Resisting the Bad Boy - Nice Girl to Love, Vol 1 (Can't Resist #1)(4)

“Good. I already instructed Skylar to gather her friends and chase you out of school if you showed up over the next three weeks. We also blacked out every day on the calendar until ASU is back in session to remind us to leave you alone.”

“No need to go that far. I won’t be writing the entire time. And since my teaching line is straight freshman comp again this semester, I’m all set with my syllabus and lesson plans already. I’ll still have some time to hang out.”

“Well, then you can do that with your colleagues and the other equally brainy candidates in your program. Go get all academic again. Skylar and I have been monopolizing your time way too much lately. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself in front of your doctoral defense panel dropping Skylar’s OMGs and my far more delightful f-bombs.”

Oy, her professors would think she was having a seizure and send her back to pre-dissertation comp exams for sure.

“Besides,” he continued, “we’ve already begun the detox process to do without our Abby fix for a few weeks. Sure, we’ll be strung out since you’ve gotten us all addicted to your greatness, but we’ll be fine. Really,” he assured softly.

A wash of tears stung her eyes. “Okay. Well you tell Skylar I’m never too busy for her. Or her dad.”

“Sure thing.” The awkward pause that followed had him quickly clearing his throat. “Alright, my prep period’s almost up so I better finish eating. Happy writing, babe.”

Abby hung up the phone with a pinch of sadness. Three whole weeks without talking to Brian on a daily basis?

Huh.

Ten-to-one odds he’ll crack first.



Abby eyed the ominous black clouds that had appeared out of nowhere sometime during her last meeting of the day. “Great,” she muttered, rubbing her bare arms. Arizona’s unpredictable monsoon season at its finest.

In a mocking curtsy, Mother Nature smoothly edged out the last tiny bit of blue in the sky and dumped a city-dousing waterfall of rain onto the ground within a six-second window.

Lovely. Not even a nice drizzle to give her a head start.

“Don’t you even think about it!”

Abby spun around to see Evelyn Ramirez, the English department head running down the hall with a fire hydrant yellow Pi?on Pine Middle School rain cloak. “You were going to run out in that downpour, weren’t you?” she accused as she slapped the school spirit poncho into Abby’s grateful hands.

Abby smiled sheepishly. “I don’t live that far away.”

A disapproving headshake was all she got back as she donned the thin plastic, glad that it was long enough to cover the book bag at her hip. “Thanks Eve. I’ll return it tomorrow.”

“You most certainly will not. You’re not coming in, remember? That dissertation isn’t going to write itself, missy. And if you come around after school one day with your bleeding heart, these kids will pounce and suck you dry.”

At Eve’s fierce look, which was at least half serious, Abby laughed. “Okay, I’ll keep it as a reminder of just that.”

A crash of thunder made them both jump. Eve studied the courtyard through the sheets of rain coming down. “That’s a storm, alright. You better just make a break for it now.”

Abby was thinking the same thing. After a final thanks, she darted out into the pounding rain.

Exiting the school premises, she cut to the shortest route back to her house, resigned to splash through ankle-deep road puddles to save time. With just a block left to go, however, she spotted a girl huddling under a sidewalk tree, trying in vain to stay dry.

“Skylar?” she called out, wiping the water out of her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly.

The girl’s guarded stranger-danger expression dissolved into a relieved smile. “Abby, hi!”

Running over, Abby again cursed the fickle Arizona weather when she saw that Skylar was similarly not dressed for the rain. “Why aren’t you at your Uncle Connor’s?”

“I stayed back afterschool to sign-up for some clubs. Then out of the blue, it started pouring. I’ve been trying to call my dad because I figured he and Coach Bill would cancel football tryouts but he isn’t answering his cell.”

“Your dad had a faculty meeting before practice today so he probably doesn’t have his phone on.” Without thinking twice, Abby immediately yanked off her new sunbright rain barrier and slipped it over Skylar’s head.

“What are you doing?”

“I have way more padding than you, hon. You need it to stay warm.” While Skylar was busy trying to find the poncho’s elusive armholes, Abby rustled around in her bag for one of the plastic bags she usually kept in case she needed to carry library books when she was doing research. Finding one, she wrapped up her book bag to protect it from the rain. “Okay, there are no two ways about it, we just have to make a mad dash for your uncle’s house.” She gripped Skylar’s hand. “Ready?”

Skylar’s wary ‘not really’ was still hanging in the air under the tree when Abby yanked her out into the rain and started them on a frantic two-block sprint uphill in the opposite direction of her own home.

By the time they got to Connor’s mini McMansion, Abby was sure she looked like a drowned stray cat. She certainly felt like one. Racing up the absurdly long driveway, she wordlessly pointed to the side yard, knowing she’d never be heard over the drumming rain. Skylar just nodded and followed her around the house to the back porch. The night of the party, Abby remembered seeing a mudroom of sorts at that entrance. As water-logged as they were, she didn’t want to attempt the grand front entry.