Chapter 6
SIENNA
“The goat bit me, Miss Vesper!”
Kyle Lewis holds his index finger with his other hand and looks up at me like I’m supposed to go slaughter the poor animal for such a travesty.
Even though I’ve already told him twice to keep his hands out of the animal pen.
His hazel eyes glimmer in tears, but he’s more scared than hurt. The animal didn’t break any skin, and Kyle is that one kid who’s always trying to fuck around and find out.
My class had a field trip today to an apple orchard that had a plethora of animals that all my kids want to pet, poke, and let out of their pens. Kyle over here is just one of four victims of child abuse from a farm animal that I’ve had to hear about today.
“Kyle,” I state with a bit of sternness. “Didn’t I tell you to keep your fingers out of there?”
He quickly drops his hands as though what he wasn’t just talking about ever happened. “I’m okay!”
Then he promptly pivots and takes off, bouncing around in a gray sweatshirt and beanie as he goes to join his friends in watching the pigs eat.
“He was lookin’ for a kiss to make it all better, Miss Vesper.”
I don’t register the voice at first as I pivot around. The orchard is bare because it’s during the week and everyone is at work, but I didn’t see any men walking around out here.
But the one now.
Micah.
With his hands shoved in his pockets, this is the second time he’s dropped out of thin air…or crawled out from the ground.
Dicey tattoos illustrate those veiny arms underneath a light blue tee and jean jacket that makes it appear like he could work here.
Lifting hay.
Riding a tractor.
Fixing a fence.
I was never into farmers, but I’d make an exception if it were Micah. I’d get to watch him peel his shirt off on a hot summer day to cool down.
Which is exactly what I have to do.
“What are you doing here?” I ask in a whisper, looking around to find Miss Thompson and Miss Riken talking amongst themselves like the two gossip mongrels they are.
“I’m chaperoning.”
My brows clash together. “No…I know all the chaperones—”
“I may have asked one of the moms to step down this morning.” It just adds to more confusion. “And I rode the other bus, and passed the security clearance, so nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about.”
“Luca Micah Wolfe, are you tellin’ me that you conned a mother out of her spot?” He quirks a brow at using his full name, but he doesn’t make a fuss about it. Instead, he just shrugs his shoulders, pleading the fifth when he doesn’t say anything else. “You’re awful.”
“You told me to be more involved.”
“By signing up for things we had room for.”
“Tomato, tomatoe. You weren’t specific enough.”
I open my mouth to argue that fact, but I wasn’t. Honestly, after that day, I thought that was going to be it. “Working the system, I see.”
“If I were, we wouldn’t be standing here.”
I feel a heated blush blanket my cheeks as I turn back to face my kids.
He makes me feel off-center and crazy.
Crazy in the sense that I can’t believe I’m allowing this to go on. That I’m still speaking to him despite the fact that it could cost me my job and everything I’ve worked hard for.
Micah, though, is unlike anyone I’ve ever met. He’s kind, charming, and witty. And obviously a cheat by getting some poor mother to give up her spot today.
However, all he probably had to do was smile, and she dropped everything she was doing to go back home before realizing what she had just done.
“I can’t wait for our date on Friday, Miss Vesper. You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?”
I slowly glance over my shoulder at him, finding him, too, looking over the kids.
“Why? Where are you taking me, a cave?”
“I don’t bring women to my house until after the third date.”
A soft chuckle forms in my throat because that would be slightly fitting. “Oh, well, now I feel cheap.”
“Not to me. In fact, I think you’re way out of my league.”
My stomach sinks that he’d believe such a thing. If anything, I’m way out of his. “Don’t say things like that. You’re the one who can bat his eyelashes at a woman and get her to do anything he wants her to do.”
“I haven’t done that in years, and all I did was smile.” See? “Plus, she was bitching and moaning about it on her way up to the office, so I was just doing her a favor.”
“Daddy!” I slice my focus over to Heath, who’s in the middle of sprinting over with a giant smile on his face.
One I never see in class.
