Chapter 6

Tuesday morning, Chloe grabbed her large tote bag from the back seat of her car before facing Sweetbriar Elementary School with a big smile. It was only 7:30 in the morning, but she was beyond energized and ready for the day. With her bag slung over her shoulder, she reached back into her car and carefully grabbed her travel mug of coffee and the bag with a blueberry muffin in it.

Ashlynn had surprised her just minutes ago by showing up with it to wish her a great first day of school.

I love my family.

After a tense weekend, things were taking a step in the right direction. Yesterday, the doctors were able to bring her mother out of the coma and all her stats were looking good. The brain swelling had gone down, and now they could focus on her other injuries and her recovery. It was going to be a long road to getting her back to the way she was before the accident, but they now had hope.

Locking the car, Chloe made her way into the school, greeting and waving to everyone she saw. She knew she was one of the first to arrive, but she didn’t mind. Having some peace and quiet to set up her room and to mentally prepare was her favorite time of the day. But the closer she got to the classroom, the louder things got.

“Is that music?” she murmured. And sure enough, when she got close to Tanner’s room, she heard some very loud music. If she wasn’t mistaken, it was The Final Countdown. It certainly wasn’t something she would have expected of him, and honestly, it made her laugh a little bit. The door was closed and, as curious as she was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to knock on his door and ask any questions. She was still reeling from the way she had essentially thrown herself at him on Friday. All weekend, she’d played that scene over and over in her head and cringed every time.

What was I thinking?

It was one thing to hug him to thank him for sacrificing almost an entire day to help her and her family. It was another to kiss him and rub up against him like some crazy sex fiend. The thought of having to face him today was overwhelming, but considering it was the first day of school, there were going to be plenty of other things to keep her busy.

And she was looking forward to all of it.

Walking to her classroom, she turned on the lights and smiled at how welcoming and cheery the room looked. At her desk, she put all her things down, pulled out her chair, and got comfortable. Taking a sip of coffee, she hummed with appreciation. It was going to be a good day—a great day!

“And a great year,” she said softly, sighing with relief when Tanner’s loud music ended. With another sip of her coffee, Chloe allowed herself one more moment to relax before getting started. First, she would eat a bit of the muffin her sister was kind enough to bring over at such an early hour, and then…

“Knock, knock…”

Crap. Tanner.

He smiled as he walked into the room, heading right for her, looking incredibly handsome and charming. And the closer he got, the better he smelled.

Ugh…do not smell him! Bad Chloe!

“Good morning,” he said smoothly. “How’s your mom doing?”

And he has good manners? How am I supposed to even look at him without flinging myself at him again?

“Good morning,” she said, her voice a combination of a squeak and a croak. Clearing her throat, she nodded. “And thank you for asking. She’s awake and doing well. The swelling has gone down and now the doctors can focus on her recovery.”

He slid his hands into his pockets and nodded, still smiling. “That’s great! I’m sure you’re all relieved.”

“We are. She’s got a long road ahead of her, but I think we’re heading in the right direction.” Forcing herself to look away, she took a casual sip of her coffee before speaking again. “Are you ready for your first day?”

His smile was positively beaming. “I am! I spent the weekend getting everything ready and came in yesterday to finish my room and all that’s missing are the kiddos!”

She had to admit that she loved his enthusiasm. “You’re going to do great, I’m sure.”

Tanner nodded again before taking a step closer. “So, um…I was wondering if you’d like to grab an early dinner with me tonight. You know…we can talk about the first day and get to know each other a little more.”

“Um…”

Oh, God…is he asking me out as a coworker or like…a date?

“I really wanted to call you this weekend, but realized I didn’t have your number. After the way you left, I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

The look on his face said he was hoping for her to say something, but she didn’t have a clue how to respond to that.

“And I know you were just thanking me,” he went on, “and the kiss maybe wasn’t planned, but I really enjoyed it and thought that we could spend some time together and…”

A date. He’s definitely asking as a date. What do I do?

“Um…”

“We don’t have to do dinner,” he told her. “Maybe we could go to Books Beans and just have some coffee and talk about our day? What do you think?”

He looked so handsome and sounded so sincere, but…

“Thank you, Tanner,” she said primly. “But I already have plans for after work. The first week of school is usually exhausting and between that and dealing with my mom, I’m really not going to have a lot of free time. I’m sure you could reach out to any of the other teachers and they’d be happy to have coffee with you after school.”

And yeah, she hated saying the words because she saw the disappointment on his face.

Same, she thought with an inward sigh.

With a curt nod, he took a step back. “No problem. I get it. And hey, have a great first day and I guess…I’ll see you around.”

