Just Jayne

by Ripley Proserpina

  Ideas about their music? About their choice of dress? The questions ran across my mind heavy with sarcasm, and I had to bite my tongue not to ask them. I knew exactly what he was getting at.

  “My job is to teach Sophie, that’s my only focus.” I held his stare even when he narrowed his eyes at me. As he slid behind the huge wooden desk, he sighed.

  “Miss Burns. My boys may be taken in by the innocent act, but I’m not. I expect you to dress professionally. In the future, please don’t wear revealing clothing. And please, for the love of God, don’t fawn over them. It’s awkward for everyone.”

  In all my life, I’d never been accused of dressing provocatively, so this was a new one for me. I even glanced down at my clothing to see if I had put something on other than the baggy jersey dress. But no. It was a calf length dress. Still long sleeved. Still dark green.

  Nothing about this was enticing.

  “And wear your hair back. There’s no reason to be tossing it back and forth like you’re a horse.”

  Stunned speechless, I merely stared at him.

  “Do you have any questions?”

  I didn’t have questions, but I had some statements. “Mister… Gutten, was it?”

  He narrowed his eyes and gave me a clipped nod.

  “Right, Mr. Gutten. I can assure you that my interest is only in Sophie. I am professional, and I come highly recommended. I am also not your employee. And you are not my employer. I read every paper I signed, and in not one did I see your name. My answering your concerns right now is only out of respect for my employers and my desire for my intentions to be perfectly clear. But I don’t answer to you. And you have no power over me.”

  His face turned bright red and he opened his mouth, but I didn’t need to hear anything else he had to say.

  And I didn’t need to say anything else that could get me fired before I’d spent a day with my student.

  I jerked the door open and ran straight into a hard chest. “Ommph.”

  Leather jacket. Long dark hair.

  Diego.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, stepping back and to the side.

  “That’s all right,” he answered softly.

  I crossed my arms over my chest as he glanced past me toward Warner. A moment later, he shocked me by putting his arm around my shoulders and nudging me down the hall. “We’re having cake,” he said. His voice was quiet, and he tucked his chin, looking through thick dark lashes at me. It was difficult to look away until I heard Warner clear his throat, and then I ducked past him.

  “I’ll stop in and say goodnight,” I replied, and then hurried down the hall.

  Diego’s voice followed me, but he wasn’t speaking to me. In a much harsher tone, he said, “What was that about?”

  By the time Warner answered, I was too far away to hear anything. Who knew what the man would say? Whatever it was, it was certain to show me in a bad light. And why shouldn’t Diego believe him? He barely knew me.

  I wasn’t even the teacher he wanted for Sophie. Not at first, anyway.

  It was a good thing I hadn’t unpacked yet, because I had a feeling I wouldn’t be staying long.

  10

  Jayne

  The cake was covered in candles and the band was singing Happy Birthday when I arrived. I tried to recall if it was Sophie’s birthday, but I was pretty certain it was in September.

  “We missed Sophie’s birthday while the band was on tour and she was in Switzerland,” Mrs. Foster told me. “So we’re having a birthday now.”

  “With presents!” Sophie yelled.

  Klaus ruffled her dark curls and kissed the top of her head. “Yes, liebling, lots of presents.”

  A birthday party. “I’ll be right back,” I said, even though no one was going to care if I left for a moment. I hurried up the back stairs and ran down the hall to my room. Once there, I dug through my luggage to find the small leather pouch full of stones. I poured it onto my palm and then back into the pouch before racing back downstairs.

  By the time I arrived, she had frosting on her face and her presents lay in heaps around her. Mrs. Foster was gathering the remnants of wrapping paper and chuckling to herself.

  As I emerged from the stairway, Sophie’s gaze went to my hand and the leather pouch. “Is this for me?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I said, and handed it to her.

  She pushed her cake away and opened the pouch, spilling the contents onto the table. “Oh!” she cried and began spreading out each gem. “What are they?”

