My stomach drops.
“Who hired you?”I demand.“Because I didn’t hire anyone.And I definitely didn’t ask for—” I gesture vaguely at all of him, “—this.”
He studies me like I’m a puzzle he’s already halfway solved.
“You’re pretty important to some pretty important people, Miss Rosetto.”
“I don’t know anyone like that,” I say, but pause because actually, I do.
And when it hits me—and it hits me kinda hard—that I have students from prominent families, then I get it.
“Oh,” I whisper.
Well.
“Do you need a moment?”
I frown in response.
Because what the actual hell?
A thousand thoughts crash into me at once, and none of them are helpful.
Mostly, I’m suddenly, irrationally annoyed.
Because this man—this stupidly handsome, broad-shouldered, dark-eyed action hero of a human being—has walked into my life on the one day I was already questioning all of my choices.
Tonight, I’m supposed to be at a church-run speed dating event in the parish basement.
I’m wearing my nicest sweater.
I even practiced my most polite smile.
But right now?I feel like a fraud because here I am pretending I’m not desperate or tired or lonely.
And now this guy just waltzes in here to witness my ultimate humiliation?
Of fucking course he’s here today of all days.
Why?Clearly, it’s because the universe hates me.That’s why it sent a walking testosterone bomb into my classroom when I’m already spiraling about my love life.
Nope.Absolutely not.
I refuse to let my brain go there.
I’m alive.I’m here.My students are safe.I have a job I love and a classroom full of tiny humans who think I’m magic because I can readThe Very Hungry Caterpillarin silly voices.
So what if I haven’t had a good date in over three years?
So what if the last man I trusted broke my heart and my brother barely exists in my life anymore?
I straighten my spine.
I am not going to melt just because this man looks like he stepped out of an action movie—the brooding, muscled-up hero type who absolutely makes my knees feel a little weak.
Professional.Boundaries.
“Well, first, allow me to thank you, Mr.Montego,” I say coolly, deliberately using his last name like a shield.“But it’s not necessary.I’ll be fine.”
