by Mona Shroff
“I can do it, Mom,” Jeff insisted, throwing the other children a furtive glance, as none of the other parents were helping their children.
Annika stepped in. “Mrs. Delancey, Jeff moves his chair every day and is quite successful. I’m sure if you watched, you’d be proud.”
“Ms. Mehta.” Mrs. Delancey’s eyes were hard. “If you’re telling me that Jeff struggles like this every day, and no one helps him, I am appalled. It’s too big for him.”
“Mrs. Delancey, please, give him a chance. If we find he’s still struggling, I’ll move the chair myself.”
Mrs. Delancey pressed her lips together and raised an eyebrow, but she took a step back and waited. Sure enough, Jeff managed to move his chair where it needed to be. He turned and beamed at his mother, who softened instantly and gave her son a double thumbs-up, and a small conciliatory nod to Annika.
Crisis averted. Things were going smoothly. Annika smiled to herself, proud that her children were doing so well. She relaxed.
That was her first mistake.
Annika had barely sighed relief when loud voices erupted from across the room.
She turned to find two girls screaming at each other. Ashley, her dark locks shaking with indignation, was screaming at Miranda, who was wailing with her little fists balled at her sides.
“You took my spot, Ashley!”
“You grabbed the green pencil from me!”
“Did not. I don’t even like your stupid pencil.”
“My pencil is not stupid!” Ashley stamped her foot and shoved Miranda before Annika could get over to them.
Before Annika could do anything, both Ashley’s and Miranda’s mothers were at their daughters’ sides.
Miranda’s mother clutched her daughter, soothing her while Ashley’s mother tried to explain that we do not shove, even if the other person uses bad words. Jeff, of the successful chair move, was currently drawing on the little boy next to him, who had started to cry.
Both girls’ mothers were glaring darts at each other, and now the other children started crying from all the commotion in the room.
Annika tried to pacify each child in turn but to no avail, and the parents were turning on her faster than anything. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Mitch edging his way toward the back wall, away from the commotion, his eyes wide with fear. Mitch’s father was glaring at her, a level of superior satisfaction emitting from his smile.
Now all of the parents of the crying children were trying simultaneously to calm their children and chastise Annika for losing control in the first place. Miranda’s and Ashley’s mothers had now started yelling at each other, and more than one parent was asking Annika what the hell was going on. In the midst of all this, her classroom phone rang. She glanced in its direction and then promptly ignored it. Another child had decided to simply lie on the floor and scream.
Annika stood in the middle of the room and clapped out a pattern. Mayhem continued. She clapped it out again. A couple of children copied her. She did it again, and some of the crying stopped and a few more children answered. She did it again and again, until all of the children answered her and the crying had stopped. She continued the pattern as she went to the closet and pulled out a colorful parachute. She handed each child a part of it, until they all stood in a circle, and then she engaged them in play.
“Ms. Mehta.”
Annika snapped to attention as the principal entered the room.
“Mrs. Colter,” she addressed the principal, “if you would be so kind as to escort our parents to the cafeteria for a coffee break, the children and I have some regrouping to do.” Many of the parents were reluctant to allow Annika to do anything with their children, but the principal seemed to have decided to give Annika a chance to regain her classroom, and she encouraged the parents to come with her. Annika saw the disappointment in their eyes and in the set of their mouths. She did her best to ignore it all.
As the principal left, she whispered to Annika, “We called to tell you your father is here.”
Annika snapped her head to the principal. “He was here?”
“He’s still here.”
Annika nodded. “I can’t come now.”
The principal nodded. “Of course.”
“Bring the parents back in ten minutes.”
The principal nodded.
It was in that moment that Annika made eye contact with Mitch’s mother. She wished she hadn’t. The look of disappointment and disgust on the woman’s face was enough to have Annika curling up into a ball on the floor herself. Instead, she felt the old hospital band in her pocket, plastered a smile on her face, found her happiest singsong voice and turned to her class.
“Okay, who’s ready to run under the parachute?”
In a clattering of shoes and grumbled mutterings, the parents left with the principal as she regained control over her classroom.
By the time the principal returned with the parents, the children were so engaged in their work they hardly noticed the reentry of their parents. Annika immersed herself in teaching the children and was barely aware of the parental presence herself.
Thankfully, today was a half day, and when the morning finally ended, the children went home with their parents. It took Annika close to an hour to straighten up her classroom, after which she worked on mid-year assessments.
It was late afternoon before she remembered that her father had been at the school. She called him.
He answered on the first ring.
“Papa? I heard you were at the school today. Is everything okay?”
“Yes, I came to see what you did.” His voice was clipped.
“Uh-huh.” She wasn’t going to ask. She didn’t need to.
“I heard the parents complaining about you. About how you lost control of the classroom.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
He sighed, his frustration and irritation with her clear. “Maybe if you listened to us, did what we said, you wouldn’t keep finding yourself in situations you can’t handle.”
