Chapter 1
PRESENT
DELANEY
If I knew how drastically one staffing change would unravel my carefully constructed peace, I’d have stayed home this morning.
Instead, here I am, balancing one-legged on a child-sized chair with a chunk of hair in my mouth while my boss tells me the worst news in the history of bad news. I spit the hair out and wobble, my two palms smacking hard against the whiteboard.
“I think I misheard you,” I croak.
The principal of Cherry Peak Elementary School almost appears flustered when she replies, “I’m sorry, Delaney. But I hope you understand why I chose to swap the classes this way. Daisy needs a chance to teach an older class.”
“Can’t she swap with Kimmy instead? The fourth graders are incredibly bright,” I argue weakly.
I’d know, considering I taught them last year.
I’ve taught every third-grade class for the last four years.
In my eight years of teaching at this school, I’ve never been told only a week before classes start that I’m being switched to teach another grade.
It’s incredibly last-minute, and I’ve never liked sudden changes .
“Kimmy already shifted two years ago.”
My throat is sticky when I carefully lower my feet to the ground and debate begging my boss to change her mind.
“I’ve already finished my lesson plan, and the classroom is nearly done, Penny.”
Penny—Mrs. Ashford—tweaks the corners of her mouth into a small smile that looks too much like pity to give me any relief.
It’s the same type of smile that I saw for too long when I moved back to Cherry Peak.
Plenty has changed since that day eight years ago, but still, too many things are the same.
“I know, and I wish I could change how last-minute this is. That’s completely on me, but when I spoke to Daisy on my way here, she did offer to swap plans with you to help the transition.”
“You already spoke with her?”
“I did. She’s alright with the swap if you are. I would appreciate your acceptance with this, Delaney.”
Ouch, that bites. Daisy is the newest teacher at the school and someone I consider a close friend. Because of that, she should have known I wouldn’t want to make this change.
“Will I need to switch classrooms, or do I get to keep this one?” I ask, defeated.
This morning, I was up at dawn with a smoothie I made from the last of my orchard strawberries and an excitement to get the final touches done to my classroom.
I’ve made improvements since last year and even picked up custom name tags for all the desks from a custom printer up in Calgary yesterday.
It’s bright and colourful in here but, most importantly, welcoming.
I learned early on in my teaching career that I didn’t want the starched rainbows on the walls and sleek, beige chairs that nobody wanted to risk getting a sore bottom sitting on.
The only acceptable decorations in my eyes were neon colours and fun, cheesy sayings scribbled all over the whiteboard and printed on poster paper.
But then again, maybe that’s just how I was raised.
Sneaking a look around me now, I can admit that I’ll be disappointed if the work I’ve done so far to liven this place up further this year was wasted.
“It would be easier if you swapped. Emails and letters have already gone out to parents letting them know classroom numbers. Of course, if that’s going to be an issue .
. .” She trails off, and from the quirk of her brow as she waits for an answer, I know better than to argue with her despite my frustration.
“No issue.”
Her teeth gleam in the fluorescent lighting. “Wonderful! Thank you, Delaney. I’ll leave you to get moved around, then.”
Before I can worry about schooling my expression, she’s spinning on the heels of her pumps and clip-clapping her way out of the classroom. I stare at the door once she’s gone, afraid that if I move now, I’ll wind up slamming it shut like an angry adolescent.
I readjust my metaphorical cap and, like I’ve done a million times already, push past my emotions and get to work. It’s not the end of the world, and I refuse to treat it as such.
Darren Huntsly won’t ruin my love for teaching the way he ruined Cherry Peak for me.
“I’m so sorry, Della. Penny totally railroaded me this morning. I assumed she’d talked to you about it first! Gosh, I should have known better and just turned her down.”
I snap my eyes up from the tiny packets of sugar on the diner table, finding Daisy. She’s out of breath as she grips the back of the booth and dives behind the table, her cheeks a bright pink.
My friend of only a year grabs my hands tightly, refusing to let them go again. “Are you mad at me? Please tell me you’re not mad at me. I’m going to tell Penny I changed my mind and refuse to swap classes.”
“Take a breath, Daisy. I’m not mad at you,” I reassure her .
Mad isn’t the way I would describe how I’m feeling right now.
I knew realistically that Daisy wouldn’t have done this to upset me.
