Page 52 of In Spades

“How did things go tonight?” I asked.

Kylie shrugged. “Fine.” She barely looked up from the kitchen table where she sat, taking notes and poring over her biology textbook.

“Thanks for your help tonight,” I said, offering an appreciative smile. Moments like this made me proud.

“Do you need me to help you study?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Nah, I’m just about finished. I’m gonna take a shower in a minute if that’s okay. Zoey and Hunter already got theirs.”

I nodded, then walked down the hall to the boys’ room and poked my head in. “I’m back. Y’all need anything?”

Hunter acknowledged me with a grunt. his nose was stuck in a book—one of the many he had borrowed from the library.

It would be a couple of years before he’d be old enough for a cell phone. That didn’t seem to bother him, though. As long as I hauled him downtown to exchange his mountain of books on a regular basis, he was happy.

He always had the librarians on the look-out for titles they thought he’d like. The ladies who ran the Havelock-Craven County Public Library kept a stash of the good ones, as they called them, behind the counter so that Hunter could have first dibs.

“What about you?” I asked, turning to Logan.

He sat reclined on his bed, thumbs dancing across his phone.

I cocked my head. “Homework done?”

Logan’s eyes briefly flitted up from the screen to me, but he didn’t say anything.

“Lo?”

He tossed his phone on the navy-blue comforter and closed his eyes. “I’ll get up early and do it before the bus comes.”

I put my hand on my hip. “There’s time tonight. Why don’t you bring it out and I’ll sit with you?”

“Kris—”

“I’m not playing, Logan,” I said firmly. “Ky’s about to hop in the shower. Work on it until she’s out. If there’s anything you can’t get to, you can do it in the morning.”

He rolled his eyes, but slowly gathered his things and dragged his feet down the hall. I took it as a small victory and followed him to the kitchen.

The last parent-teacher conference I had to go to regarding Logan hadn’t gone well. He had always been a bright kid, but he stopped trying. Most of the failed grades he received were the result of not turning his assignments. His teachers reassured me that he didn’t goof off in class—he simply didn’t give a shit. I didn’t know which was worse.

“You want coffee?” I asked, scooping some grounds from the off-brand plastic tub. It was bill-paying night, and I needed a little caffeine courage before looking at my bank balance.

“Nah,” he muttered, digging through backpack.

Kylie cleared space for Logan at the table. He dug around his bag a little longer before pulling out his economics textbook. I let out a sigh of relief.

Thank God it wasn’t The Scarlet Letter this time. My abandoned business degree came in handy for helping with basic high school math and little else. Essays had never been my jam. Not to mention, I had some strong opinions about Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale.

I filled my mug with coffee, sans milk and sugar. Paying bills required an unadulterated hit. “Let me know if you need any help, Lo.”

A grunt was all I received as he thumbed through a mostly blank notebook.

“How was poker night?” Kylie asked. “Was Isaac there?”

“Yeah, he’s in town for a few days,” I said with an amused smile. Starstruck didn’t begin to describe Kylie when she first met Isaac. I couldn’t blame her. It still felt weird to run in the same circles as Isaac Lawson and Luca DeRossi.

“Has he proposed to Miss Hannah yet?” Kylie asked, sounding almost giddy. She idolized Hannah Jane.

In Kylie’s eyes, Hannah was southern belle royalty. If Reese Witherspoon and Kate Middleton had a love child, it would be Hannah Jane. She loved to invite Kylie over for an occasional weekend and spoil the shit out of her with mani-pedis and chick flicks. It served to solidify that, when Kylie grew up, she wanted to be Hannah Jane.

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