33. Reckless Motion
RECKLESS MOTION
“Tasha.”
She turned two weeks later as she stood in the school parking lot, her hand on the door to her car, the color draining from her face, dropping to her gut, then seeping out of her toes to paint the concrete.
That voice. The one that once turned her on, now only made her want to vomit with dread.
“Shane. What are you doing here?”
He smiled as if it hadn’t been two-plus years since they’d seen each other.
As if he hadn’t lied to her.
Broken her heart.
Made her feel like such a fool.
No, he opened his arms wide and took a few steps closer trying to embrace her.
Fuck no!
Her hand came up sharp, steady, and ready to cut him in half if she could have. “Don’t even think of it.”
His steps faltered. “You can’t still be mad, can you?”
The audacity of him. Of this situation. Of everything!
“Yeah. I can. But actually, you’re a figment of my imagination now. A ghost of my past who can crawl back to where you came from.”
“Don’t be that way,” Shane said, shaking his head like he were talking to a child. “We had something great.”
“I’m sure your wife thought that too,” she hissed, then looked around the parking lot to make sure no other teachers could see or overhear her.
His shoulders dropped. “I messed up. I told you she and I weren’t getting along. We split about four months ago. Things have been rough and my uncle and I decided it was best I come back here to run things. To give me a break from Morgan and the kids.”
“No.” She shook her head, the word solid and immovable. This couldn’t be happening.
None of it.
Shane being states away had been bad enough. Him being here—in the same city, in the same orbit as her life, as her son—was dangerous. There was no hiding from that. No keeping secrets clean and contained like she’d been perfecting.
She could lie.
She could say Micah belonged to someone else.
Claim a rebound, a one-night mistake, a baby born early. Lots of things.
It would work.
But it wouldn’t be right.
And standing there, staring at the man who had unknowingly set her entire life in reckless motion, she realized sooner or later, Shane was going to find out the truth.
She’d always known that, just thought she’d be more prepared.
And when he did find out, nothing would stay simple again.
“Fine,” Shane said. “I get it. It will take some time for you to warm up again.”
“You’re nuts. It’s been two years and you think you can come back here and just pick up where we left off? You know nothing about me. You don’t know if I’m single or married.”
“You’re not married,” Shane said. “I know. Unless you didn’t put it on your social media accounts.”
“I post little on there and never have. I’m in a relationship with someone. Sorry, you’re on your own.”
Shane frowned. Did he actually think she was still pining away for him?
“You loved me. I know you did. You didn’t say the words, but I saw it because I felt it too.”
“Stop, Shane. You’re only embarrassing yourself. I don’t know why you came here. Where I work. Just go.”
“You blocked me,” Shane said. “And you moved. I went to your old place. I knocked on the door. They said you hadn’t lived there in over a year. I didn’t know where you were, but knew you still taught here.”
“No.” She was shaking her head back and forth enough to make herself dizzy.
This just couldn’t be happening.
If she said the one word enough, maybe it’d all go away.
How could she have ever fallen for his insistence before? This was how he approached her the first time. Didn’t give up but turned it into a playful game.
“Tasha—”
“I said no,” she cut in, her voice steady even though her pulse was roaring in her ears loud enough it sounded as if the school bells were going off.
“You don’t get to show up like this. You don’t get explanations.
You don’t get access to me because you’re back and single.
Or bored. Or maybe a combination of both. ”
Shane scoffed lightly, like she was being dramatic. Like he was humoring her as he’d done when they were together.
Why hadn’t she noticed any of that before?
“I just wanted to talk.”
She didn’t believe it. He was changing his story now. He was backpedaling like he tried to do when she found out the truth.
“You lost the right to talk to me when you lied to my face,” she said. “When you let me believe I mattered while you went home to your wife. When you made me feel like I was crazy for asking the bare minimum of questions.”
Shane’s jaw tightened. “I told you things were complicated.”
“No,” she snapped. How many times was she going to have to say it? “You told me what benefited you. There’s a difference.”
He took a step closer. “I made mistakes, but that doesn’t erase what we had.”
Her laugh was short and sharp enough to be lethal. “We didn’t have anything. You had a double life, and I was the part you hid.”
That one hit. She saw it in his eyes.
She saw him squirm like she lit a match to his balls and was just going to spray aerosol on his sack. “I’m not that woman anymore,” she continued, every word deliberate. “I don’t wait. I don’t accept crumbs. And I sure as hell don’t entertain men who think apologies entitle them to another chance.”
Shane opened his mouth again, his frustration clearly creeping in. “You’re acting like I ruined your life. Give me a break. We dated for two months. It was hard. It was fast. And it was intense. I need that again in my life. You can’t say you didn’t love every minute.”
She met his gaze head-on. That was all she was to him back then and what he wanted again.
“No. You don’t get that much credit. I rebuilt my life after you. And you’re not welcome in it.” The silence stretched. “Whatever you came here hoping for,” she said, reaching for her car door, “you won’t find it with me. Don’t call. Don’t text. Don’t show up again.”
She paused, just long enough to make sure he heard the finality in her voice.
“I’ve been calling and texting and you don’t answer.”
Because she’d blocked him. “That should have been answer enough for you right there.”
His mouth tightened, the anger flickering beneath the charm he’d once won her over with.
She didn’t wait for a response.
She opened her car door, slid inside, slammed on the brake pedal harder than normal, then jammed her finger into the start button. She pulled away and didn’t look back.
She didn’t need to.
Shane belonged exactly where she’d left him—in the past.
Except she knew he wasn’t going to stay there.
She had ten minutes to cool down before she picked up Micah.
Her son.
Ten minutes to put on a happy face. To tell herself it was going to be okay.
But it wouldn’t be.
Not if Shane was living here.
Even if he got the hint. Even if he stayed away, it’d just be for now.
It wouldn’t take long for him to seek her out again. To maybe follow her home. Ask around.
He’d know she had a child.
The fact that she wasn’t single might not matter to someone like him. If for no other reason than to check out the competition.
By the time she pulled into the parking lot to get Micah, she felt under control. The few tears that had threatened to fall were corralled back in place.
She marched to the front door, full of purpose and forced happiness, saw her son come toddling toward her and felt a tear slip out of her eye.
“Mama,” Micah yelled. “No crying.”
She plastered a smile on her face. “I’m not crying, baby,” she said, lifting him high in the air, then catching him on the way down. She knuckled the tear away, looked at one of Micah’s daycare providers and grinned. “I had a sneezing fit in the car.”
“Oh, I’ve had that happen to me too. Here is Micah’s bag,” Nicole said.
“Anything to report today? Good, bad, or pain in the butt excitement?”
“Good, good,” Micah said. “Me good.”
“You are,” she said, but looked at Nicole just the same. It was a daily question. Nothing would be off there.
“It was a great day. His nap wasn’t as long as normal, but nothing major. We are already starting Halloween activities. The first of the month and all the way to Halloween.”
“Micah likes ghosts,” she said, tickling his belly for a laugh she desperately needed to hear.
“He does.” Nicole waved. “See you Monday. Have a good weekend.”
“You too,” she said, turning on her heel to leave, carrying her son as if she had to shield him from all the drama that could happen in his life.
Her mind was racing with everything she needed to do.
Every scenario that could happen.
But two things were for certain. She needed to tell Baker, and she needed an attorney.