“Liam.”
“No more tears, Gracie,” he murmured, cradling my face again and bringing a gentle kiss to my lips. “Me and you are going to be happy. I think we’ve earned it.”
“Yeah,” I managed through my thick throat. “I think we have.”
He kissed me again, longer this time, and I could feel the heat growing between us. I had a feeling if we weren’t in the middle of a dance floor surrounded by all his colleagues and my brother, this kiss wouldn’t end so chastely.
He groaned a little as he pulled away, not letting me go far. He held me tight in his arms, beginning to sway again, picking up the dance we’d more or less abandoned. “How authentic do you want to be tonight?”
“What do you mean?”
He grinned. “If we’re trying to reenact our high school days here, I would probably be so blown away that you were my date that I would have acted all shy and awkward and teenage boy-ish. Maybe, if I’d been very lucky, I might have managed to score a kiss at the end of the night.”
I laughed. “As amusing as that would be to witness, I don’t think we need to shoot for terribly authentic.”
His grin turned a little more wicked. “So you’re saying you might let me cop a feel?”
I leaned up on my tip-toes to get closer, pressing a kiss to the skin below his ear. “I’m saying I would probably let you drag me into a closet somewhere. Might even let you get to third base.”
He groaned again. “You can’t say shit like that to me with your brother twenty feet away. He’s still my boss.”
“True. I guess I’ll be good.”
“Just for now,” he growled. “I’ve got a sitter for the whole night so you can go ahead and save all the naughty stuff for when we get back to your house.”
“Yeah?” I teased, feeling a rush of happiness so strong it almost weakened my knees. “And what’s going to happen then?”
He kissed me, swift and bruising. “The start, Gracie. The start of the rest of our lives.”
EPILOGUE
“And that was my favorite day of third grade!”
“Excellent work on your project, Michael,” I said, smiling down at the gap-toothed little boy. “Let’s all give our friend a big round of applause!”
The rest of the class clapped and cheered as Michael grinned shyly. When he was back at his seat, I looked around. “Would anyone else like to share their end of the year project?” Most of the kids had already shared, but I wasn’t going to force the shyer ones to get up in front of the class if they didn’t want to. No sense in torturing them on the last day of school. When no hands went up, I nodded. “Okay, Katie, why don’t you collect the rest of the projects and bring them up to my desk.”
As Katie went around the room, I smiled at my class. “I want to thank you all for such a great year. I hope you had as much fun as I did learning together.” I paused, smiling at the expectation I felt in the air. We were ending our day with a class party—pizza, cupcakes, and games—and the kids were clearly ready to get a head start on their summer vacation.
I didn’t blame them. Two months of no school had never sounded better. Liam’s season was over and we had plans tospend every spare second together for the foreseeable future. It sounded like heaven.
Especially because Josie would officially not be my student anymore. I would definitely miss having her in my class every day, but the end of the year meant that Liam and I didn’t need to be so guarded with our relationship. After the terrible day when she’d run away, I’d talked to my union rep and my principal, letting them know I was involved with a student’s parent. There was no official rule against it, but I’d been asked to be as discrete as possible.
It would be nice to be a little more open this summer. To hold hands in public and cuddle in booths at our favorite restaurants. Hell, I might even be persuaded to make out with him at the movies.
When you bag a man like Liam O’Conner, a girl gets the urge to shout about it from the rooftops.
The kids and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing board games and eating our snacks. As excited as I was for summer, I was going to miss this group. Judging by the hugs I got before pick-up and bussing started, they felt the same way about me.
“I’m getting a little jealous,” a low voice murmured behind me, and I spun to see Liam. My face immediately lit up at the sight of him. Yes, I had woken up in his bed only that morning, but it didn’t seem to matter to my heart. I saw the man and I was happy—it was really that simple.
“Jealous of children?” I asked.
“They all get to hug you and I don’t.” His pout was so ridiculous I had to laugh. Then Josie came barreling up, throwing herself at his legs for a hug of her own.
I smiled as I watched them. It hadn’t been completely smooth sailing since that day at the telescope in Knight Plaza, but they were doing much better than the beginning of the year. Josie was seeing a great therapist, and Liam had even done afew sessions of his own. Even Chloe seemed to be determined to stick to the promises she made Liam. She called Josie regularly and didn’t make plans she couldn’t keep. She had taken Josie for a few days over spring break, and they seemed to have a good time, but Josie had seemed even more happy to be back at home with her dad at the end of her trip.
Which probably had a lot to do with Puck, the lab-mix puppy Liam had finally gotten Josie for Christmas.
