Danny’s eyes widened. “Yeah! You can stay up late with us!”
“Uh.” I cleared my throat. I mean, I didn’t have other plans.
Adam ruffled Danny’s hair. “That’s what I was thinking too, Champ.” He looked at me and raised his brows. “Want to stay up late with us?” He winked.
“Oh, um…sure.” I bit my bottom lip to keep from smiling too wide. “I can come over for a bit.”
Adam grinned. “Yes!” He fist-pumped and then gave Danny a high-five.
I chuckled and shook my head. These boys were too stinkin’ cute.
I waited with Danny as Adam closed things up and made surethe boys had their stuff. Then the three of us walked to the parking lot.
“Can I ride with Ms. Faith?” Danny asked.
Adam raised his shoulders and looked toward me.
Being his teacher, I’m guessing I better not. I squatted down near Danny. “I actually don’t know. I’d need to see if there is a policy about it. Is that okay?”
His eyebrows scrunched. “I don’t understand.”
“Okay.” I looked up as I tried to think of how to explain it. “There are rules at schools, like in our classroom.”
Danny nodded aggressively. “Like no boogers on the desk.”
Adam snorted.
“Especially that one.” I pointed in the air. “There are rules about teachers and students too.” I raised my right shoulder. “I don’t know them all. So, I will need to check if it’s a rule or not for teachers to drive students anywhere.”
He tipped his chin in thought. “Okay.” He hopped into Adam’s truck and I started my car. I began scraping the ice that had formed in the few hours since I’d driven the car here.
Adam scraped the ice off of his windshield in long strokes. He was much faster than I was and came over and finished clearing mine. He leaned against my side, touching me whenever he was close enough to do so.
“This is my new favorite way to celebrate games we win. If I knew that you coming over for an after party was on the table, I might have been way more nervous with the results.”
I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t even seem nervous at all!”
He shrugged. “Of course I was. I like to win, but more than that, I just want the boys to do their best.”
I sighed. “I knew it.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “You are too good to be true.”
He rolled his eyes and glanced back at his truck. Seeing that Danny wasn’t watching, he snuck a quick kiss. His lips were cold, and his breath was warm. I desperately wanted more. I kissed himagain. Danny knocked on his window, so I took a step away. Based on the look in Adam’s eyes, he was sorry to step away as well.
“Want me to follow you?” Adam asked.
“How about I follow you?” I stared at his eyes, not wanting to break the contact. He took a step toward me and I knew in his gaze he wanted me too. He reached out and I fell into his arms. His truck horn blared, ripping the silence and startling us both.
He groaned, “Ugh. Fine.” He turned back around and walked toward his truck. “Drive safe.”
My chest warmed and I felt like I was glowing. We loaded into our vehicles, and I followed Adam’s truck out of the parking lot.
Snow was falling, making it look like we were going faster than twenty-five as the flakes shone in the headlights.
The steering wheel was like ice. I reached and put on the gloves in the passenger seat and grabbed a blanket from the back and put it over my legs. My heater always took a while to heat up.
It took much longer to get to Adam’s. What usually took twenty minutes was closer to thirty-five. Twice my tires slid to the left. I couldn’t tell if my shaking was from the cold or the adrenaline from almost driving straight into a snowbank.
I was happy once we parked at Adam’s, and I didn’t feel like I had to focus so intently on the road.
