Trouble Me: A Rosewood Novel (29 page)

“I don’t know. I’m not convinced it would have prevented much that happened, especially since I was hell-bent on making dumb decisions at every opportunity.” Dismissing the subject with a shrug, she summoned a grin. “Thank God I’m so mature and responsible now. Not even Rob Cooper’s presence or, for that matter, Christy Harrison’s is going to faze me on tomorrow’s outing.”

“What! Jade Radcliffe, how dare you hold out on us
like this? Why is this the first we’ve heard of Rob and Christy accompanying the class?” Margot cried.

“I’ve been trying really hard not to think about it, that’s why. Denial is a river in Egypt. I also get to have Deirdre Cerra’s mom—do you know her?”

Jordan gave her a sympathetic look. “You poor thing. Just remember to bring a paper bag.”

“A paper bag? What for?”

“In case Helen Cerra starts to hyperventilate.”

“Oh, great.”

T
HE NEXT
morning was sunny, with just the right amount of nip in the air to know that summer was finally over and that the days of thick knit wool sweaters and crackling fires on the weekends were fast approaching. A perfect morning for apple picking.

Jade dressed casually, choosing navy corduroys, a gray ribbed henley, and a pair of old paddock boots. She twisted her hair into a knot at the nape of her neck and chose her favorite silver chandelier earrings, because they made her feel good. She figured that might come in handy, what with Christy Harrison’s critical eye fixed on her every move, Helen Cerra’s thousand and one anxieties, and, most worrisome of all, Rob Cooper’s distracting presence. Shepherding her eighteen second-graders around the apple orchard would be much easier if she didn’t have to contend with the three adults.

At school, she picked up the lunches the cafeteria was providing for the trip, packed them into two large cardboard boxes, and carried them back to the classroom. Hayley and Rob had already arrived, Hayley talking animatedly to her dad as she showed him the fish in the tank, introducing him to Bubbles, Nemo, and company.

“Hi, Miss Radcliffe!” Hayley hurried over as Jade entered the classroom.

“Hi, Hayley. Showing your dad the fish?” she replied with what she thought was a commendable degree of composure, since the last time she’d seen Rob she’d been
in his arms. To prove to herself that she could continue in this calm and collected vein, she added, “Good morning, Officer Cooper.”

“Good morning, Miss Radcliffe,” he replied just as formally. “Can I help you with those boxes?”

She stepped backward hastily. “That’s all right. I was just going to set them here.” While she might be able to pull off talking to him, letting him touch her in even a casual graze of the fingers was a big no-no.

The sound of children’s voices coming down the hall reached her. Jade straightened from where she’d set the boxes with an easy smile, sure she’d heard Victoria Kemp and Lucy Richter’s voices among them. Victoria and Lucy would need to be greeted, then she could drift over to her desk and do her best to forget about Rob Cooper looking very fine in wheat-colored jeans and a brown flannel shirt. The fabric would probably feel incredibly soft beneath her fingers.

“Hi, Miss Radcliffe,” a chorus of voices rang out. Victoria, Lucy, Jay Blount, and Chris Alden swept into the room with all the energy of seven-year-olds about to go on an adventure—sneakers pounding, book bags bouncing, jackets and sweatshirts flapping.

“Hi, guys, you all ready for our trip?”

Heads bobbed in affirmation. “Are we going to be in your group, Miss Radcliffe?”

“I’m going to read out which parent will be in charge of which group of kids once I’ve called attendance and we’ve made sure everyone is here.” She’d drawn up two separate lists last night, one with four groups, another one with three, in case Christy Harrison couldn’t come on the outing. Jade still had no idea, since Christy hadn’t bothered to leave a message or email Jade the night before. “For now I need you all to put your things away in the cubbies, take out last night’s homework and put it in the tray on my desk, and then take your seats.”

Over the next few minutes, the rest of the class rushed into the room. All the kids were bursting with excitement at the first field trip of the year. All except Eugene. Among the last to arrive, he entered holding his mother’s hand, but one look at his tearstained face and Jade knew Christy wouldn’t be joining them.

