“Your things,” Jessica said as she took the key.
“I already packed.”
“That quick?”
“You were distracted.” Becca shrugged. “I thought you’d be mad.”
“I’m not. I was going to wait until after your conferences to talk to you about breaking up.”
“I was too, but, well, I just didn’t think it’d be worth the energy to wait.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.” Jessica gave a small smile. “Though I’m not very happy about this, I do think it’s for the better.”
“Agreed.” Becca sat on the edge of the couch, not sure whether she should leave or stay and talk some more. She didn’t really want to talk. She wanted to hide and start fresh one more time.
Jessica pressed a hand to Becca’s cheek, drawing her attention back. Slowly, she leaned forward and planted a small and tender kiss on Becca’s lips. “It was fun while it lasted.”
“Yeah, for the most part.”
Grinning, Jessica stood up and dragged Becca with her. “Do you need any help?”
“I think I’ve got it.”
Becca grabbed her small tote of the items she had left at Jessica’s over the past few months. She slung it over her shoulder and headed out of the door with an awkward goodbye on her lips. As soon as she got to her car, relief flooded her, easing a tension she’d held in her chest. That had been the right decision. No matter how much she’d wanted to avoid it, she had done well in that conversation.
The next day, she felt lighter. She felt like she was floating on air when she walked into the school, then realized suddenly that it was officially parent-teacher conferences and she wouldn’t get to see her kids for four whole days. When she looked over the schedule for the day, her stomach clenched. Kimberly and Bradley had their appointment set for just before the lunch hour, no doubt so she could go to work after and he could take his lunch for it.
She was newly single, and she’d have to see Kimberly. Mentally preparing herself during the rest of the day, Becca got her papers in order and waited for the Thompson family to arrive. When they came into the room, the air whooshed out of Becca’s chest. She had to pause a minute to catch her breath before they all sat down at the small tables and waded through Michael’s progress for the semester.
It didn’t take too long. He was doing well, though math was certainly his struggling point, along with some social issues he had with a couple of classmates. At the end of the meeting, Kimberly waited behind as Bradley scuttled off to work. Becca’s heart was in her throat again as she paused to wait for what was going to happen.
“Miss Knorr, do you mind if I steal Miss Kline for a few minutes? Do you have the time?”
“We were just about to take a break for lunch, so she’s all yours.”
Becca’s breathing became rapid. She knew this was going to be a personal conversation, so after Miss Knorr left for the lounge with her lunch, Becca locked the door behind her. She turned to Kimberly, arms across her chest, bracing herself.
“I wanted to apologize,” Kimberly started.
“A-apologize for what?” Becca stammered. This was twice in as many days that Becca was left confused and lost with the conversation. First she’d expected anger and hurt from Jessica and now a full apology from Kimberly? She had no idea what axis the world had turned on to give her these unexpected outcomes.
“For calling and texting and not giving you space and not respecting your boundaries. I shouldn’t have done that, and I’m truly sorry.”
“Oh.” Her stomach fluttered. “Well, thank you. I appreciate that.”
Awkward tension filled the space between them, and Becca silently begged Kimberly to leave her alone. She wasn’t sure what to do with this new side of her. Kimberly stepped forward, but Becca tensed, and she stopped. Becca decided to put one foot forward and let her know how she truly felt—well, mostly.
“Look… I know whatever between us isn’t exactly gone. But I already lost one job because of you. I am not willing to lose a second. I need this position.”
Putting up both hands, Kimberly stepped away. “And I respect that, truly I do. I want you to graduate. In fact, if you’ll let me, I’d love to be at your graduation. I want you to succeed in this. You’ve dreamed about it for decades.”
Becca’s breathing hitched as her nerves took over. She worried that if Kimberly came any closer, they would end up in the same position they had the other week. As much as she wanted that, she didn’t at the same time. She had to put up the shield she’d created, and she had to keep it in place.
“I have,” Becca finally responded. “I don’t want anything to jeopardize that.”
“I will respect your decision.”
Becca’s chest heaved.
“I guess I’ll see you around then, probably at drop-off and pick-up only.” Without another word, Kimberly spun on her toes and headed for the door, unlocking it and escaping.
Becca let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. She leaned against the counter and melted as all the tension raced from her body. After months of avoiding each other, it seemed as if they had finally made a truce. Perhaps this time it would last.
Organizing her paperwork to keep her hands busy, Becca scarfed down her home-made lunch then busied herself as she waited for Miss Knorr to come back. It didn’t take long, as they’d scheduled the appointments close together to get them done faster.
The rest of the day she spent in conferences, talking about the students she had come to love so much over the course of a few very short months. As soon as she was released, exhaustion hit her like a frying pan. She drove back to Drew’s apartment and collapsed on the couch. Two hours later, Drew came in and shook her foot to wake her. Becca groaned and turned on her side so Drew could sit down by her feet. When she pried an eye open to look at them, they stared straight at her.
“You gonna tell me whatever it is that happened that has you less stressed? I know it’s not just conferences.”
Nodding, Becca answered, “First, Jessica and I broke up.”
