Page 23 of Bad Boy Next Door
“My dad set it up.”
Nick turned his head slightly, but he was so wedged in, he couldn’t twist around to make eye contact.
“I landed there when I started dancing at the club.” Melodie ran another stop sign with barely a glance and we started down a hill. “Not that all the girls at Solid Gold get an apartment. I got lucky.”
She glanced at Nick and he was giving her a look, too. Had Melodie done something—um,special—to get her apartment? None of my business, but for some reason I cared.
“Okay,” she said, “there was more to it than luck. Let’s just say moving into Shady Oaks saved my life.”
“Mine too.” I gripped the edge of the seat.
“How’s that?” Nick asked me.
“Never mind.”
“No, really. I want to know.”
At the top of another hill, I glanced out of the window and caught a view of the San Francisco airport, then the Bay Bridge in the distance. “It’s nothing that dramatic,” I said. “I used to work four jobs and they barely covered my rent and my sister’s tuition. This new place and the job… I might actually get to save.”
“You pay your sister’s tuition?” Melody asked. “That’s generous.”
Nick nodded, the back of his head rubbing on the car roof. “Very.”
“Yeah, well, she wants to be a physical therapist, and you need college for that.”
“And what do you want to be?” Nick asked.
“A cocktail waitress in a strip club,” I answered. “All my childhood dreams are coming true.”
“Glad to be of service,” he said, a playful tone to his voice.
Laughing, Melodie took another sharp turn.
Not expecting it, I was thrown against Nick.
“If you wanted to sit in my lap,” he said, “you could’ve just asked.”
I reached forward, making sure my middle finger landed in his limited line of vision. He chuckled.
“No college for you?” Melodie asked, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
“Couldn’t afford for both of us to go.”
“So your sister came first?” Nick asked. “How come you had to sacrifice for her?”
“I don’t mind.” Truth was, it wasn’t an either/or choice. Even if she hadn’t wanted college, no way Crystal would have ever earned enough to reverse our arrangement. It wasn’t like my sister was lazy, she just… Well, I’d taken care of her for so long it felt natural.
Melodie pulled into a parking spot on our hilly street, angling her tires so she wouldn’t roll, and pulled on the parking brake, hard. Nick opened his door and started to extrude himself from the small space he’d been squished into, and I followed Melodie out her side of the car.
“I’m starving.” My stomach grumbled as we walked up to the gate. “I’ve got eggs and bacon. Anyone want breakfast?” It would be nice to cook for more than one person, and Melodie would provide a great buffer.
“Sounds delicious,” Melodie said.
“I never say no to food,” Nick added, as we rounded the pond-scum pool and started up the stairs.
But when the three of us got to the third floor, Melodie headed the other direction. “Breakfast,” I reminded her. “Just come on over whenever you’re ready.”
Walking backward down the hall, she shook her head. “Thanks for the offer, but I’m beat. Think I’m gonna crash, then eat when I wake up.”