She knows why teaching the second graders this year is the worst -case scenario, and out of every woman I know in this town, Daisy Mitchell is the one I trust to watch my back the most.
“Okay, you’re not mad. But you’re upset. I’d be worried if you weren’t. Tell me what I can do to help,” she rushes out.
The gold band on her ring finger digs into my palm as she continues holding my hands. Bryce, her fiancée, has a matching one. They’re simple placeholders until they get married and can give each other tattooed ones.
Saying Bryce Mitchell is going to take a while to get used to. For Daisy as well, I think.
“It feels like a terrible joke from the universe, doesn’t it?” I ask.
Daisy smiles apologetically and puffs out a breath. When she releases my hands, it’s so that she can wave down a waitress.
“What did you do recently to have karma snapping at your heels like this?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
She tightens the clear elastic at the end of her over-the-shoulder braid and leans her elbows on the table. “I’m serious, Della. I’ll call Penny right now and tell her that I’m not teaching your grade.”
“It’s not my grade. Not any more than the second was yours.”
The waitress joins us in a blur of navy and the scent of fresh coffee. I turn away the coffee and a potential meal while Daisy does the opposite. She immediately takes a sip of the black coffee when we’re alone again.
Before her plain white mug has been clunked down onto the table, she’s asking, “Do you think you can do it? And don’t just tell me what you think I want to hear. Tell me the truth.”
“That depends on what you’re asking about specifically. ”
I’m stalling. It’s as obvious to her as it would be to a stranger on the street. The moment I accept that I don’t know if I can do this, it becomes real. And that thought is enough to make nausea churn in my stomach.
Daisy blinks twice at me, her head tipping to the side. “Are you really going to try that? You know it won’t work with me.”
I wring my hands together, a clump of fear clogging my airway. The empty diner grows hotter until I’m positive I’m sweating through my blouse.
“Hey, talk to me, sweetie. Tell me that you’re going to be okay, or I’m calling Penny right now and demanding she put things back the way they were,” Daisy adds as gently as she can with her concern.
“No, don’t do that,” I mumble before clearing my throat. “I’m a grown woman and a professional. I’ve got this.”
“I didn’t ask you if you could handle it. I asked if you were going to be okay with it.”
“While I appreciate you being so open to speaking up for me, I’m not going to get special treatment. And especially not because of this. I’m a fantastic teacher, and I love what I do. I love the kids and being a part of their journey in life. That’s what matters, right?”
Daisy focuses on me, her eyes a bright blue that I swear I can see my reflection in. While they’re usually full of life and excitement, right now, they’re so pitifully sad that I have to fight to keep myself bunkered down in this booth.
“Two things can be true at once,” she murmurs.
“And what two things are those?”
I regret my question immediately. There’s no time to take it back before Daisy’s reply comes.
“You can be all of those things and still not want to teach his daughter.”
The way I flinch is ridiculous. My chest shrinks, growing too tight and confined.
“Please don’t, Daisy. ”
“Tell Penny no, Delaney. Don’t do this to yourself,” she pleads, reaching across the table for my hands.
They’re too slicked with sweat, so I tuck them into my lap with a brief shake of my head.
That only makes Daisy’s frown deeper, her eyes sadder.
Everything about that grates on me. It isn’t pity as much as it is pain for me and my jagged past in Cherry Peak.
I’m not sure which would be worse at this point.
“I’m not saying no. But I appreciate you looking out for me, though.”
“I’ll always look out for you. We all will. Which is why I just don’t think this is a good idea. If this is about wanting to prove something?—”
I cut her off, my voice tight. “I don’t need to prove anything to anyone in this town.”
Just myself.
“No, you don’t. And that’s why I wish you’d turn this down.”
“It was only a matter of time,” I say, as if that helps stall the cracking in my chest.
After seven years of watching the only man I’ve ever loved raise his little girl, I thought I had at least one more year before I was forced to get to know her. To call her name every day, grade her tests, and help answer questions she doesn’t know the answers to.
I’ve run out of time already. And despite the burn in the backs of my eyes at the mere thought of it, I know there isn’t any escaping it now. There’s no more escaping him and the pain of our past.
Darren Huntsly broke me eight years ago, and now . . . now, he’s going to try and do it again. Only this time, it will be the little girl with her daddy’s eyes who finishes me off.