Sophia suddenly stilled under Jessica’s eyes. Then she turned around and looked up at me with a serious expression. It was so cute on her face, still chubby with baby fat. I bit the inside of my cheek to hold back a smile.
“Thanks, Dad,” she said solemnly.
I did smile because she was acting way too serious about the whole thing.
“It’s fine, baby. Don’t you need to head to class now?” I prompted.
I wanted her to go so I could have some time to talk to Jessica. I didn’t have to check my watch to know it was almost time for school to begin, and I would have to leave then. Sophia seemed to realize what I wanted, and she narrowed her eyes at me for a moment. But then she abruptly gave Jessica another hug, then wrapped her arms tightly around my legs, before turning away and running into the school.
We both watched her go; then I held my hand out to help Jessica up from her crouch. She watched my hand for a moment, wary, and I breathed a sigh of relief when she didn’t just rebuff me. Her soft hand slid into mine and I pulled her up. She didn’t immediately pull her hand out of mine, and I counted that as a victory.
“Good morning, Ross,” she said politely.
“How’ve you been, Jessica?” I asked, trying to be informal but really wanting to have her in my arms.
She pursed her lips. “Fine,” she answered curtly. Then she paused and hesitated, before sighing. “My Aunt Hayley was in town over the weekend; she helped my mom over at the diner.”
There were a few diners in town, but the biggest, not to mention the most famous, was owned by Jessica’s fifty-five-year-old mom, Rita. Our moms had known each other forever, even with my mom being five years older. Much like them, Jessica and I had been born and raised together.
“Hayley was in town, huh. I kinda wish I’d passed by the diner, now.”
She gave me a curious look. “Sophia was there with your mom. I was going to ask them why you didn’t come along, but then our moms got talking, and I couldn’t get a word in the whole time. So, I just ordered and ate. I didn’t understand why they even bothered to ask me to come along. It was clear that they didn’t want my company.”
I shrugged, then grinned. “I had my mom take care of her because I was working on your car all weekend.”
Her eyes widened, her jaw dropping. “Y-you don’t need to spend so much time and work on it.” She started to frown as if I’d said something wrong. Maybe she felt guilty about me missing out because I was working on her car.
“But you brought it to me so I could fix it!”
“Yes, because it’s a cheap car. If I could have afforded it, I would have gotten something that didn’t break down every other day. If you keep working on it, I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to afford it.”
I smiled a little, because it was fun to see her flustered. I took a step closer, and my hand rose on its own to touch my fingertips to her cheek. That made her freeze, and her eyes turned up to me. She didn’t move away from me, though. After a moment, I pulled my hand away and shoved it in my pocket. I had to tread carefully.
Jessica had left town and only recently gotten back. We had some history, the kind that made her want to avoid me when she got back. Sophia, and being my daughter’s teacher, was the only reason she couldn’t—though the thought of her becoming a quiet school teacher never occurred to me back in high school, it suits her so well.
If I was ever going to get her to go on a date with me—my obvious flirting wasn’t getting to her—I wanted her to be at ease around me.
It had taken too long to get this far for me to ruin it now because I couldn’t control myself.
“I already told you not to worry about the price; you’ll be able to afford it. You already gave me your budget, remember? I won’t go above it. And you did bring your car to me because my prices are more reasonable.”
She was still for a moment, then she pouted. I wasn’t sure she knew she was doing it, but it reminded me so much of Sophia at that moment that I had to bite my cheek to hold back a smile.
“Well, yes, but hasn’t it been too long? I’m sure you have other work to be doing…”
I shrugged. “Well, I do get a few drive-bys come to the garage, but they’re usually for small jobs. You told me I could take my time, so don’t worry, I’m not going to go broke because it’s taking so long.” Then I grinned. “You could always come by the garage later, and you can see. You could bring Sophia with you.”
She narrowed her eyes at that, even as her lips twitched slightly up at the corners. She opened her mouth to say something, only to pause for a moment. We were interrupted by the sound of the school bell, and we both looked toward the building, where the remaining children outside rushed indoors.
“Maybe some other time,” she said instead of whatever she’d had in mind.
I watched her turn and walk away, wishing we’d had enough time so I knew what she would have said. Before she walked through the entrance, she turned around and waved at me. She wasn’t so far that I didn’t notice the smile. I smiled back as I waved, then she was gone.
I turned away from the school and walked back to the parking lot so I could head to work, the smile still on my face, thinking that she was getting sexier the older she got. That was for sure. I knew that this was stage one and she’d be mine by the end of it. It was just a matter of time. I could wait because I knew that, this time, she was in town for good and I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. No matter how many times she tried to keep me at bay.
Jessica
I breathed a sigh of relief as the bell to end the school day finally rang. Not to say that I didn’t adore my students, but it was hard, sometimes, keeping up with them. Today, for some reason, they all decided to start acting up.
Since morning, I’d had to break up petty fights, comfort a few crying kids, and scold others, which led to some more crying and comforting. It was exhausting, today, especially, after working with my mom and my aunt at the family-owned diner over the weekend. But the kids were my responsibility, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“All right, class,” I called to everyone. “Pack up all your things, and don’t forget to do your homework, please!”
