Guilt squeezes my chest tight. Calls come through every day at the station, but you never expect one to be your own family. By the time we reached the scene, she was already gone.
I lift Sienna into my arms and press a kiss to her cheek, breathing in the faint scent of strawberry shampoo. “If she’s mean, she’ll have me to answer to, okay, bug?”
Her smile is small, but it’s there. “Okay, Daddy.” She wraps her arms around my neck, and I cling to her for a few extra seconds before we reach the classroom door.
We stop in front of it, peering through the narrow glass panel, the corridor and classroom quiet before the bell rings.
“There she is,” I murmur. “Miss Sparks. Doesn’t look so scary, does she?”
Sienna tilts her head, studying the woman at the front of the room. “Daddy, she looks like Ariel.”
My gaze follows hers. She’s right—the teacher’s got a tumble of red hair that catches the morning light like fire. Curvy, confident posture, a dress that hugs her in all the right places.
“Yeah,” I say, the corner of my mouth tugging up. “She does.” Not your average Disney princess, though. There’s a spark in her eyes that says she’s more fire than fishtail.
And I know those eyes—the same bright green eyes I saw peering up at me when I was holding her in my arms the day she’d somehow managed to fall off her bungalowroof while trying to rescue her kitten. It was one of my first calls when I arrived here a few weeks ago. The lads at the firehouse had a good laugh about sending the new bloke on a cat rescue mission. I’d thought she was adorable in an exasperating way then. And for the first time since the move, I felt something stir in my chest that wasn’t grief.
I clear my throat, pushing the thought aside as she hobbles to the door, a crutch under her arm, a cast on her foot. “Hi,” she says, smiling up at me, and my stomach does a flip again like it did that night.
“Miss Sparks?” I nod to the nameplate on her door.
She beams at Sienna. “You must be Sienna.”
“We’re a little early,” I explain. “But I wanted to meet you instead of just dropping her off in the playground.”
“Daddy wanted to check you weren’t an old wrinkly witch like Mrs. Leadbeater,” Sienna announces.
“Thanks a lot, bug,” I mutter, kissing her cheek before setting her down.
Miss Sparks chuckles, showing Sienna to a desk. “I’ll sit you next to Savannah. I think you’ll be good friends.”
I notice her trying not to put too much weight on her injured foot. “How’s the ankle?” I ask.
“I get the cast off in a few weeks,” she says with a wince.
“What happened?” Sienna asks.
She groans, rolling her eyes. “It was my cat. She climbed onto the roof.”
“Sounds like that kitten of yours is a liability,” I tease. “Next time, call someone.”
“You offering?”
“I can be available for rescuing pretty women and kittens.”
Her mouth parts as she sucks in a breath.
Sienna’s eyes light up. “You have a kitten?”
“Yes, I help the rescue centre when they’re full.”
“Daddy, can we have a kitten?”
“We’ll see, glowbug. Let’s get you settled first.”
Miss Sparks’ smile warms something in my chest I didn’t realise had gone cold. For a second, I let myself imagine what it might be like to see that smile every day.
Her brow furrows as she studies me. “Do I know you? You look familiar.”
