Page 93 of Broken Blood Ties

Tommy, one of my students, notices me. “Miss Summer! You’re back!” His excitement garners the attention of an older woman with short silver hair trimmed back behind her ears in a pixie-like cut. I give her a timid smile.

“Not yet, Tommy. Just helping out Mr. O’Donnell today and dropping Aoife off. You doing all right?”

His face falls a bit, but he nods. “Will you be back soon?” he asks, finally making it to where the substitute waits outside the door to welcome him.

I swallow the uncomfortable knot in my throat. I’ve never lied to my kids, and I don’t plan on starting now. “I’m not sure, buddy. Hopefully.”

Tommy’s mouth twitches into a smile, and he pushes his glasses up his nose.

“Good morning, Tommy. Go ahead and put your stuff in your cubby and sit on the circle for our morning time,” the substitute says.

He offers me a goodbye wave and bounds into the classroom.

“Hi, Aoife,” the woman says. “How are you this morning?”

“Good!” Aoife still doesn’t let go of my hand.

“I’m Ms. Margaret. You must be the wonderful teacher I’m subbing for.”

Well, it’s hard to be annoyed with her when she’s so sweet. Part of me wishes she’d be snooty so I could … I don’t know, maybe feel better about myself. But no. She’s sweet, and the kindness in her eyes is the type you can’t fake. She reminds me of Giulia, my old housekeeper and nanny.

“Summer Smith.” I hold my hand out to her, and she takes it. “It’s nice to meet you. I apologize for the lack of preparation. I hadn’t exactly planned to be out.”

She brushes off my apology with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Nonsense. You take all the personal time you need. Well, within your contract of course. Wouldn’t want to get you fired.” She chuckles and gestures to Aoife. “All right, Aoife let’s get inside for circle time. What do you say?”

Aoife nods wildly, then turns and smooshes her face into my lower stomach to grip me for a long hug. “Bye!”

The two of them move into the classroom, and I look up toward Shelly’s classroom down the hall. Before I can talk myself out of it, I stride that direction, meeting her door decorated in construction paper ladybugs with each of her student’s names on them.

Biting my pinky nail, which is a habit I’m not proud of, I nudge open her door. Her students work to put away their bags and lunches, and when she spots me, her eyes widen. To say she rushes me would be an understatement. In fact, she damn near tackles me, shoving me into the hallway and smothering me with a vise-like hug.

“Oh, my goodness! I was so worried about you! Principal Green said Mr. O’Donnell called in for you, letting him know you’d be out?—”

Wait, what?

“—and then I hadn’t heard from you. Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“Shelly, I’m okay.” I pull away from her intense hug and smile at her. Maybe if she actually sees my face, she’ll stop her worrying. “I had some of my ugly past come up and Kieran is, umm, helping me.” I bring my hand up to swipe my now disheveled hair out of my face.

Shelly’s hand flies out to snatch my wrist midair. “What the H.E.L.L is this?” Her focus is on the commanding emerald ring sitting on my ring finger,thering finger.

“I, uh … jeez you’re strong.”

“Are you engaged?”

Well, crap.

No, not really,I want to say. But Kieran’s reminder to convince the world we are, plays in the background of those words. I opt for the ever-vague answer of, “Sort of.”

She squeals and it echoes in the hall. Everything in me wants to flee. To shrink back around the corner, I came from. I flinch when she swats my arm.

“Sneaky. I thought you weren’t a fan of him, and here you are engaged.”

I groan, dragging a hand down my face. “It’s complicated.”

Shelly’s face falls. “So, then why aren’t you working?”

I grimace. “You know that ugly past I mentioned, well it’s—I need some personal time.”