready to solve some equations?”
Two guys actually ran for the basketball court.
I laughed and pointed at Juice. “Did you bring your book and assignments?”
He looked embarrassed. “Yeah.”
“How’d the last couple of weeks go?”
“Fail, fail and fail.”
“Well, even the slightest improvement will be a forward step. Grab your stuff.”
I slid my duffel bag over to the table I’d set up and reached inside for my glasses case. I tossed out a pad of graph paper, several mechanical pencils, erasers and two calculators—a basic one and a scientific model with graphing capabilities.
Juice yanked the chair out across from me. “What’s all this shit? Man, I don’t got the kinda money for that fancy-ass calculator. If that’s what I need to pass the class, I’m screwed.”
“I wasn’t sure if you were in trigonometry or algebra.”
“Algebra.” He shoved his assignment at me. “I only did the first problem.”
I recopied it and within four steps solved it. Then I put our papers side by side. “Tell me the difference.”
“Yours is right and mine is wrong.”
“Besides that.”
Juice looked from paper to paper. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. Follow each step. You have to show your work, Juice. I know teachers harp on that, but there’s a reason they do. If you show your work and you don’t get the right answer at the end, then you can go back through each step and see where you missed something.” I tapped on the paper. “Next problem. Show your work this time. Remember, this isn’t a race. There’s no buzzer to beat. It’s more about finesse than speed.”
A startled look crossed his face, as if he hadn’t expected that. “Okay.”
I purposely took longer than usual to solve the equation. While I waited for Juice to finish the problem, I glanced over at Lennox and saw her watching me with heated eyes. She bit her lip—right over the damn lip ring she’d worn to taunt me. So I deliberately adjusted my glasses, knowing it’d make her crazy.
Her sexy sigh echoed to me across the vast concrete space.
I’d always taken pains to hide the fact I wore glasses. But Lennox being so hot for me when she saw me wearing them, and then seducing the hell out of me, had put a new spin on it. She had no idea how deeply her acceptance about everything about me had affected me. Being away from her these last few days had driven home the point I didn’t ever want to be away from her. And what I felt for her was probably that elusive love thing.
“Brady.”
I tore my gaze away from Lennox and focused on Juice. I passed my paper to him. “Check your answer against mine.”
A pause, then, “Hey! I got it right.”
“Why do you think that is?”
“Because I showed my work.”
“Exactly. Keep going.”
When I took my paper back and jotted down the next problem, I found Juice staring at me. “What?”