Friends with Benefits - Nicole Blanchard Page 0,10

my dream to become a baseball player my whole life. Married for thirty-four years, they were the epitome of stability and understanding. The complete opposite of Ember’s.

I couldn’t imagine growing up the way she had, essentially raising herself and then caring for twin sisters when she should have been enjoying her life. It made me admire her all the more for her determination and will. Instead of following her own dreams, she’d gotten a job straight out of high school to support her family, first as an aid at the hospital and then working nights while she went to school to become an EMT, all while helping to care for her sisters.

I’d never had to deal with anything like that on my own. My parents were always in my corner, cheering me on and supporting me. Ember, on the other hand, had always had to support herself.

Knowing her kitchen almost as well as my own, I decided it was time for someone to take care of her for a change. “Don’t move,” I ordered and went to make her a drink. “What about your dad?”

She sighed heavily. “I tried calling him after she hung up on me, but he didn’t answer. Naturally. Sometimes I wish they’d disappear. Then, it wouldn’t be this constant back-and-forth rollercoaster all the time.” Her head drooped, and she studied her hands in her lap. “That’s a terrible thing for me to say, I know.”

I made a tall glass of iced tea and sat the glass in front of her on the coffee table. “I won’t tell anyone. Besides, what they do to you isn’t fair. I’d say you’re allowed to talk shit every once in a while. What are you going to do?”

With her schedule of a twenty-four-hour shift every third day, Ember normally watched her sisters on her day off, and one of her parents would watch the twins after school on the days that she worked. It hadn’t been easy for her to convince them to do that. I remember the blowup. They had wanted her to work, but they hadn’t wanted her work to take away from her watching her sisters either. I had been able to hear it all because my apartment was right next to hers. In fact, we shared a bedroom wall. I had heard them yelling at her for hours that night.

With both of her parents gone, it would mean she had no one to watch them on her over-nights.

“What about my parents?” I offered as the thought popped into my head.

My mother was a retired grade-school teacher, and my father owned a home improvement store. We’d been trying to convince him to let someone else take over, but he was determined to work until he had one foot in the grave. These days, my mother spent a lot of her time working with education-based charities or tending her award-winning flower garden.

Ember drained the glass of tea and then shook her head. “No, don’t worry about it. I’ll figure something out. I can find the money for a babysitter or daycare somewhere. Do they even have those overnight?”

“I’m serious. Mom isn’t working. She has a lot of free time. I’m sure if I asked, she wouldn’t mind. In fact, this might be perfect.” Before she could object, I said, “At least let me ask her before you say no.”

Her eyes were no longer red from tears, but there were dark blue smudges underneath them. Strands of flame-colored hair fluttered around her neck and shoulders where it had come out of her messy bun. The shapeless, almost tactical, pants and faded, dark-blue shirt emblazoned with her station number did nothing to showcase the bombshell figure underneath.

But I’d never found her so sexy.

“. . . but I don’t want to make it a permanent situation,” she was saying. I forced myself to tune back into the conversation. “You can ask them, but don’t make them feel obligated. In the meantime, I’ll try to make more permanent arrangements.”

“I’ll call them after I finish practice, but I promise they won’t mind. They like you better than they like me, remember?”

This made her laugh. “Shut up. Your parents love you. It’s almost hard to watch. Every time you come home, it’s like you haven’t been home in years. King Tripp,” she teased, then glanced at her phone and cursed. “It’s so late. I shouldn’t have kept you here for so long. You need to sleep. Thank you for helping me, but now you