Wild Love (Rose Hill, #1)(19)
I feel how Cora looks as she trudges toward me in a pair of clunky Doc Martens with a deadly scowl on her face.
I almost laugh, because she looks just like Ford did this afternoon. Moody and temperamental—and wearing black from head to toe.
“Cora!” I call out, raising my hand in a wave. “I’m your ride today!” I feel the weight of more than a few gazes on me, but I ignore them.
Her eyes roll and she hikes her thumbs beneath her backpack’s shoulder straps. “You don’t have to yell,” she grumbles as she approaches.
“Want me to dance next time so you can pick me out of the crowd?” I give her a teasing elbow nudge as she walks past me.
With a glance over her shoulder, she shakes her head and juts her chin out at some of the waiting parents. “No. These pervy small-town dads would like that way too much.”
Oh boy. I remember this phase. Thinking you’re all cool and grown-up, when in reality, you’re chock-full of teenaged angst and every mood known to man. A bittersweet pang hits me as I watch her climb into the front passenger seat. Maybe she and I aren’t so different after all.
Which is why I plaster on a grin and yank the driver’s side door open before sliding in next to her.
“I meant the chicken dance, not a striptease,” I say with mock disappointment as I crank the key in the ignition.
She doesn’t respond, but when I peek over at her, I swear I see her lips twitch.
“What are you doing?”
Parked in front of Ford’s shitty office, Cora stares at me with her forehead all scrunched up. She even looks like him when she does that.
“Thinking.” My hands twist on the steering wheel of my Subaru.
“You look like you’re going to pop a blood vessel,” she says casually, right as she pops a stick of Juicy Fruit into her mouth.
“That’s an accurate depiction of how I feel inside too.”
“Is it Ford?”
I slump back in the seat, flattening my hands against the wheel. “It’s my entire life. You know?”
She nods, and I’m about to say something like, of course you don’t know, you’re a fucking twelve-year-old, but the look in her eye tells me perhaps she does.
“My job. My current living situation. My boyfriend. Having to tell my parents about all the above. A popped blood vessel would be a literal cherry on top.”
She perks up at the mention of boyfriend. It’s subtle, but it’s there. The way she leans incrementally forward and inspects me a tad more closely.
“You have a boyfriend?”
I huff out a breath and shake my head. “Great question. I keep asking myself the same thing.”
Disappointment fills her responding sigh.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
She scowls at me.
“What? It’s not like I’m going to run and tell your dad about it—or sorry, Ford. Fuck, sorry. What are we calling him?”
“Boss?”
I snort. She’s funny. “Personally, I’m partial to Junior.”
“I heard he really doesn’t like that.”
I lean close and give her a conspiratorial wink. “Exactly.”
Her eyes search my face like she’s not sure what to think of me. I’m positive I don’t give off the maternal vibe she’s probably used to from older women. I’m too much of a mess for that right now. And I’m too old to be her sister. Maybe more like a cool aunt. One who appreciates not having sticky freezie juice hands all over her.
Cora’s company is a breath of fresh air, and I’m not sure I’m ready to leave it yet. I’m also not above admitting she might make what I’m about to do next a little less tense.
“Hey, wanna come to my parents’ house with me instead of watching Junior storm around and clean up a building he could easily pay someone to clean up for him?”
She smirks, turning to look out the window. “Sure. Greta and Andy seem cool.”
“Oh, you’ve met them?”
“Briefly. Once. They definitely give off grandparent vibes.”
“Probably because that’s what they are.”
She gives me a sour glance, and my lips twitch. Let’s hope they continue to give off sweet grandparent vibes when they find out Rosie “the good girl” went off the rails and blew her chance at the job, the house, the guy, and the two-point-five kids in one fell swoop.
I hate letting people down.
Anxiety churns in my gut, but I force a thin smile in Cora’s direction. “Go tell Ford so he doesn’t worry about you. I’ll wait.”
Then she’s bounding out of the car, a little skip in her step that has her backpack bouncing. It makes her seem younger than the scowls and mouthiness would imply. I smile after her, hoping I get to pick her up from school more often.
Within moments, she’s back.
With Ford in tow.
She doesn’t spare him a backward glance, though, as she hurries back toward the car and into the front passenger seat.
“Why is he here?”
She shrugs. “Said he wanted to come with us.”
Ford draws up short, watching her buckle up with a look of confusion on his handsome face. His head turns slowly as he eyes the back seat, and I can barely keep from bursting out laughing. I doubt he remembers the last time he sat his fancy ass in the back of anything that wasn’t equipped with a privacy divider and a bucket of ice.