Snow Days (The Hope Falls Series)

by Shawn, Melanie

  Still, rather than try to cover, Amy decided honesty was the best policy. She shook her head regretfully. “I'm sorry,” she apologized. “I don't know where my mind is right now. Do you think we could reschedule our individual conference for next week? I think I'm just having an off day today.”

  “Sure,” said Tiff, sounding anything but. “Are you feeling okay, Ms. Maguire?”

  Amy smiled. Tiff had not believed fully in the solid state of Amy's good health since she had come across her little choking episode on Student Service Day. Little did Tiff know, all Amy had been trying to do was drink some water. “I'm fine, Tiff. Don't worry. Thanks for your concern though. Like I said, I think it's just an off day. Probably just a bad night of sleep. Do you think you could rejoin your group and then we could talk about your project next week?”

  “Of course,” Tiff agreed. “I'll sign up for one of the open times. Do you want me to call the next conference, Ms. Maguire? Or are you done for today?”

  Amy chuckled. “Probably best to be done for today. Thanks, Tiff.”

  Tiff nodded and headed back to her seat. Amy sat behind her desk and rubbed her temples. Wow. This was seriously not the kind of teacher she was. Drifty, distracted, wrapped up in personal situations... She had always tried to be the exact opposite of that.

  Still, she thought to herself with a small smile as an image of Matt popped unbidden into her mind, everyone had an off day once in a while. One off day in six years did not a trend make. As long as she did not let this turn into a habit, she probably had nothing to worry about.

  The question was...did she think she could keep it from turning into a habit? Did she have that kind of control over own mind? Before today, that wouldn't even have been a question. After today? She didn't think she was sure of anything at all—and certainly not whether she could control her thought process when it came to Matt.

  She glanced at the clock and shivered. The bell was about to ring. Next period was prep period. That was when she would see Matt. She felt giddy at the thought, a little lightheaded, and tingles flooded through her entire body from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers and all the way down to her toes.

  It occurred to her with a jolt that if the bell was about to ring, it actually meant more than the fact that she was about to see Matt—it also meant that she needed to talk to the class and dismiss them.

  She stood and addressed the students.

  “Okay, everybody,” she said authoritatively. “The bell's about to ring. You have your group assignments—keep working on those. And don't forget to study for the test next Friday.”

  To her surprise, she saw delighted expressions on the faces of the students in class. She even saw a couple of them wearing broad grins and giving each other high-fives. That was exceedingly odd. Even though these were honors students, she had never seen that kind of celebratory reception to a reminder about an upcoming exam before.

  As she cast her thoughts back over what she had just said, she realized to her dismay that she had given them three extra days to study for their test. She had been thinking of the wrong class and had misspoken. It was third period that had a test on Friday. This was fourth period. Their test was supposed to be on Tuesday.

  Dang it, Maguire, she scolded herself. Get your head in the game.

  Of course, the bell had not rung yet, and she could have quickly corrected her mistake if she had wanted to. She considered doing that for about two seconds. However, her distracted behavior with Tiff and Tiff's respondent concern was about all she could take for one day of letting her students know how out of it she actually was.

  She could just imagine their dismayed protests if she switched the test back to Tuesday at this point, after they thought they had just been thrown a lifeline.

  Nope. Not gonna happen. Best to just play this off.

  She smiled at the class, injecting every bit of benevolent attitude she possibly could into her facial expression. “Yes, that's right,” she said, as if this had been her plan all along—to surprise them with an extension. “I decided to take pity on you and move your test to Friday. You can thank me later. Better yet, thank me by using that extra time well and going over the material even more thoroughly than you otherwise might have. After all, there will truly be no excuses for poor performance now.”

  The students were looking up at her with earnest expressions, nodding their agreement to her terms. The bell rang and they sprang from their seats and scrambled toward the door, wanting to get out as quickly as possible lest their stroke of good fortune be snatched away from them.

  Good lord, she thought as she watched their quickly retreating backs. What had she been thinking? She hadn't been—that was the truth. Still. No real harm done. In fact, she had a group of students leaving her classroom much happier than they had been when they’d come in. Even though it was going to be a little tight to catch up with her original schedule after having lost these three days, a room full of happy kids couldn't be all bad. Right?

  Amy shook her head. It was just as well, she thought ruefully, if the tests for all of her classes were scheduled on the same day. In this state of mind, it seemed that exam administration was about the most strenuous level of teaching she was really up for.

  --- ~ ---

  Matt sat at his desk, grading papers. It was taking much longer than it should because his mind kept drifting back to Amy and his impromptu interview. When he’d seen her earlier today at their prep period, she had been so eager to set up another time to work on ‘phase two.’ He hadn’t wanted to rush her, but it seemed like she was the one trying to drive this project into the fast lane.

  She was so totally adorable and completely sexy all at the same time, and she had absolutely no idea that she was either.

  For the life of him, Matt could not believe that Amy was still single and had never even been in a serious relationship. How had some guy not swooped her up and made an honest woman out of her—or as the kids said, put a ring on it? She was definitely the kind of girl, if you were lucky enough to be loved by her, you married.

