Page 35 of Daddy's Treat
“Nope.”
Watching Kade in the kitchen is a lot more fun than one would think. Mostly, I look at his butt in his jeans but watching him flip pancakes like a pro is pretty good too.
Kade and I talk about mundane things while he feeds me the pancakes and omelet, he cooked for me. He’s never read the book Of Mice and Men but saw the movie five times. I tease him for being one ofthosepeople. I tell him about my grandma and how she let me read her dirty books when I was way too young to be reading that stuff. Looking back, that’s probably why I’m not a strait-laced vanilla kind of girl.
He asks me about skipping grades and if that was something I wanted to do or if it was my parents’ decision. My answer is a little of both. I wasn’t challenged enough in the classes, so it was boring. My parents wanted to have bragging rights for having a genius daughter. Everyone won.
Talking about school has me thinking about my current predicament. If I can’t get into that advanced molecular biology class next semester, everything will be at a standstill. I’ll have to wait another semester to go to medical school. Which means another year in the Zeta Tau house. That is unacceptable. I still have one semester left of this year, and I’m already counting down the days.
I abhor that my mother insisted I pledge. I can tell you; the sorority isn’t the friend-making-community helping-do-gooding sisterhood my mother and grandmother waxed poetic on. Grandma didn’t care if I joined or not. She’s always let me go my own way. My mother, on the other hand, tries to fit me into a box of her making. Whenever I dare to do something different, she finds a way to stuff me in the box regardless of my desires. Like with threatening to stop paying housing fees if I didn’t pledge.
I did what she asked. I got in, of course, I’m a daughterandgranddaughter of an alum, I was guaranteed a spot. I figured I could pledge, and if I truly didn’t like it, my mother would let me quit.
Nope.
All she did was yell at me and tell me that Coopers aren’t quitters. That being in the sisterhood would give me life-long friends. I tried explaining that I don’t fit in. That there are constant parties and drinking and that it makes studying difficult. She told me life is difficult. And that was that.
I could’ve gotten a job and paid for housing on my own, but then I would have had to drop classes. I would lose the benefits of the accelerated program—not that they are currently doing me any good—and that would jeopardize my future plans. I, once again, picked the path of least resistance.
Kade pushes my knees apart and steps between them. “Hey, shortcake, what’re you thinking about so hard over here?”
“My mom, Zeta Tau, school… the meaning of life… you know the usual.”
“Did something happen with your mom?” Kade asks with concern.
I shake my head. “No, just thinking about her ultimatum for joining Zeta Tau, and if I have to come back next fall, I’ll be stuck in that stupid house again.” I look Kade straight in the eye. “I don’t think I’ll survive two more semesters of it. I’m barely keeping it together this semester, and the only thing that’s gotten me this far is the fact that I graduate in the spring. It’s a lot easier to pep talk my way through when I have just a few months left than to know I have a whole year more.”
Kade cups my face in his hands. His reassuring strength is like a balm to my soul. “What did I tell you about school?”
“That you’d take care of it.”
“That’s right. Can you trust me to do that?” His words ring with sincerity.
“I want to, but I just don’t understand how you can possibly make a difference if the dean herself said there was nothing to be done.”
A hard look crosses his face, and I instantly apologize. “I’m sorry, Kade. I do trust you. I’m just scared.”
“Don’t you dare apologize for this. It’s not your fault. It’s mine.”
My eyes narrow in confusion. “How could it possibly be your fault that a class is full?”
Kade then tells me the whole sordid tale that is his non-relationship with Dean Michaels. Apparently, she’s a wackadoodle who is obsessed with Kade. He asks me over and over to forgive him and again assures me that he will get it fixed for me.
Honestly, just knowing that there is an actual reason for my being cut from the class makes me feel a lot better. It’s not becauseIdid something wrong. It’s petty jealousy from a woman who feels entitled to whatever she wants because she’s the head of the school. Lucy takes after her in more ways than just her looks, that’s for sure.
“I’m sorry you have some crazy middle-aged stalker,” I say with a sassy smirk.
“Who are you calling middle-aged, little girl?”
“Dean Michaels.” I’m still smiling. I love teasing him.
“You do know that we’re the same age, right?”
“Wait, you’re telling meyouare middle-aged too?” I gasp.
Kade’s low growl tells me I’m in trouble. “I’ll show you middle-aged, shortcake.”
He carries me to his bedroom and tosses me unceremoniously onto the bed. I squeal when he grabs my ankle and pulls me to the edge of the bed. My butt is barely perched on the mattress. Kade hooks both of my legs over one arm. Before I have time to brace myself, his hand cracks down on my bottom.