Busted (4 page)

He eased into the crowded parking lot of the only elementary
school in town. All of the little boys and girls looked happy and excited as
they bounded through the doors, ready to take on the challenges ahead.

“I’m sure she will be, honey.” He couldn’t very well tell
his seven-year-old daughter that he knew her new teacher
intimately
.
“You just be a good girl, like we talked about, and you and your teacher will
get along just fine.”

“I can’t wait to see all my friends again.” She pouted. “I
just wish Stacey could be in my class this year.” Stacey was his daughter’s best
friend, and both little girls were devastated to learn they would have to
settle for seeing each other during recess and lunch breaks.

“Don’t worry about it,” Cole said, climbing out of the
truck. He unfastened Cassidy’s seat belt and lifted her down, setting her on
the ground. “You girls will still see each other plenty.”

She looked positively angelic with those soft blond curls
and big, blue eyes. He knew it wouldn’t be long before all the little boys were
beating a path to their door. Just the thought of losing his little girl made
his gut clench. She was the only person he’d ever loved more than himself, the
only person he would consider sacrificing his own happiness for.

“Are you sure I look okay?” she asked, frowning as she
looked down at the soft pink jeans with matching pink sweater. She wrinkled her
little nose. “Maybe I should’ve worn the white sweater instead.”

God help him. He was ill-equipped to deal with so many of
his daughter’s problems. He was grateful he had a mother to lean on, but he
knew Cassidy would start to yearn for the mother she’d lost before long.
Cassidy was only two when her mama died, so she didn’t remember much about her.
Cole didn’t know if that was a blessing or a curse. He still kept a framed
photo of his wife by his daughter’s bedside to remind her that her mama was up
in Heaven, watching over her, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Ever since she
started school, she commented about her friends’ mothers, and he knew she
wished for a mama to call her own.

“You look beautiful, baby.” He reached into the truck for
her brightly colored backpack and helped settle the straps on her shoulders.
Reaching for her hand, he asked, “You ready to do this, Princess?”

She shrugged, looking a little scared and uncertain. “I
guess so.”

His daughter was rarely apprehensive about trying new
things, but he suspected every kid experienced butterflies on the first day of
school. “You’ll be fine once you get settled. Come on, let’s go. We don’t want
to be late.”  

Cassidy squeezed his hand as they walked toward the double
doors. With only a few hundred students, the school was small. Every time Cole
walked through the steel doors and saw the peeling paint, he thought he really
should talk to the principal about making a donation, but he never seemed to
get around to it.

Real estate had been good to him. He started small,
investing when he was young, and by the time he turned thirty, he owned enough
properties to ensure he never had to work another day in his life unless he
chose to. Then he got the call from his mama. She needed him to help her run
the ranch, or she would be forced to sell it. Since she didn’t want to consider
that option, Cole did the only thing he could: he packed up his daughter and
committed to being a rancher in a small town.

Most days, he enjoyed his new life, but days like this, when
his mistakes threatened to come back and bite him, he wished for the anonymity
that came with living in a big city. Back home, he could have a one-night stand
and never worry about seeing her again, unless he chose to. But things were
different in Brant County. Here, everyone knew everyone else’s business, and if
you wanted to keep a secret, you had to put on an award-winning performance to
hide the truth.

They rounded the corner into a cheerful-looking classroom
already buzzing with excitement.

Charlene was bent over a desk, talking to a little girl, and
a shot of lust had Cole buzzing with excitement too. Seeing her like that
reminded him of the last time he’d had her bent over, begging him to fill her…

As though she sensed his eyes on her, she turned around. Smiling
when she looked at him seemed to take supreme effort, but as soon as her eyes
fell to his daughter, her enthusiasm was genuine. “Well, hello there,” she said
to Cassidy as she walked toward them. “And who might you be?”

Cole rolled his eyes. As if she didn’t know. He had to hand
it to her. A casual observer would never guess they had once engaged in hot, no-holds-barred
sex under the clear night sky. He hated that she seemed able to hold it
together while he was losing his mind over her.  

