Chapter 1 #2
His charms worked on every girl, including me.
But that was just childhood stuff. Immature crushes.
Flirtatious games. Meaningless banter. Nothing real.
Nothing that amounted to anything. We were friends who flirted, and that was it.
Though, back then, if Wade had wanted to be more, I would’ve been game.
But he never did want to be more, and I don’t know why.
I guess I should be counting my blessings that I never had my heart broken by him.
“A P.E. teacher seems like a very Wade kind of job,” I muse out loud.
This evokes a soft laugh from him as he wraps a Band-Aid around my finger. “A very Wade kind of job?”
“Yeah, perfect for the high school player who got by on his good looks and football skills.”
His smile grows bigger, loaded with provocative undertones. “So you admit I’m good-looking?”
“Were.” I flick my eyes up and down his body, feigning indifference. “But that was a long time ago. Time hasn’t been kind to you.”
How easy it is to lie.
“What? You don’t like this?” His thumb and his index finger smooth out his mustache.
“Do you have a white, windowless kidnapper van to go with it?”
“Kidnapper van?” His head kicks back in offense. “No, I look like Benson Boone.”
“You look like something,” I say sarcastically.
“Well, you look just the same.” Now he’s the one appraising me with his stare, and I’m not sure I like the expression on his face. “Maybe even better.”
The way my heart immediately reacts to his compliment is troubling. But I regroup.
“Does empty flirtation and over-the-top charm still work for you?”
“You tell me?”
“It doesn’t work on me.” Wade’s fun to talk to, but he’s not a man a woman can take seriously. I yank my hand out of his grasp, looking past him to the door. “So where do you think your dad is?”
“It’s good to have you home.” He ignores my question, countering with one of his own.
“What made you move back to Autumn Ridge?” He sets the first-aid kit on the desk and scoots deeper into the leather chair like he’s settling in for a long conversation.
“You always said that you hated it here and wanted to live by the beach.”
I can’t tell him that my fiancé, Andy, broke up with me and left me broke. In a humiliating turn of events, I couldn’t afford to live in Florida anymore.
Moving back home seemed like the last thing I’d ever do, but then you get desperate, and suddenly everything falls in line.
For one, I can live rent-free at my parents’ house.
Secondly, this teaching job opened up. Autumn Ridge High has had the same faculty and staff for years, so when Mr. Jeppson announced his retirement one week into the brand-new school year, it felt like a window was opening when all the doors had been closed.
And lastly, my little sister is getting married next month.
Being here for Landrie felt like the right thing to do.
Plus, my mom begged…repeatedly. Which is surprising since half the time she seems disappointed with my life choices.
“I just needed a change of scenery and wanted to be here for Landrie’s wedding,” I answer somewhat honestly.
“Darn. Here, I was hoping you’d come back for me.” There’s teasing in Wade’s eyes but always enough truth in his words to make you doubt yourself.
One brow lifts. “Don’t tell me Wade Stevenson is single.”
“I’ve just been waiting around for you. Pining all these years.”
“Yeah, right.” I suppress my smile. “You don’t pine.”
“I invented pining.” His smile ticks higher. “It’s true. I’ve been telling people for years, ‘Ari Langford is the one that got away. Man, I wish she’d move back home and give me another chance.’”
This makes me laugh. “I can’t be the one that got away because you never had me in the first place.”
He rests his elbow on the back of the leather chair, all casually, as if this conversation is light work for him. “And why is that?”
Teenage me used to ask myself that all the time. Adult me sees I dodged a bullet.
“Why did you and I never date?” My shoulders lift. “Probably because you were too busy dating every other girl within a one-hundred-mile radius.”
“You’re in luck, then.” The suggestiveness in his expression is mildly impressive. “The well has run dry. I’ve dated them all, and I’m ready for you.”
“I’ve sworn off men,” I say flatly.
“As you’ve stated, I’m more boy than man, so it’s fine if you’ve sworn off men.”
Same old Wade.
Same old games.
“When I said that I’ve sworn off men, what I really meant is that I swore off men who act like boys.”
He laughs good-naturedly, and in a different world, where I hadn’t just been played by another man-child in a different state, I might’ve considered Wade Stevenson a fun possibility.
Not for anything serious, just for a distraction.
Heck, he’s dated everyone else. Why not take a turn myself? But not anymore.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
And man, did my fiancé, Andy, fool me.
From now on, I’m only dating stable, mature men who are boring. But first, I need some time being single before that ever happens, like a personality reboot.
“So I’ll pick you up tonight at seven?”
I laugh. “No.”
“Oh, come on. Just to catch up. You need friends in Autumn Ridge, don’t you? And if the night ends with a kiss, then so be it.”
“It’s never going to happen. Besides, what would your dad say about that?”
“I don’t think he’d care. He’s a happily married man and too old for you.”
My lips purse in fake annoyance. “I meant, because we both might work at the school. If I get hired, we’ll be coworkers.”
“It’s a small town. If there were nitpicky rules about dating coworkers, no one in Autumn Ridge would ever get married.”
True.
The bell rings, loud and demanding, causing Wade to glance up at the ceiling.
“Class just got out.” He slaps his thighs, using the motion to help him stand. “You can start tomorrow.”
“What?”
“You’re hired. For the English position.” He pauses at the door, throwing a rakish smile my way. “Unless you prefer to be hired as my personal assistant.”
My brows lower in disapproval. “Don’t I need to talk to the principal? Interview for the job?”
“This was the interview.”
Flirting with me was the interview?
I sit in utter confusion, enough to make Wade walk back.
My heart beats harder with each step. He places his hands on either side of me, leaning them against the armrests on my chair, his brown eyes level with mine.
I want to swallow or fidget, but I can’t give myself away. So I hold still, stalling my breath.
“I meant what I said. It’s good to have you home, Ari.”
There’s a stirring in my chest as we hold that position.
Something about his country-boy charm takes me right back to high school. Right back to every time I fell for his flirtatious banter.
But I’m a different woman now. I have to be.
I can appreciate his charms without falling victim to them.
He pushes off the armrests and turns to leave.
“Wait!”
“Talk to Mrs. Albany about your schedule,” he says over his shoulder as he heads toward the door. “She’ll get you everything you need.”
“Wait!” I call again. “Don’t I need to talk to the principal?”
A student walks by just as he exits. “Hi, Mr. Stevenson.”
He gives her a high five. “Hi, Jenny. Don’t be late for your next class. You promised your mom you’d decrease your tardies by half this week.”
“I know. I’m hurrying.”
As their voices fade, that’s when it hits me.
Wade Stevenson is the principal.