Midnight Sons Volume 2 Read Free Page B

when Chrissie suddenly asked, “You’re not married or anything, are you, Ms. Ross?”
    A smile trembled on her mouth. “No.”
    “Why not?”
    Leave it to a seven-year-old to ask that kind of question. “I haven’t met the right man,” she explained as simply as she could.
    “Have you ever been in love?” Susan probed.
    Bethany noticed that both girls had stopped sorting throughthe textbooks and were giving her their full attention. “Yes,” she told them with some hesitation.
    “How old are you?”
    “Chrissie.” Susan jabbed her elbow into her friend’s ribs. “You’re not supposed to ask that,” she said in a loud whisper. “It’s against the human-rights law. We could get charged with snooping.”
    “I’m twenty-five,” Bethany answered, pretending she hadn’t heard Susan.
    The girls exchanged looks, then started using their fingers to count.
    “Seven,” Chrissie breathed, as if it were a magic number.
    “Seven?” Bethany asked curiously. What game were the girls playing?
    “If a man’s seven years older than you, is that too old?” Susan asked, her eyes wide and inquisitive.
    “Too old,” Bethany repeated thoughtfully. She perched on the edge of a desk and crossed her arms. “That depends.”
    “On what?” Chrissie moved closer.
    “On age, I suppose. If I was fourteen and wanted to date a man who was twenty-one, my parents would never have allowed it. But if I was twenty-one and he was twenty-eight, it would probably be okay.”
    Both girls seemed pleased with her answer, grinning and nudging each other.
    Bethany responded to their odd behavior with a joke. “You girls aren’t thinking about dating fourteen-year-old boys, are you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes in pretend disapproval.
    Chrissie covered her mouth and giggled.
    Susan rolled her eyes. “Get real, Ms. Ross. I don’t even know what the big attraction is with boys.” Then, as if to explain her words, she said, “I have an older brother.”
    “Would you tell us about the man you were in love with?”This came from Chrissie. Her expression had grown so serious Bethany decided to answer, despite her initial impulse to change the subject.
    “The man I was in love with,” she began, “was a guy I dated while I was in college. We went out for about a year.”
    “What was his name?”
    “Randy.”
    “Randy,” Chrissie repeated with disgust, turning to look at her friend.
    “Did he do you wrong?”
    Bethany laughed at the country-and-western phrasing, although she was uncomfortable with these questions. “No, he didn’t do me wrong.” If anyone was to blame for their breakup, it had been Bethany herself. She wasn’t sure she’d ever really loved him, which she supposed was an answer in itself. They’d been friends, and that had developed into something more—at least on Randy’s part.
    He’d started talking marriage and children, and at first she’d agreed. Then she’d realized she wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment. Not when she had two full years of school left. Not when she’d barely begun to experience life.
    They’d argued and broken off their unofficial engagement. The breakup had troubled Bethany for months afterward. But now she understood that what she’d really regretted was the loss of their friendship.
    “Do you still see him?” Chrissie asked.
    Bethany nodded.
    “You do? ” Susan sounded as if this was a tragedy.
    “Sometimes.”
    “Is he married?”
    “No.” Bethany grew a little sad, thinking about her longtime friend. She did miss Randy, even now, five years after their breakup.
    Both Chrissie and Susan seemed deflated at the news of Bethany’s lost love.
    “Would it be all right if we left now?” Chrissie asked abruptly.
    “That’s fine,” Bethany told them. “Thanks for your help.”
    The two disappeared so quickly all that was missing was the puff of smoke.
    If nothing else, the girls certainly were entertaining, Bethany thought. She returned to the task of