“My name’s Cassidy Braxton,” she said quietly, looking down
at the denim running shoes with bright pink laces.

Charlene crouched down so she and Cassidy were at eye level
and something in Cole snapped. Seeing her on her knees in front of him had his
mind wandering to places it had no business going. Especially not in front of
his daughter.

“That’s such a pretty name,” Charlene said, smiling. She offered
her hand. “And I’m Miss McCoy. I’m really excited to be here; how about you?”

Cassidy bit her lip. “I guess so.”

“We’re gonna have a great year, I just know it.” Charlene
stood up and pointed to one of the desks in the middle row. “That one is yours.
Why don’t you get settled? We’re going to get started in just a few minutes.”

Cole was aware of several mothers hovering with their
children at the front of the classroom, obviously waiting to greet the new
teacher. He offered his hand with a wicked glint in his eye, daring her to shun
him in front of their audience. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Miss McCoy.”

She hesitated a fraction of a second before she slipped her
hand into his and looked up into his eyes. She squared her shoulders, obviously
trying to send him the message that she wasn’t intimidated by him in the least.
If not for the hitch in her breath when he caressed her wrist, he may have
actually believed her.

“You as well.” She withdrew her hand from his, running her
palm down the length of her black skirt. “I’m sure Cassidy will be fine now.
Don’t let us keep you.”

Cole began to think having Miss Charlene McCoy as his
daughter’s teacher was the best thing that had happened to him in at least a
year.

Charlene struggled to catch her breath as she tried not to
watch Cole leave the room. Everything about him was big, menacing, and
over-bearing. At well over six feet tall, he seemed to effortlessly dominate
every room he was in and everyone in it. She shivered when she thought about
how she’d let him dominate her that night. Bent over her car, in plain sight,
where anyone driving by could see them. Okay, so Cole’s ranch was at the end of
a dead end street on several thousand acres, but that wasn’t the point. She
risked her reputation and her dignity for a quickie with a man who proved
himself unworthy of the risk. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

He was one of the main reasons she’d thought about refusing
the school’s offer and moving to the city. Just the thought of facing him again
was humiliating, but this was
her
hometown, and she’d be damned if she
let him run her off as though she was the one who wronged him. Sleeping with
him was obviously a mistake, but she was only human; she was entitled to make a
few. The important thing was to forgive herself, forget about it, and move on.
So far, she struggled with all three, and she feared seeing him every weekday
for the next ten months might make it impossible.  

“He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?” Lynda Connor whispered, following
her eyes to the door Cole had just passed through.

She and Lynda had gone to high school together, and while
they weren’t the best of friends, they were always friendly acquaintances. Getting
caught ogling one of her students’ fathers was embarrassing, even if Lynda, who
was supposed to be happily married, was doing the same. “It’s nice to see you,
Lynda,” Charlene said, pasting a smile on her face. “How was your summer?”

“Same old, same old.” She sighed heavily. “You know how it
is around here, Charlene. Not much ever changes.”

That was true, but Charlene was starting to believe that
danger and excitement wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, especially if a
certain broad-shouldered cowboy was the one offering to shake things up. She
just needed a nice normal man to make her stop thinking about all this nonsense
with Cole. Someone she would be proud to take home to her parents. She’d start
thinking about her prospects, putting some feelers out there, just as soon as
she settled into a nice routine at work. Maybe one of the teachers at the
school had a single brother or friend…

“Are you happy to be back?” Lynda asked, pulling her from
her musings.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, there’s not much goin’ on around
here.”

Charlene turned her attention to Lynda’s son, a dark haired,
wide-eyed terror the grade one teacher had warned her about. “You must be
Charlie.” She offered her hand and smiled when the little boy looked at her skeptically.
“I’m Miss McCoy.”

“I know who you are,” he said, crossing his arms.

Lynda nudged her son. “Go on, shake Miss McCoy’s hand.”

“I don’t want to.”