“Yes!” Drew jumped up and did a happy dance. Becca rolled her eyes but stayed plastered to the couch. “I did not like that bitch one bit.”
“I know,” Becca said wryly. “It was for the better. It was pretty much mutual.”
“Oh good.” Drew sat down and rubbed her leg up and down. “If that was the first, what’s the second? Is there a third?”
“Just a second.”
“Well?” Drew prompted when Becca didn’t continue.
“Well, what?”
“Spill it already.”
Chuckling, Becca turned on her back. “I talked to Kimberly.”
“You did?” Drew gave her a sly grin and wiggled their eyebrows up and down. “Talked like you did at open house?”
“No.” She glared. “We actually talked. Kind of. Well, I talked. I told her I was not going to lose this job over her, so she had to back off.”
“Damn! Proud of you, sugar.”
Rolling her eyes, Becca snuggled into her blanket, exhaustion seeping through her. “I feel like I can finally catch my breath.”
“I bet you do.” Drew trailed fingers up and down Becca’s back in a soothing motion.
It had been a good week, even though it had been busy, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever catch up on her sleep again. She’d done what she wanted, accomplished what she’d needed, and life finally felt like it was clicking into place. With Drew sitting next to her, it wasn’t long before Becca found herself back asleep in the comfort of her best friend’s home.
Chapter Twenty
She’d signed up to teach in the classroom for one day and had been agonizing over it for the previous two weeks. It was stupid. Kimberly was not a teacher, and she certainly wasn’t a parent who entirely enjoyed small children either. Michael was the exception to the rule. Other than that, she wanted nothing to do with small kids running amok.
In the midst of her crisis of working ever
y waking hour to avoid thinking about Becca, she had agreed to teach the kids in Michael’s class how to make Thanksgiving cookies. It’d been a month or so since the open house, and she and Becca had managed to keep everything very professional, but now they’d be stuck in a classroom in close quarters together for hours.
Her nerves had been on high alert since she’d agreed to the project. Apparently, it had been Becca’s idea, since in class they had been talking all about different Thanksgiving traditions. Sighing, Kimberly loaded up the supplies she needed into the back of her SUV and headed for the school. She was supposed to arrive at lunch and set up while the kids were eating, then bake with them for most of the afternoon.
It would all happen in the span of two or three hours—ones when she’d be very close to Becca and she’d have to be on her best behavior. As she slid behind the driver’s seat, panic set in. She started the ignition and focused on driving as carefully as possible, still avoiding what she’d agreed to as best as she could.
Once parked, Kimberly had no other option. She pulled the tote of supplies from the back of her car and hit the button under the bumper with her foot to have the rear door shut. She waddled, carrying the heavy tote with both hands, to Michael’s classroom. Luckily, the door opened just as she was about to reach it, Becca holding it open for her as she entered.
“Is that everything, or do you have more in your car?”
“This is it,” Kimberly answered. She set the tote down onto one of the tables and stretched out her back. “Remind me next time to make two trips. That was a bit much.”
“Gladly.” Becca flashed her a wide grin while she turned to pull out the items they needed. “I figure we’ll have the kids mix and what-not at the tables. Then we can set up the cookie sheets back here where I can run them to and from the ovens.”
“Sounds good.” Kimberly thinned her lips, not quite wanting to tell Becca she’d already thought this through—well, more than three dozen times. They were going to have close to sixty dozen cookies to make, but they could do it. “I have two kinds of cookies for the kids. Pumpkin snickerdoodles and some sugar cookies with candy for decorations. We’ll do the sugar cookies first, then the pumpkin ones, then we can decorate while the pumpkin ones cook then pack them up for the kids to take them home.”
“That’s a lot.” Becca eyed the room like she was debating if it was achievable.
“I know, but I think it’s doable. The decoration will keep them entertained while they wait for the pumpkin cookies to come out, and it only took Michael about thirty minutes to make them without assistance.”
Becca shrugged. “I guess. They’ll have fun either way.”
“Yes, they will. Did you happen to clean the desks yet?” After Becca nodded, Kimberly grabbed the measuring cups she had brought and set them out at each pair of tables, where two students would be working together. She’d brought sixteen sets of everything. Becca picked up what she was doing and followed suit, setting everything at the tables so it was all ready to go.
Kimberly then evenly divided the flour and different sugars into smaller containers for each grouping of tables to use and set them next to the measuring cups. That way they could still measure to learn but it wouldn’t be a fight over one giant bag, and they wouldn’t have too much extra to make messes. She took out the first grouping of small containers she’d gotten from Gamma’s and put them on each table as well. Each one held the small dry ingredients such as baking soda and salt.
She was pleased with how she’d managed to plan it all out and make it so that it would work easily for a bunch of five- and six-year-olds. The bell ringing surprised her, and she jumped. Becca grinned at her. “It took me months to get used to that, and it still surprises me sometimes. The kids should be coming back, so we only have a few more minutes of quiet.”
“All right.” Kimberly hurried her pace to finish setting out the items they would need. “Will you have all the kids wash their hands before they sit down?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good.” Kimberly put her hands on her hips and surveyed the classroom. “I think we’re set then.”
