other math nerds like you. Back to the story.”
Jordan chuckled. “Okay. Long story short, when she found out how good I actually was at math and science, she went with me to school and sat me down with the guidance counselor. We hashed out a plan to get my grades up above the average they’d been all my school life and to work on my college applications. I didn’t make valedictorian, obviously, but I sure as shit shocked the hell out of all the people who had thought I was this average Joe kid.”
Pride in his accomplishments welled in his chest again at the memory. His senior year had turned out to be the best year he’d ever spent in school, all because his foster parent cared about him enough to start a conversation.
“So she’s why you’re a special education math specialist?”
“Yeah. I figured I could always teach regular kids, but the ones who’d need me to push them were going to be the ones nobody would expect much from. They’d be marginalized because of their disabilities. And some of them would be like me, sitting on unrealized potential out of fear because no one was paying them any mind.”
They had finished eating by now and were finishing their beers.
“I take it you’re not fond of math?” Jordan asked, regarding him with a smile.
Bennett nodded. “You take it correctly. I managed to pass all the required classes, but I had to have tutoring for most of them, and it was almost as bad as going to the dentist.”
Jordan laughed again. “You’re a hoot!”
“I’m honest,” Bennett retorted with a grin. “Was Chandler any good at math?”
“Mac’s a smart guy,” Jordan said fondly. “Math wasn’t his favorite subject, but he held his own. He was better than seventy-five percent of the sophomores in the class.”
“So how did you guys become friends?”
Was this Bennett’s way of asking him if he and Mac had been more than friends? The idea pleased Jordan somehow. He answered without thinking, wanting to reassure Bennett.
“We’re both orphans. When his parents were killed and he had to drop out to look after his siblings, I reached out to him. He needed a friend and big brother, someone he could turn to, when he needed to vent, even though I knew nothing about raising kids. Because I knew how to survive without parents.”
As soon as he stopped speaking, he realized what he’d revealed. He knew the next question would be about how his parents had died and he waited to feel the discomfort of having to speak of it. It had always been his private grief. He hadn’t gotten over their deaths for a long time. It wasn’t really until he’d been with Mrs. Salvietti for six months or so, when she’d broken though his defenses and shown him her mother’s heart, that he’d really begin to heal.
Bennett surprised him, though, by not asking him the obvious question. Instead, as though he intuited it, he asked,
“So Mrs. Salvietti is like a mother to you, huh?”
Jordan’s hand froze around the can he held. Very few people ever took the time to pay as much attention to him as Bennett had done in the last hour. And it was a little bit frightening to him that the younger man could so easily read his unspoken words and feelings. Must be because he lives with a real family and knows what it’s like.
“Very perceptive of you, Bennett,” he said.
“Which is the real reason you walk her dogs and look out for her.”
Fuck! This was surreal. At this rate, Bennett could ask for anything he wanted and Jordan would give it to him. He was so in tune with who Jordan was, and they hadn’t known each other but a minute. He’d have to be very careful not to let himself get carried away by his feelings. It would never do to fall for this man. Trust didn’t come easily for him, and what was happening between them was most likely just a physical thing, an overwhelming attraction that made them more in sync than they might otherwise be.
He watched as Bennett swallowed the last of his beer. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, and the sight stirred Jordan’s blood impossibly. Damn, but he was turned on by Bennett’s perceptiveness! It was even sexier than his plump lips and sultry voice. Was that even normal, to be aroused by how smart someone was? It had never happened to him before, and he wasn’t