Need You Tonight by Roni Loren

backpack and looked at her like she’d suggested he get
     them a rocket to the moon. “You want to come to my
house
? Your boyfriend would gather a lynch mob if he found out we were hanging out alone
     like that.”
    She shrugged. “He’d be pissed. But it’s not like he’d get the wrong idea, I mean . . .”
    The slight wince he gave was almost imperceptible but she felt like shit the minute
     she realized how it’d sounded. Like he was no threat. Like she was so far out of his
     league that there was no possible way anyone would worry about them alone together.
    “Kaden, I didn’t mean that—”
    He looped his backpack over his shoulder as he stretched out to his full, impressive
     height. The smirk was in place again but there was a sad note in his blue eyes. “Save
     your apology. You don’t need to play that nicey-nice, everybody-needs-to-like-me game
     with me. I know who we both are. And I know where we stand. Let’s go.”
    The comment was like a swift slap right across her cheek, knocking off the bright
     face she put out in the world. In just a few brief minutes, Kaden Fowler had called
     bullshit on her. She hurried after him as he made his way out the side door and into
     the parking lot. She did a quick scan to make sure no one was around. “You don’t know
     what you’re talking about. I don’t
need
people to like me. They just do.”
    He sniffed and dug his keys out of his ripped up jeans.
    “Okay, so maybe
you
don’t.”
    “And that b-b-bothers the shit out of you.”
    She quickened her step, trying to keep up with his long, easy strides. “It does not.”
    But it totally did. It was suddenly driving her crazy. Why didn’t he like her? She’d
     never personally done anything mean to him. She couldn’t be held responsible for Doug
     and his friends.
    Kaden stopped next to a beat-up Dodge Challenger and turned to her. “I live over on
     Dunlop Road. You can follow me. At a reasonable distance, of course, so no one links
     us t-t-together.”
    She gritted her teeth. “Fine.”
    She turned on her heel to stalk to her car, but he called her name before she could
     take a step. She looked back to find him leaning against the top of his car, staring
     out toward the football field instead of turning in her direction.
    “It’s totally bothering you, isn’t it?”
    She groaned. “Shut up. Point taken.”
    He smiled but there was no humor in it. He opened his door to climb into his car,
     but before he closed it, his eyes met hers. “Don’t worry, princess. Your record is
     still perfect. My problem isn’t that I don’t like you. It’s that I like you too much.”
    And with that, he slammed his door and shut her out.

SIX
    Tessa cupped her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone, hoping no one in the office
     would hear her conversation. “Doug, I better have read this email wrong.”
    Her ex-husband made a dismissive grunt. “Having trouble reading now? Maybe I should’ve
     used smaller words.”
    Fucking bastard.
Tessa gripped her phone, trying to keep her seething response from slipping out.
     Last thing she needed was for her current boss to send a complaint to the temp agency
     for an unhinged receptionist yelling at her ex-husband in front of the whole office.
     “Look, I get that we hate each other. Whatever. But are you really so heartless that
     you’ll let innocent kids suffer just to get back at me?”
    He sniffed. “Always so dramatic. This is merely a business decision and nothing else.
     That charity was your pet project, not mine, and it’s a cash sieve.”
    “It’s called nonprofit for a reason, Doug.”
Jackass.
    “If it’s such a worthy cause, you should be able to find other donors. I’m done keeping
     it afloat with my church’s money. I told the congregation to pick a new charity to
     focus on this year.”
    “Doug, please, don’t do this.” She hated the plea in her voice, but all she could
     think about were the kids at Bluebonnet Place who would