There were groans around the room at the reminder, but it just made me smile. None of my kids ever missed handing in their homework.
I watched them scramble to pack their things, while still talking to their friends, some of them saying goodbye for the day. I loved being their class teacher, even though the position should have rightfully gone to someone else; after all, it had only been a few months since I’d been awarded the job.
A light knock on the door had me looking up, and I smiled. I glanced at the students, then moved to the door where Mary, a fellow teacher and an old friend back in high school before I left town, was waiting.
“Hey, there,” she said with a smile, glancing inside the class. “I came to see how you’re faring.”
I rolled my eyes at the obvious lie. “I’ve been on my own with this class for a while now, Mary, I’m sure I can handle things on my own. Besides, don’t you have your class to look after?”
She sighed and cocked her hip, folding her arms over her chest. “Well, yeah, but I was assigned to an older class since you came back. It’s full of little adults that don’t invite being chaperoned.”
“Oh,” I murmured. Sometimes, I forget she used to be in charge of the class, although I’d switched when her old students moved up a grade. “But wouldn’t you have missed your students if they moved on without you?”
“Well, yeah, but this is school. It happens, and children are supposed to grow.”
I hummed and looked back into the room, at one little girl, in particular. Ross’s daughter. I had been surprised when I came back to find him with a daughter. Save for her eyes, she looked a lot like her father, and it reminded me of the two of us growing up.
“That’s true, I guess,” I murmured. Then I turned back to Mary with an eyebrow arched. “Now, why
don’t you tell me why you’re here?”
She widened her eyes in an innocent look. When I frowned at her, the look dropped as she smirked at me. I rolled my eyes, figuring out what she wanted from that alone.
“I came to ask what you talked to Ross about this morning,” she admitted.
I sighed in exasperation and gave her a tired look. “You know, if you’d like to know so bad, then show up at the gate in the morning. You can talk to him yourself. I thought you were done with asking me the same thing over and over.”
“I’m usually busy supervising the kids inside while you’re outside waiting for your kids. I’m in an older class now, remember? I have no reason to be out at the gate early in the morning. And, anyway, before you came back, Ross didn’t stick around for long after dropping off his daughter.”
I gave her an unimpressed look. “You’re just giving me excuses now, aren’t you?”
She shook her head, her expression growing more serious. “No. Some of the other female teachers are jealous of you, you know? At least, the ones in our age group are.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with me, though,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.
Mary shook her head again, this time looking amused. “You think that, but no one else sees it that way. Ross is a popular bachelor in the area, you know? Having a wonderful kid like Sophia only makes him more attractive to the single women around here.”
“So, no different from high school, huh?” I muttered. “Just with a kid in the picture.”
Mary giggled. Fucking giggled, and I wanted to roll my eyes again.
“Don’t forget, he’s a hot mechanic, too. Summers around here get pretty hot, and sometimes when the weather is too much, he’ll work outside without his shirt. You should see the kind of crowds he pulls!”
I pursed my lips, even as I had to admit, at least to myself, that it would probably be a nice view. But I shook my head and pushed the picture out of my mind. I wasn’t supposed to be imagining Ross like that. I wasn’t supposed to like him at all. The only reason I was civil should be his daughter and nothing more, no matter how charming he can be.
“You don’t need to explain everything to me, Mary, I can understand. I come from the city; you see a lot of attractive people there. But I’m not into Ross like that.”
Her expression was blank one moment, and the next she looked like she was holding back a laugh. I felt my face warm up in a blush at the look she was giving me, like she’d somehow guessed what I was imagining before.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” she said, waving her hand at me. “You can tell me the truth, Jessica. You think he’s hot, too, don’t you?”
“All right,” I said quickly, flailing my hands as I glanced into the classroom. I didn’t think any of the children heard that, but they would be coming out of the room at any moment. I grabbed Mary by the shoulders and moved her a bit away from the door and lowered my voice. “He’s hot, Mary, I will admit that. But that doesn’t mean I want to date him.”
“And yet, you seem to be the only woman he’s paid so much attention to in a while.” She rolled her eyes. “Even around town. You should see how blatantly women flirt with him. There aren’t exactly a lot of choices, so a few women have their eyes set on him. And yet, he’s still single.”
I shrugged. “Maybe he’s doing it for his daughter’s sake?” I offered. “That could be it.”
Mary’s expression went serious again. “Maybe,” she allowed. “You should have been there, Jess. He’s a better dad than anyone would have thought, and he’s done a lot of it all by himself.”
I could just imagine the kind of shock that would have been, though I couldn’t imagine being around back then, considering Ross was a big part of the reason I’d skipped town as soon as I could.
“But, seriously,” Mary said, “I know he flirts with you, Jessica, whether you admit it or not. He obviously likes you. Why don’t you give him a chance?”
I frowned at her. “You, of all people, should know why I keep blowing him off, Mary.”
