A small hand tugged at my skirt and I snapped out of my little trip down memory lane real quick. What in the hell was I doing? We were standing way too close, and he was practically whispering to me while I stared up at him. In my classroom. Which was full of students and their parents.
I looked down at the kid who was still tugging my skirt—a little boy named Logan. He was the youngest brother of one of my students, and I’d had the two older brothers, as well. That was one of the things that I loved about teaching in this neighborhood. There were a ton of young families and a lot of them stuck around. This year I had no fewer than five kids with siblings I had taught before.
“Hey Logan,” I said, prying his chubby hand from the flowery cotton. “What do you need?”
“Can I see the robot?” he asked.
“Not right now, buddy, I’m sorry.” I only let the kids play with the robot under direct supervision. And Logan was probably too young anyhow. “But you can go see the fish. I have a new striped one, why don’t you try and find him?”
He ran off towards the back and I used the interruption as an excuse to step back several paces from Liam.
“Robot, huh?” he asked, rocking back on his heels. “Let me guess—you’re the cool teacher, aren’t you?”
I laughed, pushing a wayward curl back behind my ear. “I do my best. The high school robotics team helped us make a basic robot last fall. The kids are crazy about it.” I gestured around the room. “Why don’t you go take a look at the classroom? In a couple minutes I’m going to give a little presentation and then you can ask any questions you might have.”
He seemed reluctant to walk away from me, but when a new family appeared in the door, I had the perfect escape. “Excuse me,” I said, moving around him. “Duty calls.”
For the next ten minutes I welcomed parents and their kids and did my best not to watch Liam across the room. Epic fail. It was just so hard to keep my eyes off him, the graceful way he moved, just like he did on the ice, the way his broad back muscles stretched under the tight blue shirt when he bent down to look at the fish tank with Josie. The easy way he chatted with the other parents, smiling and laughing like he was making new friends already.
Same old Liam. Always the life of the party. Everyone’s best friend.
Luckily, I had a presentation to give, and it was good to have something else to focus on. I called the parents and their kids to take seats around the room while I stood, leaning against my desk. I quickly went over my policies on homework and class participation then talked about the various curriculum highlights we’d be touching on.
“The most important thing I want you all to know, is that my door is always open, for children and parents. If you ever have any questions or need assistance with anything, please give me a call. Or better yet, stop in! We love to have parent visitors. And if you show up here in class, I can promise you we’ll have you in a pair of goggles doing science experiments right along with us.”
There were some friendly chuckles at that, I couldn’t keep from glancing over to Liam, who was watching me with far greater focus than anyone else in the room. Would he come visit the class? The thought of trying to teach with his impossible-to-miss hockey player frame and piercing blue eyes made my knees feel weak.
Hockey players are busy, right?I thought to myself as I wrapped up the event. Maybe he wouldn’t have time to be here much at all.
“Hey,” he said, sliding up next to me while I placed some folders into my bag. “You need any help closing up tonight?”
I gave him my most professional teacher’s smile. “Nope, we should be all set. I’ll be back here tomorrow doing some last-minute set-up anyhow.”
“You’re dedicated,” he murmured and I avoided his eyes.
“I love my job,” I said simply.
“I can tell.”
God, was he moving closer? Why was he moving closer? A quick glance around the room showed it emptying out. The Conners were still in the back, talking to Miguel Lopez’s parents while the kids played with my model of the solar system.
“You know, you should take Josie around the school,” I said, desperate for him to not be the last one in here. There was no telling what my traitorous heart might do if that happened. My body seemed to be revolting against me already—I had stepped closer to him without even realizing it.
“The school?” Liam asked, and I finally dared a glance at him. He was staring down at me—or rather, at my hair. And I had no clue how to read the expression on his face.
“Yeah,” I said brightly, crossing my fingers behind my back.Please just go.Standing this close to him was torture. My hands were literally itching to touch his arm. “The whole school is open for Meet the Teacher night. You could see the gym and the music room and all of that. We have a really great art program here.”
“Bye Miss K.,” Mrs. Lopez called, ushering Miguel out of the room. “You can go ahead and sign us up to work the welcome parade next week.”
“Awesome,” I called after her. “Bye, Mr. Lopez. See you in a few days, Miguel.”
Now it was only the Conners left, and they had gone to join Josie and Gabby where they still stood at the science station.
“I’d like to see the school,” Liam said. “I had to enroll her long distance and everything was such a rush getting down here I didn’t get to check it out.”
“Great!” I said, probably too cheerfully. But I needed him togo. My body had apparently decided nothing had changed since high school. I was still drawn to him in a way I’d never experienced with anyone else.Just a crush, just a crush,I told myself, over and over again.
“Will you show us?”
