Chapter 14
Haddie watched from across the room as Levi raised a fist, ready to knock on the opened door when Piper, her blond, springy corkscrew pigtails bouncing as she walked, paused in front of the seemingly giant man in the opened classroom doorway and placed her hands on her hips.
“Miss Martin!” Piper called as Haddie continued to stare in Levi’s direction.
“The big man who is not on your favorite-things poster is at the door again!” She pointed accusingly at Levi, and Haddie pushed herself up from where she’d been crouching beside another student from Piper’s pod, helping him color his paper towel.
She swiped a hand across her forehead, then realized that hand was freshly stained with wet purple marker and wondered what she’d just inadvertently painted across her face, not that there was any time to deal with accidental face painting when she had a whole gaggle of six-year-olds who were probably doing the same.
“Levi… I mean… Mr. Rourke!” she called above the din of her miniature humans coloring, chatting, and a small chorus of them singing Taylor Swift’s “Me!” “Keep working on your rainbows, everyone, while I talk to Mr. Rourke for a second,” she added.
She strode toward where he stood grinning at the scene before him, despite Piper having loudly reminded him of his very visible absence from Haddie’s favorite things.
Okay, so maybe she’d initially left him off the poster in the hopes that he’d see it and know she was mad at him about the whole What’s done is done situation with the soccer teams. But now that they’d lived together for almost a month and had once again pumped the brakes on the attraction that hadn’t exactly simmered like she’d hoped it would, his absence from her poster felt like a safety net, reminding her that no matter how good something tastes, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you.
“Sorry,” she told him as she approached. “We’re in the middle of a science experiment.” Her brows drew together. “Wait… What are you doing here?”
Levi laughed, and while logic told her, Hey! It’s just a laugh. Everyone has one, and they do it every day, that didn’t stop her stomach from reacting with a slight flip and flutter at the sound of his chuckle.
“The flyer?” he said. “For the car wash?”
Shit! The flyer! Haddie was still getting used to the fact that Levi was all in on the fundraising effort that she’d forgotten all about offering to throw together a quick flyer that Levi would then post throughout the high school where they guessed they’d get most of their potential customers.
There was also the matter of a room full of six-year-olds and tables filled with cups of water, markers, and not always entirely good intentions.
Haddie smacked her marker-stained hand against what she was sure was her marker-stained forehead.
“Right!” she said. “I totally meant to do that when the kids were at recess, but then I remembered I hadn’t cut the paper towels yet for growing our rainbows, and I totally forgot.
I promise I’ll email it by the end of the day.
Do you have a color printer on your side of the campus?
” Haddie glanced up at the clock and then back to Levi. “Wait. Don’t you have class right now?”
His smile broadened. “Turns out the guidance counselor is meeting with the seniors today during P.E. to talk about the college admissions process. Means I have a bonus free period before lunch.”
“Miss Martin! Christopher is coloring his lips with our blue marker again!” someone called from behind.
“Shit,” Haddie hissed under her breath. “That’s the second marker he’s used as lipstick today.
I wouldn’t care so much if it didn’t dry the damned thing out so quickly,” she added in a stage whisper, then turned over her shoulder.
“Christopher! Your pod’s rainbow needs to be on the paper towel, not on your mouth, for the experiment to work! ”
Levi’s eyes widened in horror as Haddie pivoted back to face him. “Isn’t that, like, toxic or something?” he asked.
Haddie snorted. “They’re not Sharpies or paint pens,” she assured him. “Washable Crayolas are nontoxic, but I’m still going to have to do some explaining to Christopher’s parents. Again.”
A small hand tugged on Haddie’s pinkie finger. “Miss Martin, I think the big man should help us grow a rainbow so you don’t have to work so hard.”
Piper stared up at Haddie with a smug expression that told her teacher she knew Haddie was reaching the end of her rope with their growing-a-rainbow activity, something that had looked like pure fun on one of her favorite teacher Pinterest boards and that was, instead, pure chaos.
Haddie sighed, her shoulders relaxing as if Piper had just presented her with the answer to all of her problems. True, Levi probably knew less about first grade science than he did about coaching soccer, but this was an all-hands-on-deck sort of situation, and Levi was standing right there, sporting two perfectly capable hands.
For science. Capable hands for sci-ence.