Her heart sank, but her anger raged. She was tired of trying to make people happy. “I did handle it, Papa,” she snapped. “You just didn’t hang around long enough to see that.”
Her hands shook as she disconnected the call.
What was the point of trying to please people who would never see it? It didn’t matter how good she was—they would always think teaching was beneath her. She thought of Daniel. Wait until they found out she was with Daniel, and not Sajan. She didn’t care if they approved. There was no point in trying to make them happy. Even if they were her parents.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DANIEL
HE KNEW AS soon as she walked into the bar that something was wrong. The quiet, calm feeling he would get when he saw her floated away as he noted the stiffness in her body, the set of her lips. Her face lit up for a brief moment before it slowly clouded over, and damn if he wouldn’t do whatever it took to fix whatever had put that sadness in her eyes. The fatigue he felt after an overtime, overnight shift melted away in an instant, as his focus became only her.
She walked to the back to put away her stuff as she always did. Daniel followed.
“Hey. How did it go?” Her back was to him, and when she turned to look at him, her face crumpled. He pulled her into his arms, and she buried her face into his chest.
“It was awful. The kids fought, the parents fought. The principal came. It was awful.”
“At Parents’ Visitation? The parents fought?” Comical images filled his head, but Daniel suppressed his chuckle as Annika was clearly distressed, and comical though it may be, parents fighting was never good. Daniel kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. “I’m sure you regained control, and all ended well.”
She shook her head without looking up. “Nope. The principal had to come take the parents
while I took care of the kids.”
“Well, you handled the kids.”
She pulled back and looked up at him. “My dad was there.” Tears fell from her eyes. This was the real problem. Daniel’s heart dropped into his stomach.
“What do you mean he was there? How could he get to the classroom?” Daniel may not have gone back to the school, but he had attended every board meeting until certain policies were put in place. The main one being that no one, no one, went near the classrooms without an escort.
“No, he didn’t get to come back. He was waiting in the office. He heard the parents complaining while they waited for me to regain control.” Annika sighed. “They pretty much blamed me for everything.”
Daniel knew that Annika wanted nothing more than to impress her parents. Which was part of the reason she was afraid to tell them about him. He pushed that thought aside for now.
A sob escaped her, and Daniel found himself angry at her father for not believing in her. “So now he’s confident that I’m a failure.” She sniffled.
“You’re not a failure. You’re a great teacher.”
“You don’t know that.” She burrowed deeper into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to protect her. But her pain came from within.
“Well, not firsthand, but you’re good at everything.”
She pulled back to give him a withering look.
“Fine.” He pulled her close again. “I don’t actually know, but...” He paused, holding her tight. Why shouldn’t he actually know? He could go to the school, as an observer, or for Career Day. He knew she was great, but maybe she would believe him if he actually saw her teach.
“Fine, I’ll come for Career Day. Talk about how awesome it is to be an NP.” He spoke quickly, before he changed his mind. How was he going to walk into that building?
Annika tensed and pulled back. “No. You don’t want to do that.”
“Why not?”
“You do remember where I work?” She stared at him. “I never should have told you Sajan was coming—”
“This has nothing to do with Sajan.” Well, mostly nothing. His stomach was in knots, but at the moment he didn’t care. He placed his hand on the side of her head. “I would do anything for you.” It was completely true. It didn’t matter about the building. He would do anything to make her happy. “I love you.”
“But Daniel, you don’t have to—wait, what did you say?” Her nose and eyes were swollen and red rimmed, her cheeks were flushed, but she smiled and looked at him with such pure love that he wanted to freeze that moment in time.
Heat rose to his face. “I said I would come to Career—”
“No, not that.”
A silly, dopey grin took over his face. “I said that I love you.”
She gave him her crooked smile. “This was the most romantic way you could think of to tell me you loved me?” She looked around. “Standing in the back of a bar while I cry?”
“It’s perfect.” Daniel leaned down and kissed her. “Don’t complain. I said I would come to your class.”
She pulled back. “You don’t have to...just the offer is enough...”
“I’ll be fine.” Of course he would. The building haunted his nightmares, but for her, for the woman he loved, he’d figure out a way to walk into it. “Besides, little boys should know that nurse practitioner is an option, don’t you think?” Not just surgeon. Jealousy did not look good on him, and he needed to let that go.
“Well, sure, of course. But I don’t want you to do anything you aren’t ready for.”
“I’m ready.” He ignored the panic that streaked through his body at just the thought of entering that school.
She pulled back from him and studied his face, no doubt looking for anything that would tell her he wasn’t ready to go back into the building where he had last seen his daughter alive. He simply focused on how much he loved her. On how it broke his heart to see her unhappy. On how he didn’t even really care that she didn’t tell her parents about him, because he was willing to take any part of her she was willing to give.