  That was the knowledge that haunted him. Her brothers’ warnings hadn’t scared or intimidated him, but they were right. She was a good girl. Not a girl you fooled around with.

  Not only was he concerned that she might get hurt in all of this, but he knew part of his concern had to do with the fact that he didn’t want to feel the things he was feeling for Amy. He worked with Amy, and Hope Falls was a small town. Once this ‘project’ was over, they would continue to run into each other. He would probably have a front-row view when she did find a guy who saw everything Matt did and was actually able to act on it.

  As that thought took root, Matt’s chest tightened and he touched his ring. As much as he wanted Amy, as much as he cared about Amy, as amazing as Amy was, he just wasn’t able to do anything about it. Not really.

  His phone rang loudly from his pocket. He pulled it out and saw Shelby’s face sticking out her tongue at him. His sister had changed the photo that displayed when she called him. She thought she was real funny.

  Matt felt a smile tugging on his lips as he answered the call. “Hey, squirt.”

  “Did you forget my phone number?” his sister asked. “No wait, that’s not possible because it’s programmed into your phone.”

  Let the guilt trip begin.

  “I’ve been meaning to call. Really. How have you been?” Matt asked sincerely. He knew that he should call both of his sisters and his nephew more. He’d meant to—he just hadn’t.

  “I’m okay. I’m not seeing Lance anymore,” she stated with really no emotion to speak of.

  Matt couldn’t tell if she was upset about that or not. He’d only met Lance once, and he hadn’t thought for a minute that Lance would have kept his sister’s attention. She had what everyone who knew and loved her referred to as relationship ADD. She would be totally focused and giving all her attention to one guy, then another one would come by and she’d lose total interest.
She fell in love just as easily as she fell out of it. At least what her version of love was. Matt thought it seemed a lot more like falling in and out of lust, but that was just his opinion.

  “How long were you guys together?” Matt thought that this had been one of her longer relationships but he wasn’t sure.

  “Six months.”

  Yep, that must be some kind of record for her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, figuring, instead of trying to read his sister’s emotions over the phone, he would just ask.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I had high hopes at the beginning, but I found myself not answering his calls and finding excuses not to hang out with him, so I figured time to cut my losses,” Shelby explained pragmatically.

  Matt gave his standard suggestion he always offered when one of her fling-slash-relationships would fizzle out and come to an end. “Well, maybe it would be good for you to just be alone for a while.”

  “Actually, I already met someone,” his sister said excitedly.

  Of course she had.

  “Yeah, I met him online. We haven’t met face to face yet, but he seems so great.”

  What the hell?! What was going on with meeting people online? Was it some kind of an epidemic?

  Well, Eric had asked him if he would like it if one of his sisters were online dating and Matt had answered with a definitive but abstract no. He had no idea that situation would actually come to fruition. Every fiber in his being wished he could tell his sister that she could not meet guys that way. He wanted to forbid her from doing it.

  His voice was strained as he asked a somewhat rhetorical question. “Shelby, do you know how dangerous that can be?”

  “I’m not going to meet him by myself. I’m bringing a few of my friends to the bar with me,” she snapped back as if he were a total idiot for not being a mind-reader and already knowing that little piece of info.

  “All right. Just be careful,” Matt sighed, knowing he had absolutely zero say so over his sister’s life.

  “I will,” she sing-songed. “What about you? Uncle Henry says that you’ve been spending time with a pretty teacher named Amy.”

  Great. How did his uncle know he and Amy were spending time together?

  “He did?” Matt asked, basically just trying to buy time to figure out how much he wanted to tell his little sister. Normally he didn’t lie to anyone, especially his family. But the situation with Amy was a totally different ball game. He wasn’t sure what play to make.

  “Yep. He said that you guys have a prep period together and you eat lunch together. That you had some big community service day there and you two were inseparable.”

  “Amy agreed to share her room with me for prep because both of us have prep fifth period. And we were assigned to work together at Student Service Day.”

  “What about lunch?” Shelby asked flatly.

  “We’re coworkers. Coworkers eat lunch together sometimes.” Matt hoped his sister would let this go, but he seriously doubted that would happen.

  “So you don’t like her?” Shelby’s tone was laced with suspicion.

  “Yes, I like her.” Matt really just wanted Shelby to take his admission at face value.

  “I looked her up on Facebook,” she said, sounding proud of herself.

  “You did?”

  “Yes, I did. She’s really pretty.”

  There was no use in Matt trying to deny it or downplay it. Amy was incredibly beautiful. “Yes, she is.”

  “Well, I like her. I think you should go for it,” Shelby declared enthusiastically.

  “You don’t even know her,” Matt said in shock. Usually it took Shelby a very long time to warm up to anyone he was seeing. It had taken her over a year to like and accept Jess. And she’d only ever liked one of his girlfriends in college.

  “I know, but I looked at all her posts and she seems really nice, genuine, smart, and kind of funny even.”

  Shelby was right, but Matt had no idea how his sister had gleaned that much information from a social media site. “I think that’s called cyber-stalking?”

  “Her profile is public. I am the public.”

  He didn’t feel like arguing with her so he asked, “How do you know she is funny?”

