Forever Bound (2 page)

“Thanks for the advice.” He sounded slightly—just slightly—sarcastic.

Frustrated with the entire situation, I walked quickly out of the room without really looking at his face again.

I felt flustered and confused, and I wasn’t used to feeling that way. My life since Nick had died had been simple. Straightforward. Revolving around teaching and Lily.

I hadn’t had any sort of physical reaction to a man since Nick, which was why it was so upsetting to feel breathless and overly warm right now. When I didn’t even like this man.

When I returned to my classroom, I make a conscious effort to brush Declan from my mind.

After all, I certainly wanted there to be the possibility of romance in my life in the future, but if I was going to do be attracted to a man again, it would absolutely not be to a man like Declan Curtis.

Declan

“Why
,
Miss Andrews
,
I do believe you were checking up on me.”

Of course there wasn’t anyone here to hear me say it
,
but there it was. When she first walked in
,
I was pleasantly surprised. Kristin Andrews was…cute. I wasn’t blown away by her looks or anything, but she had seemed genuinely sincere when she walked in.

Boy
,
did that change.

I was a fairly good judge of people—I could pick up on body language pretty easily—and that woman was going to be a thorn in my side. I could already feel it. It wasn’t only the things that she’d said, but the way she’d said them.

Okay, so maybe, just
maybe
, I was a little out of my element here, but it had only been a day. One damn day. Couldn’t she cut me some slack? Did she already need to come into my classroom and look down at me?

That thought made me laugh because she was easily five or six inches shorter than me—and that was while she was wearing heels. Sensible heels. I cringed. Yeah, she was going to be making regular appearances here in the classroom to check on me
,
especially since her daughter…crap. What the hell was the kid’s name? Lisa? Laura? Lilah? Lily? Yes, Lily.
Whew.

So now not only did I have my job to do protecting my child-client. I also had to be watching over my shoulder for Kristin and her kid. I snorted with disgust. The kid had ratted me out, no doubt. Why couldn’t she just be happy? Hell, when I was in school, we used to love the days when there was a substitute. Non-stop playtime and coloring…it was every kid’s dream.

Apparently not Lily Andrews, though.

Shit.

The next time I saw Levi, I was going to personally kick him in the throat. This case was so not my thing, and I really didn’t have the time or the patience to deal with snooping parents who wanted to pass judgment on me and how I was running this classroom.

Although, looking around, it was kind of a mess in here. It was too early in the morning for this kind of nonsense. There were books all over the floor, crayons seemingly scattered everywhere
,
and a ton of shredded paper. Where did all that come from?

I shook my head to clear it and felt my glasses begin to slide. Crap. I had forgotten about them. I thought they made me look a little more studious. They were completely fake—non-prescription and whatnot—but I thought that they might help me in my “role” of teacher.

There were voices out in the hallway, and I knew that my time was up. It was time to get on with the day and figure out how the hell I was supposed to act like I belonged here. My desk was covered in folders and notes from Eileen Bradbury to help me out, but I hadn’t even bothered to look at them. It was first freaking grade! Why did I need all this information?

“Hi, Mr. Curtis!”

I looked up and saw one of the kids walk in. I was completely stumped on who it was. I knew she was here yesterday, and she wasn’t the kid I was assigned to protect, but her name was a complete blank to me. I could feel myself starting to sweat as the kid put her backpack on her assigned hook and then put her hands on her hips and stared at me with the same judgmental look I had seen only minutes ago.

“Good morning, Lily,” I said. I knew that the kid was going to be just as big of a thorn as her mother.

***

An hour later I had pretty much gotten the room back in shape. I made a game out of it and let the kids rack up some bonus stars on their behavior chart—whatever the hell that was—and soon everything looked like it had when I arrived yesterday.

Lily’s hand was up
,
and she was practically bouncing in her seat.

“Yes, Lily,” I said, trying to sound patient
.

“Are we going to work on our math now? Mrs. Bradbury always starts the day with our math assignment.”

There were several groans from the other students
,
and I could tell that no one—other than Lily—was going to be upset if we left the math for later. “Actually, no. Since you guys just did a super job getting the room cleaned up, I figured you’d be a little worn out. Now we’re going to…um…we’re going to…read. Yeah. Everyone find a book and let’s have some reading time. Quiet reading time.”

“But…” Lily said out loud.

I was about to turn around and go over to my desk
,
but I did my best to smile sweetly at the kid. “I heard that you enjoy reading,” I said, remembering her mother’s comments from earlier. “Don’t you want to spend some time honing your reading skills?”

“Honing? What’s that?” she asked quizzically.

“Uh…I’m sure there’s a dictionary in here somewhere. Why don’t you look it up?” Geez, why couldn’t this kid just be quiet like everyone else. All of the other kids had their books out and were reading already.

“But what about math?” she asked
.

Now my patience really was wearing thin. I walked over to her desk and crouched down so we were eye level. “Look, Lily,” I began, “I’m still going through Mrs. Bradbury’s stuff. Things are going to be a little different in here now. I’m the teacher, and we’ll do things when I think we need to. Okay?”

She looked up at me with that expression again, and I couldn’t believe that I was sitting here explaining myself to a kid. Levi was so getting his ass kicked.

Standing up, I walked over to my desk and contemplated going through some of the work that Eileen had left for me. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw the newspaper. I hadn’t had a chance to read it this morning thanks to Kristin Andrews’s inspection.

The kids were all sitting quietly
,
and for now there was peace in the land. There was a schedule taped to the wall
,
and I could see that in thirty minutes they had P.E. and then after that they had art. Awesome! With any luck, I could get through the sports section and then send the kids on their way and have an hour to myself to get my shit together.