  “They’re gemstones,” I replied. “Different types. There’s a book upstairs in the classroom that we can use to learn about them if you like.”

  She held up a piece of amethyst and smoothed her thumb over it. “Gems? Like treasure?”

  “Sort of,” I answered, and reached toward a pinkish red stone. “This is a ruby.”

  “Where did you get them?” She glanced up at me with big eyes, and I was tempted to answer something like, “From a pirate,” but I told her the truth.

  “I don’t remember all the places. Sometimes I’d find them at museums. Sometimes, you can find them in those machines were you pay a quarter.”

  “These were yours?” she asked. She watched me seriously, and I wondered if I’d made a mistake. Maybe I shouldn’t have given her anything, and giving her something that belonged to me was akin to re-gifting.

  “They were,” I answered.

  “From when you were a little girl?” Her question made me smile, but then an image of my eighth birthday flashed through my mind and the smile dropped from my lips.

  “This one was.” I pointed to the snowflake obsidian, but my finger shook so I curled my fingers into a fist and put my hands behind my back.

  “So this one is really old.” She picked it up and ran her thumb over it. Next to me, Tennyson snorted. But it didn’t bother me. Twenty was old to an eight year-old.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  “Thank you, Miss Burns!” she said, and jumped out of her seat to wrap her arms around my waist. I leaned over and hugged her back, allowing myself a moment to absorb her affection.

  “De nada, Sophie.” She pulled away, smiling up at me. “And you can call me Jayne.”

  After I intercepted another weirdly loaded glance between Klaus and Lee, I decided I’d stayed long enough at the family party. I faked a yawn and stood. “I’m going to go to bed. I have a busy day at school tomorrow,” I said.

  Sophie was sitting on Diego’s lap, placing each stone from the bag in his hand and then returning the stones to it before beginning all over again.

  Her other presents had been forgotten, and I watched her a little smugly. I’d been as fascinated with gemstones as she was, and when I was her age, I was certain that piece of snowflake obsidian would buy me a bus ticket and pay for a house should I ever break out on my own.

  “Does that mean I have school tomorrow?” She yawned hugely and leaned back against Diego’s chest.

  “Yes,” I replied, and glanced from her to her adoptive father.

  I wondered why Diego had decided to adopt a child when he lived a free and unfettered life of travel. Had she been a spontaneous decision? Like a puppy?

  He smoothed her hair over her head and kissed her. No. That wasn’t fair. There was real affection between Sophie and her father. And the rest of the guys as well. In the hour I’d spent with them, I watched them take care of her. She wasn’t some status symbol, or celebrity trend.

  She was their child.

  “Goodnight, Sophie,” I said. “I’m so excited to work together.”

  She nodded at me, and I waved goodnight to the rest of the band and Mrs. Foster before escaping upstairs.

  Nearing the top step, I heard footsteps behind me and I turned. “Miss Burns, wait.” It was Tennyson. “I wanted to apologize,” he said.

  “You don’t need to apologize. I’m the one who didn’t recognize you. It wasn’t as if you were playing a joke on me, or making fun of me.”


  “No,” he replied. He chewed on his lip ring as he stared at the ground. When he looked up at me, his cheeks were flushed, but his blue eyes held mine. “But I knew you wouldn’t recognize me.”

  “How?” I asked. How had they anticipated that?

  “I have a sense of people, and I knew from your earlier interview in New York that you were professional and—” His voice lowered and his blush deepened. “Naive.”

  “Naive? How could you tell that from an interview?” I wished I could swallow the words back into my mouth. “Never mind. I mean. It’s fine. There was no harm done, and I’m excited to teach Sophie. Everything is fine.” I spun toward my room and shoved the key in the lock.

  I thought he would stay in the hall, but he didn’t. He followed me inside.

  “We’re going to be working together, Jayne, I want to make sure there’s no hard feelings.”

  “I promise, there isn’t,” I said.

