Summer with a Star (Second Chances Book 1)

by Farmer, Merry

  This was not Hollywood. It was so much better.

  “Mr. Ellis, can I get you something to drink? Maybe some apple juice?” Casey asked him as he poured over a table of found-object sculptures. He hadn’t known what found-object sculptures were until Tasha explained it to him.

  He grinned at Casey, tickled by the fact that the older children were genuinely responsible for running the show while their teachers hung back and watched. That, and no one had ever offered him a drink in the form of apple juice before.

  “I’d love some,” he said.

  “Do you want some, Miss Pike?”

  A warm rush passed through Spence as Tasha walked up to him.

  “Sure, Casey. Sounds great,” she said.

  Casey rushed off to the refreshment table. Spence slid closer to Tasha. The smile she wore as she glanced over paper mosaics and clay mermaids was the purest thing he’d ever seen. She beamed. No, she glowed. This tiny, cramped room that clearly needed better funding was more than a different world, it was Tasha’s world.

  He leaned toward her. “How am I supposed to judge?” he asked. How could he pick one thing out as better than the rest when everything around him made him ridiculously happy?

  “You have to be careful,” Tasha confided. She stepped close enough for Spence to smell the salt of her skin. “The trick is to find the pieces that look as though the most effort was put into them.”

  “Is this one of those things where we should give all of them a prize so no one feels left out?” he asked.

  Tasha shook her head. “I’ve never seen much value in rewarding everyone the same way. There are winners and not-winners in life, and it’s just as important for children to learn how to lose graciously as it is to win.”

  “You sound like you’ve put a lot of thought into this.” And that she knew far more about the reasons behind it all than he did.

  “I’ve been a teacher for six years,” she said as they moved together to the next table. Duke shadowed them as he continued to study the paintings a few feet away. “I’ve seen enough in the classroom to know what works in the real world. Only a few people can win, but once we hand out the prizes and the kids come to collect their work, that’s when our job really starts. That’s when it’s important to try to talk to as many kids face-to-face to praise their effort and give them a boost of confidence, especially the ones who didn’t win.”

  “There’s a whole science behind this, isn’t there?” he asked. The science of nurturing fledgling egos. Tasha was clearly a master.

  “It’s all about giving children what they really need, and that’s not some cheap plastic trophy or a shiny ribbon. They need attention and encouragement.”

  “Here’s your apple juice.” Casey rushed back to them, a paper cup in each hand.

  “Thanks so much.” Spence took both cups from her and handed one to Tasha. “You’ve done a fantastic job of organizing this event, Casey, you and Holly.”

  “And Kyle and Jaden,” she added with a modest blush.

  “I’m impressed with everything,” he finished.

  Tasha’s theory proved to be spot-on when Casey dissolved into proud giggles. Spence glanced to Tasha, who wore a knowing smile. Not just knowing, confident.

  It clicked in Spence’s mind that while he and Tasha had had fun in the previous weeks, this was the first time he’d really seen her look confident. Everything about the smile she wore, the angle of her shoulders, the light in her eyes, was beautiful. It blew his mind. Each time he thought he loved her, something happened to hit him right in the chest and make him realized he loved her even more.

  “Are you ready for us to deliberate and give out the prizes?” Tasha asked Casey.

  “Let me just go ask the others,” Casey said, and was off like a shot for the group of older children in the corner by the refreshment table.

  “So tell me how we should score this,” Spence turned to whisper to Tasha once more. “You’re the expert here. This is your world.”

  Her smile slipped for a moment. Her brow flickered up. For a moment, her eyes lost their focus. Spence held his breath. He knew her well enough now to know when her thoughts invaded her enjoyment of life. The last thing he wanted was to see her stumble back into whatever had been eating her when they were working on the puzzle. He flexed his hands at his sides, arms tensing as if he could reach out and physically stop her from falling.

