by Annie Rains
He pulled open the front door of the school and came face-to-face with Kat as she walked beside Ben’s wheelchair. They were smiling and something inside him ached seeing them together. Ben needed a strong woman figure in his life, who accepted him for who he was—a boy, not a problem.
Her smile dissolved as she looked at him and her gaze traveled down his body. He remembered that he was still in his uniform, which was against regulations, but there’d been no time to change.
“You’re a Marine?” she asked, taking a small step backward, her face growing pale and accentuating those large green eyes of hers.
That’s when it hit him. She hadn’t known he was a Marine. Had she thought he just took care of people’s lawns for a living? That was the plan eventually, yeah, but not yet.
“Hi, Dad.” Ben wheeled forward, oblivious to the disapproval radiating from his principal.
“Hey there, buddy.” Micah forced a smile, keeping his eyes locked on Kat. “I guess I’ve never formally introduced myself. I’m Sergeant Micah Daniel Peterson.”
Her eyes glistened in the dark hallway. Most people were impressed by his title. Not her. She looked like she’d seen a ghost as she took another step backward.
“Dad?”
Micah reluctantly looked down at his son. “Yeah, buddy?”
“Why are you still in uniform?” Ben asked. “Isn’t that against the rules?”
Scratching his chin, Micah wished he wasn’t. “I was in a hurry to get to see you, buddy.” His gaze shifted back to Kat.
“I, um, have to go,” she said quietly.
It was an excuse. She didn’t have anywhere to go. He’d mowed the lawn here enough to know that she stayed late and was always the last person to leave. He also now knew that she had no fiancé to go home to, either.
“Kat?” He started to go after her, but she didn’t turn back.
“ ’Bye, Ben. See you tomorrow,” she called over her shoulder, her voice as shaky as the long legs walking away from him.
Turning back to his son, he hooked his head. “Come on, Ben. Time to get home.” He’d talk to Kat about her reaction later, when he didn’t have his son as an audience.
Just before they reached the double doors of the school, he turned to look at Kat once more, but she’d already slipped back into her office, hiding from him and the uniform he wore with honor. But he had no idea why.
—
Kat watched the father and son leave through the front doors of the school. Oh, boy. What had she gotten herself into? She couldn’t go anywhere with him. A Marine?
Plopping into the chair behind her desk, she cradled her head in her hands. Why’d he have to be a Marine? He was just supposed to be the sexy guy who kept the school’s campus looking pristine. Only, how in the hell had she not known he was a Marine? His hair was a buzz cut and the friend he’d been out with the other night was obviously in the Corps. She’d seen the SEMPER FI tattoo on his arm.
She hunched over her knees, feeling like she was going to be sick. How had she let herself have feelings for this man without even knowing this aspect of his life? Well, the feelings would subside, and she’d just back out of the “function” he’d mentioned on the phone earlier. Maybe one of the teachers who worked here wanted to be his date. There was a laundry list of single females at the school who’d probably claw at the chance.
A sliver of jealousy ran through Kat with the thought. Then she jerked her head upright, gasping at the sound of a loud crash on the other side of the school. There it was again, coming from just beyond the west wing. She recognized the noise. The Seaside vandals.
The heels of her shoes clicked loudly as she walked down the long, shadowed hallway. If the kids could hear her, they’d better run because she was in no mood to be understanding tonight.
The click, click, sheeesh of the spray can grew louder as she neared the school’s side entrance. She was going to march down there and collect those kids by their scruffs. Then she was going to call their parents and tell them what a bunch of spoiled, misbehaving brats they’d raised. At least that’s what she wanted to do.
Pushing through the double doors, she was temporarily blinded by the light of the sinking sun. As she crossed the door’s threshold, her heel caught on the doorframe, flinging her body forward onto the rough pavement. Omph! The wind was knocked out of her in one quick whoosh.
She didn’t move for a long second. The kids were gone, she was sure of that. She could hear their laughter trailing through the woods in front of her. She was also sure that she was going to feel like someone had beaten her with an umbrella tomorrow morning when she woke up.
“Kat?” a deep voice asked.
She lifted her head to see Micah standing there, watching her. She groaned.
“Are you all right?” He moved quickly toward her and crouched down to inspect her leg, which had bright red blood from a large gash spilling onto the sidewalk.
She shook her head. “Did you see them?”
“Who?”
“The kids. The Seaside vandals?”
Micah glanced around. “No one. Just you.”
“I heard noises. I know they were here. I heard—” She followed his gaze and cursed under her breath at the large dark letters still wet and dripping down the side of the school.
CHANDLER SUCKS.
Nice.
“Here. Let me.” Micah offered her a hand and helped pull her up, waiting to let go until she was steady on her feet, his gaze still heavy on the gash.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked numbly.
“Ben said he left his sketchbook at the picnic table.” He held up a wired notebook. When he did, a folded piece of paper slipped out. He bent to pick it up, his lips pressing into a hard line as he opened the paper and looked at the drawing inside. “Not one of Ben’s.” He handed it over.
Kat studied the poorly drawn stick person sitting inside a wheelchair. The words “dumb” and “ugly” were scrawled across the top. “Who would do this?” she asked, looking up into Micah’s dark eyes.
