Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 15

Jo wasn't even going to think about where that thought had come from. The elevator door opened to the ground floor and Jo focused on making her way off.

"So what's your next class anyway?" Lexi asked. Jo pulled out her phone, showing Lexi the screenshot she'd saved. That reminded her, she probably should send this to Ryker so he'd know when she started classes each day. And she still needed to talk about riding home with him. Well, she'd do that later. No need to give him her full schedule yet. Just watch him try to show up at every single one of her classes.

"Ooh, Calculus," Lexi said excitedly, drawing Jo's attention back to her.

Jo raised her eyebrows. "I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about calculus like it was sexy before."

Lexi smiled brightly. "That's only because they haven't met Dr. Howard."

"Oh...I see." Jo laughed. Hot professor? Jo could see how that would make calculus bearable. Of course, that depended on if she and Lexi had the same taste in guys. Jo seemed to lean toward rugged, muscular guys, and it was hard to imagine a math professor looking that way.

Lexi nodded, eyes twinkling again. "I had him this morning.I think I'll need to make use of a lot of his tutoring hours though."

"Okay, now I see why your brothers get so worried."

"I'm just joking," Lexi said, waving her hand. Jo wasn't entirely sure whether to believe her or not. "But come eat lunch with us afterward? You can tell me then if I was right."

Who all was us? Jo wanted to ask before deciding, but she also didn't want Lexi to feel obligated to change her plans after she'd already sat with her yesterday. And Jo had a feeling Lexi would if she thought Jo was in danger of eating alone again. So, Jo would just go with the flow. "Sure, um, let me give you my number and you can text me where you guys plan to eat later."

At this rate, the whole Monroe family were going to be the first people in town to have her number. Jo shook her head in amusement as she and Lexi parted ways, Lexi heading for a studio art class while Jo went on to calculus.

Dr. Howard did wind up to be attractive in a glasses-wearing, graduated-college-at-18, got-a-doctorate-by-24 kind of way. He did look a lot younger than she would've expected a teacher at a college to look. He couldn't have been thirty yet. He looked shy, as if he would've rather been hiding back in his office playing Sudoku rather than teaching.

But bills had to be paid some way, and he didn't make Calculus entirely boring. He added a hint of enthusiasm to his lecture and showed a few examples step by step. She was somewhat decent at math so it made sense...still, she preferred science or history over endless streams of numbers.

She only had one more class that day, a writing course back in the humanities building. Technically she was currently on a two-year university-bound track that had a science focus.

She was pretty sure she wanted to work in either focus on botany or ecology but she actually hadn't completely decided. Science just sounded like a good field to her. Then again, she did like history. But even thinking about a career right now seemed farfetched. She had to figure out what was going on with herself first...

Her hands stilled over her laptop keyboard as she silently cursed. A job. She needed one of those ASAP, and she had completely missed her opportunity to ask the coffee shop guy if they needed help.

Maybe Ryker wouldn't mind stopping on the way back to her house, or they could possibly stop by and get coffee again in the morning. Yeah, the next morning would work fine. She didn't want to bother Ryker with stopping there again. He wasn't her chauffeur.

She left Calculus, still fixating on her job situation. She didn't plan on staying in town forever, but her money situation did need to be handled. A part-time position at the coffee and antiques shop would help.

It was around lunchtime, so she texted Lexi, receiving a quick reply to come to the student center. It was a squat brick building about three stories high, and it housed the book store as well as a bunch of study rooms and a few staff offices. On the third floor was a small sandwich shop, which Jo mentally noted as another potential place to work if the coffee shop didn't work out.

There was a lot of what she assumed was student artwork on the walls and scattered around the third floor, which was occupied by a lot of tables, chairs, and couches as well as a pool table and a foosball table. In one corner, a group had gathered around a small TV to play a video game while most people were eating or studying.

She saw a hand waving in the air and made her way over to Lexi and a few people she didn't recognize, which wasn't saying much since she knew, what, four people at the school?

There was a girl with short hair that was dyed a deep rich red and light brown skin almost the same shade as Jo's. She was curled up on the opposite end of a couch from a boy with straight black hair and dark eyes who looked like he might've belonged in a boy band if he hadn't been wearing flannel. The guy was reading a book with an alien on the front while the girl was studying her phone.

"Y'all, this is Jo Scott," Lexi said, gesturing to Jo as she came closer. "Jo, this is Katie Jones and Eli McKenzie. And this is officially our starter pack lunch group." She smiled and took a bite out of a huge roast beef sandwich.