Evanne held her hand out flat and wiggled it back-and-forth. Where she learned these things, I had no idea.
“Well, I’m not trying to be funny now. Ms. Browne is…”
I tried to think of a good adjective that didn’t sound too…interested. She’d probably share what I said. What would I want Lumen to hear? That I thought she was kind? Beautiful? Funny? Brilliant?
Having her over last night felt good. It felt right. But how could I say that?
Before I could finish my sentence, my phone rang with the ringtone I’d assigned to Keli. For a moment, I had the strangest feeling that she was calling to tell me it wasn’t working out with Alessandro and she wanted to come back to Seattle and put things back the way they’d been before. I didn’t want that to happen, not when it would mean going back to eating dinners at my desk while I worked or eating them here alone.
“Hello, Keli.”
“Hi, Alec,” she said in a soft, hesitant voice. “How are things?”
For a long moment, I was tempted to make her feel bad about leaving the country and her daughter, but that would’ve been just me being petty. It was time to be a grownup. Besides, I wasn’t mad anymore. Quite the opposite. I was grateful, because if Keli hadn’t left, I never would have known what I was missing.
“Not bad, actually. Evanne and I are just having breakfast.”
“Cold pizza?” Keli asked, half-teasing.
I’d given Evanne cold pizza one time for breakfast, and it had become a running joke.
“Waffles,” I clarified. “Blueberry waffles. Which I made myself.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.” Keli sounded distracted, but I wasn’t offended. She didn’t have to make small talk with me. “I actually just called to talk to Evanne, but if you’re having breakfast, I can call back later…”
“Is that Mommy?” Evanne asked, hope lighting her adorable face.
“She’s just finished,” I said into the phone. “One sec.” I looked over at Evanne. No doubt her fingers were covered in syrup. “Wash your hands.”
Keli and I waited in silence as Evanne washed and dried her hands. She was all smiles when she took the phone from me. “Mommy!”
I listened to Evanne’s chatter as I returned to my breakfast.
“It’s going good,” Evanne said into the phone. “I’m getting good marks, and I really like my teacher.” There was a pause, and I could hear the buzz if not the words of Keli talking. “It’s Ms. Browne.” More talking from Keli. “Mhmm! She’s the best. She came over for dinner yesterday. We had so much fun. She even read me a bedtime story.”
Fucking hell.
Twenty-Four
Lumen
I turnedmy phone on as soon as classes ended on Monday, hoping to see a missed call or a waiting text, but there wasn’t anything. Not from Soleil, and not from Alec. The first wasn’t really a surprise, but I’d really wanted the second. I slumped into my desk chair and closed my eyes.
Maybe it had been wrong of me to leave without saying anything. Evanne, thankfully, didn’t seem to have any idea I’d stayed the night on Saturday. I was just grateful she hadn’t told anyone that I’d gone to her place for dinner. Having rumors spread about me spending time with a student and her very wealthy, very single father could be awkward. And it was never going to happen again.
As for Alec, there was no reason for me to have any expectations beyond what had happened. We’d had a good time. No one else had to know about it. And it was silly of me to have spent all day wondering if he planned to contact me again. What was done was done.
And I definitely didn’t need to feel guilty for leaving. Soleil had needed me to pick her up, and I needed to build trust with her. She hadn’t said much when she’d gotten in the car, probably because we weren’t alone, but she’d thanked me on her way out of the Lyft. That had honestly been more than I’d expected.
“Knock knock,” Harvey said as he strolled into my classroom without knocking. “Hope you don’t nap when you’re supposed to be teaching.”
I opened my eyes. “What can I do for you, Mr. Harvey?”
He leaned against my desk, garbed in his usual gray suit and crap-eating grin, his proximity too close for my comfort.
“Plenty,” he said, giving me the sort of look-over that made me want to take a shower. “But you don’t want to hear about that. Or…maybe you do.”
“Does another parent want to talk to me?” I asked.
