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Aaron stifled a sigh. He’d assumed most of his students—they were third graders, after all—wouldn’t have caught the picture. He hadn’t thought about it being on TV, though. It was a bigger mess than he’d realized. Did Caleb know it was on TV? Maybe they shouldn’t have unplugged yesterday. While Caleb had Grant to run interference for him, Aaron had no one.

“These are not questions for you to ask.” Aaron used his authoritative teacher’s voice. “Remember how we’ve talked about things that are personal, and it’s important to be polite and not ask questions about those things?”

Many of the students nodded.

“This is one of those things. It was wrong of the person who took the picture to invade our privacy—do you know what privacy is?”

Charlie’s hand went up, and Aaron nodded. “My sister says I invade hers when I’m in her room if she hasn’t invited me.”

“That’s a perfect example, Charlie.”

“But you were in the park where everyone could see.”

“Yes, we were. It still doesn’t mean it’s okay that someone snapped and posted the picture without our permission. It’s not against the law, but it’s still not polite.”

Maggie raised her hand again.

“Yes.”

“But you haven’t said if you were going to move.”

“I’m not going to move. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He laughed a little, and the class snickered along with him. “You know Mr. Carter and I have been friends for a long time. He has to go back to New York and his team this week. He has to do his job, and I have to do mine here with you.” Aaron hoped that would put an end to the matter, at least for the time being. “Now, let’s talk about your weekend. Maggie, do you actually have something?”

She came up to the front of the room and talked about going with her mother to a plant store—which Aaron told the class was called a nursery—and then she helped do some early planting. She thought it would’ve been gross to dig in the dirt, but she kind of enjoyed it.

Four others talked about their weekend, and Aaron felt pretty good that any questions about him and Caleb were safely on the back burner.

Though if his kids had all these questions, he could only imagine what the rest of the world was thinking.

Chapter Nineteen

AARON was glad he had a couple of parent meetings that afternoon since it meant almost everyone was gone before Caleb would stop by the school to drive them to the rink. Why wasn’t he just driving his own car? It had seemed cute at the time to be chauffeured, but did he really want to show up at practice with Caleb, all eyes on the two of them?

Caleb smiled when Aaron got in the car, and Aaron couldn’t hold back a smile. Caleb had a knack for melting any resistance he had.

“How was your day?”

Aaron leaned back against the seat and sighed. “Exhausting.” He closed his eyes and was startled when Caleb took his hand.

“I’m sorry. I imagine I was a large part of that.”

“We were a large part of that. We were both in that photo, kissing where anyone could see. It’s the first thing the kids hit me with this morning. Actually, it started with Pam in the parking lot.”

“Yeah, I called her this morning. I think I got a good taste of what she’s like as a principal. Told me I had a lot of nerve not answering my phone.”

“Exactly. It’s been nuts with questions that just keep coming from everyone. How do you deal with it?”

Caleb shrugged guilty before he chuckled. “I leave Grant to sort it out. He says most of the response is positive, including the reaction to my statement that we’d like to be left alone so we can figure out what our future might be.”

He said might. Was he having second thoughts? Or just saying that to keep the public at bay? Or maybe he didn’t want to pressure Aaron.

“I’m not sorry we did it,” Caleb continued. “Or for the incredible day we spent together.”

“Me either.” It was true; Aaron wasn’t in the least bit sorry. “But what happens now?”

Caleb pulled out of the parking lot. “I got confirmation this morning that I’m headed back to New York. I’m expected at the doctor’s on Wednesday morning, so I’ll drive down tomorrow evening.”

Aaron’s heart ached, but he managed a nod and to sound composed. “I know the team will be happy to have you back, especially with playoffs starting Friday.”