  She blinked and looked around the room. Her smile came back, and Spence let out a breath, dizzy with relief. Those pesky thoughts were still zipping through her brilliant, sharp mind, he was sure, but she was managing whatever they were. Managing it like a pro.

  “I have a few ideas,” she said at last.

  Their deliberations didn’t take long. Spence hardly listened to a word Tasha said about the merits of each piece of art. He was too busy drinking in the certainty of her words as she explained her reasons for her decisions. He was distracted by how gorgeous she looked in a t-shirt and shorts, and even more distracted by how she would look out of them once they got back to the house. He had the sudden urge to have her on top all night.

  “Children, Spence, children.” Tasha’s sudden, mock scolding tone yanked him out of his carnal thoughts.

  “What? Huh?”

  She crossed her arms, shaking her head with a grin that brought a delicious pink flush to her cheeks. “We’re around children? I can see where your mind went as clearly as if it was painted in one of these pictures.”

  “That would be the work of a precocious child,” he teased.

  “Let’s let them be children first before they get to the good stuff of being an adult.” She winked.

  He nodded, duly chastised. “So who are our winners?”

  “Those who did the work,” she answered. Her words wrapped tightly around his heart, but it was the deep smile that filled her eyes that pierced it.

  Giving out prizes to a bunch of eager kids was far more satisfying than Spence imagined accepting a prestigious award would be. He announced half of the winners and Tasha announced half, and even though he’d spent a chunk of his life in front of the camera, Tasha clearly spent her life in front of kids. She knew how to praise them without inflating their heads, how to console the ones who were disappointed without condescending to them, and best of all, she knew how to handle the parents with patience and respect. She was a star. She was the star.

  “You’re amazing, you know,” he told her as they walked home down Beach Avenue, the sun lowering toward the horizon. Duke followed, several yards behind.

  “Me?” She balked at his comment.

  “Yes,” he laughed. “Those kids really responded to you. Far more than they responded to me.”

  She shrugged. “That’s just because I’ve had training. I’m a boring teacher, remember?”

  “No way. There is nothing boring about what I saw back there. I know love when I see it.” He knew love when he felt it too. Deep and pulsing in his gut. Yes, lower too, but the love that made him sway closer to her and take her hand as they made the turn onto Sand Dollar Point’s driveway was more than sex. He admired Tasha. He looked up to her.

  He needed to do something about it.

  “I do love teaching,” she said after a long silence. She chewed her lip, glancing out over the tops of the rose bushes to the watery horizon. Her brow was furrowed enough to tell him that her thoughts had taken over once again, but they weren’t torturing her this time.

  “Good,” he said. “We should stick with what we love.” Or who.

  “Yeah.” She let out a breath.

  It took Spence a second to realize that the front door was open as they climbed the porch stairs. Mitch sat playing with his phone on a chair to the side. He looked up and nodded to them and to Duke behind them, so nothing could be seriously wrong. But Spence still had the feeling that—

  “Spence. There you are.”

  Yvonne’s honeyed voice greeted them the second they stepped through the front door. She sailed d
own the hall toward them from the living room, heels clicking on the hardwood, her phone in one hand and a stack of mail in the other.

  “Yvonne.” Tasha muttered the name like a curse.

  Spence darted an anxious glance to Tasha before summoning up a smile for Yvonne. “You’re back,” he said. “So soon.”

  “Well there was no point to me staying in New York, sweetheart,” she said with an off-hand gesture. “Simon is off finding himself now, and the producers of Second Chances were breathing down my neck. I figured a few more days of R&R up here would do me good.”

  Tasha crossed her arms during the speech. “Is that so?”

  “Yes.” Yvonne ignored Tasha’s hostility with a smile. “Oh, by the way, I picked up your mail as I came in.”

  “Mail?” He hadn’t even been aware there was a mailbox.

  “Just a few things for the Cavanaros. Oh, and this was sitting in the box for you, Miss Pike.” She handed Tasha an ordinary envelope.

  “Thanks,” Tasha replied with a suspicious arch of her brow.

