Ignite (33 page)

“Do you feel better?” he asked as we walked to his class.

I shrugged.

“Not really. I only have two weeks to decide.”

“I thought you had already decided,” he said, looking concerned.

“Me too.”

I didn’t like the fact that I was hesitating any more than he did, but it was a huge life change. Part of me still didn’t want to accept it even though I wasn’t sure it was a choice any more. I was still extremely concerned about where I would get the tuition funds.

We arrived at the classroom a little bit early, and Dean introduced me to the professor.

“Lauren, this is Dr. Nielson. Dr. Nielson, this is my girlfriend Lauren.”

I raised my eyebrow when he said the
G
word, considering we’d never actually talked about it. We had exchanged the
L
word, so I guess that counted.

The professor was a woman who looked a well preserved forty, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Nice to meet you,” she said cooly. “Dean didn’t say he had a girlfriend.”

I audibly scoffed.

“It’s recent,” I told her, eyeing Dean. Why was this professor so concerned about his love life?

“How nice for you,” she said shortly, and turned away from me to talk to another TA.

“Wow,” I whispered to Dean as I gave him a look.

“Sorry,” he said as he kissed my cheek. “Here, you can sit in the front row.”

Students were starting to file in, so I took a seat in the front row on the side. I took the packet out of my purse and started to look over it so I didn’t seem completely out of place. Dean smiled at me and went over to chat with Dr. Nielson and the other TAs.

I was deep in thought reading about transfer credits when two girls behind me caught my attention.

“Thank god he’s a TA again this semester,” I heard one of them say.

“I know,” the other replied. “That man is dirty hot.”

I glanced behind me to see where they were looking and blushed when I realized they were talking about Dean. Of course they were.

Who else fit that description?

He turned and saw me looking at him and flashed me a smile.

One girl hit the other.

“Did he just smile at us? I think he smiled at us.”

“No,” the second chimed in slowly. “I think he was smiling at
her
.” I knew they were talking about me.

I smiled back. This was going to take some getting used to, but I guess Kenzie was right about why girls were enrolling in this class, and it wasn’t for the science credit.

An hour later, every single girl in the class was drooling over Dean. I’m wasn’t sure that anyone was even paying attention to Dr. Nielson’s lecture. It got even worse when the lecture ended and Dean walked to my seat, grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the classroom while people were packing up. I turned around to see a hundred blank stares as we exited.

“Do you have any idea that you’re going to be responsible for all of those girls failing the class?”

He smirked.

“I’ve heard rumors of my legendary hotness,” he said sarcastically. “Or should I say,
rugged sexuality
.”

I punched him in the arm.

“No seriously, I’m pretty sure there’s a contract out for my murder right about now.”

He shook his head as we walked to the car.

“Then I’m pretty sure you didn’t notice that you can’t ever go to that class ever again either, because the entire male population was fixated on you. Then no one will pass that class.”

I laughed.

“Way to try and even the score,” I said, climbing into the Range Rover.

“No,” he said after he ran around to the driver’s side. “I’m not
trying
anything. I just deal in facts.”

I kept going through the information in the packet while we drove home.

“So,” he asked, “Did you like it?” His eyes were hopeful.

I shrugged.

“It was okay. One of the TAs was really distracting so I don’t even know what was happening. Are all the TAs here that attractive? It might have an impact on my decision.”

A smile spread across his face and he winked at me.

“Are all the prospective students who sit in the front row so beautiful?”

I rolled my eyes.

“You’re hopeless.”

I pulled out a green sheet of paper that I hadn’t looked over before. My stomach dropped when I read the title. My fingers skimmed along the lines and stopped on a final figure.

“Fuck.”

My heart sank. I couldn’t do this.

“What’s wrong?” Dean said, looking over at me, instantly concerned.

I put the packet back in my purse and ran my hands through my hair. What was I going to do?

“Seriously Lauren, what’s wrong?”

I bit my lip and tried to keep the tears from falling.

“Money. This is way more than I have.”

Of course tuition here would be much more than at the state school. It was nearly twice the amount, and I didn’t have enough. This was one roadblock I couldn’t overcome.

“So?” he asked, his eyes darting between the traffic and my face.

“So? I can’t pay that.”

His eyes went back to the road full time.

“It’s not an issue,” he said seriously, and I knew what he was thinking.

“Dean, I am not going to let you pay my tuition.”

“Yes,” he said firmly, “You are.”

He kept his eyes on the road.

“
No
, you’re not. That’s a ridiculous amount of money. I don’t want to have to pay you back.”

“So don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

“Pay me back.”

I scoffed.

“Dean, no. You are not paying a cent.”

His lips set in a firm line.

