Wrong For You (Before You Series Book 3)(14)

“No. I’m okay right now.” He brushed the droplets from her lips and chin and wished, not for the first time, he could taste her lips as they slid against his.

She shrugged, sliding the bottle into the side pocket of her backpack. “I promised to tutor him in math and if his grades improve, he wants to apply for a scholarship to a private high school for his senior year.”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

“Yeah. If he gets a college education, he could really help his mom and his sister and give them some stability.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility for a young kid.” He handed her his bag of berries.

“I know, but we can’t always choose our path in life—we just have to try to make the best of the bad choices.”

“I guess,” Alec mused. He thought he made a good decision when he left Taylor home with his mom to chase his dream to be in a band. Ultimately, it all worked out and now he could help Taylor as much as she needed. Sometimes, though, he couldn’t help wondering how much those years hurt Taylor. All evidence to the contrary, he always thought his mom would take better care of Taylor when he left. After all, Taylor was her daughter with her beloved husband while his was the product of an affair that ruined the family. If he wasn’t in his mom’s face every day reminding her of her mistakes, he thought she might pull herself together. She didn’t. Things only got worse. His mom’s addiction spiraled even further into the rabbit hole, and Taylor…well, fuck. He didn’t know if he could live with himself if he knew everything that happened to her after he walked out of their lives.

Violet studied him for a few moments, then she dusted off her backpack and looped her arms through the straps. “Are you ready to head back?”

Not really. He liked escaping to some area in the mountains that barely had a name and he didn’t have much of anything to do until Monday. He didn’t have any friends left from his high school days and he certainly didn’t have any family he wanted to visit. “Sure thing. I wouldn’t want you to disappoint Dean.”

He watched her face in profile as she laughed. She pushed the low hanging branches to the side as she made her way back to the trail. “He’ll probably be more disappointed if I show up. I’m interrupting his weekend to study math, of all subjects.”

His eyes swept her perfectly proportioned body and the delicate lines of her face. Somehow he knew any teenager worth a damn would have a pretty sizeable crush on Violet. In fact, Dean probably was looking forward to math for the first time in his life. “Oh, I don’t know about that. It’s probably the highlight of his weekend.”

“And what exactly are you implying?” she asked, leaning into his shoulder, shoving him as they walked side by side down the trail.

“That math isn’t so bad when the tutor looks like you.”

She looked away quickly, but he could still see the blush racing up her neck and the side of her face.

“Did I embarrass you?” he asked when she didn’t respond.

“A little,” she admitted.

He smiled inwardly. Most women ate up his compliments and begged for more. “Good time for a change of subject,” he suggested.

“Yep.”

“Okay. Since you’re busy tonight, when do you want to make the muffins?”

“Tomorrow. Ten in the morning.”

“I’m free,” he answered almost too quickly.

“Your place.”

“Why my place?”

“So you have to clean up the mess.”

“Do I need to buy the ingredients, too?” he asked.

Nibbling on her lip, she mulled over his question for a moment. “I’ll get the ingredients. You get the mess.”

“Somehow, I think I got the downside of that bargain, but tomorrow morning it is.” And damn, if he wasn’t looking forward to spending a morning cooking with Little Violet. He wanted to sink into her softness and bask in her goodness for just a little while. Was it wrong to want something he shouldn’t? He didn’t know any longer, but he didn’t want to let her slip through his fingers without tasting her at least one time.





Chapter Six





At exactly ten on Sunday morning, Violet knocked on Alec’s door. She’d been awake less than thirty minutes, which gave her very little time to get dressed and drink enough coffee to pull her out of her stupor.

Even though she planned to be home no later than nine last night, she didn’t make it home until four in the morning. When she showed up to tutor Dean, there was no food in the house and Dean wouldn’t tell her how long it’d been since he and his sister had a real meal at home. She couldn’t stand the thought of them having nothing to eat, so she went to the grocery store and bought enough food to last the entire week, but when she returned, Dean’s sister had an insanely high fever. She ended up taking her to the emergency room and Dean’s mother wasn’t able to get off of work until about three in the morning. Dean begged her to leave, but she didn’t feel right about leaving Dean at the hospital by himself. She was paying for that decision this morning, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. Besides, she couldn’t leave Dean and his sister to fend for themselves. It wasn’t right.