“I’m here for Hallie, of course.” He said it with all the sincerity he could muster, but Sarah knew him too well. Nobody attended elementary school concerts unless they had to. Half the parents would hire body doubles to sit and listen if they could get away with it.
“He dropped me off so I didn’t have to find parking,” Heston said before turning to Luke. “So, is this about the music director?”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Here for Hallie, huh? And don’t even think about it, Luke. Miss Harris is not your type.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I work here.”
“Right.” He’d forgotten that Sarah worked in the front office of an elementary school. Apparently,thiselementary school.
“She had to call off her wedding earlier this year, and she’d already let go of her apartment so she’s living with family until she figures out what to do. And now that I’ve said all that you can just forget it. There are some really catty teachers here that talk too much, and, unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to turn my brain off when they get started. My point is, the last thing she needs is you.”
“Me? What’s wrong with me?” Luke laughed it off, but his mind was racing. Miss Harris. Sandy’s niece was named Tara, which meant that was Tara Harris, a Tara Harris who had to call off her wedding. It couldn’t be the same Tara Harris who almost married his best friend. That Tara had curly brown hair, the cork screw, want-to-reach-out-and-tug-on-a-strand type. Of course, girls changed their hair all the time.
Heston moved them forward. “Let’s argue about this on the way to pick up Hallie. We have to go to the orchestra room to get her.”
Luke followed the tide of people until he squeezed into the orchestra room with them. Hallie charged right at her parents, giving them a hug and then fist bumping Luke like he’d taught her. “Did you hear me sing, Luke?”
“Yes. It was amazing. Was it fun being up on stage?”
She nodded enthusiastically, making the Santa hat on her head bob along with her pigtail braids. “Come say hi to my teacher.”
She tugged him across the room to where several teachers were chatting. Sarah and Heston followed behind, having a whispered argument that may have been about their neighbor crashing their daughter’s concert in an attempt to hit on her music teacher.
Tara Harris was nowhere in sight, which was probably for the best. If it really was her, there wasn’t anyone more off-limits to him, and not just because Sarah thought she wasn’t his type.
Hallie introduced him to her kindergarten teacher, who took Hallie’s announcement that he was her Uncle Luke at face value. Luke smiled and played along.
“Oh, come meet Miss Harris.” Hallie dragged him over to where Tara was coming through the door. “This is my Uncle Luke. He came to my concert, Miss Harris.”
He locked eyes with Tara and his heart simultaneously dropped and swooped. There was no denying it now. Up close, he recognized her from the wedding invitation photo. Thanks to his busy schedule, she didn’t know him. And that was a very good thing. Because if she knew who he was and what he’d done, she wouldn’t want anything to do with him.
She reached out a friendly hand and he shook it, his chest giving a slight squeeze at the charge of attraction he was terrified to admit was mutual. The way she was looking at him said she felt something too.
“Thanks for coming tonight.” Her curious smile brought out one from him, even though warning bells were going off in his head. It was time to go. He should have peeled out of the parking lot after dropping off Heston and never looked back.
From behind him, a voice he was coming to dread crowed with joy. “He found you!”
