Page 74 of No Place Like Home

Quincy scratched behind his head before answering. “No, for the Niners.”

Not a word was heard from my kids. I wished I could have recorded this. It was hilarious.

“Is your laptop connected to the television?” he asked me as he walked over to my desk.

He didn’t even make sure I said yes before making his way toward the television. I usually had to jump or get a chair to reach the on button, but he did it easily.

Once he had my laptop, he turned it around and pointed it toward me to bypass the password for him. His search took about a minute, and once he was satisfied with the video he wanted, he pressed play.

“You see this guy?” Quincy pointed at the image on the television. “That’s me.”

By this point, my kids began to get excited. They slowly got into their seats.

“I think he’s lying.” Charlie shrugged. “My brother lies all the time.”

Yeah, I was aware of how much his brother lied to him.

Quincy took another deep breath and went to another video; this one showed his face.

After watching the clips, my kids were finally convinced that he was the same guy on TV.

Another kid raised his hand, and my heart soared when I noticed it was one of my shy ones.

“What is it, Ross?”

“Can he show us how to throw a ball really fast?”

A bunch of yesses and cheering sounded in the room.

“He can, but not today,” I said, and they whined.

The distraction was great, but now that I saw him at the front of my class, I remembered that he’d done very nasty things to me last night. I needed to come to terms with what happened…and with what he suggested. And having Quincy stay would mean more time and a football. I didn’t have a football in my class, which meant a gym trip. A trip to the gym meant people would see Q at school, and everyone I knew would find out, especially Jake and Juliet.

Not today, Satan.

“How about I come back Friday?” Quincy offered.

All the kids cheered in excitement.

The noise sprang me into action. I grabbed onto Quincy’s arm and couldn’t help but notice it was all muscle.Notthe time to think about that. I dragged him with me until we were by the door, and I began to push him out.

When I looked up at him, he was amused. It angered me for some reason.

“Now you have to come Friday. You can't disappoint my kids,” I huffed as I fought the urge to cross my arms.

“Perfect. And then after school, you can come home with me.”

Fuck. I hadn’t thought things through.

I didn’t answer him; I just slammed the door in his face. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen to girls like me.

CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE

Everythingin my life was a mess. I’d let one little incident turn my life upside down. I needed to get my shit together, and to do that, I needed to start by taking care of my house and my dog.

I felt so guilty about Simba.

This was why I loved Sunny Pines. Everyone knew I was a fucking mess and that Jess had been taking care of my dog, and no blog had heard wind of it.

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