The look she aimed at me then was sympathetic, but it only made me frown more and look away from her. I didn’t need her sympathy. I saw my students already walking out of the room, and I got a little distracted.
It wasn’t necessarily part of the job, to wait for them at the gate and to walk them out at the end of classes. But I loved kids. It’s the reason why I’d gotten into teaching elementary classes. I wasn’t required to supervise them, but I did it anyway, because I wanted all of them to have good experiences at school. After all, school had been hell for me growing up, particularly high school. I hated the thought of these kids going through any of the things I had.
Considering Ross was a part of what made school so unbearable for me, I shouldn’t want to interact with him at all. I should stay as far away from him as possible, especially because he was a player. There wasn’t a woman in town that he’d hadn’t been with. I may have been quiet when we were in the diner this weekend, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t listening to the conversations that were taking place.
But, even as I thought it, I knew better. I didn’t want to change my habits, waiting at the gate for my students to arrive in the morning, or to get picked up in the afternoon, so I got to spend more time than I wanted to around him. It only amounted to about fifteen minutes a day, but Ross had used it to wear me down. I didn’t like admitting it, but it was working.
I heard Mary sigh, and I turned back to her. “Don’t you think you're too hard on him?”
I sniffed and jutted my chin out in defiance as I crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said coldly.
“Of course you do, Jessica. We’ve been friends too long for you to pull one over me like that.”
I glanced at the kids, then leaned closer to Mary. “No. Just fucking no.”
When I swore, she glanced around her in panic, and we leaned even closer to each other, voices lowering to a whisper.
“Come on, Jessica—”
“No, Mary. It hurt, all right, what he did to me. Yeah, he’s been nice and helpful since I came back. He’s fixing my car for me, and, no matter what he says, I know he’s making it fucking cheap for my sake. But that doesn’t mean I’ll just forgive what he did before.”
She was giving me that sympathetic look again. “It’s been years, Jess. Almost a whole decade. Can't you get over it?”
Yeah, right. I scowled at her. The time had passed, but that didn’t make it easier to forget what had happened. When I got back, the moment I saw him, I was taken back to that time. I’d been tempted to smack him, and would probably have done it, if his daughter wasn’t with him at the time.
I didn’t even want to come back. I only did it because I had to, to help out my mom, who was left alone after my dad died several months ago. There was some lingering guilt for not visiting as often as I should have before he passed, and I blamed that on Ross, as well.
I opened my mouth to voice my complaint, when another voice stopped me.
“Jessica?”
We both stilled, and I turned around to see Sophia standing just behind us. I got a little paranoid, wondering if she’d heard us talking about her father. But she was just standing there with her head tilted to the side in innocent curiosity.
“Can I help you with something, Sophia?”
She hesitated before she spoke. “I wanted to ask you to walk me to the gate?”
I couldn’t help but smile at the question. Just because I didn’t like her father, didn’t mean I wasn’t going to be nice to his daughter. She held her hand out for me and I took it in mine. I glanced back at Mary, who just smiled at the two of us.
“It’s fine; we can talk later. I need to go check out my classroom, make sure my students didn’t destroy it. Goodbye, Sophia.”
The little girl waved shyly at Mary as she left. I looked down at Sophia.
“Do you mind if I check the classroom first, be
fore we go?”
She shook her head. “It’s fine, Jessica. Everyone’s left already, though.”
She bounced happily at my side as we walked back to the classroom door, and I glanced inside. I felt relieved when I saw the room was put to rights, and all the students were gone. Usually, I came back to finish cleaning up after my students left, but I’d started having them put things away before they left the classroom, and I was happy to see they were making it into a habit.
“All right, then.” I looked down at Sophia with a wide smile. “Why don’t we head out now?”
I would head back for a final once-over before I locked up, but I’d let myself get caught up in my little chat with Mary.
The two of us headed out of the school. There were students running all over the yard, and I sighed. There were other teachers shouting at them to slow down, though, so I didn’t bother.
At the gate, parents and guardians were coming to pick up the kids. Some of the older ones that lived nearby were left to go on their own, as long as they went in groups. It was a relatively safe small town, but the school was cautious. I got to see some of my students get picked up, and I waved to them as they left.
I didn’t see him drive up, but then he was suddenly strutting across the road from the parking lot. Because of my conversation with Mary, and my imaginings from earlier, I couldn’t stop my eyes from staring down his body.
He’d filled out since high school. He had been good looking before, but with his dark hair and dark eyes, and his skin lightly tanned, his appeal had only grown over the years. I could get why a lot of women had an interest in him.
But I couldn’t allow myself to fall for his charm this time. Even as he smiled and waved at me.
“Hey, Dad!” Sophia shouted from beside me, though, instead of running towards her father, she kept her hand in mine and bounced in place. “You’re late.”
The smile he aimed at her was softer, and I could feel myself melt inside at the look, because his one redeeming quality was how good he was with his daughter.
Second Chance Draft: A Second Chance Sports Romance (Pass To Win Book 6) Page 39