Page 4 of Hers to Kiss
Chapter 2
Pete shoved the office’s back door open. Hard. He bounded down the steps and stalked to the supply building.
This was going to be a long week.
He would have to put up with Keke strutting around like she always did. He smiled, thinking back to the moment out in front of the office. She was ticked. But once her eyes had landed on him, her entire demeanor had changed. Not that he really knew women, but he’d bet his new app that she found him attractive.
Pete glanced at his biceps. All the hard work at the gym during the last semester of school until now had paid off. He didn’t want to just have brains; he wanted to be attractive. So he grew a beard—probably a bit long since it itched—and started weight lifting. He found the whole exercise thing tedious. It required no brain cells at all. He would rather have been playing video games; at least he would need to formulate some strategy to win.
But if it got him girls, then he’d put on some headphones and listen to gaming podcasts while deadlifting.
In the supply building, he found his parents going over inventory for the summer camp session. His mother smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder.
“Hi, honey! We’re glad you’re here. The girls’ bunks still need a few things, and Lea isn’t going to be able to get it all finished before the first kids arrive. She’s going to need help.”
“Lea?”
“You remember Lea. She’s the new girl we hired after that other one turned us down at the last minute.” A flash of irritation crossed his mother’s unusually cheerful face. Being around Dad hadn’t made her upbeat in a long time. Had they stopped fighting long enough to work?
Pete shook his head. “I haven’t met her.”
“Well, you will. Your father managed to get most of the boys’ bunks stocked. Just need a few more fresh sheets and pillows. Could you help out here? Make sure you turn down the covers, too. Thanks.”
She stood on the tips of her toes, her lips pursed. Pete leaned over, and she kissed his cheek. She rubbed away the pink gloss lefty by her lips. Although her eyes shone bright, her face had lost some color, and her figure was noticeably thinner. Was she eating? She didn’t need to lose any more weight. He had packed on muscle in the last few months while his mother looked like she could shop in the kids clothing section.
His hand rounded her shoulder. “You okay, Mom? You look tired.”
“Never better. Okay, gentlemen. I’ll be in the cafeteria.”
With a wave, she left, taking with her the lightness of the atmosphere. Pete glanced cautiously at his father, who busied himself with stacking sheets and pillows.
Pete thought about the phone conversation with the Warp Entertainment executive. Titus Headley hated Pete’s video games. Said they destroyed brain cells. He couldn’t understand why Pete enjoyed playing them so much or why he’d “waste his time” designing games.
It didn’t help to argue that video games did business in the billions of dollars. That kind of money didn’t exist in Titus Headley’s world. For a man who made very little money in his lifetime and pushed his son to pursue a career that would net him a comfortable living, the logic behind his father’s dismissal of video games escaped Pete.
Pete fiddled with the pile of sheets and pillows he would take to the girls’ bunks. He raked his hands through his hair and cleared his throat. “Uh, Dad? Can I talk to you about something?”
“Hmm?” His father continued to pull soap bars from a shelf in the toiletry cabinet.
“I…uh, developed this game for the phone. Cell phone. It’s an app, really.”
“What are you talking about?” Titus said gruffly.
“An application? On your cell, you have applications that allow you to do things like open internet browsers and—”
“Son, the kids are going to be here any minute, and you’re talking about internet browsers on cell phones?” He gave Pete an annoyed look.
Pete blew out a frustrated breath. “No, I’m talking about a game app I developed.”
“What about it? Haven’t I asked you not to spend so much time on those games? Have you thought about what your senior project will be for Cornell? Their computer science program is highly competitive. Or have you forgotten you only got a partial scholarship?”
Of which Dad never let the sun go down without reminding him.
“And if you’re going to get a job afterwards, you need to come up with a project that’ll get noticed.”
“Well, I have, Dad. My app—”
Titus held up a hand. “I let you pick computer science as a major, didn’t I? And I let you have a year off from school to be a bum in my home. Why can’t you meet me halfway and quit fooling around with video games?”
