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“You can stay,” offered Hope.

But Ava was already leaving, already pushing past Caz in the hallway and going outside.

“What was all that about?” Caz asked, putting her shopping bags down. Then she looked up and saw the silly smile on Hope’s face. “Aha.”

“Mum…”

“Hope Perkins, did you kiss the girl next door?” Caz said, putting her hands on her hips.

“She’s hardly a girl.”

“And that’s hardly a ‘no’,” said Caz. She grinned harder. “How about I put the kettle on and you tell your old mum all about it.”

“Only if you’re going to finally spill the details on your apparently booming love life,” Hope said as she followed her mother into the kitchen.

“Like that is it?” said Caz. “Alright then, we can keep our little secrets for a while, happy?”

And Hope was happy. Happier than she’d been for a long time. Happy and very, very sexually frustrated...

Chapter Twenty One

The call came at around four in the morning and Ava wouldn’t have answered it except that she was already awake. Or still awake. One or the other.

As it turned out, taking things slowly was a euphemism for being all turned on with nowhere to expend the energy. Still, at least her libido was all present and correct. Ava couldn’t remember feeling like this since she was a teenager in love with her poetry teacher.

“Ava Stanford.” She assumed it was an American call, given the time difference and all, and was gratifyingly correct.

“Ava? This is Stan Gardener over at Milton High.”

“Milton High?”

Six months ago she’d have immediately known what he was talking about. But with thousands of miles between them, she was suddenly disoriented.

“That is Ava Stanford, right?” Stan said. “English teacher supreme and poetry club sponsor?”

Ava laughed. “Yes, yes it is. Sorry, Stan, I’m just a bit all over the place. I’m out of the country right now.”

“Really? Anywhere good?”

She knew that he meant somewhere sunny, somewhere hot with beaches, not Whitebridge at all. But she couldn’t help smiling. “Yeah,” she said. “Somewhere good.”

“Good for you, we all deserve a break,” he said. “God knows, I could do with one most days.”

She might be awake, but it was still four in the morning and there was the slimmest chance that she might sleep at some point. “What can I help you with, Stan?”

“Right, yes, well, it’s like this. The head of our English department is about to quit. It’s about time, he’s got enough years on him and he’s been known to bark at his students when frustrated. Anyway, not the point. The point is that we’re talking about interviewing candidates for the job and your name came up.”

“My name?”

“I know, I know. I told the board that you wouldn’t dream of leaving Alton High, but they twisted my arm and asked me to make the call anyway.”

A job. A new job. A job away from Serena and her new love, a job that she could love and make her own. A week ago she’d have been on a plane. A week ago it would have seemed like all her dreams had come true.

So why was she now so reluctant to jump at the chance?

“Actually, I’ve left Alton,” she said, not knowing until just that second that it was true. Technically she was on sabbatical, but she wasn’t going back. Not to the school, anyway.

“Really?” said Stan in a way that signaled he was eager for more information.