9. Katie

CHAPTER 9

Katie

“ D eep breaths, baby. It’s time to start the school year.”

Cody and I inhale and exhale together as we sit in the school parking lot. The students won’t start arriving for a bit, but the teacher parking lot is almost full. I’m sure, like me, they’re all here early to get their classrooms in order.

“Are you ready?” I look in my rearview mirror to find my sweet boy smiling at me.

“Yep!”

I get out of the car and walk around to help Cody get his stuff together. We head inside the red brick building and walk straight to my classroom. Cody runs ahead of me, his Spiderman backpack bouncing as he goes. My keys jingle as I unlock my classroom door. All the chairs have been stacked on top of the desks, which have been pushed into a huge clump in the middle of the room.

Earlier in the week, I came in to change out my decorations with new sayings for the start of the new semester. I just didn’t have it in me to rearrange the desks after all the work I put into updating my room.

Cody gets himself situated in my reading corner at the back of the room while I set my stuff down at my desk. This behemoth of a metal desk has been with me since I started teaching here, right after I graduated from school. I couldn’t believe how lucky I’d gotten to get the post I wanted. Third grade is by far my favorite to teach, and being able to stay in this school for the last six years has been amazing.

I knew I didn’t want to raise Cody in Greensboro, even though that’s where I grew up. Westlake has this small-town feel with a few more city amenities than the other towns in the area. It was also one of the few towns where I could actually afford to live on a teacher’s salary.

The morning passes quickly, and my students should be arriving soon. Cody’s classroom is in the same hallway, so he sticks with me up until the very last minute. He was so bummed he couldn’t have me as a teacher, but I told him it was better this way because then he could be his normal self without feeling like I was constantly watching him as his mom instead of his teacher.

He quickly realized he wouldn’t have been able to relax if he were in my class. He’s been plenty happy to see me in the hallways or at lunch and recess, though.

“Knock, knock!” Andrew calls from my doorway. His wiry blond hair has been gelled back, and his tweed jacket and slacks scream nerdy teacher. “Happy first day back to school.”

“Hey, Andrew! How was your break?” I smile at him. He’s become a great friend over the past couple of years. We hit it off one day during a teacher conference a few years ago. He hasn’t once hit on me in all the time we’ve been friends, which only made me like him as a friend even more. I think he has a partner—whether it’s a girl or a guy, I’m not sure. I think that’s why he’s kept his distance, though. We don’t talk much about our personal lives. Mostly, we just commiserate over how hard it is to be a teacher sometimes.

“Pretty boring. How was yours? ”

A flash of Nolan hovering over me, his hips snapping against mine, pops into my head. I’m sure my cheeks are flushed, but thank God Andrew can’t read my mind. “It was good.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I better get going. Have a great first day back. See you later, Cody.” Andrew gives me a little wave before disappearing down the hallway.

“You better get packed up. You’ve got about five minutes before the school becomes a zoo.”

Cody giggles at my description while he puts his book into his backpack.

“Katie?” Dottie, our school’s receptionist, pokes her head around the corner. Her silver curls have been styled into a dome around her head. “I’ve got a delivery for you.”

“You do?”

She comes in carrying a beautiful arrangement of wildflowers. “Someone is a very lucky girl.” Dottie winks.

I shake my head at her. “I can almost guarantee you those flowers are not from a man.” But as I say the words, I realize they may not be true.

“Well, whoever sent them picked out a gorgeous arrangement.” She sets them on the corner of my desk.

I lean in to smell them. “I have to agree with you there.”

Dottie continues to stand there, waiting for me to open the card. I just stare at her until her shoulders slump in disappointment. “All right, all right. Party pooper.” She gives my shoulder a playful tap and then saunters out in her two-inch brown heels and brown slacks.

When she’s around the corner, I snatch the envelope out of the flowers and tear it open.

Katie—

Happy first day back to school! I hope your kids aren’t assholes, and if you need a distraction to get through the day, just know that I’m imagining you as a naughty schoolteacher this morning. Call me later. I want to hear how your day went.

—Nolan

I shake my head. He’s so fucking cheeky. His phone number is at the bottom of the card, taunting me to reach out. God, the temptation of this man. It’s too much sometimes.

“Who are the flowers from?” Cody’s voice makes me jump.

“Jesus, you scared me.”

He looks at me with an unamused expression on his face. “It was a guy, wasn’t it?”

It’s not a question. His little perceptive brain is already connecting dots he should be too young to connect.

“Yes, it was.” Honesty has always been my hard and fast rule for us. If I don’t follow that rule myself, why would Cody respect me enough to follow it, too?

“Who is he?”

“Right now, he’s a good friend.”

“And later?”

“I don’t know yet. I haven’t given him a chance to be more than that.”

He furrows his brows. “Why not?”

“A lot of reasons. But mostly, I don’t want to mess with what you and I have. We’ve created a great space of safety and positivity. If I bring someone new in, it could mess with everything we’ve worked hard to build.”

