13. Talia

13

Talia

T alia had just pulled into the school's parking lot when her phone buzzed. She smiled when she saw Sebastian's text. It was something awesome to look forward to after school.

Her good mood soured when she noticed that her classroom door was ajar. She closed her eyes for a second and hoped that the custodian didn't get it all the way closed when she was finished. Sighing heavily, she shook her head when she walked in and saw the large box of candy on her desk. The note attached read, "I hope you have a nice day. Thinking of you. Joe."

Talia picked the note up by the edge because she didn't want to touch it. She was reminded of her much younger self when she thought that boys had cooties and wouldn't touch anything they touched if she could help it.

Well, you know what? Joe Ellis has cooties, she thought defiantly.

After adding this note to the other one in the baggie, she took the box of candies downstairs to the teachers' lounge. Everyone else could enjoy the delicious treat. She wasn't going to touch one of them. If the box had been opened, she would have thrown the whole thing away because she didn't trust Joe not to lace them with something.

Sadie was checking through a new shipment of books when Talia walked into the library a minute later.

"What's up?" Sadie asked.

"There's a large box of candy in the teachers' lounge for everyone to enjoy."

"Joe again?"

"Yep. I added this note to the last one."

"I had a friend in Colorado Springs who had a stalker. He followed her everywhere. One day, while she was at school, he broke into her apartment and installed a brand new washer and dryer."

Talia gasped. "Dang. What did she do?"

"She called the cops. They documented it and said she should hold out for a new big-screen television. Then they arrested the stalker. His prints were all over the machines."

"Wow. Did she keep them?"

"Oh, yeah. She's not stupid." Sadie laughed. "She even took them with her when she moved."

"Let's hope he doesn't try to break into my house," Talia said. "Washer and dryer or no, I'm afraid my bite would be worse than my bark at that point."

Sadie knew that Talia meant that literally. "I hear you. Hopefully, it won't come to that."

The bell rang, so Talia hurried upstairs to her classroom to greet her students. The day went well. Her students behaved, for the most part, although she did notice that having to pee was contagious – when one student had to pee, they all did.

She was looking forward to her evening with Sebastian and was quickly packing up after school when Joe sauntered into her classroom as though he owned the place.

"I want to take you out for a drink tonight."

"No, thank you. It would be very inappropriate for me to have drinks with the parent of one of my students. Plus, I already told you that I was involved with someone else, and I'm not interested in a relationship with you."

"Rules were made to be broken, and I don't see a ring on your finger. You would be interested if you would have a drink with me and got to know me. I'm a great guy."

I can see why Joe's mother is your ex-wife if this is any indication.

"I'm not interested. And please, don't leave any more gifts for me. They are not appreciated. The only relationship we'll have is strictly professional. You are the father of one of my students. That's it. The end."

"No promises," he said. He winked at her. "I'll see you later."

Talia rubbed her face as she watched him walk out the door. "Eventually, he'll get tired of being rejected and leave me alone, right?" she asked herself.

Determined to put him out of her mind, she drove home, excited to spend time with Sebastian. The excitement quickly faded when she walked up to her front porch. Someone had been at the house. Muddy boot prints were all over the concrete. Her potted plants had been moved around and her welcome mat was slightly off-kilter as though someone had raised it up to look under it and then put it back down.

"Did someone actually think I would be stupid enough to hide a key in one of those obvious spots?"

Talia texted Sebastian. Someone's been at the house today.

He rushed over. After surveying the scene, he called the alarm company that monitored the cameras and spoke to someone named Mary.

"The cameras caught someone who looked like a delivery person, which was why the police weren't called. The person was wearing all tan clothing. They had on a baseball cap and dark sunglasses. No features could be made out."

"Thanks," Sebastian said.

"Could it be a burglar?" Talia asked.

"It could be," Sebastian said, doubtfully. "Most of them don't hit in the middle of the day, although it is more likely that the homes will be empty since people are usually at work at that time."

Sebastian flipped through the pictures on his phone and noted that the boot print was identical to the last one he found at Talia's place.

"Do you by any chance have a stalker?"

She thought about telling him about Joe Ellis but didn't believe he was likely to come by her house since he knew she was at school. Besides, she wanted to wait and see if her conversation today set him straight.

"My ex, Darius, has been sending me texts. He told me he was in love with me and would be glad to move here to marry me. I honestly don't know if he would take the initiative to do that, though, because he's as lazy as he is self-centered."

