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“You’re supposed to go out into the road and stand there so we can all cross,” Alice said.

“So that the cars will squish you and not us,” Clara added helpfully.

“No,” said Alice. Then she looked doubtful. “Or maybe.”

“I’m sure it’s because I’m bigger and drivers see me better,” said Ava. “I have no intention of getting run over.”

She strode out into the street and let the children file past her, Hope bringing up the rear now. “So far, so good,” Hope whispered with a smile.

Ava felt herself blush. Like she needed Hope’s approbation. Except it did make her feel good. Everything about Hope made her feel good. So why was she being so stubborn about spending any alone time with her at all?

Along the sidewalk they all walked, slowly making their way to the small town park. The day was sunny and bright with only a hint of chill in the air, and the children were happy to be outside, chatting merrily as they walked.

Ava opened the park gate and let the kids go in. “Alright, what are the rules?” she asked. She’d learned to get anything important repeated back to her if she wanted to be sure that the kids really got it. “No…”

“Running!”

“Shouting!” shouted Daniel Monroe so loud that Ava almost laughed. She changed her laugh into a frown and Daniel grinned widely back at her.

“And no going out of my sight,” Ava said. “You know what you’re doing, so get started. If there are any problems, find me or Ms. Perkins.”

And then there was the job.

The job that should be the solution to everything and yet was keeping Ava awake at night just as much as the thought of what might be lying beneath Hope’s mostly-buttoned shirt.

This should have been easier. Running away is what it was, to be honest. Something that Quinn didn’t hesitate to tell her.

But she’d thought that running away meant leaving everything behind her, when in fact it just meant taking everything with her to a new place.

And now she’d thrown Hope into the mix and things seemed even more complicated than before. Before she’d at least been able to focus on being heart-broken. Now she had to focus on being heart-broken and mostly turned on with periods of irritation which definitely did not make things easier by any stretch of the imagination at all.

So why was she doing this? Why didn’t she just pack up and go back home, take the job Stan had offered her, crash on Quinn’s couch until she found an apartment? Or hell, why didn’t she pack up and go to Peru or Cambodia or somewhere else where her feelings might not find her?

There was a startled squeal and Ava spun around, locating the source of the sound immediately.

Nathan Jackson was holding his arm protectively against his side, cradling his hand, and a growing crowd of classmates was beginning to gather around him.

“Miss, miss!” shouted Clara. “Nathan got stinged by a bee.”

“It was a wasp,” Alice put in.

“But we wasn’t supposed to touch nothing,” added Daniel. “But then Nathan must’ve touched the bee.”

“It was a wasp,” Alice said again.

“And the wasp touched him, silly,” said Sara Gonzalez.

Ava hurried in closer, squatting down so she could see Nathan’s tear-stained face a little better. “Let me see.”

He shook his head and pressed his lips together.

“He definitely got stinged,” Clara said. “I saw it.”

“Stung,” Ava said, remembering that she was supposed to be the teacher here. “Show me, Nathan.”

He shook his head more violently this time.

“What’s going on over here,” Hope said, joining the class. “Haven’t you all got work to do?”