“Hi, Eugene; hello, Mrs. Harrison. We’re just getting ready to divide the class into their groups so everyone will know who’s going to be with which parent. I’m so glad you could come with us this morning,” she said politely to Christy, in case she’d guessed incorrectly and Eugene’s tears were about something else entirely.

“No, I won’t be coming this morning. I thought I could—for goodness’ sake, will you stop crying, Eugene? The way you’re carrying on is ridiculous.”

“You said you’d
come
.”

“And then I remembered I had a commitment I couldn’t miss,” his mother enunciated through her clenched teeth. “I’ve already explained this to you several times.”

“You never come.” Eugene’s voice was small, plaintive, and if it didn’t pierce his mother’s heart, it did Jade’s. By no stretch of the imagination had she been pleased at the prospect of Christy Harrison accompanying them, but she’d have dealt with her presence—no matter how insufferable she might prove to be—to have Eugene as excited and happy as his classmates.

Jade cleared her throat, drawing the little boy’s eyes to her. “Eugene, I’m sure your mother will be able to come on our next field trip, because she’ll have a lot more time to arrange her schedule.”

A smart child, he didn’t look convinced. Jade respected him too much to continue feeding him lines. “I’d like for you to put today’s homework in the tray on my desk and go sit at your desk so that we can go over the rules for the trip and all that important stuff, okay?”

“Okay.” The word came out reluctantly.

“Goodbye, Eugene.” His mother bent down stiffly and kissed his cheek.

“Bye,” he mumbled, before turning away to stomp toward the back of the classroom. His shoulders were slumped, and Jade saw him rub a forearm across his eyes and knew he was wiping away fresh tears. The poor kid was the picture of dejection.

“I’m sure he’ll be feel better once we’re at the orchard. There’ll be so much to see and do.”

Christy coldly dismissed her concern. “Of course he will.” Then, with a glance at her gold wristwatch, she said, “I must go.” But suddenly she caught sight of Rob standing by the bookshelves, flipping through David Macaulay’s book on pyramids, and said, “Officer Cooper’s going on the field trip? I would think he’d have more pressing things to do than spend an entire morning at an apple orchard.” She paused to rake Jade with a condescending look. “Then again, maybe he wants to ensure his daughter is adequately supervised.”

A veil of red descended before Jade’s eyes. “Gosh, I would think Officer Cooper’s decision to come today had more to do with wanting to be an involved parent and making Hayley happy. But I can see why that idea wouldn’t occur to you.”

Christy Harrison’s face tightened into a hard mask, but Jade was herself too angry to care that she’d offended her. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to get the class ready so we can board the bus on time.”

His station by the bookshelves was close enough for Rob to overhear Jade and Christy Harrison’s exchange. He hadn’t even attempted to play deaf. It would have been impossible. Just as his eyes kept straying from the book’s incredible drawings of pyramids to steal a glance at Jade, so, too, his ears had been tuned to catch every
remark she made to the kids as they came into the classroom. He liked listening to her exchanges with the kids. She had a nice rapport with them, one that combined an easy authority and genuine affection.

Christy could take a few lessons from her, he thought. But it was unlikely Mrs. Eugene Harrison IV would ever acknowledge she had anything to learn from Jade. It seemed the long-standing rivalry between the Harrisons and the Radcliffes was alive and well.

He watched Jade stride across the room to her desk. She always carried herself well, but he could detect the tension stiffening her spine to ramrod-straight.

He didn’t blame her for being furious at Christy’s comment. If he hadn’t been 100 percent sure that she would very much resent his interference, he’d have defended her as readily as she’d defended him.

That she’d praised him as a parent surprised the hell out of him. Surprised and pleased him. It was one thing for his family to say what a good job he was doing with his daughter. To have Jade recognize how hard he was trying to be the dad—and mom—Hayley needed meant an enormous amount.

