“I smell smoke,” Katherine announced.
“Smoke?” Jack scanned the room for an ignition site.
“One of those kids is smoking.” She started across the room.
Jack trailed after her, relieved when Miss Kitty Reilly didn’t follow. Katherine waded into the middle of a large group and plucked a cigarette out of the lips of a kid near the wall. He froze, and his friends backed away.
“It’s against school rules. It’s against the law. And it makes you stinky, sickly and wrinkled.” Katherine used the lit cigarette like a pointer, shaking ashes on the floor between them. “I advise you to quit now before you get kicked out of the dance, and we call your parents.”
The boy who had been smoking paled. “I’m sorry. I just—”
“No. Don’t let me see it again.” Katherine turned and had to stop short before she ran into Jack. She stepped around him holding the cigarette out like a dead rodent.
Jack followed her to a table where she dropped the cigarette in an abandoned drink and threw both in the trash. They ended up on the opposite side of the cafeteria from Kitty Reilly. Very clever, he thought. It looked unintentional.
“I thought the place was on fire,” he said. At least it was quieter here. He might be able to talk to her.
“No.” Katherine leaned against the wall. “Kids think they can be cool and get away with smoking on school property. I strive to embarrass them as much as possible.”
Jack leaned his shoulder against the wall and looked down at her. She seemed to have regained her composure, so it might be a good time to shake her up again. “So, they’ve heard all about me.”
Katherine stood up, not stiff, but no longer relaxed. Her eyes swept the room. “Kitty is a little strange. She was very interested after you brought my lunch to school. She’s asked a lot of questions.”
“So what did you tell her?” Jack reached over and brushed a lock of her hair back. His fingers caressed her neck. She didn’t move. How would she react if he leaned over and kissed her neck? He wondered if the DJ had any slow songs to play. He hadn’t played any yet, and at the moment nothing would make him happier than to take Katherine for a whirl on the dance floor.
“I told her you were my tenant and you worked for the city fire department.” Katherine kept looking around the room. Jack could see her searching for a good reason to set off after another student.
“Is that all?”
“I told her you have a dog, too.” She zeroed in on a dark corner.
“Is that because you like Archer more than me?”
Katherine met his eyes, startled. “Jack! I—Melina!” She hurried around Jack.
Jack turned to follow her in time to see her wrap her hand around a girl’s upper arm and yank her backward. It took him a minute to realize the girl’s shirt hadn’t started out half unbuttoned. The boy she’d jerked the girl away from wore baggy jeans slouched to his hips and a sleeveless undershirt despite the chilly spring air, and he looked angry. She had focused on the girl, obviously not seeing the threat on her left. Jack crossed the floor before the boy leaped at Katherine. He straight-armed the boy, stopping his momentum.
“What!” Katherine looked up at Jack and then at the boy, startled. She collected herself. “Melina, I don’t care what school your boyfriend is from, but he isn’t welcome here.”
“He didn’t mean it, Ms. Pelham. We’ll behave. I promise,” Melina wailed, fumbling to button her shirt. “I love him so much.”
“If he loved you, he wouldn’t be groping you in public and humiliating you.”
“Or attacking a teacher,” Jack added. He’d released the boy, but stood tensed to grab him again if necessary. Now he knew why Gary Ringer came to these things in his dress uniform.
“What’s going on here?” Coach thundered, appearing out of nowhere and alarming several nearby groups of students.
“Melina’s guest was just leaving.” Katherine glared at the boy.
The coach blew his whistle, which actually could be heard over the music, and two large boys appeared. Jack guessed they were football players. Possibly tackles, judging by their shoulders. “We’ll escort him to the phone where he can call his ride.”
“Melina, what are you thinking? Your mother wants you to go to college.” Katherine put her hands on the girl’s shoulders, guiding her away from the trouble.
“You don’t know what it’s like,” Melina groused, not looking back as her beau was led out of the school cafeteria.
Katherine snorted. “No, I was never a teenager.”
“But Ms. Pelham it’s different now. It’s not like it was when you were in school.”
“Some things never change, and it’s always easier to slide down than it is to work up. Trust me, I waited tables for years before I met my fiancé, and he encouraged me to go to college.”
She led the girl toward a lighted table by the punch table, and Jack had to stay close behind to hear them. “If you hang out with losers, you’re going to end up losing. Why did you quit the debate team?”
“I hate it. It’s stupid.”
“That’s not how we work. ‘It’s stupid’ is not a reason, it’s an excuse. What are your reasons? With supporting arguments.” Katherine sat down at a table with Melina beside her.
Jack sat across the table from them and watched her work. He couldn’t catch all of the conversation, but he could see Katherine guiding her student to a reasoned conclusion. Keeping a steady calm and good humor throughout, she stayed a jump or two ahead of Melina’s reasons without letting her know it. From Leia’s stories, he decided Katherine would have made a good lawyer. But she wasn’t using her skill with words to confuse or beat down her student. She was teaching. Jack could almost see the girl stretching to meet her. Learning not just why she should work hard in school, but also how to reason. Melina, he realized, wanted to impress Katherine.