“You do have an extra free period,” Haddie reminded him with her brows raised. “Want to join us?”
She didn’t have to warn him that first graders were way different than high schoolers, did she? Just as she was about to open her mouth to explain as much, Levi crossed his arms and declared, “Sure! Why not?”
Piper changed her grip from Haddie’s pinkie to Levi’s and gave him a soft tug. “Come on, Mister. My table is almost ready to go. We’ll show you what to do.”
Haddie huffed out a laugh and shrugged as Levi let Piper lead him to her seat where, despite the empty, miniature-sized chair where Haddie had just been perched, Levi opted for kneeling, which she appreciated since there was no way the chair would survive an attempt to support Levi’s full body weight.
“Here’s what we’re doing,” Piper began, and Haddie grinned, letting out a breath of relief just as she bent down to whisper in his ear.
Were those…goose bumps on his neck? Maybe the air-conditioning was set cooler than normal. It wasn’t as if she could tell. She’d been perspiring since the activity began.
“You’re in good hands,” she assured him, and then strode past him to Christopher’s pod, dropping down next to her student who she could only describe as looking like a vampire who’d just feasted on Smurf blood. That was, of course, assuming Smurfs bled blue.
“Come here, buddy,” she said to Christopher and then pulled a wet wipe from the dispenser in the center of their pod and used her time scrubbing Christopher’s lips once again as an opportunity to eavesdrop on the pod behind her, Piper’s pod.
“Are you listening, Mister?” Piper asked, and Haddie’s shoulder’s shook with silent laughter.
“Are you laughing at my bwoo wips?” Christopher asked, and Haddie shook her head.
“Of course not,” she assured him. “Want to know a secret?”
At this, Christopher beamed and nodded his head.
Haddie stage-whispered, “I don’t think Mr. Rourke knows what he’s doing, so it’s funny to watch him try to figure it out…or watch Piper tell him what to do.”
“Piper tells evweeone what to do,” Christopher replied. “She’s bossy. Like you.”
Haddie heard a snort from behind her—a very masculine snort.
“Well,” Haddie replied, holding her head high. “Then I guess if she wants, Piper can be a great teacher someday.”
Christopher nodded like, Ah yes. I see what you did there, Miss Martin.
“Misterrrr!” Piper called again. “Are you even listening to me?”
This time Haddie had to repress a snort. She glanced over her shoulder to find an exasperated Piper, hands on her hips, staring through narrowed eyes at Levi.
“What?” he asked. “ I mean, no. Sorry, Piper. I was distracted,” he admitted with a sigh. “Sorry. I was distracted by Christopher’s artistic expression,” he told her, but Levi’s eyes caught Haddie’s instead of Christopher and his painted lips.
“He’s just doing it to get my attention, but I’m not gonna look.
” Piper groaned. “Are you sure you’re not looking at my teacher?
Because it looks like you’re looking at my teacher and not Christopher.
” Then Piper giggled. “Are you going to paint your lips so Miss Martin will pay more attention to you?”
Levi coughed and then replied with an emphatic “No.”
Haddie turned back toward Christopher and his rainbow while silently willing Piper to continue her line of questioning.
“No you’re not looking at Miss Martin, or no you’re not going to paint your lips to get her attention? Do you think Miss Martin is pretty?”
Haddie felt her pulse quicken and her cheeks warm as she waited for Levi’s response.
“I don’t think students are supposed to ask teachers those kinds of questions,” Levi told her.
“Sure they can,” Piper assured him. “My mom and I read the classroom policy and procedure book together because we like to know all the rules, and there was nothing in the book about asking one teacher if they think another teacher is pretty. Right, Miss Martin?”
Haddie hoped the color in her cheeks had receded when she turned to face Piper and Levi again. “What’s that, Piper? I was over here keeping an eye on Christopher’s markers. Did you say something?”
Levi scoffed. “You heard, you little eavesdropper,” he teased.
Haddie looked at her watch and gasped. “Oh wow! Look at the time! Piper, make sure Mr. Rourke and your table are finishing their rainbows, okay? I’m not sure our visitor knows how to do the project.
” She raised her brows, redirecting Piper into miniature teacher mode, a mode the young girl loved almost as much as being line leader.
“Okay,” Levi said to Piper and the three other kids in her little pod. “How are we growing a rainbow?”