It was funny how much his opinion of her had changed since he first read the letter from Ted Guerra and learned that Jade would be Hayley’s substitute teacher until Sandy Riley returned. His feelings for Jade might still be confused and conflicted, but one thing he did know: She was a good teacher.

It was time he acknowledged a second thing about her: Jade Radcliffe was one of the sexiest women he’d ever met. At eight forty-seven in the morning, he shouldn’t be thinking about loosening the knot at the nape of her neck so her thick, sun-streaked hair would fall over the backs of his hands or how he might then wrap the silky strands in his fists and draw her close for a kiss, letting himself have a long, slow taste of her.

Would one taste be enough? He refused to answer the sudden thought. Remembering that he was in the company of eighteen hyper-observant second-graders, he tamped down his imagination, lest it run rampant with scenarios of what it might take to satisfy his hunger for their teacher. But when Hayley, who’d been assigned to Rob’s group—along with Rosie Baxter, Colleen Griffin, James Wessel, Kyle Parsons, and Chris Alden—tugged on his sleeve and then pulled his head down so that she could whisper in his ear, “Isn’t Miss Radcliffe pretty, Daddy?” he smiled and said, “Yeah,” unperturbed at Hayley’s beaming delight.

They arrived at Newton’s Orchard without mishap. Jade hadn’t had to whip out the paper bag she’d brought along with the first-aid kit to minister to an agitated Mrs. Cerra, and no one complained of motion sickness when the bus left the town limits and hit the small, winding roads that led through gold-leafed woods and past fenced pale-green pastures to the two-hundred-acre apple farm.

She hadn’t had to worry about Rob Cooper either or pretend to ignore his piercing blue gaze. He’d been too busy answering the boys’ endless questions. It had started with Arthur and Patrick asking him about the neat stuff police officers got to do, the others joining in as their initial awe and shyness at having a real live police officer in their midst wore off.

It was easy to watch him surreptitiously. She often had to turn around in her seat to make sure everyone in the rear of the bus was behaving. Since previously she had been the one subjected to Rob’s close-eyed scrutiny, the switch was a nice change.

He handled being the star of the bus ride with ease, answering the boys’ questions but bringing them back down to earth whenever their excitement over the topic
of bad guys and car chases and guns threatened to get out of control. She was also fair-minded enough to admit that no matter how much she personally would have preferred him to skip the outing, he was not only making Hayley’s but the boys’ day. And he was awfully cute when he blushed beet red after James Wessel loudly informed Chris Alden that Rob was almost as awesome as Superman.

Upon their arrival at Newton’s Orchard, they clambered off the bus. Before they headed into the faded red barn that served as the orchard’s store and greeting center, Jade called out for them to stop, so she could perform a quick head count. As she did, she noticed that all the boys were gathered around Rob, like electrons to a nucleus.

“Arthur, Sam, and Patrick, I need you to remember that when we go into the orchard, you’re to stay with Mrs. Cerra and the rest of your group. And Eugene, Paul, and Jay? That goes for you as well. You’re in my group, not Officer Cooper’s. This orchard is big and I don’t want anyone getting lost. So, just to avoid confusion, let’s get in our groups now, please. That’s it, thank you,” she said as the six boys shuffled over to her and Helen Cerra. “Now, are you ready to go inside and meet Mr. Newton so he can talk to us about the apples he grows on his farm?”

A hay-wagon ride along a rutted track dividing the rows of old dwarf apple trees, with eighteen kids bouncing energetically upon the bales and singing “I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas” at the top of their lungs and off-key to boot, was not normally conducive to romantic thoughts. Something in the air, which was warmed by crystal-clear autumn sunshine and perfumed with ripe apples and sweet hay, must be causing it, Rob decided. To him, Jade had never looked lovelier than
now, with the sunshine playing over her relaxed smile and her lightly tanned features. Her green eyes shone as vivid as gemstones when she laughed as the wagon lurched over a rut and the singing fell apart as the kids squealed in ecstatic excitement. The fresh autumn morning had him appreciating something new about her. She was far more than simply sexy. She was truly desirable.