“Give it to me, girlfriend.” I reach out for a high five, and she claps her hand to mine.
“Besides,” Jane continues. “You know a lot of things, Mikey. You coded your own video game. I’ll bet Butterscotch can’t do that.”
Mikey looks profoundly moved. It would be a beautiful moment if Ollie didn’t let out a noxious fart that makes my eyes water.
“What have you been eating?” Jane asks him with big eyes. “My grandmother tells me all the time that you are what you eat, and what you ate obviously doesn’t like you.”
The class seems to move too slowly today, as if I’m walking through molasses, although I’m not sure why. Still, the kids are learning, and it’s more fun than I figured it would be. Maybe because I threw out the lesson plan of the woman who wassupposedto teach these classes. I mean, if I’d done things her way, we wouldn’t even have touched a computer for two weeks. These kids are here on their time off—they might want to learn, but they want it to be fun too. Or at least everyone other than Eloise does.
I keep an eye out for Horacio outside our window, but Cole must have put the fear of God, or rather hot, buff brewery owners, into him, because there’s no sign of him.
Part of me wonders if Jane knows about the computer, and when she comes up to me with a serious expression, her little lip popping out like she’s about to challenge me to a duel, I figure that’s what she wants to talk about.
“We need to have a conversation,” she says.
Well, well.
“Pistols at dawn?” I ask, immediately cursing myself. Seriously, what’s wrong with me?
Mikey, reading my mind, scowls and says, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’ve watchedBridgerton,” Jane says loftily.
Shit, she has?
“Don’t tell my father,” she says. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Holy smokes, I’m torn between being afraid of you and impressed.” I reach out my hand for a high five, and she gives it to me.
Turning to Mikey, I say, “You got this for a few minutes?”
He grumbles something about patterns and women who abandon him, and I give him a cheery wave as I hustle Jane out into the hall.
“So what is it, Short Stack?” I ask after shutting the door behind us.
“You know,” she says, her tone utterly serious. “I’m perfectly tall for my age.”
Is she? I wouldn’t know. She seems so little to me, all dark hair and big eyes. Either way, I answer, “Yes, but you remain short in comparison to me, Short Stack.”
She shrugs as if to say she doesn’t hate it. “What’s the deal between you and my dad?”
And just like that, my heart is hammering in my chest. “What deal? There’s no deal,” I say in the way of someone who has a deal.
She narrows her gaze at me and taps her little foot. “He said you’re coming over to help build a computer for me.”
“Don’t you want a computer? He said you did.”
Her gaze narrows further. Christ on a cracker. Horacio Duke better move to a different town before this kid comes of age because she’ll be a hell of a private investigator or cop if her interests turn that way. “Sure I do, but are you building one for Ollie and Eloise?”
“No,” I say. “Eloise strikes me as a micromanager. I’m the sort who likes to go rogue.”
She just keeps giving me that look, and stronger people than me have cracked under such pressure. “No,” I admit. “I wasn’t planning on building computers for any of the others.”
“So why me?” she asks, her gaze boring into me. “It’s because you like my dad, isn’t it? I’ve seenThe Hating Gametoo. I know all about enemies to lovers.”
Man, Cole really needs to do a better job of monitoring her TV intake. Then again, I was a kid once too. If she wants to watch something, she’s probably going to watch it, come hell or high water. There’s a stubborn edge to her that all but guarantees it. It’s part of what I like about her.
“I’m doing it because I like you,” I say, patting her little shoulder. “You remind me a bit of myself at your age.” Hungry for knowledge, wanting to try or be the next big thing. Eager without knowing quite why or what for.
