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Now that I knew where they were, I had no complaints. The quiet house was suddenly safe and cozy again, so I grabbed my laptop and curled up on the couch with a fresh cup of coffee.

I clicked through my emails. There wasn’t a lot going on at the bank, and most of my urgent work had been diverted to other employees, courtesy of Suri. I answered a few timely questions. Then, one caught my attention at the top—it was from Cassidy.

SUBJ:Stop looking at your work email and open your personal email

BODY:now!

I laughed, then did as instructed. My personal email was a graveyard of marketing emails and expired coupons. No one ever really communicated with me there—anyone I’d want to hear from could text me. But there was Cassidy’s message, right at the top.

I didn’t want to text this to you and catch you off guard. Figured an email would catch you when you were already in work-mode. I happened to see this and thought I’d send it your way. No reason ;)

Below the message was a link to a job posting site.

I clicked it curiously.

It wasn’t any job posting site. It was the Lakeview Public School System job board. And Cassidy had sent me a link to an open third-grade teaching position.

I immediately grabbed my phone and called her. Cassidy answered at the first ring. “Hey, girlie! What’s up? I’m walking into my spin class, so I’ve got about four minutes.”

“What’s this job you sent me?” I asked.

“You finally saw it!” she said with a laugh. “Thank God. That means you weren’t spending too much time working while you’re up there.”

“Cass…”

“It’s just something I saw,” she said. “It’s what you always wanted to do, right? I know you didn’t graduate college with a degree in elementary education to become an account executive.”

“It’s not exactly easy to raise a kid as a single mom on a teacher’s salary,” I said.

“Well, you might not be a single mom anymore, right?”

My heart felt like it was about to explode. “It’s nowhere near that serious, Cass.”

“Okay, okay, sorry, I’ll lay off. I just saw it and thought of you.”

“How did youjust seea Lakeview job posting?”

“Okay, I went looking for it.”

I laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“What?! I was thinking how great it would be if I had a place to crash up there for my own vacations. It was a totally selfish endeavor.”

“Thanks, Cass. I… I don’t know what to think about this. But I’ll think about it.”

“Good! Call me back, I’m about to spend an hour in hell in this class. Bye!”

I set my phone down and stared at the application. The salary was a lot lower than what I made at the bank. But if I was here in Lakeview full-time, I could sell the house in Atlanta… There was already space for us here in Stephan’s home… We could be a little family, with Stephan’s businesses and my teaching income, the house, the garage, the clubhouse… Dylan would have other dragons around, kids like Peter, and his cousin Bella too… And I’d get to spend my days doing what I loved—teaching kids—instead of being cooped up in my office going over spreadsheets with grumpy clients.

It was a nice thought.

But I thought of Blakely running my car off the road. Stephan’s twin brother. The Lakeview police chief, who wanted to lock Stephan up again. The business endeavors that still weren’t all-the-way legal.

I sighed and closed the job posting, then walked into the kitchen and poured myself another cup of coffee. I added some cream and swirled my spoon in it, watching the colors blend in a spiral.

I couldn’t simply drop everything and move here. There was too much to lose. I couldn’t do that to Dylan—I couldn’t do that tomyself.

But hell, a part of me wanted to risk it.