Chloe nodded too. “Yeah, you too, Tanner. And if there’s anything you need with the…”

“I got it,” he said before turning and walking out.

Groaning, she slouched down in her chair. “Well, that was awkward.” Then she sighed loudly. “And it’s for the best. Getting involved with a coworker is wrong and…ugh…”

It took all of sixty seconds before she reached for her phone and texted her twin.

Chloe: Okay, so…weird question.

Chloe: Wait, are you awake or did you go back to sleep after the muffin drop?

Ash: Is that the weird question or is there another one?

Chloe: There’s another one.

Chloe: And I didn’t think that was a weird question. I felt bad about maybe waking you up.

Ash: Once I got up and drove around town, I was awake. What’s going on?

Where do I even begin?

Chloe: Tanner just asked me to go out with him after school and I turned him down

Ash: Um…that’s not a question

Chloe: I was getting to it! Sheesh!

Ash: Did you turn him down because you still think he’s an icky jerk? Because I’m gonna have to disagree with you on that one

Ash: He was so freaking nice at the hospital. Totally delightful

The eye roll she couldn’t stop practically had her seeing her own brain.

Chloe: It’s not because of the icky jerk thing. It just feels wrong to go out with a coworker

Ash: You went with that teacher guy to our reunion last month.

Chloe: As a friend! I was dating Evan at the time and he couldn’t go, remember?

Ash: Okay, yeah. And you think Tanner wanted this to be like a date?

Chloe: Yup

Ash: Hmm…I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me.

Ash: When I saw you Friday night you were acting a little weird but I blamed it on all the emotional stuff with Mom.

Ash: Did something happen between you and Tanner that you’re trying NOT to tell me?

She seriously hated how well her sister knew her. It was virtually impossible to keep anything to herself.

Ever.

Chloe: Never mind. I have too much to do to be getting into this right now

Chloe: Just…forget I texted. Go back to sleep!

Ash: Well I’m wide awake now!

Ash: You can’t drop a bombshell like this and think I’m just going to forget about it!

“I didn’t drop a bombshell,” she hissed at her phone, even though her sister couldn’t hear her.

Chloe: I have to go. The kids will start to arrive soon.

Ash: Did you kiss him?

Ash: Did he kiss you?

Ash: You didn’t do it in one of the hospital rooms, did you?

Growling, she tried to strangle her phone.

Chloe: What is wrong with you? Who does that?

Ash: LOL! Just checking.

Ash: But it was a kiss, right?

Chloe: Ugh! If it will make you shut up, yes, it was a kiss. Happy?

Ash: GIDDY! YAY!!

There was an almost obscene amount of smiley face emojis followed by balloons and noise makers that just fueled her embarrassment.

Chloe: Please stop.

Ash: Fine. But I’m coming over after work with a pizza and I want to hear all about it.

It was pointless to argue. Ashlynn tended to do whatever she wanted.

Chloe: I’ll see you later.

Ash: Love you!

Chloe: Love you too, even though you’re a brat!

And with that, she tossed her phone back into her purse and took a huge bite of her muffin.

It was going to be a long day.

It was a good thing Chloe hadn’t accepted his invitation to coffee or dinner, because Tanner had never been more exhausted in his life.

How was it possible that a class of eighteen 5-year-olds could sap so much of his energy?

“It’s because they never stopped,” he murmured as he wandered around his classroom like a zombie. The last student had just been picked up and he relished the silence. “And this was only the first day.”

Shit.

It didn’t matter how prepared he thought he was; clearly, he wasn’t prepared at all. His confidence—or arrogance—made him believe there wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. Who knew it was a room full of kindergarteners that was going to bring him down?

Hard.

Still, he forced himself to walk around and straighten everything up before grabbing his own satchel and shutting off the lights. When he stepped out into the hall, he looked toward Chloe’s room and saw that the light was still on. He considered going over and asking how her day went, but…he didn’t. She had effectively cut him down this morning, and it bothered him way more than it should have.

In his years of competitive skiing, he’d had his fair share of women chasing after him, and he’d done more than his fair share of kissing them. But it stung having Chloe kiss him and then run off. And then having her essentially treating him like it never happened stung even more.

“I’m pathetic,” he mumbled and headed down the hall toward the exit. All he wanted was to go home, crash on the sofa, and maybe order a pizza. “I’ll probably be asleep by 8:00 too.”

And yeah, that made him feel even worse.

But as he climbed into his car and made his way home, Tanner reasoned that he was only feeling like this because it was the first day. Tomorrow would be easier. And the day after that, it would be even easier. By the end of the week, he would start to settle into this new norm and everything would be alright.