The exchange left Katherine animated, her eyes shining with passion. Jack couldn’t remember ever seeing a teacher enjoy her work like this. Her bright eyes followed Melina’s, and her quick fingers gestured, picking up points for further consideration and moving back through the logic path to clarify. Jack wished he could watch her teach. He found himself wondering again how the boys in her classes resisted her. What male in his right mind would not be attracted to that enthusiasm, that joy? How could he get her to look at him that way?
After what seemed like a long time, Katherine pointed toward the cafeteria doors. Melina stood up and a middle-aged woman crossed toward them smiling. The three of them stood for a few minutes talking, but Jack couldn’t hear a word of it. He wouldn’t have been able to follow the conversation anyway, he was too busy admiring Katherine.
She looked so beautiful and confident. Her hair had started to come loose and dark locks trailed down her cheeks and neck. Laughing, she waved as Melina and her mother walked away. Then she turned to look at him.
“Are you okay?” She laced her fingers together.
He stood up. “Sure, why?”
“You looked a little dazed. The music getting to you?”
“No.” He took a deep breath and tried to act calm. He looked around the room and realized the dance was winding down. The crowd had thinned out. “What was that all about?”
“Melina is one of my honors students, but she’s been headed downhill fast for a couple of months. Her mother told me she's been hanging around with a bad crowd. Her mother was a teen mom, and she doesn’t want that for her daughter.” Katherine smiled and Jack’s heart squeezed. “I hoped I’d get to talk to her tonight. I didn’t think I’d have to humiliate her to do it. Don’t you sometimes wish you had someone older and wiser around to tell you when you were running with the wrong crowd?”
“Gary talked you into becoming a teacher,” Jack stated. He hadn’t been able to figure out what Katherine saw in her late fiancé, but he thought he might have found it.
“Oh, that.” Katherine looked at the floor. “Gary was studying for the police ac
ademy when I met him. He would sit in my section for hours studying. He told me I was wasting myself waiting tables and encouraged me to go to college. We had planned to get married after I settled into my job, but his family kept getting in the way.” She shrugged. “It was a long time ago.”
A slow pulsing ballad came on.
“You owe me a dance, don’t you?” Jack asked, hoping she wasn’t too upset thinking about Gary and the people who apparently didn’t want to be her in-laws. They were idiots.
“I don’t remember that being in the bargain, pal.”
Reaching for her hand, he said, “You can’t drag me to a dance, and then not dance with me.” He pulled her to the floor and slipped his arm around her waist.
With her hand in the middle of his chest she pushed him back an inch. “Remember where we are.”
“I remember.” Repositioning his hand to her hip where it belonged he looked down at her. She was still on duty, scanning the dance floor for infractions and mayhem. In his arms, she seemed so small. Most of the time he’d spent with her had been sitting on the floor at his coffee table or playing with the dog in the backyard, and neither activity gave him a good reference point for her size. Now with her in his arms, he remembered her head came exactly to the hollow of his shoulder, and he barely had to bend his arm to rest his hand in the curve of her waist. If he pulled her against him, he be able to feel her molded against him, but knew he’d never get away with that, not here in the school cafeteria with her students and coworkers looking on. Would he feel uncomfortable kissing her at the station? It was a different situation to be sure. Here she had students who had to see her as a teacher, not a woman.
Still, what would it be like to pull her into his arms in the middle of the apparatus bay and kiss her like he wanted to with the guys roaming around and no doubt stopping to stare and critique? Of course, he had yet to kiss her like he wanted to anyway. That Sunday after Easter had been too much of a surprise for him to enjoy touching her. And later, she’d been so determined they remain friends that she’d kept plenty of space between them at all times. But her determination seemed to be slipping. He hoped he could hold out long enough to not rush her.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
She almost startled him into admitting the truth. “Nothing. Why?”
“You’ve got a very odd expression on your face. I get the feeling you’re cooking up something new to harass me with.” Her lips curved into a devilish smile.
He wanted to lean down and kiss her, but thought that would be a great way to get evicted. Right now, the lure of her lips almost made it worth the risk. Almost, but not quite. “No. Just thinking about not stepping on your feet.” Instead he dipped her and felt her grab him.
“Liar,” she said when he set her back on her feet.
“Can’t blame me.”
She pushed her jacket sleeve down using Jack’s shoulder. “It’s almost time to go. After this song, we can make a break for it. Can we stop in my room and get my grade book? I forgot it this afternoon. Do you mind?”
“No.” The song was ending and Jack wondered what had happened to long slow ballads. It didn’t feel as if they had been dancing for more than two minutes. He’d been hoping for at least fifteen.
Stepping backward, she slipped out of his grasp. “Shall we say our adieus, grab my grade book, and hie off for west Arden?”
“Ready when you are,” he lied and followed her around the cafeteria. Most of the kids had left. The McConikees were picking up trash. Mrs. McConikee said goodnight, taking another opportunity to mention Gary. Jack hoped Katherine didn’t hear. Who in their right mind would keep reminding a woman of her dead fiancé? Before going back to the teacher’s lounge for her coat and purse she spoke with the vice principal and then the football coach. Then she led him through halls he didn’t recognize.