“I don’t know. But I’m going to go find out,” he said, turning and walking with a mission.
“Wait, I have a better idea.” She stopped following him as pain seared through her leg. “Ow.”
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, looking back at her. His brows hung low over his eyes, no longer angry, but tilting with concern.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
He walked back toward her and took her arm. “There’s a first aid kit in my Jeep. Let’s get that scrape cleaned up.”
Her body jolted with his touch, and something about his concern made her heartbeat quicken. But he was a Marine. And Sergeant Micah Peterson’s fate could end up being the same as John’s. He could die, and leave her more alone than before she’d met him.
When they reached the Jeep, Micah pointed at Ben. “You and I are having a talk tonight.” Ben’s face paled as he handed him the notebook with the drawing on top. Then he turned back to Kat. “First things first. Sit and give me your leg,” he commanded.
Her blood drained to her toes as his hands closed around her calf and he reached for a first aid kit in the glove compartment. Betraying her, her body grew warm and tingly, though it could have been from loss of blood—she hoped. She didn’t want to like his touch, even if he was only smearing an alcohol wipe on her gashed knee. She didn’t want to find his callused hands intoxicatingly sexy or let her mind wonder how his skin would feel rubbing against other places.
“How’re you doing?” His eyes met hers.
She swallowed the thick knot of pain and bone-melting lust in her throat. “I can’t go to that function with you,” she said, her voice quiet.
He watched her for several long seconds, his grasp still tight on her leg. “You’ve already said yes, Kat.” He reached for a Band-Aid. “You don’t strike me as one of those people who goes back on their word.”
“I’m usually not, but—” She shook her head.
&
nbsp; “I normally wouldn’t press, but I really do need a date to this thing.” He placed the Band-Aid neatly on her wound, continuing to watch her. “You sent out an email this morning asking for parent volunteers for this friendship gang you’ve started.”
“Friendship Club,” she corrected. “And, yes, one or two additional adults would help.”
He raised a brow as he released her leg. “I can be your backup.”
This made her smile. He made it sound like the kids were a bunch of criminals instead of misguided students. “Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about,” she said. “Ben helped me with the after-school group today.” She glanced over at the third grader in the backseat of Micah’s Jeep. “He was a great helper. I could really use him in the afternoons, and you wouldn’t have to rush to get over here every day. Plus, when you’re doing the lawn, he’s here anyway. Why not have him do something worthwhile?”
“By hanging out with a bunch of delinquents?” Micah gave his head a hard shake. “I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.”
Kat lifted her chin. “I think it’d be good for him.”
Micah studied her. She’d expected that he’d be furious when she suggested the idea, but he actually seemed to be considering it, which surprised her. Ben had enjoyed helping her today, and she’d made sure not to treat him differently than any other kid in the group. She even thought that Ben looked happy out there working with the kids, showing them that he was just like them in more ways than not.
“You would still need another adult. And if I agree to let Ben help, I’ll have a vested interest.” He was staring at her with the intenseness of a soldier watching his target. “I’m off duty in time to be here most days.”
She smiled softly. Had he really just agreed to her request? So easily? Maybe one date wouldn’t kill her, as long as she kept her feelings in check and did her best to pretend that he wasn’t an incredibly hot, and nice, guy. Hotter and nicer every time she saw him.
“So, is it a deal, then?” he asked. “Ben and I help you with the after-school gang and you attend the Marine Corps ball with me?”
Her head pushed forward. “The Marine Corps ball? That’s your function?”
“Yeah.” He smiled, uncertainty playing in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth.
Kat started shaking her head. She couldn’t surround herself with hundreds of men in uniforms. One man in uniform was too many. “I’m sorry.” Her throat was tight and she suddenly needed air, and lots of it. “I’m sorry. I can’t be your date, Micah. The answer is no.”
Holding her gaze, he didn’t look mad, but he wasn’t smiling any longer, either. “All right,” he said easily, the tone of his voice not quite matching his rigid posture. “My loss, I guess.”
Her gaze traveled back to Ben, who looked devastated. Then, for the second time that afternoon, she lied and told Micah that she had to go, gesturing back toward the empty school. “See you tomorrow, Ben.” She waved, and did her best to walk, not limp, away as quickly as she could.
—
An hour later, Julie met Kat at the door when she got home. “Do you always work this late?” her sister asked with a slight huff.
Kat set her briefcase down and breathed in the aroma of a home-cooked meal. “You cooked?”
“Of course I did. And worked like hell to keep it warm because I expected you home over an hour ago.”
Kat inspected her sister, dressed in a tank top and yoga pants. Her hair was pulled back neatly in a ponytail. “Sorry. You didn’t have to—”
Her sister held up a hand. “No time for chitchat.” She pointed to a chair at the table. “Sit.”
Kat didn’t argue. A meal cooked on the stove beat a microwave dinner any day. If her sister kept this up, she might not mind her staying indefinitely. Which wasn’t true. They’d shared a bedroom growing up and their constant bickering had tended to escalate until they fought every night instead of having a bedtime story from their mother. “Thanks, by the way. This is nice.” And exactly what she needed after the afternoon she’d had.