“Daniel...”
“I got customers here, Anni,” Phil bellowed from out front.
Daniel pursed his mouth in amusement and tilted his head toward the front. “You better go. You may need this job after that fiasco today.”
She lightly smacked his arm as she narrowed her eyes at him, her grin poking through despite her efforts to hide it. “Ha ha. And you say you love me.”
“But I do.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb, getting lost once again in those brown eyes. He slowly drew his thumb over her bottom lip, before leaning down to gently suck it into his mouth. Her hiss of breath was all the encouragement he needed to open her mouth and deepen their kiss. She moved closer to him, whispering his name, and for a moment he forgot where they were.
“Anni, let’s go!” Even Phil’s bellow did not have the power to shake them from each other, though Annika did pull back.
They were both a bit dizzy from lack of oxygen when he let her go. Her lips were swollen and her eyes were glassy when they met his.
She straightened out her apron and cleared her throat. “Okay, then.”
Daniel swore she wobbled a bit as she headed out front. He was an idiot to even entertain jealousy.
Maybe he’d drop a hint to Nilay to have their father stop by the classroom on Career Day. He could finally see what a fabulous teacher his daughter was.
* * *
DANIEL MOVED AROUND his small kitchen with comfort and ease, as if he’d been cooking here all his life, when the truth was, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually done anything more than nuke something. Tonight was different. A new beginning all around. He’d bought food to fill and stock his refrigerator as well as his pantry. He even had wineglasses and wine to fill them.
As he cooked, he paused to hit the FaceTime button on his phone. “Hey, Em,” he said as she picked up.
“Danny! What’s up?” She was half-off the screen, as she was clearly cooking, as well. “You know all I can see is the fridge, right?”
Daniel paused in front of his phone. “Hey. I’m putting away groceries. Remember that chicken Mom used to make with the sauce and—”
“You bought groceries?” She had stopped whatever she was doing, and now her face filled the screen.
“Yes, I bought groceries.” He held up his hands like he couldn’t imagine why that should surprise her.
“Wow, Danny, that’s awesome.”
“Focus, Em. The saucy-chicken recipe?”
“You’re going to make it?”
“Again with the surprised face. Yes, Emma. I. Am. Cooking. Dinner.”
She grinned, a knowing—and annoying—twinkle in her eye. “For Annika.”
Nothing got past her. Though this wasn’t that hard. “Maybe.”
“Danny—” she squealed, like only a big sister could.
“Daniel.”
“Whatever. This is for real, isn’t it?” Emma’s voice got serious.
“I’m making dinner.”
“Did you tell her?”
“Tell her what?” He turned away from the phone to put vegetables in the fridge.
“Daniel. You know exactly what I’m talking about.” Her voice took on that big-sister tone he was so familiar with.
“Now you call me Daniel.”
“Did you tell her you won’t be a father again?” Emma’s stern face filled his phone screen.
“No need.”
“Daniel Bliant. Do not lead that girl on. You’re clearly involved with her if you are actually buying groceries and cooking for her. She has a right to know that parenting is not something you can handle. I mean, you can barely handle pediatric patients.”
“Em. It’s a nonissue. I can do it.”
“Wh
at do you mean you can do it? Do what? Be a father?” She paused for breath, her disbelief oozing through the screen.
He thought about Annika and how she had brought lightness to his life these past few weeks. He thought about how he missed her when he went to work. How he couldn’t wait to come back to her after every shift. How she made him feel invincible.
He had avoided doing a double shift in the past few weeks just so he’d have time to see her. He tried to work when she was working so they could be together when they were off. He was even going to cut his chopper shift down to one a week. His colleagues were giving him crap about being lazy these days.
He needed her. And she needed him. If that meant he would have to be a father again, then so be it.
“Yes, Em. That’s what I am saying.”
“Danny, are you sure?” All the disbelief was gone from her face, and she was in full concerned big-sister mode.
“Yes, I’m sure.” There was a slight pit in his stomach, but he ignored it. “I’d do anything for her.” Even walk into that school building again. He had meant it when he told Annika he would come to school for Career Day.
Silence. He sighed. “You going to give me that recipe, or do I have to call Mom?”
“Just be careful, Daniel.” Emma’s voice was small and resigned.
“I’ll be fine.”
Emma sighed. “Did you buy fresh basil? Because the dried stuff won’t taste the same.”
* * *
HE HAD JUST opened a bottle of red and was letting it breathe when there was an insistent knock at his door. He wiped his hands and nearly leaped to answer it. He opened the door, and Annika flew into his arms in a rush of jasmine-scented hair.
She kissed him like she hadn’t seen him in a week, though they had just seen each other yesterday evening.
He managed to bring her into the apartment and shut the door, all while still kissing her. When they came up for air, she smirked at him. “Hi.”
“With a hello like that, we may never make it to dinner.”