"He wears boots like these, though," Sebastian said, showing her a picture of the boots that would make that particular print on her porch.

"Yeah, he does. He thinks that they make him look cool and wears them when he goes hunting with his friends."

"What size does he wear?"

"Eleven."

"That's the same size as these prints," he said. "Hang on for a minute. Let me make a phone call."

He arranged for someone to take pictures of the scene and look for any evidence that might help if Talia decided to press charges against the trespasser. "Let's go for that run."

Talia pushed the incident to the back of her mind. She wasn't going to let some idiot ruin her time with Sebastian. Like normal, she practically drooled on herself when he stripped before he shifted. Now that she knew what it felt like for his body to be pressed against hers, and how amazing it was to have his arms wrapped around her, seeing his incredibly sexy body only made the aching want more intense.

She almost suggested that they stop by the oasis by the river and have sex, especially when she saw that he was aroused, but she couldn't manage to get the words out.

We don't have to have sex every single time that we are together, she told herself.

They ran for a while and were tired by the time they got back to the truck. They rode in a comfortable silence back to the house. She noted that her porch was clean and the mat and pots were put back exactly as they had been.

"I'm going to take a quick shower and start dinner," she said.

"I'll run next door and shower. I'll be back in about half an hour so you can let me in. Make sure to lock your door."

She nodded. Talia almost offered to let him have a key to her house so he didn't have to wait, but she decided that would imply way too much way too soon.

After dinner, he said, "Tell me about Darius."

"I'm a little embarrassed," she said. "We met during my senior year of undergrad school. When I met him, he was very sweet and charming. He always had all the right things to say and was the perfect gentleman. Darius opened the car door for me and even carried my books to one of my classes."

She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "That lasted for a couple of months. Then, he started asking questions about who came into the restaurant I was working at or who I talked to when I went out with my friends. It wasn't all the time at first, but then, it was a constant occurrence. I told him it was unacceptable and broke it off with him."

"But that didn't last."

Talia shook her head regretfully. "No. He started hanging around, like a friend, and was back to the nice self he was when we met. I should have realized that it was all part of a nasty cycle. Heaven knows that I read about it enough in my psychology class."

"It's hard to see these things when it's close to home."

"True enough," she replied. "Gradually, we started hanging out more, although it was never a formal relationship as it was before. He started being controlling again. Darius showed up at work and would sit at the back table, ordering just enough to keep management from kicking him out. Then, he would ask me why I talked to a certain man for so long and what we talked about. Once again, I told him we couldn't have a relationship and he backed off."

"Let me guess. It started all over again after a while," Sebastian said.

"Yes and no. I kept him at a distance, but he would join groups of people I was hanging out with. He would show up at the clubs I went to and came over to the apartment a few times. I kept him at arms-length, but he seemed to think we were an item. That's when, right before I came here, I told him that we were over. There was no more us. I wanted to make it perfectly clear that we had absolutely no relationship."

"Which went over well."

"Yeah. He has no idea how to take ‘no' for an answer."

Just like someone else I know, she thought.

Then, she continued. "I didn't even bother responding to his last text. I'm hoping that if I ghost him, then he'll figure it out."

"Hopefully," Sebastian said doubtfully.

"So, what about you? Any great loves in your life?"

"Not really. I dated a woman named Alice for a while. The problem was that we wanted different things out of life. She wanted the excitement of the big city. The last I heard, she had a government job in Denver. I'm happy here. It's where my family and my pack are," Sebastian said. "I've seen enough of the world to know there is no place like home."

"Just like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, " Talia teased.

"Exactly like that, only I don't have any red shoes." He grinned and continued his story. "I wasn't heartbroken in the least when she left. There hadn't been a spark like there is…" He stopped himself before he finished the sentence and grinned.

Talia would have given her eye teeth, as the elders used to say, to hear him finish that sentence.

Instead, he leaned over and kissed her. Heat immediately exploded inside of her. He touched the side of her face and said, huskily, "Tomorrow's a long day. I'd better be going."

She walked him to the door, and he brushed a kiss across her lips and walked onto the porch, waiting to hear her engage the locks. Talia locked the door and leaned up against it, wishing she could have spent the night wrapped in his arms. Instead, she set the alarm and went to bed with her book, feeling deflated.