“That those brownies look a lot like the ones that my wife made last night,” Reed said with a pointed look at the brownies in question.
“I thought so, too, but I didn’t want to say anything just in case it brought back painful memories,” Jen said with a sad shake of her head as she helped herself to a brownie.
“And what painful memories would those be?” Reed drawled, wondering what the hell he was going to do with her since detention, suspension, and the threat of expulsion never seemed to work.
He’d hoped that a stint in summer school would help, but all it did was end with an emergency evacuation, two teachers quitting, and a new schoolwide policy on wildlife. Since she’d moved in with her uncle last June, she hadn’t missed any school, but that probably had something to do with the fact that Aaron drove her to school every day and walked her to homeroom, where he waited by the door until first bell, sipping his coffee while he waited for her to try and pull her usual bullshit.
Her grades were better, mostly because she’d taken it upon herself to drop by his house every day after school to piss Matt off. Since that worked for him, he allowed it. That, and his incredibly beautiful wife decided to take the little pain in the ass under her wing. She-
“Last night, when your brother made you cry,” Jen whispered with a pitying look that had his eyes narrowing.
“First off,” Reed said, “he didn’t make me cry. He pissed me off enough to put him in a chokehold and take him to the ground until the little bastard threatened to tell our mother.”
“Because he made you cry,” Jen said, taking a bite of her brownie as she released a heartfelt sigh. “There’s no shame in crying.”
“And there’s no shame in admitting that you waited until everyone was distracted before you swiped the brownies that Joey made so that you could screw with the student body for your own entertainment,” Reed said as he reached over and plucked the brownie out of her hand and finished it off in one bite while he waited to see how she was going to talk her way out of this one.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Jen said, releasing a shaky breath as she reached into the Ziplock bag and grabbed another brownie. “Not if I wanted to get into Harvard,” she added with a helpless shrug.
“Jesus Christ,” Reed muttered as he once again found himself rubbing his hands roughly down his face. “Harvard?”
Nodding, Jen said, “They’d be lucky to have me.”
“You have a 2.5 GPA and your permanent record has its own drawer in my filing cabinet,” Reed pointed out as he dropped his hands away.
“Which is why I had no choice but to take matters into my own hands,” Jen said with a helpless shrug.
“By making everyone believe that your brownies were ‘Magical’ and charging them twenty bucks?” Reed asked as he helped himself to another brownie.
“First off, the brownies are magical. Your wife’s an amazing cook,” Jen said, and since he couldn’t argue that, he didn’t. “Secondly, supply and demand dictates that I had to sell them for twenty dollars each when my only competition was the slop they serve in the cafeteria.”
“I feel like there’s another part,” Reed drawled, unwrapping the brownie and finished it off in one bite.
Nodding, Jen said, “You would be correct.”
“And I can’t wait to hear it,” Reed said, helping himself to another brownie.
“Well, do you remember that time when we talked about my plans to attend Harvard?” Jen asked, returning her attention to the candy bowl.
“Considering you broke the news to me only a few minutes ago, yes, I seem to recall that deeply disturbing conversation,” Reed drawled, gesturing for her to get on with it.
Nodding, Jen said, “Then, you understand that I was left with no choice, not with the cost of living in Boston these days.”
“And the reason you convinced half the football team that you were selling edibles?”
“That might have been for my own entertainment,” Jen said, clearing her throat before adding, “but in my defense, I didn’t know that they were going to leave the brownies in the teacher’s lounge.”
“And if you had…” Reed said, letting his words trail off.
“I probably would have rethought my marketing strategy,” Jen said, only to follow that up with a heartfelt sigh. “But I feel like this should only go to help with my application to Harvard.”
“And how’s that?” Reed asked as his gaze darted past the teenage girl who was about to spend a month in detention to the stack of paperwork he had to finish tonight, thanks to her latest stunt.
“I proved without a doubt that the placebo effect works,” Jen said as he finished off the brownie and grabbed another one.
“You did, didn’t you?” Reed murmured absently as he glanced at the clock
“Which is why I believe my list of demands are more than reasonable,” Jen said with a heartfelt sigh as she pulled a crumbled piece of paper out of her pocket and held it out to him.