  He shut the door behind him and leaned against it. “Really?”

  “Truly,” I replied, approaching him. He stepped closer to me as I did, his arms lifting as if he would embrace me, but I reached past him and opened the door. “We’re good, Ten.” I couldn’t believe what I said and added quickly, “—yson. We’re good, Tennyson. Besides, we won’t see much of each other anyway. My focus is going to be on Sophie.” I suddenly wondered if Warner had spoken to him. “Like I told your manager.”

  “My manager?” he asked, frowning. “Warner has nothing to do with Sophie.”

  “Good,” I answered quickly, and then when his frown deepened I stepped back and rubbed my hand over my forehead. “I’m sorry. I’m not very articulate right now. I’m very tired.”

  He walked around me to the door. His brows were drawn together, and he chewed his lip like he had more to say. “All right, Jayne. But you’re wrong about one thing.”

  “What’s that?” I asked tiredly.

  He stepped closer to me until I had to meet his gaze. His blue eyes locked with mine and I froze. “We will be seeing each other. We’ll be seeing a lot of each other. You’re part of this family now, Jayne. Get used to it.”

  11

  Jayne

  Tennyson’s declaration kept me up way longer than it should have that night. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand him. Was it a weird overture meant to make me feel at ease? Or was he messing with me, the way he had at my interview.

  He said he wanted to clear the air, and there were no hard feelings. There really weren’t. He’d caught me in a position where I didn’t know who he was. Big deal.

  Admittedly, I’d felt pretty stupid, but how many people go to a job interview and expect to meet a rock star? Let alone one of Rochester’s Pathos’ caliber.

  I tossed and turned most of the night, listening to the wind howl outside my window. Finally, I allowed myself to wonder if he’d been hitting on me.

  It had been there, that question, at the back of my mind, but it seemed so ridiculous, that each time I thought, was he…? I cut myself off.

  Because of course he wasn’t.

  In the moonlight, I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to flick on the light. In my old T-shirt and soccer shorts, I looked younger than my twenty-seven years.

  I combed out my hair, placing it over my shoulders and stared at myself.

  Could this girl with pale skin and near bloodless lips, move anyone like Tennyson? The immediate answer that jumped to my mind was no.

  Running my hands from my hair, I traced my lips to draw a finger down my neck.

  My breasts were small. When I wore my white blouses, I didn’t look like a sexy librarian. There was nothing about my figure that was voluptuous, or curvy. Cupping my breasts, I wondered what it was like to fill out my clothes the way other women did.

  Narrow hips, long legs. I wasn’t very feminine.

  My lip trembled and I bit down on it hard. I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself, and Tennyson’s actions made me wallow in self-pity.

  There was no way a man like him thought a woman like me was attractive.

  And that meant one thing. I’d misinterpreted his intentions and probably made him feel awkward. From now on, I would avoid him, and the other members of the band as much as possible. There was no reason to include myself in their family life, no matter what they said.

  Sophie was my priority. It was her I should be concerning myself with.

  I flipped off the light and got back into bed, pulling up the heavy comforter to my chin. Sighing deeply, I shut my eyes and ran over my lesson plans until I fell asleep.

  The next few days I forgot all about Tennyson’s promise.

  On the morning of my first day with Sophie, I woke up nervous. But as the day went on, and the only people I saw were Sophie and Mrs. Foster, I began to relax.

  Whatever had inspired him, he’d clearly forgotten, because I didn’t see, or hear, any of the guys in the band.

  And after my first hour with Sophie, I didn’t even think about them. My world became teaching, and I blocked everything else out.

  We had our first sunny day a week after my arrival, and we spent it in the courtyard, having begged Rogers to bring out a stack of huge wooden blocks I found in the nursery.

  For hours we built our own castle. We created towers higher than our heads, propped up by “buttresses,” a word which made Sophie laugh each time I said it. “You said ‘butt.’ ”

  I ignored it but couldn’t help smile.