Cody wraps his arms around my shoulders. “I just want you to be happy, Mom. And you never know, it could be fun to have an extra person around. Then you wouldn’t be so obsessed with me.”

I gasp. “You little turd.”

He giggles hysterically as I tickle his sides in retribution.

“I’ll have you know it’s my job to be obsessed with you. ”

Cody rolls his eyes. “Yeah, okay. I gotta go, Mom. Have a good day.” He pulls away from me to walk to the door.

“I love you. Have a good day!”

Minutes after Cody walks out, students start to rush down the hallways, their voices loud with excitement. I stand in my doorway to wait while my students line up. Each one gets to choose how they greet me, whether it’s a hug, a high-five, or a wave. It’s my way of connecting with my students and getting a measure of how everyone is feeling each morning.

The excitement of being back at school is contagious, though a little draining, and before I know it, the day is almost over.

“All right, class, you’ve got a few minutes before our bus riders need to line up. Please, keep the noise level down. Some of our friends might need a bit of quiet time after our busy day.”

I turn to my planner to make adjustments to my lesson plans for the week. We got even less done today than I anticipated, which means we’ll have to make it up at some point.

“These are pretty flowers, Miss Cole.”

I glance up to find a little blonde girl gently running her finger over the petals. “Thank you, Sophia.”

“Did your boyfriend bring them for you?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend, darling girl.” I refuse to admit that the idea of Nolan being anything to me makes my stomach flip.

She leans in close. “I want Brady to be my boyfriend.”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “Is that so?” I glance over to, admittedly, the most adorable boy in my class. “Does he feel the same way?”

“I don’t know. I’m too scared to ask.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’m really glad you’re my teacher this year.”

“That makes me very happy to hear.”

Sophia scampers back to her desk, leaving me smirking at her retreating back. I swear, my class this year is one of my favorites. There are times when teaching is incredibly difficult. It can take so much out of me physically and emotionally. But the rest of the time, I find it more rewarding than any other career I could ever imagine doing.

The school bell rings, telling the class it’s time to get their stuff together to go home. A teacher stops by to grab my kids going to the bus, and I take the rest of my students off to their parents for pickup.

When I get back to my classroom, Cody’s waiting for me with a bright smile on his face. His clothes are disheveled, as usual, indicating a fun day at school.

“Mom!” He bounces up on his toes. “Bennett and I raced at recess today, and I won!”

“Did you wrestle in the grass today, as well?” I eye the green stain on his jeans.

He rolls his eyes as he follows me into my room. “Can we have pizza tonight for dinner?”

I quickly run through the ingredients we need in my head. “Pepperoni okay?”

“Perfect.” He plops down in my desk chair and begins to spin. “How was your day?”

“Wonderful, but exhausting. Are you ready to go home?”

“Yep!”

“Then hop to it. We’ve got a pizza to make.”

I swipe my thumb across the paper card from my flowers. Nolan’s phone number glares back at me in his tempting script. The man is charming. And mouthwatering. And so goddamn delicious he could be served at a Michelin-star restaurant.

The house is silent, Cody having gone to sleep an hour ago. Maybe it’s too late to call Nolan .

“Oh, don’t be a bitch, Katie Leigh. You want to talk to him, so just call him.” With a breath of determination, I type Nolan’s number into my phone and press call .

It rings a few times before his deep voice comes through the line. “This is Nolan.”

“Thank you for my flowers.”

I can practically hear the smile when he says, “You’re very welcome. Did you have a good day?”

“I did. The kids were overly excited, so we didn’t do much in the way of learning, but it was nice to be back.”

“That’s good. I bet you’re the favorite teacher in the grade.”

I scoot down on my couch so I’m lying flat. “There are some great teachers at my school.”

“Sure, but that’s not what I said. You’re the teacher every student wants, aren’t you?”

I don’t know how he knows this, but he’s not entirely wrong. I am one of the more requested teachers of the third grade. “I’m not confirming anything.”

“Mm-hmm. That’s confirmation enough, little dove. What are you doing?”

“Lying on my couch. My body is exhausted, but my brain is buzzing with all the things I need to do to get ready for this semester. What are you doing?”

“I’m in bed. It is after ten o’clock now.”

Well, that just put an image in my head that I didn’t need. “Yes, I guess it is.”

“Whatcha thinkin’ about over there, Miss Cole?” Nolan’s teasing tone makes me smile.

“A lady should never say those things aloud, Mr. Ellis. You should know better.”

“Hmmm. Maybe you could show me then, instead.”

“I might be inclined. You’re forgetting a very important part, though.”

“What’s that? ”

“You haven’t asked me to go out with you yet.”

Nolan chuckles. “Ah. I better remedy that, then, huh?” He pauses. “Katie?”

“Yes, Nolan?”

“Will you go on a date with me?”

With my smile a mile wide, I shove down the part of me screaming that this is a bad idea. “I’d love to.”