“This should only take a minute.” Katherine hurried up the hall ahead of him. Her shoes made a loud, authoritative tapping in the empty halls. “Did I hear Darlene McConikee say something about Gary?”
“I didn’t think you noticed,” he mumbled. The silence in the halls was deafening after the music in the cafeteria. Her hips swayed as she lengthened her stride. He tried to focus elsewhere, but the bake sale and pep rally signs didn’t hold the same appeal.
“That woman must live in a time warp. Kitty said she’s been using the same lesson plans for fifteen years. She doesn’t even change the dates.” Katherine started up a narrow flight of stairs two at a time. She seemed to be in flight from him.
He picked up his pace to catch up. “Is that unusual?”
“Well, everybody uses old plans to a certain extent, but not the exact same ones. Things change from year to year.” She glanced over her shoulder as she exited the doorway at the top of the stairs into a dark hallway. “Assemblies, snow days, broken copiers. It’s almost impossible to predict what’s going to happen two months in advance, let alone all year.” Swerving toward a door she pulled it open. It took him a moment to realize this was the same hall where he brought her lunch, but they’d approached it from the opposite direction. “This will only take a minute.”
The lights in her classroom flickered and buzzed when she switched them on. Jack paused in the doorway to let his eyes adjust.
Going directly to her desk, she opened a drawer. With one hand she sifted through it, while pulling out her hair clip with the other. Jack watched her hair uncoil over her shoulders. So strong and confident on steady ground. He wanted to be her steady ground and he didn’t want to wait for her to make up her mind, he wanted to convince her.
Jack didn’t remember moving forward, only realizing he had when she turned as he put his hand on her shoulder. He traced his thumb along her jaw delighting in the silky feel of her skin. Her pulse raced under his fingers.
“Remember where we are,” she whispered.
“I remember.” He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. When he slipped his arm around her back, her body curved against him, warm and welcoming. Her eyes opened, deep and dark in the glare of the classroom fluorescents. She drew a quick shallow breath between her parted lips, her heartbeat matching his.
“I thought we were friends.”
“We are friends. We’re very good friends.” Jack curved his hand around the back of her neck, tangling his fingers in her long loose hair.
“Who do you think you are? Harrison Ford?”
He leaned down and kissed her again. Her warm mouth tasted like the punch she’d drunk at the dance. A deep rumble, almost a purr, started in her chest as he teased her lips open to drink more deeply. Caressing the deep curve of her back, he pulled her soft form tight against him. Every part of her molded to him the way he’d dreamed. Her light perfume surrounded them, reaching into his mind and clouding his thoughts. As he stroked his fingers through her silken hair, she shivered. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders tugging him closer, and lifting herself up to her toes. The heels of her shoes clacked against the tile as they slid off. Jack lifted his mouth from hers and kissed the corners of her lips. She had to understand now. They fit together. There was no need to fight this any longer. Didn’t she know she was the perfect answer to all his questions?
“Jack,” she whispered. She blinked, disoriented. Turning her head, she drew a deep breath and jumped backward out of his arms.
She slipped out of one shoe and landed badly on the other, twisting her foot. Jack grabbed her elbow as she seized on the chalk tray to balance herself. “Randy! What are you doing there?”
Jack turned to see Randy standing in the doorway with a push broom in one hand and a befuddled look on his handsome face.
“I saw the light,” Randy muttered. “I thought somebody forgot to turn it out.”
Katherine brushed her hair off her face, smearing her cheek with yellow chalk dust. The chalk dust looked garish against her embarrassed pink cheeks. “Well, your timing is impeccable. I’ll take care of the light when I leave.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She turned to her desk, searching with her foot for the missing shoe, not meeting his eyes.
“Katherine,” Jack said, reaching out to wipe the chalk dust from her cheek. He needed to touch her. To connect with her. He felt ripped in half.
She moved her head away. “Not here. Not now.” Her long fingers clutched a slim green spiral bound book. “Are you ready?”
Nodding, he followed her out, switching off the lights as he passed. All the way to the truck she was silent and stiff. Only a few other cars still sat in the lot, and a police cruiser parked by the sidewalk. Katherine glared at it as they passed, but said nothing. Jack wanted to apologize, but he was afraid to speak. She had every right to be furious. He’d taken advantage of a weak moment and kissed her at her workplace where he should have known well enough to keep his hands to himself.
And those same hands still burned with the feel of her.
When he opened the truck door, he didn’t put out his hand to help her in for fear of being brushed away. Walking around to the driver’s door, he dreaded the lecture he knew he deserved. But she didn’t say anything until they were out on the road.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I should never have asked you to escort me to this dance. I should have known it would be too…” She paused and licked her lips. “Too emotionally charged.”
“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have kissed you at school,” he said. Why she was apologizing? He instigated. All she did was respond to his ill-advised action.
“It was so stupid.” With a soft sigh, she leaned her head back against the window. “I can’t believe I did something that stupid. It’s going to be all over school on Monday.”
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