I didn’t know what I was expecting when I went over this assignment with the guys. I mean, I knew I’d be playing the part of a substitute teacher
,
but I didn’t think I was actually going to be expected to
do
anything—like teaching.

Maybe I would go over the notes while the kids were gone from the classroom
,
and by the time they got back, I could actually do something that they’re expecting. Like math.

I chuckled to myself.

First grade math. How the hell hard could that be?

***

Mrs. Hilt met fifteen friends. Nine of the friends were carrying pears. The rest were carrying oranges. How many friends were carrying oranges?

My head was still spinning. I must have read that question out loud about a dozen times, and I had no idea how to explain it to the kids. Most of them looked at me blankly, and after finally telling them to use their fingers, I had given up.

Then Lily had pointed out that they couldn’t use their fingers because they didn’t have fifteen fingers.

The kid was going to be the death of me.

Thank God, I wasn’t here to protect her because I might be tempted to turn the other way and let the chips fall where they may.

I was not well. I had to get out of here and figure out how I was going to survive this assignment. School was out for the day—finally—and luckily I didn’t have another visit from an inquisitive parent. I scanned the classroom on my way out, and it was a disaster again, but I just couldn’t make myself care.

Escape.

I needed to escape and find a way out of this nightmare.

Sprinting across the parking lot, I almost collapsed with relief when I got in my car and closed the door. I was done for the day. No more kids. No more questions. No more math problems.

My phone rang almost immediately, and I was more than ready to give everyone an earful. But I decided to at least wait until Levi was done with his greeting. Barely.

“How’s everybody…?”

“I’m gonna kick your fucking ass, man,” I snapped, effectively cutting him off. “I can’t believe that you put me on this case!”

“Okay, I believe Declan has the floor,” Levi said wearily. “Is everyone here?”

Sebastian and Cole both chuckled their response, and I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle them. I couldn’t believe that they have the balls to laugh right now. “Do you have any idea what the hell I’m dealing with here?”

“Not really,” Levi said. “But I’m sure you’re about to tell us. So why don’t you just get on with it.”

Where did I even begin? “Are any of you aware of what the average first grader has to learn these days?” I didn’t wait for any answers. “It’s insane! The list of stuff that I’m expected to go through with them is fucking crazy! And, on top of that, I just got handed some sort of sign-up sheet for a Christmas pageant! A Christmas pageant! I don’t even know what the hell that is, but apparently all of the teachers are expected to contribute something that they prepare with their class!”

“You mean like a picture?” Cole asked, barely containing his mirth.

“No, douchebag, I’m talking like a song or something.” I was so fucking screwed that I couldn’t even stand it. “I don’t understand all of the instructions that this teacher left for me. The kids don’t understand anything that I say. The classroom is a mess, and I’ve got parents starting to breathe down my neck.”

I was practically out of breath by the time I spit all that out. “You’ve got to get someone else to do this, Levi. I’m serious. This is so not my thing.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that,” Levi said. “Let’s put playing teacher aside for a minute and talk to me about our clients. Have you met with them?”

I sighed. Loudly. “I met with them over the weekend. Jackson Vanderhall, age forty-five. He and his trophy-wife are currently in a custody battle over their daughter. Their divorce isn’t final yet because of the custody issue.”

“What’s holding it up?” Cole asked. “I mean, I know this is a custody case, but I don’t see how this involves us.”

“Mrs. Vanderhall—also known as Mitzi—was a teenage beauty queen. Jackson married her when she was nineteen and she was pregnant at twenty. Since their daughter’s birth, Mitzi has been obsessive about the kid following in her footsteps.”

“I’m still not seeing…”

“The kid doesn’t want to do it, Jackson doesn’t want her doing it, but the mom hasn’t listened. She puts the kid in pageants whenever and wherever she can without Jackson’s consent.”

“Hey, maybe they can help you with the Christmas pageant,” Sebastian joked.

“Fuck you,” I growled. “Anyway, there’s more.” I really hated this shit. “There have been allegations of abuse.”

“By which spouse?” Cole asked.

“Jackson is saying that his wife has become physically abusive to the kid when she complains about being in the pageants. Right now there was enough physical evidence to get a judge to rule on supervised visitations, but Jackson’s afraid that Mitzi’s going to try and steal the kid. That’s why I’m here at the school. I have to keep an eye on her and make sure that no one comes near her except her father.”

“Why only at school? Why aren’t we doing this full time?” Sebastian asked.

“They have someone at home and have security in place. They needed someone here to blend in and not raise any suspicion.”

“Right,” Cole said dryly. “Because you blend.”

“Okay, enough,” Levi said. “So have you seen anything at school yet? Anything that looks amiss?”

“No. Actually, the kid hasn’t been in the last two days. Jackson took her to Disney for a week, and she’ll be back tomorrow. I was supposed to use these days to get used to the whole classroom thing.”

“Which you’re not having any luck with,” Cole said.

“You think?” I said sarcastically and then tried to relax. “I am so out of my comfort zone here, guys. I…I really don’t think I can do this. There’s like twenty-four kids in the class, and I’m expected to remember their names. It took me a year to remember your names, and there’s only three of you!”

“You’re panicking, that’s all,” Levi said calmly. “It will get easier. You need to just try and calm down. Have you remembered any of their names?”

“Well…yeah. There’s…Kenny. He eats paste. And Monica. She wears the most obnoxious hair bows.”

“When did hair bows get obnoxious?” Cole laughed.

“You’re really starting to piss me off,” I snarled. “And then there’s the kid I’m here for.”

Levi chuckled.

“What? What’s so funny?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“Say it. Say her name,” Levi said, and I knew that he was probably biting his own fist to keep from laughing. “Come on. Prove to us that you have her name memorized.”

Shit. “Jessileigh,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry,” Sebastian said, humor lacing his voice. “What was that?”