Page 25 of Breakaway

“Yeah. This is my fourth year.”

“That’s…impressive.”

“It’s important.”

“I…it surprises me. To hear you say that.”

“Why? Because I’m a big stupid jock?”

“No, of course not!”

“I like kids.” He shrugged, now wearing a black leather jacket. A super soft, thigh length black leather jacket.

“I could tell that. They liked you too.”

“I didn’t know you were a teacher.” The glower returned to his face.

“Well, I didn’t know you were a hockey player.”

“Really?” His brow creased.

She tightened her lips against a smile. “Sorry. I guess you’re not that famous.”

He looked at her, smiling wryly. “I guess not.”

“What’s wrong with being a teacher?”

He pressed his lips together. “Nothing, I guess.”

A silence stretched between them.

“Well,” he finally said. “It’ll be fun over the next few weeks. So…I guess I’ll see you again next week.”

“You don’t have to.” The words spilled out her mouth. “You can work with a different group. It doesn’t have to be mine.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“I just thought…we had that one night…thing…and you might be…”

Lord help her, she was stammering like Joey Kupchuk, a boy she’d once taught who had a painful stutter.

“That’s okay.” After a short pause, he said, “I was going to call you.”

She waved a hand, anxious to stop him before he said something she didn’t want to hear. “That’s okay. It was just one night of fun. Right?”

“Right.” Relief lightened his scowl and he gave her a faint smile. “That’s right. Okay, then. I’ll see you next week. Bye, Remi.”

She watched him leave, then sank back onto her chair, her legs soft as butter. Damn. She’d known it was only one night, and now knowing who he was made it that much clearer—he’d never really intended to call her.

“Wasn’t that the little blonde you picked up last weekend?”

Jase stared out the passenger window of Griff’s car as they left the school parking lot. “Yeah.”

“You didn’t know she was going to be there?”

“Nope. We didn’t get into a lot of conversation.” Hell, that wasn’t true. They’d talked about a lot of things. Just not their professions.

Griff laughed. “Right on, dude.”

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