“Ms. Browne?”
It was Evanne. She was frowning up at me, standing in the doorway next to her father. The father on whose chest my hands currently rested. I immediately jerked them away.
“I forgot my lunchbox,” Evanne said slowly, confusion on her face.
I looked over my shoulder to see Harvey coming out of my classroom. He gave me a cold smile, then turned and walked in the other direction.
“The classroom’s unlocked,” I said, not meeting Alec’s eyes. I couldn’t go back to my classroom right now, not even for Evanne. I needed time to process, and I needed to do it somewhere I could be safe.
I just wasn’t sure where that was anymore.
Twenty-Five
Alec
“What’s wrong, lass?”I asked, fighting the urge to take her in my arms, to protect her from whatever had upset her. I couldn’t, for any number of reasons, and I hated every single one of them. “Did something happen?”
“No,” she said, watching Evanne skip down the hall to the classroom. “I’m fine.”
I wouldn’t have believed her even if she hadn’t been actively avoiding looking at me. Still, I had no right to pressure her to tell me anything. She didn’t owe me an explanation, and I wasn’t her boyfriend, father, brother, husband. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I could consider us friends.
Evanne bounced out of the room, swinging her lunchbox. “Got it!” she announced happily.
Now, I was torn. I didn’t want to leave Lumen in this state, but I didn’t have the right to prod her about what was wrong. What I could do, however, was offer her a ride.
“Since we’re here,” I said, stuffing my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t touch her, “we could give you a lift back home.”
“Yay!” It came as no surprise that Evanne was all for the detour.
Lumen smiled fondly at Evanne, but still didn’t let me see her face. “That’s kind of you, but there’s no need for you to go out of your way.”
I glanced outside and saw the rain that had been threatening all day had begun falling. Pretty soon it was going to be drizzling at best, pouring at worst, and Lumen didn’t have an umbrella that I could see.
“It’s no trouble at all,” I said. “Keeps you from walking in the rain.”
“Daddy’s got a really comfy car,” Evanne said. “You’d like it.”
Lumen’s cheeks flared red, and I cleared my throat, drawing Evanne’s attention before she could clue in on her teacher’s embarrassment.
“We’d better get moving before we get drenched,” I said. “I promise you, Ms. Browne, it’s no trouble at all. In fact, you’d be saving me from the wrath of my daughter if I let you go and you got sick. I’d never hear the end of it.”
There it was, the hint of a smile.
Evanne started running for the car, as if she could outrun the rain. “Come on, Ms. Browne!”
I put up my umbrella even though it was only a few feet to the car. “Please, lass. Let me do this for you.”
The words came out far gentler than I’d intended, and her head jerked up in surprise. Her eyes glistened as if she was holding back tears and another wave of protectiveness washed over me, followed quickly by anger toward whoever had made her this upset.
“Thank you,” she said quietly as she fell in step next to me.
“My car’s just over here,” I said, even though she obviously knew which car belonged to me.
She nodded but looked over her shoulder as if she expected someone to be following us. I glanced back but didn’t see anyone paying us any attention. Still, I angled my body so I could pull her in front of me if I needed to. Once I found out what was going on with Lumen, I’d need to have a talk with Evanne’s principal and find out what sort of shit security the school had if someone could scare a teacher.
Evanne was already in the backseat, beaming from ear to ear. “You can sit in the front seat, Ms. Browne.” Lumen looked at me and then looked at the backseat, her expression uncertain. “Or you can sit next to me.”
The hope on my daughter’s face made me wonder if I’d made a mistake. Her getting attached to a teacher was one thing. Blurring the lines between school and home was something else, and if I wasn’t careful, Evanne might very well lock on to Lumen in response to her mother having left.