There hadn’t been another challenge in his life that broke him, and teaching kindergarten wasn’t going to either.

“I refuse to let this be the thing that breaks me.”

Tomorrow, he was going to go into that school with his usual confidence and he was going to be the best damn teacher Sweetbriar Elementary had ever seen. He was going to kill it at his first year of teaching, of that he was certain. And even though he didn’t regret helping Chloe and her family, since she wasn’t interested in him—even though her kiss said otherwise—he now had zero conflict with beating her for the Teacher of the Year title.

And it wasn’t about being spiteful; it was about doing what he always did—striving to be number one.

Even if it meant isolating himself and maybe having a smaller circle of friends.

“Doesn’t matter. I’ve got all the friends I need.”

But…did he?

Pushing the thought aside and attributing it to exhaustion, he turned on the radio and spent the rest of the drive letting his mind go a little blank. At home, he kicked off his shoes, went to the kitchen and grabbed himself something to drink before going to the living room and collapsing on the couch.

The glass barely made it to the end table before Tanner closed his eyes and fell asleep.

As expected, the rest of the first week went well.

The second week went even better.

And week three went great.

Tanner was totally hitting his stride and people were noticing.

Including Chloe Donovan.

It was Friday afternoon and he knew her students were in art class when she came to a stop in his classroom doorway. He gave her a polite smile and a small nod, but noticed she didn’t seem in a hurry to leave. His class was finishing the counting sheets they’d been working on, and as he walked to the door, he called out, “When you’re done with your work, turn it over and take your spot in our reading forest!”

There were some cheers that he thought were adorable, and apparently Chloe did too because she was smiling.

“What can I do for you?” he asked casually, doing his best not to notice how her blue sweater matched her eyes.

“Sorry to interrupt, but next week we’ll be starting our fall unit and thought we could do some of it together. You know, merge our classes for some of the activities. What do you think?”

“Um…”

“Mr. Westyn! Mr. Westyn! Jackie knocked all the books off the shelf!” one of his students cried.

Turning his head, he glanced into the room and sure enough, there were a lot of books on the floor.

“I know you’re busy,” Chloe stammered. “Maybe you can meet me at Books Beans after school and we can discuss it?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Thanks.” And then he walked away to deal with the mess before anything else got too wild. Crouching down next to the pile, he smiled patiently at the culprit. “What do you say you give me a hand cleaning this up, Jackie?”

The little girl nodded solemnly and began picking the books up one at a time and placed them back where they belonged. As much as he wanted to make her clean it all up, he had a lesson to get to. It wasn’t until they were done and he picked up the book he planned to read for story time that he realized he’d agreed to meet Chloe for coffee.

He silently admonished himself, but knew it all didn’t mean anything. It was just coffee between two coworkers for the sake of their students. No big deal.

Except…he suddenly couldn’t wait for the end of the day.

It wasn’t like he had been pining away for her or anything, but…he genuinely liked her and just wanted a chance to get to know her better.

Probably shouldn’t be so petty about competing for Teacher of the Year then…

But he really wanted the title.

Like…a lot.

A conversation he’d had with his father a month ago came to mind.

“And the principal told me I was sometimes a little overzealous and rubbed some teachers the wrong way. But that’s only because I’m passionate about teaching and everyone else was way too laid back!”

“Were they too laid back, or were you trying to show off? Because I think we both know…”

“I hate it when you do that.”

“What? Tell the truth?”

This continuous quest to be number one was possibly ruining his life more than he realized. Why couldn’t he just be good at what he did? Why did being the best have to consume him?

And that was something he vowed to work on if today’s coffee maybe led to dinner.

Or maybe I should work on it because it’s the right thing to do…

“Mr. Westyn! Mr. Westyn! Are we going to hear a story?”

He looked up and realized his class was sitting on the floor waiting for him. Smiling, he moved to his spot and sat down. “You bet we are! Who’s ready to read about the little pug who thinks he’s a superhero?”

There was an excited round of “Me!” that made him chuckle, so he opened the book and began to read.

When story time was over, he took his class down the hall for PE and opted to hang out in the teachers’ lounge instead of in his classroom. He found Chloe doing the same thing. She smiled up at him and he looked around and saw they were the only two in there.

“Hey,” he said. “Hope I’m not interrupting your break.”

“Not at all,” she said as she looked up from the book she was reading. “I just felt like relaxing in here while the kids are at PE instead of my classroom.”

