Read Just For Now (A Flirting With Trouble Novel) for Free Online Page A

the staff and see if we can put together some organized tutoring for you. That way, you can get some homework help after school instead of just playing ball all the time. How does that sound?”
    He shrugs, twisting the ends of his cornrows with his thumb and index finger, but I know from past experience that that means he’s into the idea. I pat his back.
    “Go play basketball.” I smile at him. “Then come get a snack. Did you eat lunch today?”
    He nods, but makes a face. Tyson hates the school lunches, but his mother qualifies for free and reduced meals. Some days, he’ll come here with an empty belly and a terrible attitude. Those are days when the school served Salisbury steak or Unidentifiable Chicken Dish.
    I take Tyson’s backpack with me, then drop it off in the common room where the kids leave all of their school stuff while they play. I take a peek at the pool, where Jenn is monitoring a free-swim session. Most of the kids don’t have bathing suits, so we ran a donation drive last spring for kids’ bathing suits. As long as they don’t take them home with them, we always have enough suits for the kids who want to swim. It’s a huge blessing.
    As I walk in the office, though, Shannon has a look of utter disappointment on her face. The phone receiver is pressed to her ear. Frowning, I stop to listen to her.
    “Yes, sir. Yes, of course. Well, I will relay the message . . . yes. Okay, thank you.”
    She hangs up and I lean my hip against the front desk.
    “What’s up? You look like you’ve lost your dog.”
    She shakes her head. “No—that was the Maryland State Youth Council. They offered that grant you applied for a few months ago?”
    “Oh, right!” I brighten . . . and then realize there’s a reason Shannon looks so dejected.
    “Yeah—we didn’t get it.”
    I’m disappointed. I can’t even pretend that I’m not. But I don’t want Shannon to see just how sad I am, so I just shrug.
    “It’s fine, Shan. There are a million grants and a million different places we can go for money. Trust me.”
    That seems to succeed in making Shannon feel a little better—enough that when the phone rings again, she answers in a fairly chipper tone. I take the opportunity to head back into my office and shut the door.
    Dammit.
That’s the second grant I’ve applied for that’s turned into a dead end. The problem with city programs like ours is that they’re terribly underfunded. We need to keep applying for funds. That’s how we pay our staff. It’s how we keep our world together. It’s how we prevent this entire operation from falling apart.
    I flop down into my desk chair and cover my eyes. Maybe I should take something for the migraine that’s threatening at the edges of my eyes. Maybe I should take the rest of the day.
    I shake it off—or at least attempt to. Tonight, I’ve got the dinner with Owen and then drinks with Cyn and her boyfriend, Smith. I’d made a contingency plan, which makes me a total dick, but I didn’t want to be stuck with Owen for hours on end in an awkward boss/employee exchange over burgers. I convinced Cyn that she needed to meet me after Trivia Night and, goddess that she is, she agreed.
    “But you owe me since you’re missing trivia,” she’d said reproachfully. I snorted into the phone.
    “Please. I’m not playing this week, which means you’ll probably win. You’ll be thanking me later.”
    But right now, going out feels like the last thing in the world that I want to do. I press my fingers against my temples for a long moment, then release. I manage to start sorting through the papers on my desk. We’ve got all of the enrollment forms for toddler swim lessons and morning preschool. When it comes to organization, the younger kids are the only ones we really get to commit—and that’s their parents, not them.
    There’s a light knock on my door. Sighing, I call out, “Come in.”
    Wendy pokes her head inside. “Hey—you busy?”
    I shrug.