Lynda blushed and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. It looks
like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

Charlene knew how he felt. She was starting to feel that way
herself. Of course, if she’d had a certain sexy cowboy crowding the other side
of her bed, she might feel differently. Damn Cole Braxton… what was it going to
take to erase the memory of that one night?   

Never before had Cole counted down the hours until he could
pick Cassidy up from school. In fact, he usually had to set the alarm on his
watch to remind him in case the three fifteen dismissal slipped his mind when
he got busy tending to his daily duties on the ranch. But today, he was parked
in front of the school watching the agonizing seconds tick by until he could
see
her
again. She taunted him all day, slipping into his mind when he
should be working.

It had been like that in the days after their night together
too. He couldn’t get her out of his head. Then he asked the owner of the bar,
Dixie, if she knew anything about some girl named Charlene. He told her she’d
been in with her girlfriends and proceeded to recite off the names of her
companions. Dixie informed him that Charlene McCoy was a hometown girl who’d
gone away to school.
McCoy
. Cole put the pieces together quickly and
realized that the woman he took was the little sister of one of his closest
friends, a local cop named Jake McCoy.

Cole winced just thinking about what his friend would say if
he found out how his so-called friend had treated his precious sister that
night. Now that Cole knew about the family connection, he hung on Jake’s every word
when their tight-knit group of friends met at Dixie’s for beers. He hoped to
glean information about Charlene. Was she involved with anyone? Planning a
visit home? Was she happy… well… lonely? He finally hit pay dirt last spring
when Jake mentioned his little sister was planning to move home and accept a
position teaching second grade at the elementary school. He had counted down
the days ever since.

As Cole got out of his truck, he exchanged greetings with a
few of the other parents waiting for their kids. He usually parked in the
pick-up line and waited for Cassidy to come out, but today was different. He
reasoned it was because it was his daughter’s first day, but there was only one
reason he was venturing inside:
Charlene
.

At the start of the day, he’d dreaded her reaction to seeing
him, but now that they got the first meeting out of the way, he relished the
thought of seeing her every day. He sensed she was unique during the brief time
they spent together. She was so responsive, so brave when he asked her to take
a chance on him. He hadn’t responded to a woman like that in… Hell, who was he
trying to kid? He never responded to a woman like that in his life.

Cole waited outside the classroom until some of the kids
started to wander into the hall. He spotted Cassidy at her desk. When Charlene
crouched down beside the small desk, smiling at a picture his daughter had
drawn, Cole’s heart expanded in a way he never expected. Whenever he’d thought
about her in the past, he imagined what would happen if they were allowed to
pick up where they left off. But today he saw her in a different light. He saw
how good she was with the kids, especially his daughter.

Cassidy looked up and smiled when she saw him. “Hi, Daddy, I
didn’t know you’d come in to get me today. I thought you’d wait out in the car,
like always.”

Leave it to a seven year-old to blow his cover. “I, uh, just
wanted to make sure you didn’t forget anything.”

Charlene smirked as she stood and smoothed her straight
black skirt. His feeble excuse obviously hadn’t fooled her. “I think she has
everything she needs,” she said, pointing to the small pile of books on her
desk.

“Daddy, look! We’re goin’ to Chester’s farm on Friday.” She
bounded out of her seat and ran toward him, clutching a sheet of white paper in
her hand. “They want parents to come too. Can you come?” She pressed her palms
together and batted her eyelashes at him. “Please, please, please?”

“Cassidy, you shouldn’t pressure your father into
volunteering,” Charlene said, walking around the room, straightening chairs.
“I’m sure plenty of other parents will be willing to come with us to
supervise.” She stole a glance at Cole before bending to pick up a scrap piece
of paper.

He tried not to notice when her royal blue blouse gaped at
the neckline, but he was only human. Any man in his position would have done
the same. He looked down into his daughter’s eyes and felt like a cad for
letting his mind wander in front of her. Ruffling her soft curls, he said,
“Count me in, Princess.”