He nodded and started to turn away.
“I see you’re still working with... your hands.”
The tone was whatever was beyond suggestive and her steady gaze invited, well, Jax wasn’t sure what, but something very much like Harris’s adult sleepovers.
Marcus didn’t react to the comment, instead he wished her a nice day and turned back to Jax. He said something about storing the bricks such that they could be put back in their same place when the job was finished, but she couldn’t get past the weird encounter.
“Friend of yours?”
“No.”
“Was she coming on to you?”
“Probably.”
She tilted her head. “You sound so calm. I thought it was strange, but you’re very accepting. So it happens a lot?”
He shrugged. “A hazard of the job.”
“Being a contractor?”
“I don’t know. Women think what I do is sexy or appealing. I don’t get it.”
“Maybe it’s not the job. Maybe it’s you.” She paused as she realized what she’d said, then figured she might as well state the obvious. “You’re kind of good-looking.”
The one eyebrow rose again. “Only kind of?”
She grinned. “There’s no way you’re fishing for compliments so I’m going to assume you’re being funny. It’s just strange to have someone act like that. Those of us from the normal section of the scale don’t deal with that kind of thing.”
“I don’t like it, and you’re not normal.”
Now it was her turn to stare. “Excuse me?”
He shifted, suddenly uneasy. “I meant you’re pretty.”
“Thank you and I don’t care if you’re lying when you say that. Because the alternative is saying I’m less attractive than normal and why are we talking about this.”
His mouth twitched with amusement. “You started it.”
“And now I’m going to end it. So bricks. That will be a job.”
“Yes, it will.”
Ryleigh walked around her classroom as she did every day after her students were gone, picking up whatever had been left behind. She found a couple of hair clips, two small race cars and a lone shoe, which was a little troubling. Did that mean someone was walking home with only one, or had an extra one gotten into a backpack and wouldn’t be missed for a while? She put everything in the lost and found bin she kept in the back.Tomorrow she would give her kids a chance to reclaim what had been forgotten.
It was still several weeks until the semester ended for the summer but already emotions and energy were running high. Over the next month she would have to add more and more physical activity to her lessons so everyone had a chance to burn off the excess and would be better able to focus. She had a few games she liked to use that combined things like answering simple math equations on the whiteboard with taking laps around the classroom. There was also a language game that taught counting in French, Spanish and German, and with each number, students moved over that many chairs. Of course the last week of school, nothing helped, but by then, she was looking forward to the long break as well. While she loved what she did and adored her students, having the downtime was always good. Summer break meant when August rolled around, she was ready to be back in the classroom.
“Bye, Ryleigh,” one of her fellow teachers called. “See you tomorrow.”
She glanced toward the open classroom door and waved back. “Bye. Have a good night.”
She continued to tidy her room, pushing desks into neat rows and adjusting the chairs. The sense of order, which would last all of five minutes in the morning, settled her, although it did nothing for her vague feeling of dread. The one that had been born on her trip away with Dustin and had only grown since.
She was genuinely at a loss as to what to do and what to feel. Speaking with Dustin made the most sense and it had the added advantage of being, you know, mature. But he’d been gone at his conference so there hadn’t been any way to start an “Are you ever going to want to marry me” conversation in person.
She unlocked her bottom desk drawer and pulled out herbackpack and her purse. She’d just started loading the former when Shawna Cipriani walked in.
“Hi,” the first-year teacher said with a smile. “How are you? How was your day? My kids were wild for sure. It was like someone had loaded them up on sugar or maybe a double espresso.”