  Shelby laughed. “She has this album titled Scooby’s Great Adventures where her huge Great Dane is walking around the town like he owns the place and her captions are hilarious. Oh, and sometimes there is a little Chihuahua with him too. Scruffy or something.”

  “Scrappy,” Matt corrected her. “That’s her sister Nikki’s dog, Scrappy Doo.”

  “Ohhh, I get it! Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo. That’s so cute. I love it!” Shelby exclaimed.

  Matt smiled. “Yeah. And her parents have two Corgis named Laverne and Shirley.”

  Shelby chuckled. “That’s awesome. So you two seem close.”

  He knew his sister was fishing for info. Sadly she was not going to be catching anything today.

  “Yep, we’re friends. Look, Shelbs. I gotta get back to work.” Matt wasn’t lying. He did actually have to get back to work. But he also really didn’t feel like having his sister grill him anymore about Amy.

  “Promise you’ll call me soon?” Shelby asked.

  “Yes. If you’ll promise to be careful with Mr. I-Met-Him-Online-And-He-Seems-So-Great.”

  “Deal,” she said happily. “Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Hearing that his sister was planning to meet a guy she’d met on the internet really hit home how badly he didn’t want Amy doing the same thing. Matt might not be everything she deserved, but at least he knew he wasn’t some psycho, crazy weirdo.

  Yeah, if Amy was set on completing her project—and from the looks of things, she was—then Matt was definitely the man for the job.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Matt rang Amy's doorbell, idly wondering if it was going to startle her enough to spill something on herself this time. He certainly wouldn't mind a repeat performance when it came to seeing her change her blouse. Amy in nothing but a bra and see-through top was a true sight to behold. He grinned. He only imagined that Amy without a bra and see-through top would be nothing short of spectacular.

  Amy opened the door, much more smoothly this time, clearly making a huge effort to be much more poised than she had been the last time, but Matt did notice that her hands were shaking a bit.

  She smiled at him, every inch the perfect hostess. Wearing a scoop-neck white shirt and blue jeans, she stepped back, sweeping her hand behind her. “Would you like to come in?” she said in a warm and even tone that made his heart skip.

  Tonight, Amy had decided to forgo the fire in the fireplace and had instead outfitted her entire front room with candles. Music was playing on low. Clearly, she had put a lot of thought into the setting, wanting to make it perfect. Or, as was more in her character, wanting to control all the details and make them conform to her data.

  When they were seated on the couch, Amy launched right into what was clearly a very well-rehearsed spiel. “I realize that, last time we tried to enter phase two, I let emotions overcome the situation. Anxiety, to be specific. I know now that this tainted the experiment to the point that we were not able to go forward. Tonight, I am prepared to move forward without any emotions, including anxiety, clouding my judgment—or more importantly, tainting the data. I have every confidence that tonight will be successful.”

  Matt waited a moment. Every time he was around Amy, she surprised him. Her innocence was wrapped up in this intellectual, logical, pragmatic package. But she was crazy if she thought that things could get physical between them without any emotions. One in particular he knew he was shooting for was passion. And the fact that she thought they hadn’t begun working on phase two was evidence of her innocence.

  Finally, smiling, he asked, “Are you finished?”

  She nodded and licked her lips nervously.

  He leaned in closer, staring intently in her eyes, and brushed a lock of curly brown
hair from her forehead. “There is just one part of that I take issue with,” he whispered.

  “What?” she whispered back in a voice as ragged as his had been.

  “You saying that we didn't start phase two. Just because we didn't end up getting physical doesn't mean that we didn't get started.”

  “But all we did was talk,” she protested weakly. “You interviewed me.”

  “It was foreplay,” he pointed out, drawing closer to her.

  She shook her head, although she was clearly having trouble keeping track of her thoughts well enough to express them coherently. “No. I mean...I've researched this...the phases of intercourse, what leads to the most satisfying encounters. Foreplay is very specifically all of the kissing, touching, and caressing that leads up to intercourse. We didn't do any of that.”

  He smiled, scooting yet again a little closer to her. “Is that all you think foreplay is? Because that's a very limited definition.”

  Her breathing was coming in ragged draws now, which was turning him on more than he could have imagined it would. Everything she did sent his body into overdrive, heated his blood.

  “What do you think it is?” she asked, and he was pleased to note that her skin was becoming flushed. Damn, he loved when she blushed.

  “It can be anything,” he explained as her large blue eyes stared into his. “Foreplay is anything that turns you on. Arouses you. Anything that connects two people more intimately. Anything that builds the sexual tension between them. I think our conversation last night qualifies. Don't you?”

  She nodded in agreement as she leaned closer to him, her breathing still coming in short pants.

  He continued. “So that's one thing. Conversation can be a serious turn-on. Then, of course, foreplay does encompass all of the things you were talking about as well. Like kissing...”

  As he said the last word, he dipped his head and began to plant featherlight kisses across her collarbone. Her skin was so soft beneath his lips. She sucked in a breath as her head fell back.

  “And licking...” he added, tracing hot, wet circles up her neck, tasting her sweet skin. “Not to mention touching...” he continued, moving his hand to her knee and trailing his fingers up her leg.