Page 5 of Burn It Down

I stand back up to my full height to find Kade watching me carefully, and I want nothing more than to get him out of my classroom right now. He brings back too many painful memories. Memories I had to push away to become a teacher and come back to this town. I always wanted to be a teacher—to make a difference. To be the one who helps kids love school and their education instead of despising every minute of it. “You know my dad?” he asks carefully.

I briefly glance at Kade’s reaction, which is fairly stoic, and then look back down at Elijah. “I did. We went to schooltogether.” I force a smile for his benefit. “This very school, actually, and then middle school and high school.”

“You went here together?” He seems in awe of that fact, and I truly smile now because the innocence of a child is a beautiful thing.

“Mm-hmm,” I say and then step back, sweeping my hand around the classroom. “Feel free to find your desk and put all your supplies there, so we’ll be ready for the first day of school.”

He looks to his father again, and Kade gives a quick nod before Elijah takes the bag from his dad’s hand, which I only now notice, and searches for his name taped to a card on his desk.

He finds it pretty quickly and starts to unpack his things as I walk over to my desk and motion for Kade to follow me. I just need to get through this quickly and then send him on his way.

“Please take a seat,” I say, taking my own and motioning to the small chairs which are a little bigger than the students’ but not by much. It would be funny to watch such a large man trying to sit in one of them if I wasn’t so on edge.

“It’s been a while,” he says, and I sigh at him still trying to pretend he knows who I am.

“It has.” I decide to humor him. “I thought you were in Kansas City?” I didn’t mean it to come out as a question, but it did anyway. He looks surprised I knew that, and I let out a derisive snort. “Small-town gossip. It was pretty big news that Megan was pregnant at graduation and that you two moved to Kansas City together right after.” I keep my voice low—not that it’s shameful or anything—but maybe Kade doesn’t want his son to know all that.

“Uh... yeah,” he says, gripping the back of his neck with one hand, and damn my eyes for locking on his tight bicep—the veins and muscle popping from the motion and making me drool.

“Where is Megan? Couldn’t come today?” I try to move the conversation along.

He drops his hand, his expression grim as he looks behind him—presumably to check on his son—and then sits up a little closer to my desk. “She died. Four years ago.”

“What?” I ask him, totally stunned.

“Guess small-town gossip didn’t catch on to that one.” I hear the irritation dripping from his voice but ignore it.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It’s fine,” he cuts me off, and okay, fine. He doesn’t want to talk about it. It’s none of my business.

I didn’t know Megan well, but she was always kind to me. Hell, she was one of the few people around the school who would smile at me when she’d walk by. I’m curious about how she died, but I don’t press the issue.

Instead, I open the folder on my desk to pull out theGet to Know your Teacherpaper I had prepared and hand it over to him before finding a form I need to fill out. “Will Elijah be riding the bus? Or will someone be picking him up?”

“I’ll be here to pick him up, and if I’m at work, it will be my brother, Bowen. On the few occasions neither of us can make it, it’ll be my Aunt Kiersten.”

Okay—so he didn’t remarry. I don’t know why that’s my first thought, but my brain isn’t really working at the moment.

He’s studying the paper in his hand, and then his blue eyes lift to meet mine. “You went to KU?”

I nod as I fill in the form for the school’s pickup information. “I did.”

“But you moved back here?” I can feel my annoyance creeping up, and I try like hell to just remain professional and keep this meeting moving.

“We don’t need to do this.”

“Do what?” He looks truly confused, and it only angers me further.

“The whole catching-up thing. You don’t need to pretend you remember me from school. I was invisible back then, and it’s fine to keep it that way, now that we’re adults.”

“Did I do something to?—”

“No,” I quickly cut him off, not wanting to go down memory lane or acknowledge why I’m acting the way I am right now at all. “I just have eighteen students in my class this year and a lot of meetings to get through today. So I just need you to fill out the contact information for your brother and aunt really quickly.”

I hand him a pen and the form. He takes them hesitantly but still seems totally lost, and honestly, why shouldn’t he be? I’m behaving erratically. There’s no denying that.

Elijah finishes putting his things away, and I stand up, followed by Kade, who hands the form back to me. “Thank you.” I take it from him, careful not to touch his skin.

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