Fringe Benefits by Sandy James Read Free Book Online Page B

Nate take a tour so he could judge the quality for himself.
    “I should’ve asked for an ID,” Ben quipped as he pointed at Nate’s longneck.
    Connor grinned. “You hear that all the time, don’t you?”
    “Yeah.” Nate took a pull of the beer. “But it’s my face, so I’m stuck with it.”
    “You’ll be glad in ten years.” Ben raked his fingers through his dark hair, drawing Nate’s attention to the gray at the temples. “Another five, I’ll be entirely gray.”
    Robert shook his head. “Takes longer than that. I had gray at your age. Over forty now, and”—he rubbed his temple—“hasn’t gone beyond my sideburns.”
    “Besides,” Connor added, “he’s a blond. Won’t go gray as fast as guys like us with dark hair.”
    Ben scoffed as he flipped a slab of ribs. “We sound like a bunch of women, bitching about our gray hair. Next thing you know we’ll be talking about gravity making our boobs sag and how bad our hot flashes are.” He inclined his head toward where the four women sat in comfortable chairs at the far end of the deck. “Uh-oh, Nate.”
    The teasing tone of Ben’s voice kept Nate from being concerned. “Uh-oh what?”
    “All four of them are staring at you. There’s mischief afoot.”
    “He’s right.” Robert grabbed a beer from the cooler. “The Ladies can get themselves into a jam eight ways from Sunday, especially if they’re conspiring.”
    “So the Ladies are troublemakers?” Although that had been his original guess, it didn’t jibe with what most of the people at school had to say about them. The women were well respected, as were their husbands.
    When Dani had extended the invitation to come to the cookout at the Ashfords’ house, he’d jumped at the chance to spend more time with her. She might be resisting going on a serious date, but he would wear her down. It had been a long time since he’d felt such a strong attraction to a woman. Only Kat had ever gotten that kind of reaction.
    Kat had been his one and only long-term relationship. He’d only dated sporadically in high school, and he was the polar opposite of a ladies’ man. Plagued with awkwardness his first three years of high school, he’d waited a lot longer than most guys for his growth spurt. Between his junior and senior years, his body had cooperated, adding five inches of height and destroying his knees in the process. He didn’t truly hit his stride until college, and he’d met Kat not long after he’d started classes at IU. She was the only woman he’d ever loved, and at the time, Nate had thought she was “the one.”
    He’d been dead wrong.
    “Did you like IU?” Connor asked.
    “Yeah,” Nate replied. “Liked it enough to stay almost six years.”
    “Change majors?”
    Nate nodded. “Senior year, I had an epiphany when I took a work study as a teaching assistant for one of my professors. I loved being in front of a class. It felt… right. Since I was almost done with the requirements, I went ahead and got my bachelors in English; then I decided to go back for a teaching license and a master’s in education. My mom objected, but I knew what I wanted.”
    “She’s a teacher, isn’t she?” Ben asked with a grin. “Mallory keeps telling Amber to do anything
but
teach. My daughter’s got a mind of her own, though. Seems like every teacher is steering college kids away from the profession.”
    “Can you blame them?” An acerbic chuckle slipped from Robert’s lips. “I sure as hell don’t miss the bullshit. You know, teaching used to be a great profession. Now it’s just mountains of paperwork, crappy pay, and people thinking a computer can do your job better than you.”
    “Easy, boys,” Connor cautioned. “You’re gonna scare the kid.”
    Kid?
Was it a blessing or a curse to always look younger than he was? He was twenty-four, and everyone told him he acted a lot older. But that damn baby face…
    Nate tried to turn the topic. “Amber?”
    “My daughter from my