Page 86 of Breakaway

“And I can tell you that you’re a good man. You’ve got a good solid background—your parents brought you up right. Yeah, you’re young.”

“I’m twenty-nine.” Not a kid. Not like Remi’s younger brother wanting her to bail him out of missing an exam. Jase was old enough to be taking responsibility for his own mistakes, just like he’d urged Remi to make her brother do.

Dan waved a hand. “From where I’m at, you’re young. But you’re right. You’re a grown man and you need to figure this out. You need to do the right thing.”

“I don’t know what the right thing is. The right thing for me is different than the right thing for Brianne. And for our child. And for Remi.” He rubbed the ache in his chest. “I don’t want to be selfish, but…I just don’t know.”

“Go,” Dan said. “We’re done with our practice. You’ve got the rest of today and tomorrow to figure this out. Go do what you need to do, but I expect you here tomorrow night for the game, a hundred per cent ready to play.”

Jase nodded and stood. He felt like a teenager in trouble forstaying out past curfew, except this was a way worse infraction than that. He left Dan’s office, trying to keep his head up. He got what Dan was telling him. They paid him big bucks to play hockey, not to mope around with his head up his ass pouting because things weren’t going his way.

Yeah. He had to deal with this. He still didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, but one thing he knew—he had to tell Remi.

Chapter Fifteen

Usually Remi loved having kids visit her after class. Some of her current students stayed and some of her former students, now in grade seven or eight, often came after school to hang out in her classroom, sometimes helping her mark spelling tests or clean up, good kids who she enjoyed talking to and laughing with.

But today she had to get out of there, like now.

“Sorry, everyone.” She shoved papers into her briefcase. “I have to leave early today.”

Well, it wasn’t early, but it was early for her since she usually stayed late.

“Aw, Ms Buchanan. Not already.”

She smiled at them. “Go home. Go play video games and eat junk food or something. Go bug your parents.”

They all laughed, knowing she was kidding. Slowly they started to make a move to leave, but not fast enough for her. She tapped a foot and resisted the urge to get up and drag them out.

Then a big shadow appeared in the door of the class room and the kids all yipped. “Hey! Jase!”

Her heart stopped. Then thudded fast and hard, making her dizzy.

God, he looked rough. Dark beard shaded his jaw and tension drew down the corners of his mouth. He clearly hadn’t shaved since she’d last seen him. His tousled hair stuck up in all directions and he wore the most faded, ripped and ragged pair of jeans she’d ever seen, along with his expensive lamb-soft leather jacket. Most impressive of all was the black eye.

His eyes met hers, but he gave the kids smiles and talked to them for a minute.

“What? It’s not Wednesday?” he asked. “You mean I’m here on the wrong day?”

“Stars for Reading is over!” they told him.

“Oh no!”

They all laughed. His eyes met Remi’s across the room.

Thank god it was over. Dropping his pants in a restaurant and getting himself arrested wasn’t exactly being a good role model for the kids. They would have kicked him out if the program was still going.

“Hey, I need to talk to Ms Buchanan, so scram.” He grinned at them, a strained grin, but they listened to him better than they’d listened to her, which made her want to pout briefly, and in only seconds the classroom was empty and she and Jase were alone. They looked at each other. She had a hard time getting air into her lungs.

“You’re probably pissed off at me,” he finally said.

She debated how to play this. Like a mother whose child has disappeared while shopping, found safely moments later—should she be furious at the disappearance? Or happy and relieved he was okay? Emotions churned inside her.

“Should I be pissed off?” She tried to hold his gaze, but he let his eyes drop.

“Yeah. You should.”

“Why?”

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