  As the sun went down, the world was bathed in a bright red glow and we stood back and admired our handiwork.

  “What’s the best part about having a castle?” Sophie asked.

  “You’d know that better than me,” I said, pointing to the manor. “What’s the best part about having a castle?”

  “That’s not a castle. That’s a manor house.”

  Choosing not to correct her, I asked again, “So? What’s the best part about having a castle?”

  “Knocking it down,” she told me and with a whoop took off. In one fell swoop, she managed to destroy the structure we’d built. She stomped on it, roaring like Godzilla and kicking the blocks across the stones. “Rawr!”

  I laughed and clapped. “Well done! That reminds me, we should talk tomorrow about how much it costs to build a castle, and where we could get our materials when we build one.”

  Sophie walked over to me, her skin flushed from destruction. “Are we building another one?” She leaned into me, and I pushed her curls out of her face.

  “You need an elastic when you do demolition,” I told her. “And we could. We could try to build a mini manor, but first, we’ll need to see how much it costs.”

  “Sounds like math,” she grumbled. Grabbing my hand, she tugged me toward the house, but I stopped her.

  “We have to clean up first.”

  “Rogers and Mrs. Foster will do it.”

  “Uh uh.” I began to stack the blocks into one of the wooden crates Rogers had used to bring them all out. “We can help them.”

  “Sophie!”

  I hadn’t seen any of the guys and Lee’s voice made me jump. The little girl took advantage of my distraction to run into the house with a giggle. Sighing, I watched her go. It wasn’t my place to call her back when her family wanted her inside.

  Leaning over, I picked up the blocks but a light in the corner of my eye distracted me. In a tower, high up above the south wing where my room was, sunlight reflected from a window into the courtyard. It shifted, like someone had opened the window or directed the sunlight toward me. Blinded, I raised my hand and squinted.

  I thought I saw someone there. Long hair, a white dress, but in a moment, the light flashed again and the figure was gone. I stared a little longer, hoping to catch sight of whomever I’d seen and identify them, but they didn’t reappear.

  “Jayne?” Lee appeared in the doorway and stepped outside.

  Quickly, I went back to stacking blocks as he approached me. He went to work next to me, gathering the
heavy pieces and stacking them before carrying them to the house.

  We worked that way for a few minutes, quietly and comfortably, before he spoke again. “Thank you for the lesson plans.”

  I put a crate down and straightened.

  When he moved away, I called out, “Lee?”

  He turned to face me, eyebrows raised as he waited.

  “I wanted to apologize for how rude I was. When you asked me to send them to you. I shouldn’t have spoken that way to any parent. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “I’m sure you were tired.” He was giving me an out, but I didn’t deserve one.

  “Maybe,” I said. “But there’s no excuse. I was rude, and I’m sorry.”

  He stepped closer to me, staring down into my eyes. Today he was wearing a ripped T-shirt beneath his dress shirt along with ropes of necklaces. His fingers were covered in rings, and when the sun hit him just right, his skin shone like diamonds.

  “Did you have a photo shoot today?” I asked.

  His hands went to his face. He touched his cheekbones lightly and then looked at his fingertips and laughed. “Yes. Can you see the makeup?” A gust of wind blew his hair across his eyes, but he didn’t push it away.

  The only excuse I can give for what I did next was that my hand overrode my brain. I reached out and touched his cheek like he had. As soon as our skin touched, I drew back, horrified, but he stopped me and held my gaze as he covered my hand with his own. “Jayne,” he began, leaning forward, but he stopped when the sound of glass shattering filled the courtyard.

  It came from the same direction I’d seen the light, and now I knew why. The leaded glass windows swung out from the house, and one of them must have been blowing in the wind. The last big gust of wind had slammed the window into the stone wall and shattered it.

  Lee narrowed his eyes and his entire demeanor changed. His lips went white and a muscle jumped in his cheek as if he was clenching his teeth. “Go inside, Jayne. Please do your job and check on Sophie.”