Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
“You’re in far too good of a mood,” my friend and fellow first-grade teacher Janelle says as I pass her in the hall. I’m heading to my classroom after grabbing a cookie from the teacher’s lounge, and she’s right. I am in a really good mood.
“It’s meet-the-kids day! Why aren’t you happy?”
She rolls her eyes at me. “Because it’s meet-the-kids day. Summer is over.”
I chuckle at her annoyed demeanor. It took a little getting used to—she’s been doing this a good ten years longer than I have and may be a little jaded. “Aw, don’t pretend like you didn’t miss me,” I tease.
She raises her middle finger discreetly, scratching her nose with it in my direction, and I cackle before blowing her a quick, menacing kiss before heading to my own classroom. I love summer. Don’t get me wrong—it’s the best.
But I love this part too. Getting my classroom ready and then meeting all the little kids who will fill it all year.
I’m just settling in behind my desk when a tall figure walks through the doorway.
I lift my head to greet my next parents and kiddo, but a small gasp leaves my lips when I see who it is.
Kade Mitchell.
There’s no way he’s actually standing here. It’s been seven years since we graduated from high school together, and somehow, he’s even better looking now than he was then—and back then he was like a god to me.
Embarrassing. Why yes, it is. Doesn’t make it any less true.
And even more sickening because he made my life a living hell in school—well, not really him specifically—that was mostly his friends. But to him, I was completely invisible, and that may have been even worse.
He’s so tall and broad, he nearly takes up the entire doorway.
His dark hair is tousled on top of his head, a little longer on top and shorter on the sides.
He still has the most gorgeous face I’ve ever seen.
He’s wearing a bit of dark scruff on his face now, and those icy-blue eyes still cut right through me.
He’s wearing a tight, black t-shirt that hugs his perfectly sculpted biceps, and I notice he has tattoos on both arms now.
Not covered—but enough to add to his appeal—which only angers me further.
I notice he’s not alone though. Standing at Kade’s side and curled into him like he couldn’t be pried away with anything short of the jaws of life.
The boy is small and looks nothing like Kade.
His hair is light-blond, and he’s wearing a nervous look—his green eyes peering over at me with scared curiosity.
Right. I should probably get up to greet them. Kade Mitchell is a dad.
I mean, I knew his high school girlfriend was pregnant at graduation—so the assumption isn’t off base. And the protective way Kade has his hand on the little boy’s shoulder only adds to that theory.
I stand up and walk over to them, a bright smile on my face, even though I feel off-kilter approaching my high school crush who didn’t even know I existed.
“Kade Mitchell.” I hold out my hand, and he cocks his head to the side, studying me closely with confusion on his face as he reaches out his own hand for me to shake.
Yeah, he doesn’t remember me at all. I’m not surprised, but I hate that it still stings.
“Spencer Bell.” I wait to see if my name sparks any kind of recognition.
“Bell...” He’s still staring at me, and I can’t help but shift carefully from one foot to the other and try not to squirm under his perusal. To be fair—I don’t look the same as I did in high school.
I shot up a few inches in college and added pounds of muscle, thanks to the weight room on campus. “We went to school together,” I say, trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone, but I’m unsuccessful.
“Spencer,” he says as if he does remember me, but I don’t think he does. It’s fine. It doesn’t matter. I’m not that gangly nerd I was in school anymore.
I crouch to look at the young man with Kade. “Hi. I’m Mr. Bell. I’ll be your teacher this year. It’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?”
The boy looks up at his father, hugging him closer to him, and then his green eyes meet mine. He’s truly adorable—angelic almost, with his blond hair and a cherubic face. But he’s timid and hesitant. “E-Elijah,” he says quietly.
“It’s nice to meet you, Elijah. It’s going to be a great year.”
I stand back up to my full height to find Kade watching me carefully, and I want nothing more than to get him out of my classroom right now.
He brings back too many painful memories.
Memories I had to push away to become a teacher and come back to this town.
I always wanted to be a teacher—to make a difference.
To be the one who helps kids love school and their education instead of despising every minute of it. “You know my dad?” he asks carefully.
I briefly glance at Kade’s reaction, which is fairly stoic, and then look back down at Elijah. “I did. We went to school together.” I force a smile for his benefit. “This very school, actually, and then middle school and high school.”
