Slow Burn Read Online Free PDF

apartment? Check. Making out in the laundry room? Check. Ok, we were pretty much making out wherever and whenever we could.  It was like being a teenager again. We hadn’t had sex yet and there was never any discussion between us as to why we hadn’t. There was no question in my mind that we would, but I thought things were kind of nice the way they were. It was like the hottest, most prolonged foreplay ever. 
     
    I thought back to something Patrick had said: Oh, you got jokes.   I laughed again. It was always adorable when Patrick used urban lingo. I knew he’d picked it up from spending so much time with me. He wasn’t even aware when he said stuff like that. It was cute. As the train pulled into my station I remembered something else Patrick had said: You’ll dress up next year. I promise. Did that mean Patrick saw himself in my life a year from now? 
     
    There you go again, Chloe. Over thinking things. Just be happy with the here and now. The here and now is pretty damn sweet.
    ***
    Brianna was happy to see me as I entered the apartment, but she was definitely more excited to leave and begin her trick-or-treating. “Hi, Chloe!” I was attacked by a ball of pink taffeta. 
     
    “Whoa! Look at you.”
     
    “I’m a fairy princess.”
     
    “Yes, I can see that. And a beautiful princess, too.” 
     
    “Where’s your costume?”
     
    “Yeah, where is your costume?” Crystal chimed in as she entered the living room from the kitchen. She was carrying two big bowls of candy in either hand. She was also dressed as a bumblebee.
     
    Had everyone gone crazy?
     
    “I don’t have one! Why would I?”
     
    “Girl, it’s Halloween, that’s why.” 
     
    “Yeah, and it’s for kids.”
     
    “Don’t worry; you’ll change your thinking when you have kids of your own.”
     
    “Doubt it.”
     
    “Scrooge.”
     
    “Wrong holiday, smartass.”
     
    “Oooh, Chloe. You gotta pay a quarter. Right, mommy?”
     
    “What?” I turned to Crystal for an explanation. 
     
    I watched my cousin wobble to the front door, trying to navigate her big bee’s body, and place the two bowls on a table. “Every time I say a bad word I have to put a quarter in Brianna’s piggy bank.” 
     
    “Well technically, smartass isn’t a bad word. I mean, it’s not as bad as, say, ass itself, right?”
     
    “Oooh, Mommy.”
     
    “Fine.”  I reached into my purse and gave Brianna a dollar while Crystal just laughed. 
     
    As soon as we were done taking pictures the doorbell rang. It was Brianna’s friends with their mom coming to take her trick-or-treating. With kisses from both Crystal and me, and instructions to behave and be careful, she was off in a flurry of taffeta and giggles.  After a few minutes of joking around—I had to tease Crystal for handing out miniature toothbrushes and sample tubes of toothpaste along with her candy—the talk turned serious because, well, I just had to ask.
     
    “What’s going on with Jermaine?” 
     
    “Are we going to fight about this?”
     
    “I hope not.”
     
    She sat as best she could in her costume on one end of the sofa and I sat on the other.
     
    “I’m going to let him meet Brianna.”
     
    “Just like that?”
     
    “What do you mean just like that? We’ve been spending a lot of time together and he has a right to be in her life, and I think he’s ready.”
     
    “I’m just afraid that he’s still the same person.”
     
    “Are you the same person you were at eighteen? Listen, I know you love me and Brianna and that you’re concerned, but you have to trust me. You have to trust me to know what’s best for my daughter. I’m scared too, you know. That’s why I need your support through this. Please?”
     
    How could I argue with that? I couldn’t. All I could do was hope that Crystal knew what she was doing, and then be there to help her pick up the pieces if Jermaine proved to be the man I thought he was. Besides, it was pretty hard to have