Page 10 of Teacher's Pet

I hang up and wash off, stepping out and toweling off and trying not to think about calloused fingers dancing on my overheated skin.

That way lies madness.

FOSTER

Isip my first beer and watch the guys screw around. Tom grabs the darts out of Finn’s hands.

“Man, it’s my turn! Gimme the damn things so I can kick your ass!”

He snorts. “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, Finn! Your aim has always sucked.”

“I got my woman pregnant the first time. I think my aim was fucking perfect,” the smug bastard says and I swear that I’m gonna lose my lunch.

“Dude,” I grunt. “No baby talk. No talk about sex. Just no.”

Finn turns to me, his green eyes glinting. “Can I help it that I’m that good?”

Tom and Harrison gag and throw their napkins at him, grunting when he just laughs.

I growl under my breath. I don’t want to be here. I want to be home. Want to be in my bed. Want to listen to her voice before I go to bed and dream about her.

Fire sizzles and sparks along my back and my spine straightens, a growl rumbling up from my chest.

Not now, dammit!

But I know it’s her before I even turn around. My eyes lock on her tiny, curvy body and I struggle to not stand and stalk over to her and ask her what the hell she’s doing here. She should be at home in my bed.

No! She should be in her own bed. Not mine. Never mine. Mine’s already too crowded with ghosts.

“Hey, there are the girls!” I grunt and tip my beer back, feeling the cold liquid slide down my throat, cooling the fire that burns in my belly.

“I thought this was guys only,” I grunt. I never would have come out tonight if I knew these pussies were just doing this to keep an eye on their women.

“It is. They’re having a girls’ night out. But if you think I’m gonna let Daffy come to a bar by herself you must have gotten hit on the head recently,” Harrison’s rough growl makes me laugh.

“You must be kidding yourself. That woman has you so wrapped around her finger it’s not funny. If she told you to go jump off of Wildwood Mountain you’d fucking do it.”

“Daffy would never do that.”

“Of course she wouldn’t. But you would.”

He scoffs. “When you meet your one, you’ll do the same damn thing, buddy. And I’m gonna laugh my ass off at you.”

“Go ahead. Never gonna happen.” But I feel her eyes on me and I glance over my shoulder, my breath hitching when I see her blazing blue eyes glaring at me.

Tom sits down and nudges me. “Why’s that woman glaring at you?”

“She’s a teacher at my daughter’s school.” I glare back at her for a second and then take another long drink. I don’t look at Tom and he nudges me again.

“Dude, there’s a lot going on between you two.”

I glare at him. “There’s nothing going on between the two of us and you know why.”

He shakes his head. “I know you loved Karen but she’s been gone a long time and you’re not dead. You need to get back out there. Find a woman that makes you as happy as she did.”

My heart clenches in my chest and I don’t bother looking at him, just sipping my drink. “No.”

He shakes his head and I see him looking behind me. “She’s pretty, man. That’s Tally Carter isn’t it? Rebel’s sister.”

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