Page 16 of Chocolate Cherry Cabin

“I heard you went to college,” he said to Hannah, leaning an elbow on the table.

“I took a few early childhood education classes.”

“For a teaching degree?” He felt a moment of hope that she’d managed to use her smarts and stand up for what she wanted, instead of being so agreeable that she got passed over both professionally and with Calvin. Maybe she had something to fall back on and Louis could quit worrying about her.

She shook her head and looked away.

“Do you ever think about expanding your…uh, career?”

She sighed heavily, as if she knew what he was thinking.

“You should upgrade your education and become a teacher!” Athena said, laying her palms on the table. “Say goodbye to that day care. You’d be an awesome teacher.”

“Hear, hear!” Cassandra declared.

“Goodbye to changing diapers and wiping drool,” her cousin stated.

“Goodbye to poor pay and not enough hours,” her friend added.

“I need that flexibility,” Hannah insisted.

“You don’t,” Cassandra said. “You need a retirement fund. Us single moms need to look out for number one and build our own security. You thought you and Calvin would be a team forever. But you’re not. You need options.”

“You don’t need nearly as much flexibility now that the boys are in school,” Athena said, “And when you do, the almighty Calvin can leave work early or even stay home when the boys are sick.”

Louis found himself nodding, and quickly stopped.

“I don’t have the time, money or focus right now,” Hannah said. “Things work with me being at the day care. And it’s local, where we all live. School would mean being in the city again.”

Despite her protests, Louis could see it. They’d stirred up her desire to want more, and it was a dangerous, slippery slope. But that spark of fight in her eyes, even though she was trying to tamp it down, was sexy.

“I bet some of your classes could be applied toward a teaching degree,” he said. “That would cut down on time and cost. You also might be able to take some of the courses online. And…” he sucked in a deep breath “…even though this offer might lead to my murder, I could fly you to some of your classes.”

* * *

Fly her to classes.

Seriously.

Was Louis trying to prove how wonderful his life was in comparison to hers, or was he thinking that showing off like some sexy jet-set hero was going to make her heart flutter?

All the man had to do was walk into a room and suddenly Hannah’s life was being turned upside down and Louis had her friends telling her that how she was living wasn’t good enough for her and her sons. The worst part was that they made a valid argument, and had stirred up an urge to reach a little higher and find something better for herself.

Hannah needed to lock that urge down. She’d worked really hard over the past year and a half to smooth over the disturbance of the divorce and resettle the boys.

“I know a guy in admissions at the college in San Antonio.” Athena was already tapping out a message on her phone. “I’m going to ask him about how to upgrade your early childhood development classes into a teaching degree.”

“Ask how much she can do off-campus,” Louis told her. Athena nodded and continued to type.

“Y’all, this is nice. Really,” Hannah said carefully, hoping to curb their efforts before they literally marched her off to college.

“I’ll ask if you have to do any practicums and if you could do them here in town,” Athena added, not looking up from her phone. “Naina Elm at the elementary school takes education students all the time and she’d take Hannah in a heartbeat. Whenever I see her at the library she’s always talking about how much her daughter, Anya, loves her.”

“Really, I’m sure I can look into thisifI become interested,” Hannah said. “You don’t need to bother your friend, or Naina.” She desperately wanted to pull Athena’s phone from her grip and hide it.

“She won’t look it up,” Cassandra whispered, reaching out to tap the table in front of Athena. “Send the message.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! My life has been in turmoil. Can’t I just enjoy some calm before someone creates a new storm?”

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