  She turned the envelope over. Spence caught something about a Portland school district on the return address. Tasha frowned and walked past Yvonne into the living room, opening the envelope with her finger.

  “Why are you really here?” Spence lowered his voice to ask Yvonne once they were alone in the hall.

  “I told you. The producers of Second Chances want an answer, and they want it yesterday,” she said. “I’m here to light a fire under your ass and to fan the flames until you commit.”

  “What a charming metaphor.” He headed into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “You want anything?” he offered Yvonne.

  “I want you to tell me you’ll sign on to the show,” she said. “This heel-dragging, soul-searching was cute for a couple of weeks, but you know how this business works. The longer you’re out of the public eye, the harder it is to get back into it.”

  She was right. He wasn’t sure that would be such a bad thing, though. That afternoon had proved as much. Making the decision about Second Chances seemed less important than figuring out the best way to keep Tasha in his life.

  “I’ll tell you what,” he said, filling a glass with water from the sink. “I’ll give you an answer about Second Chances if you leave without offending Tasha.”

  “What, right now?” Yvonne started.

  Guilt pricked at him. She’d just gotten there. “Okay, maybe not immediately, but don’t make yourself too much at home.”

  Yvonne’s smile returned in full force. “You give me an answer, and I’ll leave the planet to you and your teacher as soon as you do.”

  “Deal,” he said, sealing it with a stern look.

  Tasha walked into the kitchen a moment later, reading the letter she’d been sent.

  “What did you get?” he asked, fighting the pinch of uncertainty in his chest.

  “It’s my class list.” Tasha studied the page for a few more seconds, then met his eyes. “For next year. The kids I’ll be teaching. I told them I wasn’t going to be online much this summer, so they had better mail it to me here when it was out.”

  “How nice,” Yvonne said. “And when does school start again?”

  “August 28th,” Tasha replied, “but I have to be back for pre-school set-up by the 21st.

  August 21st. That was just over two weeks away.

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was time to make some serious decisions. If the art show hadn’t shown Tasha that, the class list would have. She stood at the dining room table, searching for the right pieces to finish the puzzle. In more ways than one.

  “I think she’s serious when she says she’ll leave as soon as I make a decision about Second Chances,” Spence said. He’d been trying to convince her that Yvonne would leave soon since they came home and found her the day before.

  “So make a decision, then,” she said

  Make a decision. Was she a boring teacher or wasn’t she?

  Spence huffed what might have been a laugh. “It’s not quite as simple as all that.”

  He reached for a segment of six pieces that had already been fit together, turned it sideways, and attached it to a gap in the main puzzle. The lighthouse was actually beginning to look like a lighthouse now.

  Tasha glanced up at him. They stood on opposite sides of the table today, something she had orchestrated. At least he’d stopped trying to inch around to her side. Inching led to touching, and touching led to her brain being too scattered to sort out the tangle she was in.

  “What about the decision isn’t simple?” she asked, him and herself. “It’s a TV pilot. Don’t those things film, like, a year before anyone decides whether to actually air the series?”

  “In theory.” Spence rubbed his chin. He hadn’t shaved. Scruff looked good on him, but after almost six weeks, she knew it for a sign that something was bothering him. “The producers are confident in the script. They’ve got serious talent behind it in terms of directing and cast. The network has given them about as big a green light as a pilot can get.”

  “There you go.” She shrugged and focused on the puzzle. There was one piece, one annoying little spot of ocean that she just couldn’t find, for some reason. It would make an entire section of the bigger picture make sense. “Yvonne keeps saying that this would be an excellent career move for you, so why not jump at it?”

  He let out a breath. “I’m not jumping at it because I don’t want to commit myself to something that might….”

  He stopped. Tasha looked up. He was staring at her with that heady mix of affection and tension. Oh boy.

  “That might?” she prompted in spite of the knot growing in her stomach.

  He let his shoulders drop and held his arms to the sides. “I don’t want to commit to something that might interfere with another commitment I want to make. There. I said it.”

