Page 67 of Made for You
She acquiesced and plodded up the stairs to go do her thing for a few while Bruce dished up her plate. I moved toward him, not sure what to do.
“What do you need?” I asked, hands finding his waist as he set her plate in the microwave.
He turned to me and hauled me close, body to body and heart to heart. “Just you. And maybe for that poor excuse of a father of hers to find his way back to jail.”
I huffed a small laugh into his shirt, and we broke apart as Kiley came down the stairs. She slid onto a seat at the table after snatching something out of her backpack. Had to be her math work, and based on the tight expression, that hadn’t been an empty excuse earlier.
“Can I see if I can help with that?” I asked, not wanting to push if she just needed time to wrestle with it, but more than willing to step in if it’d be useful.
“Yes, please.”
It sounded more like a plea than a response, so I beelined to the seat next to her as Bruce set down her warmed plate of food.
After she inhaled the delicious meal and we chatted over the assignment, I took a tack I’d used with students I’d tutored during college, and eventually, I saw the light come on in her eyes. It was magnificent on her, and the pride that welled in me felt pretty great, too. Since the first round with her, I’d been hammering out the details of the game I’d thought up that would hopefully help students just like her, and this moment gave me another little burst of anticipation that it really might.
“I’ve been overcomplicating it this whole time. I’m an idiot!” She sank back in her chair, a wobbly, wild smile on her face now that she’d finished the problem set.
I shook my head slowly, pinning her eyes. “You are so far from an idiot, Kiley. Don’t say that.”
She just rolled her eyes a little and shrugged. But this wasn’t something I was going to let go.
“I mean it. You’re an amazing woman, and you’re learning this stuff much more easily than half the college kids I used to tutor. Plus, not understanding a concept is never what makes someone an idiot.”
Her brow arched high. “What does, then?”
I chuckled, her stubbornness shining through and cracking me up. “A lot of things. The inability to learn things, especially due to thinking you know it all already. The refusal to change your mind when presented with new information. Treating people poorly because of the way they look or their background. A few others, but you get the idea. Not grasping a concept you’re working to understand is never one of those things.”
She nodded with a serene expression, almost like she was pleased with my answer. “That makes sense. I think Iwasbeing an idiot with Marcus, but he gave me time to get myself figured out.”
Bruce materialized over my shoulder and plunked down two small bowls, each with a perfect round scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
“Don’t say that about yourself, Ki.” He slid into the seat next to me and slipped his arm around my shoulders.
Kiley double blinked at his gesture but swallowed a bit of the ice cream and then explained. “But I was. He was trying to help me understand how he was feeling, and I refused to listen to him. It scared me, what he said, and I didn’t like what it implied about me. But then after our talk”—her eyes tipped up to Bruce’s, then refocused on her dish—“I couldn’t ignore it anymore. He was right. He’d told me that because he cares about me, not to hurt me. And finally, I admitted it and it’s much better.”
“That’s a sign of truly high intelligence. Your giant brain is serving you well.” I winked at her.
She chuckled and shook her head, then stacked her bowl on top of her notebook. “Well, with that thought, I’m going to go let this giant brain power down and get some REM.”
Bruce and I glanced at each other. Was that what kids said instead of just sleep?
“Sounds good, Ki. I’m taking you to school tomorrow, or is Marcus getting you?” Bruce asked as she started up the stairs.
“You, if you can. He has weightlifting early or something.” She didn’t wait for his response. She knew he had her.
And that was the beautiful thing here. She might still be struggling with her dad and everything else. I knew Bruce would have to address all of that, but he’d let it go because she clearly hadn’t wanted to deal with it.
“You’re amazing. You know that, right?”
His hand hooked around my waist and slid me forward in my chair. His legs were splayed wide and bracketed mine, those eyes boring into me like he’d hypnotize me if I didn’t look away.
I stood and stepped closer into his space, sliding my palms against the curve of his jaw and leaning in to press my lips to his. He had a little roughness there, a five o’clock shadow I’d only seen once or twice, and it gave me an odd thrill to feel the bristles against my hand.
“Walk me to the door?”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE
Bruce
