“What?” Georgia asked.
“I think you need to go see the eye doctor. I think that you can’t see the words in the books well enough to read them. It’s not your brain at all. It’s your eyes.”
“Wait,” Zane said. “How? She went for her check when she was four, and they said she was fine.”
Ms. Fairburn—Sky—said, “Vision often deteriorates slowly enough that a child isn’t even aware that she used to see better than she does now. She literally doesn’t know what she’s missing. When you get some specs, Georgia, the world is going to look so different. You’ll be like a kitten whose eyes have just opened yourself. And I’m guessing you’ll be reading soon, too. Even if it takes a good wee while, though, I’m not worried. I know you’ll get there. Does that help?”
“Yes,” Georgia said.
“Say ‘Thank you,’” Zane said.
“Thank you,” Georgia repeated dutifully.
“You’re very welcome,” the teacher said. “Now, how about playing in the bricks corner for a minute while I talk to your dad?”
“OK,” Georgia said. “But can I watch the rats instead, please?”
“You certainly may. They’ll be happy to see you. I’m sure they remember how well you cared for them. Rats are very clever, you know. They can recognize human facesandrat faces. More clever than we are, maybe, becauseIcertainly can’t recognize rat faces.” Georgia giggled, and Sky smiled. “There’s another fact for you to remember, and once you can read, you can learn all about them for yourself.”
Zane said, once Georgia had skipped off to the corner of the room, “That’s brilliant, Ms., uh, Fairburn. I had no idea.”
“I’ve been doing this a while now. And please call me Skylar. Also, I owe you an apology.” For the first time, she didn’t look in command. A pink tinge was creeping up from her chest and neck and into her cheeks, and she was so fair, he could watch theblush happen. “I should have told you the other night,” she said, clutching a pen in two hands, “that I was Georgia’s teacher. I knew because of the rats. Your name on the email about the rats, that is. I recognized it. And I knew that your kids went to school here. I taught Scarlett, too, though I didn’t meet you then.”
“You don’t look old enough for that,” he said. “Or sound it.”
“Ha. You don’t live in this head. Sometimes I feel fifty.” She smiled briefly, as if she wanted to take that back, then sobered. “But the main thing I have to apologize for is that I spoke about your wife’s death too casually. I didn’t know anything about your personal life—I don’t follow rugby closely, it’s just that my older son enjoys it—and I just sort of—blurted something out. Trying to be funny, probably, about the wrong subject. I wasn’t at my most … my most skilled that night. I haven’t done much dating. Well, I haven’t doneanydating recently, not the new-to-you kind. I may also be a cyborg. With adults, that is. But I do apologize.”
“Take a breath,” he said, “and let that pen go before you kill it. All’s forgiven.”
She didn’t take a breath. She blewouta breath. And let the pen go. “Sorry,” she said, brushing the curls back and trying to laugh. “I don’t often get thingsquiteso wrong. Was that speed dating thing awful, or what?”
“Awful,” he agreed. “Leastyoursister didn’t write a column about it.”
“What?” Confusion in the green eyes.
“I was bait. Material. You haven’t seen it? In theHerald.Last week.”
“I don’t have much free time to read. Pity, in this case. You realize that now Ihaveto read it.” The lips curved up more at the thought.
“It was pretty funny,” he admitted. “She has a way with words. And possibly a good subject for it.”
“I’m guessing your teammates had a laugh, too,” she said.
“You could say that.” He shifted. He was stalling. Why? He was a confident man. “I’m trying to find a casual way here to ask if you’d like to … dunno. Go for a drink? Start over, possibly. With more than eight minutes to find out whether we can stand each other. If we can, we can always make it dinner. Sound OK?”
She hesitated. He said, “Oh. You have a partner? The speed-dating thing was …” Had she been checking out the alternatives, maybe? She seemed much too straightforward for that. If she’d done that, she’d have gone home and confessed immediately. While blushing.
“Who, me?” She laughed. “Not even close. Is that the only reason you can think of that I wouldn’t want to go out with you, though? That’s some opinion you have of yourself.” It could have sounded hostile, but as she was still laughing when she said it, probably not.
He grinned and rubbed a hand over his cheek. “Uh … not sure how to get out of this one.”
“You do realize that it’s grounds for dismissal for a teacher to date her pupil’s parent. ‘Serious misconduct,’ that would be.”
“No. Really? Why?”
“Professional boundaries. So that’s out. Though to be honest, I’d probably have said no anyway.”
“Huh.” He thought about that a minute. “Why?”