That made him smile. “Great minds think alike. That’s exactly why I’m here.” Then he held up the curriculum binder he’d brought with him. “I was going to look over the unit we’re going to talk about after school. I’ll admit I haven’t really allowed myself to get too far ahead in planning. I’m just trying to master everything for the current week.”

She nodded. “Nothing wrong with that. My first year, I probably read that binder front to back about a hundred times because I was so afraid of missing anything. Then I realized I just had way too much free time on my hands.” Laughing softly, she added, “Although now I practically have it all memorized, so…there’s that.”

That didn’t surprise him. “Hopefully you’ll be patient with me. That’s why I brought the binder in here. I was hoping I wouldn’t sound unprepared when we met for coffee.”

Her shoulders sagged. “Tanner, I really hope you don’t think I’m some sort of judgy person. That’s the last thing I want to be.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to remind her of her initial opinion of him, but he had a feeling that would only make him look bad.

Again.

Shifting a bit in his seat, Tanner tried to choose the right way to respond. “You have to see it from my point of view,” he began. “You’ve been here much longer than I have, and you’ve been Teacher of the Year twice.”

Rather than smile, she frowned—which seemed like an odd reaction.

“Okay,” she said quietly, leaning in a little closer as if sharing a secret. “Here’s the thing, while it was an incredible honor to be…you know…Teacher of the Year, they’ve only been doing it for those two years.” Shrugging, she continued, “And they only did it to boost morale because we were one of the poorest districts in the state. I got a certificate and a $25 gift card to an online store. It’s really nothing compared to winning a skiing competition.”

That put some things into perspective, but…

“Still, Chloe, even if the prize wasn’t great, they obviously chose you for a reason.”

Another shrug. “I was the newest teacher, the youngest teacher, and the most excited about pretty much everything. I seriously think they did it to reward my enthusiasm so I didn’t get jaded.”

“Damn.”

“I know.” She sighed. “That makes me sound ungrateful. I’m sorry, I’m really not. I never should have said anything. I just didn’t want you thinking that I did anything so spectacular to deserve the award.”

If he were being honest, he’d admit that he really thought there was more to it.

“I appreciate you sharing that with me, and yeah, it does take a little of the pressure off.”

A grateful smile was her only response, and it was damn near dazzling. Did she have any idea how pretty she was?

And to stop himself from asking that question out loud, he picked up the binder and smiled back at her. “So…the fall unit. What do we do?”

“It’s a lot of fun,” she told him. “We talk about the weather and we go out and pick up leaves and make some cute art projects for them to give to their parents. Last year, I got a batch of tiny pumpkins that they painted and we had a scarecrow in the classroom where I would put our sight word of the day on.”

“O-kay…”

“You don’t have to do any of that,” she quickly interjected. “I just thought it was fun to have the room decorated for the season. But I’m open to suggestions.”

He was about to open the binder when the alarm sounded on his phone that it was almost time to get his class. Chloe’s chimed right after his and they both laughed softly.

“I guess we’ll talk about it more over coffee,” he said with a lopsided grin.

Chloe nodded and began collecting her things. “Does 4:30 work for you, or will you need more time?”

“That will work.”

“See you then!” And with a little wave, she left the lounge.

Tanner stared at the door for several moments and questioned what was going on with him. Why was he suddenly so drawn to her? The first time he saw her, he didn’t think there was anything particularly appealing about her. If memory served, she sort of blended into her surroundings. But now he realized just how wrong he was and couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her.

That’s when it hit him: he hadn’t been involved in a relationship or even out on a date in several months. So it wasn’t that Chloe was anything special, he was just…lonely? In a rut? Horny?

“Ugh…no. Just…no,” he murmured before picking up the binder and heading out of the lounge.

As he made his way back to his classroom to drop the binder off, he thought about all the people he’d met so far in Sweetbriar. Of course, there were all the Donovans—including the one who helped him with his home rental—and every time he’d gone into Books Beans, Jade and Billie introduced him to pretty much everyone who was in there. He’d grabbed a beer with Will from the automotive repair place and played poker with him and his boss, Devin. Ashlynn’s fiancé Reid had been there, along with a couple of other guys from the firehouse, and it was nice to have a new group of friends.

And they’d all offered to introduce him to some of the single women around town, but because he really needed to focus on his job, he’d turned them down.

Is that why I’m attracted to Chloe? Because it’s convenient that we work together?

Okay, that was something he was going to have to examine a little more, too.

But…later.

Like, after they had coffee this afternoon.

For now, he needed to get his students and finish the day and the week strong. Then he could put all his attention on this new unit Chloe was talking about and figuring out what he was feeling for her and why.

It was either going to make him really happy or feel like a total jerk.