Heath is so withdrawn and so hard on himself. I’ve never experienced a child who was such a perfectionist and got so frustrated when he got a question wrong.
I can’t see Micah being that hard on him. And he stated that Heath’s mother wasn’t in the picture anymore, so I’m not sure if he’s trying to make his father super proud of him, or if he believes he’s not enough and has to be the best at everything.
“The pigs ate all the food.” Heath stops right in front of Micah, his chest wildly trying to heave in steady breaths into his lungs. “I saw ’em. There’s a fat one, he’s pink. I named him. His name is Wilbur.”
Holy crap. That kid just said like five sentences.
I stare at his rosy cheeks from the cool fall air and his stunning blue eyes, ones he clearly got from his father. He has the same dark ebony hair but a completely different demeanor.
Or so I thought.
Maybe he just hates school.
“We takin’ him home, buddy?”
Heath wrinkles his nose. “No. He’s dirty, Daddy.”
“So is your room, kid. He’ll fit right in.”
His son rocks his head and forth. “No, I want a snake.”
“I thought you wanted a hamster.”
“No. Not anymore.” Heath glances over at me as if noticing me for the first time and immediately shuts down.
So, it’s me. Dammit.
“I had a pet rabbit once,” I blurt out to break the ice a bit. “His name was Olivia.”
I’m lying to a six-year-old right now.
Heath slowly lifts his face as if I’m an idiot. His nose scrunching up as if I did a huge disservice to the poor animal. “That’s a girl’s name.”
I lift my shoulders. “I didn’t know any boy names.”
“I have a boy name.”
“Well…when I get another one, will you help me name it?”
“Really?” Heath’s blues widen a bit, and he hesitates when he asks, “Can…I see it?”
“Sure.” I pull my gaze off him and casually look around to keep him comfortable. “I’m getting him this weekend.”
“You are?” That’s coming from Micah, and no, actually, I wasn’t going to. However, if it’ll get Heath to finally open up to me, I’m…getting a rabbit, I guess?
“Oh yeah.” I look back to Heath’s father and press my lips together before tacking on, “Sure am.”
He smiles because he can clearly smell my bullshit a mile away, but Heath steps closer to me and regains my attention.
“Can I be the only one who names it?”
I shorten my eyes into tiny slits. “You’re not gonna name it Heath, are you?”
He chortles quietly and says, “No. I like Pikachu. Can we paint him yellow?”
“Uhhh…no, buddy. The chemicals would hurt him, but I can find him a sweater.”
“With a Pikachu on it.”
“Yeah…” I begin to bob my head as though that’s a fantastic idea. Just like the one I just pulled out of my ass a moment ago.
“He’ll need shoes, too,” Micah inserts. “And his own house, what do you think, buddy?”
“Yeah!” Heath begins to bounce on the tip of his toes. “Can he have a car, too?”
“I dunno, you’re gonna have to ask Miss Vesper.”
Heath’s head snaps to me, clearly too excited to forget that he’s leery of me. “Can he, Miss Vesper? He needs one.”
Where in the hell am I going to…
“We’ll have to find him one.” I look over his head, not knowing what I’m looking for when I point. “Oh, look, the kids are going toward the sheep!”
Heath doesn’t stand idly by to say goodbye to us, but Roadrunner’s away like he’s got places to be and shit to do.
Meanwhile, I hear the deep laughter of Micah building in his chest before I steer my focus back to him, staring at Heath’s retreating form. “A house, Mr. Wolfe?”
“And a car.”
“And who is going to drive him around in this car?”
“They have remote control ones. Get with the times.”
“Oh, I can see the look on my neighbors now when I’m walking my rabbit down the street with a remote-controlled car.”
Micah shakes his head before his attention descends on me. Those handsome features clearly amused at the predicament he put me in. “Yeah, but, man, would you still be a good fuck, Miss Vesper.” He takes a step closer. “Or should I say BCR?”
Then he spins on his heels and ambles toward the kids, but not before stealing one more glance at me and bestowing me a wink.
I’m screwed.