“You went here together?” He seems in awe of that fact, and I truly smile now because the innocence of a child is a beautiful thing.
“Mm-hmm,” I say and then step back, sweeping my hand around the classroom. “Feel free to find your desk and put all your supplies there, so we’ll be ready for the first day of school.”
He looks to his father again, and Kade gives a quick nod before Elijah takes the bag from his dad’s hand, which I only now notice, and searches for his name taped to a card on his desk.
He finds it pretty quickly and starts to unpack his things as I walk over to my desk and motion for Kade to follow me. I just need to get through this quickly and then send him on his way.
“Please take a seat,” I say, taking my own and motioning to the small chairs which are a little bigger than the students’ but not by much. It would be funny to watch such a large man trying to sit in one of them if I wasn’t so on edge.
“It’s been a while,” he says, and I sigh at him still trying to pretend he knows who I am.
“It has.” I decide to humor him. “I thought you were in Kansas City?” I didn’t mean it to come out as a question, but it did anyway.
He looks surprised I knew that, and I let out a derisive snort.
“Small-town gossip. It was pretty big news that Megan was pregnant at graduation and that you two moved to Kansas City together right after.” I keep my voice low—not that it’s shameful or anything—but maybe Kade doesn’t want his son to know all that.
“Uh... yeah,” he says, gripping the back of his neck with one hand, and damn my eyes for locking on his tight bicep—the veins and muscle popping from the motion and making me drool.
“Where is Megan? Couldn’t come today?” I try to move the conversation along.
He drops his hand, his expression grim as he looks behind him—presumably to check on his son—and then sits up a little closer to my desk. “She died. Four years ago.”
“What?” I ask him, totally stunned.
“Guess small-town gossip didn’t catch on to that one.” I hear the irritation dripping from his voice but ignore it.
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“It’s fine,” he cuts me off, and okay, fine. He doesn’t want to talk about it. It’s none of my business.
I didn’t know Megan well, but she was always kind to me. Hell, she was one of the few people around the school who would smile at me when she’d walk by. I’m curious about how she died, but I don’t press the issue.
Instead, I open the folder on my desk to pull out the Get to Know your Teacher paper I had prepared and hand it over to him before finding a form I need to fill out. “Will Elijah be riding the bus? Or will someone be picking him up?”
“I’ll be here to pick him up, and if I’m at work, it will be my brother, Bowen. On the few occasions neither of us can make it, it’ll be my Aunt Kiersten.”
Okay—so he didn’t remarry. I don’t know why that’s my first thought, but my brain isn’t really working at the moment.
He’s studying the paper in his hand, and then his blue eyes lift to meet mine. “You went to KU?”
I nod as I fill in the form for the school’s pickup information. “I did.”
“But you moved back here?” I can feel my annoyance creeping up, and I try like hell to just remain professional and keep this meeting moving.
“We don’t need to do this.”
“Do what?” He looks truly confused, and it only angers me further.
“The whole catching-up thing. You don’t need to pretend you remember me from school. I was invisible back then, and it’s fine to keep it that way, now that we’re adults.”
“Did I do something to?—”
“No,” I quickly cut him off, not wanting to go down memory lane or acknowledge why I’m acting the way I am right now at all.
“I just have eighteen students in my class this year and a lot of meetings to get through today. So I just need you to fill out the contact information for your brother and aunt really quickly.”
I hand him a pen and the form. He takes them hesitantly but still seems totally lost, and honestly, why shouldn’t he be? I’m behaving erratically. There’s no denying that.
Elijah finishes putting his things away, and I stand up, followed by Kade, who hands the form back to me. “Thank you.” I take it from him, careful not to touch his skin.
“It’s going to be a great year, Elijah. I’m looking forward to having you in class.”
He just nods, taking his dad’s hand, and Kade looks bewildered before he finally says good bye, and they leave my classroom.
I barely make it back to my chair before flopping down into it, pulling a deep breath into my lungs, which feels like my first breath since Kade and his son walked into my classroom.
It’s not the first time I’ve had a former classmate with a child in my class, but it’s the first one that knocked me on my ass.
It’s going to be a long school year.