“Then get student loans if you’re concerned about it.”

“I don’t have any credit.”

“Get a cosigner.”

“I don’t have any parents.”

“You do have a parent,” he said. “You have your mom.”

“My mom isn’t going to cosign a loan for me. I don’t even know where she is right now.”

“Ask Jed to do it.”

“He’s just my uncle.”

“So I’ll sign it.”

“I highly doubt they’re going to let my uncle cosign for a loan of that size, let alone you.”

He stopped the car outside of my house and hit one hand on the steering wheel.

“Damn it, Lauren! Stop making up excuses! If you don’t way to stay, then don’t. I can’t believe you would do this.”

“Do what?” I asked softly.

“Go back on your word. But then again, I guess I don’t know you as well as I thought.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I felt the anger rising in my chest.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

I slammed my door as I got out of the car and walked up the front steps. I knocked on the door. Dean’s car was still waiting, and I just wanted him to go.

Kenzie opened it, holding Emma.

“Yay! How was it?” she asked, waving to Dean.

“How was it?” Emma asked excitedly, echoing Kenzie.

“I guess someone’s feeling better,” I said as I stepped inside, ignoring what they had asked.

“She is. Don’t distract from the question,” Kenzie said. “How was it?”

“Oh, it was great,” I said, taking off my coat. “I found out that basically every girl with eyes wants to screw Dean the second he walks into view.”

“We knew that already,” Kenzie said nonchalantly. “How was the class?”

“It was interesting,” I said flatly. “Until I realized I can’t afford the tuition.”

“So,” she said. “There are options for that.”

She sounded infuriatingly like him.

“Not any that I want to talk about right now. Thanks for staying, Kenz. I just need some time to think.”

She backed off and handed Emma to me.

“Okay, but if you want to talk about it, I’m always here.”

I nodded and thanked her as she left.

“Emma,” I said, sitting down on the couch. “What am I going to do?”

I WAS STILL mad at Dean when Jed came by to check on the guardianship papers. I had arrived at the conclusion that I was more upset at myself than him, but I wasn’t ready for him to know that quite yet.

I was also mad and confused about the mountains of papers that had been dumped on me in the past two days, and I didn’t know how to handle any of it.

He handed me one packet of papers that I needed to read through in order to assume guardianship of Callie, Chase, and Emma.

“This is also yours,” he said, handing me a letter.

It looked old. I turned it over, but only my full name was written on the front. The handwriting looked suspiciously familiar from Christmas presents and birthday cards.

“Who is this from?” I asked Jed, suddenly panicked.

He swallowed.

“Your Dad. Now, there’s the matter of money.”

My dad?
I put the letter down and shook my head.

“I know, money is a huge issue right now.”

“Not exactly.”

I looked at him like he’d just grown a third eye.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, you’re twenty-one now. I was going to tell you this right after your birthday, but then life got in the way. I’m sorry I didn’t give it to you sooner.”

He pulled another envelope out of his briefcase.

“Open that one right now,” he instructed me.

It was a generic envelope that had a bank as the return address. It looked like a check. My hands shook as I tore it open and pulled out what was inside.

It was an account number with an even larger number next to it.

My eyes went wide and I nearly dropped it.

“Is this some kind of joke?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at Jed.

“No jokes,” he said. “That’s your trust fund.”

I shook my head.

“Trust funds are for rich people. Dad wasn’t poor, but he wasn’t rich either. This isn’t possible.” I pointed to the number next to the dollar sign. “That just isn’t possible.”

“It is possible, Lauren,” Jed said calmly. “If you go down to the bank and sign for it, they’ll have a checkbook and debit card sent to you so you can start using the account immediately. It should be sufficient for school and anything else you might require.”

“It would be sufficient to buy a third world country.”

Jed gave me a look.

“Now, I advise you to take
that
letter even more seriously,” he said, pointing at the one on the table.

My eyes welled up.

“Something you should know about your dad is that he just knew things. He had a certain intuition. I don’t like to talk about it because I don’t quite understand it myself, but I do believe it. He gave me two letters of my own. I opened one of them and I’m still scared to open the second. Take it to heart. He meant what he said, and it’s probably true.”

When I met his eyes, he looked more shaken than I’d ever seen him in my entire life. If something freaked Jed out, it must be more than strange.

“Have you opened mine?” I asked.

“No, it’s still sealed. It’s just for you.”

“Thanks.”

“I do want you to know, Lauren,” he said as he put on his coat and hat. “He gave me one for Dean as well. He read it when he was eighteen.”

I wasn’t sure why my dad wrote Dean a letter, but my brain couldn’t handle anything else right now so I made a mental note to ask him later.