Becca nodded as Miss Knorr opened the door with a line of students behind her. Becca didn’t hesitate and stepped right up to give directions to the kids. She moved over to the head of the line and clapped her hands once, then twice. The kids copied her, and once she had all their attention, she spoke.
“Now, remember when I told you we had a special guest coming to teach us something this afternoon? Well, she is here, but before you sit down, I need you to do two things for me. I need you to get in a line and each of you wash your hands very well, then when you sit down, do not touch anything at your desk.”
“Yes, Miss Kline,” Kimberly heard as the students eagerly tried to look around her into the room.
As soon as Becca let the kids inside, Kimberly could hear the ooo’s and ahhh’s as they saw what was about to happen. Michael waved at her as he entered but dutifully stayed in his line to wash his hands at the sink in the back of the room. Kimberly’s stomach twisted again, but she knew when she focused on the cookies and not on Becca, she would be in better shape and not as nervous.
Once all the students were seated, Becca gave her a small introduction then let Kimberly take it from there. Miss Knorr sat in the back corner of the classroom at her desk, observing and taking notes. Kimberly knew that as soon as they got into the actual baking, she was likely to join in the fray.
“Hey, everyone. As Miss Kline said, I am a chef, and what that means is when you go out to eat at a restaurant, I’m the one in the back, cooking up your food. You don’t see chefs a lot because we’re always in the kitchen, but we’re there working on whatever it is you ordered to eat. Miss Kline asked me here today to teach you all how to bake some cookies for Thanksgiving. I know in a lot of families we have big feasts with lots of family and friends who come over to share in one big meal, right?” The kids nodded their heads. “Well, this is one of the things we like to eat in our family. We like to eat cookies. How many of you like cookies?”
Hands shot into the air.
“Then let’s get started, because I’m not sure I can wait any longer to make cookies. We’re going to make two kinds today, one you can decorate and one is just really good and my favorite. Let’s start with the first one.”
They spent the next forty minutes making sugar cookies. There was flour and sugar almost everywhere, but Kimberly was smiling and so was Becca when she risked a glance in her direction. Once they had the sugar cookies in circles and on parchment paper, Kimberly dragged them off to the sheet pans to prepare for baking. She wrote each kid’s name on the paper associated with the ones they’d made so she could bring them back later.
Becca took the cookies to the ovens while Kimberly helped the kids clean up then set up for the next round. She had them come up to her two at a time and grab the necessary items. Once everyone was in place, Kimberly explained the directions one at a time. As she explained, the kids followed her instructions and added the right items in the right order.
All in all, everything went as planned. Once the kids were down to rolling the dough in the sugar and pressing them down with their tiny fists, Kimberly was ready to be done. She was just setting up the next rolling cart for Becca to take when she came back with the first cookies still warm.
Kimberly helped the kids clean up, then set out the candy corn for the feathers, the edible eyes and some frosting to glue everything on. She unloaded the cookies on the correct tables and let the kids have at it in their own decorating style after showing them a few of her and Michael’s examples. When Becca came back with the pumpkin snickerdoodles, the kids were done decorating and starting the process of packing up their cookies in the to-go containers Kimberly had brought.
With all the baking said and done, Kimberly glanced at the clock to realize that the school day was about finished. Becca stood in front of the class and clapped her hands to get their attention. Onc
e they all repeated her claps—this time it took her up to five—Becca smiled.
“We’ve got to clean up, you guys, and our time is running short! You know what that means? It means we need to be efficient. Who can tell me what ‘efficient’ means?”
One small girl raised her hand.
“Victoria.”
“It means we have to work really well and really good and fast.”
“Yes, but not super-fast. We don’t want to accidentally make an even bigger mess, do we?” She shook her head. “Right, so I want you to each grab a washcloth and clean up your tables and your chairs. Wash your hands too, if you need to. Don’t worry about the floor.”
The kids moved swiftly and in order. Kimberly was in awe of the command Becca had over them. They listened to her so easily. Becca cleaned up what she could with the utensils Kimberly had brought, but Kimberly stopped her. “I’ll just take them home and do it there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Rather, I’ll take it to Gamma’s and have the dishwashers do it. I pay them enough as it is, and all this stuff is from there anyway.”
Becca laughed. “I guess that makes sense.”
Kimberly piled the dirty bowls, measuring cups, whisks, spatulas and leftover ingredients back into her tote. Before she was done, the bell rang and the students all looked at Becca.
“If your table is clean, you may grab your backpack and head out to your parents, the bus or the playground to wait.”
It was as if she had said magic words. The energy in the room doubled, and the kids were everywhere. As soon as they were all gone except for Michael, Kimberly sighed. The room was eerily quiet. Miss Knorr stood up. “I have bus duty, so I’m going to have to leave you to clean up.”
“I’ll see you in a bit,” Becca answered as she waved her off.
Michael tugged on Kimberly’s shirt to get her attention. When she looked down at him, he smiled. “Can I go play until you’re done?”
“Yes, you may. Thank you for asking so nicely.”
Love Burns Page 22