on the beach in pursuit of some poor unsuspecting seagull, probably wouldn't make it to twelve.
Not my problem.
"Of course, all girls go through a rebellious stage," Jane said from the other side of the room. "It's not unusual, but..."
"Yeah?" All girls go through a rebellious stage? He glanced back at her. "Does that include you? What, you went a morning without flossing? You, gasp, once let your library books go overdue?"
"I would never do that!" She made a face at him. "The library was right next door to my school, so it was easy to return them by the due date."
The little egghead had probably gone to some hoity-toity private school where each student was assigned a private SAT tutor and college essays were critiqued by retired admissions officers. "Where'd you graduate from? Smarty-pants Prep?"
She was focused on picking at the shrink-wrap covering the notepads. "My brothers were homeschooled. I attended the regular public school three blocks away."
Weird. "What? Your parents thought they needed the extra attention and you didn't?"
She made a sound that was suspiciously like a snort. "My brothers have genius IQs. They excel in math and the sciences. When I didn't show an aptitude for those particular subjects..."
My father always says I have no head for science, Griffin remembered.
"...Dad decided the public school was plenty good enough for me."
"Ouch," he said.
Her eyes didn't meet his. "I received a very good education, actually."
"Just not the same one as your brothers."
She shrugged. "I'm not like my brothers at all."
He turned to lean his back against the desk. Because she still wasn't looking at him he had the opportunity to study her face - the gentle curve of her lashes, the generous pillows of her lips. Another arrow of heat shot toward his groin, and he thought of that origami bundle of her panties just inches from his cock. He groaned.
Her gaze shot up. "What's the matter?"
"Uh..." His mind scrambled for some intelligent remark. "Rebellion?" Hadn't they started with that? "You rebelled because you were different than your brothers?"
She shrugged again. "I don't really know. I just think it's important to pay attention to girls Rebecca's age. The impulse to rebel is natural, but they can get into actual trouble if no one's watching."
Griffin pictured the governess as a young teen, as one of their pack of Crescent Cove summer kids. She would have been as big as a gnat and as annoying as one even then. He could see it. A little dab of a thing with those eerie eyes and that puffy mouth. Gage would have bet his twin he could steal a kiss from her first.
Griffin wouldn't have let that happen.
"What kind of trouble did you get into, Jane?" he asked idly, still imagining. There would be a bonfire, and he'd have drawn her just outside its glow, lowering his head to -
"I ran away from home at thirteen. Left L.A. and made my way to San Francisco."
The words jerked him out of his reverie. "What?" he squawked. He couldn't fathom it. "Jesus, Jane." It shook him up to think of it. And he fucking hated being shaken up.
"It's actually kind of a funny story."
His gut didn't believe that for a moment. "I've got to hear this."
She rose from the love seat and paced toward the desk and window. Her gaze took in the ocean view. Griffin took in the clean lines of her profile and the soft wave of her sandy hair. "I decided to take a road trip. I had some babysitting money I used for bus fare."
A shudder worked its way down his spine. Thirteen years old and alone at the Los Angeles bus station. The stuff of any thinking person's nightmares. "Why San Francisco?"
"My mother was from the area. I think I missed her."
"What? She was visiting there?"
"She was dead." Jane turned her head to look at Griffin, her silver eyes mirroring no emotion. "She died when I was a baby."
His hand squeezed into a fist, echoing the sudden tightness in his chest. "Oh, this whole story's hilarious," he said.
"Wait. It gets funny!"
He had good instincts. This was not going to get funny. But she looked so sincere, he couldn't say it aloud. "Tell me when I should start laughing."
"Right about when I changed my mind and turned around and took the very next bus back to Southern California."
He felt some relief at that. Apparently she'd avoided drug traffickers and slave traders. "Go on."
"When I got back to my house...there was nobody home."