  Heat flooded Tasha’s face, swirling in her gut. She wasn’t dumb. He was talking about her. He wanted to make a commitment to her, though God only knew why.

  “What’s to say that those two things will conflict?” She wasn’t dumb, but she sure would play dumb if it bought her time to sort out her own crap.

  She went back to searching the table for puzzle pieces. She could feel him watching her.

  “I don’t want to commit to something only to have it drag me off to New York, or worse, L.A. Not when I’m happy here.” She couldn’t tell from his tone if he knew she was deliberately avoiding the issue or not, and she wasn’t about to look into his eyes to gauge what he was thinking.

  “Fair enough,” she said, finding a piece—not the one she wanted—and fitting it into place. “Theoretically speaking, if the producers decide to film the show in a location that you like, would you take the role?”

  “I suppose so,” he said, then added, “Yeah. Yeah, I would.”

  “Then you should take the role,” she concluded. “From everything you’ve told me, it sounds like the right part for you.”

  And what was the right part for her?

  The answer swooped in faster than she expected it to. Getting her class list yesterday had been a bittersweet drop of excitement in the middle of what had been shaping up to be a great day, until Yvonne showed up. She was always excited to get the list, to see which names were the younger siblings of students she’d already had, which were new to her, and which were known to be children that needed extra attention. Her fellow teachers thought she was crazy for loving to see the names of those problem children on her roster. Those were the kids who needed her the most.

  They needed her. She needed them. She was a teacher. That’s just the way things were.

  And why not? She burst into a smile as she found the piece that had been driving her crazy at last. With a satisfying snick, she fit it into the puzzle, completing that section of ocean.

  “You found it,” Spence congratulated her. “It’s all starting to come together.”

  “Yeah.” She tilted her head and grinned at the puzzl
e. Then she glanced up to Spence. “Do you think I’m boring?”

  Spence blinked, his smile slipping for half a second before coming back in full force. “Absolutely not.” He chuckled as he came around the table to slide his arms around her waist. His hands grabbed her backside, and he kissed her.

  Damn, that felt good. And totally wrong.

  When he let her take a breath, she said, “Brad thought I was boring because I loved spending time with kids, and because I would rather stay home and write a new lesson plan than go out bar hopping in Portland.” She’d never spit out the truth of it like that before. Oddly enough, it felt good.

  Spence kissed her lightly. “Brad is a douche. He didn’t deserve you.”

  “No, he didn’t.”

  Wow. She’d never spit that out either. Here she’d been walking around, bummed out because she wasn’t good enough. Ugh. How long had she fallen for that crap line of thought? How many women fell for that every day?

  She leaned back and looked up at him. “So you don’t think teachers are boring.”

  “Teachers are amazing,” he said. “They are the best, bravest people on the planet. They are the real celebrities.”

  An endorsement like that, coming from a shining star, was something to chew on.

  Spence bent to kiss her, but as much as she wanted to stay where she was, all warm and wriggly inside, she edged her way out of his arms and back to the table. He gave her a wicked grin that told her he thought that they were playing.

  Only, they weren’t playing.

  Tasha had never felt so light and so heavy at the same time. There it was. She was a teacher. She was good at it, she loved it. Spence may have played his roles, but this was the role that was right for her. Teacher.

  Not movie star girlfriend.

  She scooted her way to the far end of the table, focusing on another section of the puzzle. Spence moved with her, brushing her arm as he came to stand close. Her body ran hot, but her mind was stuck cold. Sand Dollar Point had been her dream since forever. Spence had been her dream for weeks now. Beautiful, sexy, wild dreams. So what was reality? Her heart was telling her one thing, but her head was high on the piece of self-discovery she’d just fit into place. In two weeks, she would be back in a classroom. She would be happy. What then? Where did Spence fit into the whole thing? He sent her heart pounding and her insides quivering, but so had Brad, once upon a time. Was she ready to go there again?