Read Midnight Heat (Firework Girls #2) for Free Online Page B

some of them not really being in my field, some are from out of state. I just feel so restless. It’s like I’ll hear about a city and start looking at job boards and before I know it, I’m applying for things. One day I looked up most livable cities or something and started going to their job boards. San Francisco. Chicago. Tallahassee. Tucson.”
    “I got my degree at U of A,” he said. “Tucson’s a great town.”
    I nodded. “That’s what I hear. But I’m telling you, I’ve applied everywhere. Denver. Houston. Boise.”
    Little did I know that I’d be offered a job and on my way to Boise in less than a week.
    “What’s worse,” I continued, “is that I’ve even had a few call backs but I never follow up. I mean, I can’t just pick up and move to freaking Houston or wherever. Then the next week I’m right back at it again. I’m starting to feel like an addict.”
    He laughed.
    “The thing is, I’m either applying to weird shit that I have zero qualifications for. Or I apply for stuff I might be qualified to do in five years or something. Or I apply to stuff I am qualified to do, because I just want to go... I don’t know, somewhere. And of course, those are the people calling me back, but do I really want to pick up and move and spend all that money to haul my ass to Denver just to have another job that’s going to bore the shit out of me?”
    He laughed and nodded.
    “Plus, my brother’s here and I feel like I need to stay close.”
    “He’s in Swan Pointe?” Grayson asked.
    “No. Right now he’s home with my dad, but in a couple weeks he’ll be back at Hartman College. He’s starting his sophomore year there.”
    “And where’s home?”
    “Temecula. It’s between LA and San Diego. More inland though.”
    “So why do you feel you need to stay close to your brother? Is he your only one?”
    I nod. “He’s four years younger than me. Our mom died about eight years ago. He was just eleven, poor kid.”
    “Poor you, too,” he said quietly, giving me a look of empathy (thank god it wasn’t that pitying look I hate so much).
    “Yeah, it was really hard.”
    He removed his arm from the back of the couch and took my hand. “How did she die? Can I ask?”
    “Yeah, it’s okay. She was driving home from work in the dead of winter. She hit a patch of black ice and her car flipped and went down into a ravine.”
    “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
    “Yeah. Me too. I think about her every day. She was amazing,” I smiled the smile I reserve for memories about my mom. “I think you would’ve liked her.”
    He smiled too.
    “My dad really fell apart when it happened though. I mean, really bad. He’d get himself to work but that was about it. He’s doing a lot better now, but for a few years there, I was kind of the mom and looking out for Bobby and trying to keep him together. He went off the deep end too and was failing all his classes. I mean all his classes. It was crazy. The principal would leave messages on the machine at the house and I don’t even know what my dad did about it. Nothing that I could tell. So it kind of fell to me. I cooked and cleaned the house and threatened Bobby until he’d finally get some homework done and dad just sat on the couch like a zombie.”
    “Wow,” he said softly.
    I shrugged. It was what it was. “It’s a lot better now. My English teacher stopped me after class one day. I think this was a year and a half after Mom died. Anyway, I don’t know how my teacher caught on to things but she asked me some questions and I told her just a little. She told me about this support group for kids who’ve lost a parent, but she thought it’d help all of us. I don’t know, something about the way she described it really clicked with me. I spent three days harassing my dad about it and wouldn’t let up. I finally told him he’d better take us or I was going to steal the car and run away.”
    Grayson raised his eyebrows and smiled, apparently