He was at the end of the last presentation in a second grade class. He’d moved on to questions with Janie calling on various children whose hands flew up.
“You’re up, Nate,” Janie called, gesturing to a little boy who almost matched Danny with his wiggling in his seat.
Nate smiled and looked from Janie to Travis. “How many fires do you put out a week?” he asked.
Travis tapped his index finger on his chin and shrugged. “It’s different every week. Sometimes the fire station goes weeks without responding to an actual fire. Remember, we’re emergency responders too, so we get called to all kinds of emergencies, not just fires.”
Nate nodded solemnly and bit the inside of his cheek. His eyes bounced from Travis to Janie and back again. “Do you like Ms. Stevens?”
His next question startled Travis, both that Nate asked such a question and that he was so prescient. Because the truth was spending a whole day with Janie was testing the limits of his control. It was safe to say Travis liked Janie… a lot. An elementary school was a decidedly not good place to have the hots for anyone, but Travis’s body had been on notice all day around Janie. Her dark hair was pushed back behind a headband with her hazel eyes bright. She was dressed practically in jeans and a button down blouse. Her curvy body filled out her jeans. He had to remind himself to keep his eyes away from the shadowed valley between her generous breasts. By no means were they on display, but there wasn’t much she could do unless she wore a giant bag to hide her lush curves. He felt heat rise within, the whip of lust lashing at him, and tried to ignore it.
He could feel Janie’s gaze on him. He gathered himself and met Nate’s gaze, which held a small gleam. “Of course I like Ms. Stevens. Don’t you?” he countered, aiming for a casual tone in his response.
Nate nodded emphatically. “She was my favorite teacher last year!”
Janie chuckled and arched a brow. “I bet you love Mrs. Davis this year too, right?”
Another emphatic nod from Nate, and Janie promptly called on the last hand held high. Not much later, she walked Travis down the hall. “Do you need to check in with Principal Turner before you go?” she asked.
“Don’t think so. She said she’d be in meetings the rest of the day.”
Janie nodded and kept walking until they reached the main entrance to the school. “Well, you’re done. You’d better get going before the last bell rings. Between the buses and the stampede of kids, you might get trapped.”
She looked up at him when she spoke. He heard her words, but didn’t quite absorb them. All he could think about was what it might be like to kiss her bright pink lips. Her lips were as lush as the rest of her. She had a small dimple in the center of her bottom lip, and he wanted… Holy hell. He wanted all kinds of things, every single one of them absolutely naughty given where they were. He looked down into her hazel eyes and his question surprised him.
“Don’t suppose I could take you out to dinner?”
Her breath hitched, her lips parting just slightly, and her eyes widened. For a few beats, she didn’t speak. She gave her head a little shake. “Um, I…” Another shake of her head. “I suppose…yes.” Her last word came out with force, and she looked startled once she spoke.
He didn’t care to ponder her hesitation at the moment. “Okay, how about tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow?” Her eyes were still wide and surprise lingered in them.
“For dinner.”
She held still for another long moment before nodding slowly. “Okay. Um, I don’t…” She paused and took a deep breath, a look of resignation passing over her face. “I don’t really date much. Should I give you my number or something? Should I meet you somewhere?”
“How about your give me your number, and I’ll pick you up?”
Her creamy cheeks went pink. “Okay.” She quickly recited her number, which he punched into his phone. He sensed she might back out, so he didn’t want to give her time to do so.
“Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon.” The bell rang, and he gave a wave. “I’d better run.”
Once he was outside, he jogged down the stairs and to his truck. He turned to look at the entrance and saw Janie standing there, looking out through the glass doors.
Chapter 3
“Stella! Where’s your homework?” Janie called out as she strode through the kitchen.
She heard a door open and close and then footsteps pounding down the stairs. Stella sprinted off the bottom of the stairs and past Janie. “I’m doing it now!” she declared as she skidded to a stop by her backpack sitting on a bench by the kitchen door.
Janie continued past the stairs to the laundry room. Her home was a cozy Cape style home. She purchased it before she adopted Stella, but she’d always had an extra bedroom because she’d been a foster parent for several years before Stella landed with her. She liked her house because the downstairs was more open than most Cape homes. The staircase was centered in the middle of the downstairs with the kitchen and dining room on one side and a living room on the other. The area connecting the garage to the home held a bathroom and laundry room. There were no walls separating the rooms with the staircase serving as a natural divider. Tall windows were along every wall and offered a view of Kachemak Bay from the hillside where the home was situated above downtown Diamond Creek.
Stella had been placed with Janie in foster care on a rainy winter night. She’d been removed from her father’s care not long after her mother died of an accidental heroin overdose. Before she’d been placed in foster care, Stella’s parents had been well known to child protection. There had been years of reports about drug abuse and the condition of the home. After Stella’s mother died, her father didn’t lift a finger to change things and drifted in and out of jail. He didn’t fight Stella’s removal and never once showed up in court for the hearings. Janie had taken one look at Stella with her guarded brown eyes and felt her heart crack open—all she wanted was to make sure Stella knew she deserved to be loved. At first, Stella was a bit like a cactus—prickly and bristly. She’d slowly warmed up. When Stella’s state social worker asked Janie if she’d be willing to adopt Stella, there had been absolutely no hesitation for Janie. She loved Stella through and through, and wanted nothing more than to make sure Stella knew family was what you made it. It took Stella months to decide she wanted to be adopted. Without her therapist there to help her walk through it, Janie wasn’t sure Stella could have allowed herself to believe anyone could love her.
Janie pulled the laundry out of the washer and tossed it in the dryer before returning to the kitchen. Stella was leaning over the counter, her feet hooked around the legs of a stool as she carefully completed math problems. The deal with homework was it had to be done by five in the evening. Janie had quickly discovered Stella needed clear expectations to get anything done. The first six months or so, she’d fought against any expectation because she’d never had them. Yet, now she generally went along with them. Janie didn’t nag, but expected Stella’s completed homework to be in a folder at the end of the counter. If it wasn’t there, Janie checked with Stella.
Janie gave Stella’s shoulder a squeeze as she stepped past her to the stove where she put a teakettle on to boil. While Stella quietly completed her homework, Janie prepped a quick dinner of salmon pie, a favorite of Stella’s. While she cooked, Janie’s mind wandered to Travis. Well, if she was being honest, she’d had a hard time not thinking about him after spending most of the day with him. Watching him graciously field inquisitive, random, and occasionally silly questions from kids all day long had only endeared him to her. Aside from the fact he was a quintessential rugged, sexy guy, he was kind and patient even when he sometimes looked as if he wanted to run and hide. She had no idea what to do about the fact she’d agreed to have dinner with him. She hadn’t been on a date in years. She tried to remember the last date she’d had and kept coming up blank.
She didn’t tend to think about men because it made her think too much about her own past. With a mental shake, she focused her attention on pinching the edges of the pastry around the small pies. Half of her wanted to back out of dinner with Travis, while the other half of her was all but stomping its feet at that idea. It’s about damn time you went on a date. You can’t keep letting the past hold you back. Not all men are bad. She physically shook her head, trying to shove those thoughts away. A problem she hadn’t considered was what to tell Stella. Conveniently, tomorrow night was piano recital practice for Stella, and she was already planning to spend the night at a friend’s house afterwards. Janie could easily have her dinner date and never bother to mention it to Stella. Yet, Janie didn’t want to avoid what should be an open topic.
She slid the salmon pies into the oven and set the timer. Stella put her pencil down and slipped her homework into its folder. “Guess I don’t need to bother leaving this here since you saw me do it, huh?” Stella asked with a grin.