Julie shrugged her thin shoulders. “Someone has to take care of you. And what else was I supposed to do while I waited for you?”
“You don’t have to stay here. You can go home, you know?” Kat’s stomach rumbled in response to the smells that swirled together in front of her. “As you can see, I’m fine.”
Her sister sat quietly and picked up her fork.
“I’m sure your job and that boyfriend of yours need you more than I do,” Kat continued, her hand nearly shaking with anticipation as she sawed the knife through the tender meat on her plate. She’d been too busy to eat lunch. And after her near run-in with the vandals, and then Micah, her insides had been too twisted to notice how hungry she was. Until now.
Julie cut her steak with all the focus and precision of a surgeon.
Watching her, warning bells began to ring in Kat’s head. “Julie?”
“We can discuss this later. I don’t want the food to get cold.”
The bells grew louder. “Discuss what?” Kat asked.
Her sister shook her head. “I might be staying a little longer than I expected, that’s all.”
“How long?” Kat steeled herself as the bells shrieked in her ear. A week? A month? Longer? How on earth would they survive living in the same house for an extended amount of time?
“I lost my job,” Julie said flatly. “And my boyfriend. Which means I also lost my apartment. His apartment,” she corrected. “So, you see, I have nowhere else to go.” She looked up and extended a wobbly smile.
“I see.” Kat’s appetite took a step off a very high building and plummeted to its demise. She loved her sister, but she didn’t want to live with her. She’d just gotten used to living alone, and it suited her. But she wasn’t about to kick her sister out on the streets, either.
Reaching across the table, she laid her hand over Julie’s. “You can stay here as long as you need to.”
Chapter 8
Kat stared at the group of sullen-faced kids. For once, she was glad she couldn’t read a child’s mind. If she had to guess, they were all contemplating how to make her assistant principal, Dora Burroughs, pay miserably for holding them after school.
Dora had the students writing sentences, which did nothing to help the kids see the error of their ways. It didn’t change the way they felt about themselves or allow them to give back to their community, either. Dora was an old-school administrator. She hadn’t liked Kat’s ideas of turning after-school detention into a club, but she wasn’t the head of SES. Kat was—at least for another year.
“I’ve got it from here, Mrs. Burroughs,” Kat said.
The older woman frowned at her, sending wrinkles diving from the corners of her mouth. She had white hair that still had a golden tint from the days when she’d been blond. Kat tried to imagine that Dora had gone into this job because she loved children, but Kat never saw any evidence of that. All she saw was the stern, unforgiving manner in which her assistant principal treated the kids who walked into her office. And unfortunately, Dora was the same way with the school’s employees.
Thank God, the school board hadn’t made Dora Burroughs principal at Seaside.
Dora scanned the group of six students, seated at their child-sized desks. “Have a good afternoon, children.” Then, without a word to Kat, she walked briskly out of the room.
Sucking in a breath, Kat forced a smile at the students. She’d taken them outside the other day to pick up litter on campus. Holding up six plastic trash bags now, she watched as the smiles in the room faded. “Oh, come on. It’s better than writing sentences, and a little sunshine is good for you. You can think about why you’re here as you make our school the best it can be.”
Val is right. I do sound like Pollyanna.
The students followed Kat down the hall and out onto the side of the campus, where the Seaside vandals had graced her with a new message yesterday. Stanley had taken care of that
for her this morning, and hopefully the wall would stay clean this time.
Each child took a bag from her and veered in a different direction.
“Don’t stray too far!” she called, wishing Val had been able to stay later and help her. Micah was right. She did need backup, and asking Mrs. Burroughs was out of the question. So was asking Micah, who’d offered his services in exchange for something she couldn’t give him. She liked to think she was a strong woman, but when it came to her past, she felt like her heart was exposed, vulnerable to everything around her, which so often seemed to reflect the military life. Sure, she could’ve moved to a town that wasn’t so close to Camp Leon, but this was her hometown. She belonged here.
Kat jumped as one of the children screamed behind her. Turning, she saw several of them swatting at the air wildly. Then she heard a buzz speed by her ear.
Oh, no. Bees!
“It’s okay, children. Stay calm,” she said shakily, as a bee buzzed by her own head. It buzzed by again. She hated bees. “Keep calm,” she repeated, but her own heart rate was skyrocketing. When she was a kid, she’d once disturbed a hive and had to run for her life as they’d swarmed after her. Where had these bees come from?
All the students were screaming frantically now, even though there couldn’t have been more than a couple of bees. “Get away!” she heard several of them cry.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said again over their high-pitched terror, but she doubted they heard her. Or if they did, that they believed her. There was no doubt in her mind that they heard the next voice, though.
“Stay still and they’ll leave you alone,” a deep baritone commanded.
Kat froze. So did all the children. She was pretty sure she knew exactly who was standing behind her, and he’d just seen her doing the “bumblebee in your pants dance,” as her sister used to call it. Taking a breath, she willed her heart to slow down. Then, after a moment, she turned to see a big, strong man with ink black hair and chocolate fudge eyes standing with his arms crossed at his chest.