Make Me Over_ Getting Real - Leslie Kelly [17]
Yeah. They had underestimated him.
But they wouldn’t again.
T ORI WOKE UP, AS USUAL , with the sun. Her roommate, Sukie—thank the Lord she’d ended up with her and not Ginny the flasher or one of the other wild girls—was still sawin’ logs, even though it was nigh on seven in the mornin’.
Tori hated to slug-a-bed. So real quiet, she got up and gathered her clothes. She knew the cameras went on today and didn’t trust the TV people not to have the little spy doohickeys every which place. So she planned to do all her undressin’ in the bathroom. They’d put that much in writin’—no bathroom stuff. Guaranteed.
If she stayed around, she’d probably spend a fair amount of time in here. The big tub looked nice and comfy…She sure could do some readin’ in it. But, she reminded herself, she wasn’t staying around.
She’d kept her promise to Drew and thought on it all night. She just couldn’t come up with any way around it. She had to bail her brother outta his troubles, no matter how much she wanted to stay. Which, to her genuine amazement, she did.
Sukie still wasn’t up by the time she came back out, but Tori was ready to start her day, anyway. So she left her room, countin’ doors down the hall, tryin’ to remember how to get back to her own. Hopefully, she’d be comin’ back soon to pack up and go home.
“It’s for the best,” she whispered, thinkin’ about Luther and his problem. But boy, it sure did hurt for some reason. Part of her got all tight and achy when she thought about leavin’.
The horny part.
She shushed the little voice in her brain. Because yeah, she sure wouldn’t mind spendin’ some more time with Drew Bennett…between the sheets. Or on the sofa. Or the big fancy piano, or the dinin’ room table or any old place.
But there was more than that. She’d liked him. Dangitall, why’d she have to go and meet a man who made her all shivery inside, and also made her mind start doin’ leapfrogs with all the ideas he put in her head? Like about her readin’ better. Learnin’ about places, and…societies…like he did.
She didn’t just want to learn from him. She liked talkin’ to him. Liked listenin’ to him. Lookin’ at him get all energetic when he’d tried to sweet-talk her into stayin’.
He made her want—more. To sound like him. To think like him.
To get nekkid with him, girl, that’s all this is about, so forget about it right now!
She wasn’t about to start arguin’ with the voice in her head. Because it usually won.
Needing some alone time before breakfast, Tori bee-lined for the front door. They couldn’t have wired the whole yard with cameras. Leastwise, she hoped not!
She grabbed her heavy coat from the front closet and tugged it on over her sweater, fastening it up tight. Good thing, because when she stepped outside, the cold mornin’ air made her breaths turn to icicles in her lungs. It stung a bit. But a good kinda sting…the kind that reminded a body it was still alive and kickin’.
Shoving her hands into her pockets, she curled her fingers tight. Too bad she hadn’t thought to buy some gloves during the overnight stay in Albany. “No matter,” she told herself. “You’ll be home before you woulda been able to get any use out of ’em.”
Somebody’d done a good job shovelin’ all the snow off the front walk, but Tori was mindful of overnight ice as she walked down it. Then she mulled it over, realizin’, suddenly, that she’d known all along where she wanted to go. She didn’t have the right shoes on for a tromp through the snow, but she figured her work boots were at least a little bit waterproof.
Veering off the walk, she headed for the building she’d spied yesterday on the way in. It was a strange-lookin’ thing—all glass walls, shiny and sparkly in the sunlight. She’d seen the reflection of it this mornin’ from her bedroom window, which had gotten her curiosity all riled up again.
As she got closer, she realized what it was. “A greenhouse,” she whispered, her breath making misty clouds in front’ve her face. She never knowed people had such things in their own yards, and had only ever seen