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What she wanted, truly wanted, was for Hope to walk through the door and beg her to stay.

Just as she was thinking that, there was a knock on the classroom door and Jake Lowell poked his head into the room. “Got a minute?” he asked, looking flushed and red and about as un-put-together as Ava had ever seen him.

“Sure,” she said. “Come on in. I’ve got two and a half hours until all hell breaks loose, so make yourself at home.”

Jake laughed. “It’s not that bad.”

“The Virgin Mary hit an Ox over the head with a book this morning and the Innkeeper drew glasses on the baby Jesus.”

“Ah,” said Jake, still laughing. “Don’t say that they don’t entertain you.”

“Oh, they very much do,” Ava said. She smiled. “I’ve got to say that even though this wasn’t the original plan, well, I’ve come to be glad that I stayed. It’s been quite the experience. I’m not sure that I can go back to teenagers swearing at me again.”

Jake lifted an eyebrow. “And is that still the plan?”

“Ah.”

“Ah indeed,” Jake said. He pulled out a small bookshelf and perched himself on top of it. “Something you want to talk about?”

Ava exhaled. Not really. What was there to talk about? She’d turned the job down in the end, she’d told Stan Gardener she couldn’t do it, that she wasn’t planning on teaching high school again, and that was it.

She might not be able to ask for the life she thought she wanted, but she wasn’t going to go back to trying to make things the way they were before.

“Not really.”

Jake held up his hands. “It’s completely your business, of course. But I did have a phone call from a... Stan Gardener? He asked me if there was anything I thought I could do to persuade you and I told him… Well, I told him I don’t know you that well, but that if you’ve got your mind set on something you don’t strike me as the kind of person to make a u-turn.”

Ava smiled a little at this.

“So you’re not going back but you’re still leaving us after tomorrow?” Jake said.

Ava nodded because she was. Because the hard part was already done and what difference did it make if she left now or months from now, she’d still have to leave. She couldn’t draw out the agony of walking away from Hope any longer.

She’d fly home, talk to Quinn, start investigating how she could move to elementary school teaching, find a new school district, start all over again.

“Are you sure?” Jake asked.

“I’m only temporary,” said Ava. “Besides, the school might not exist for much longer. I’m sorry, truly I am, but I do have to think about my future.”

“I completely agree,” said Jake. He folded his hands in his lap and looked at her thoughtfully.

“What?” asked Ava.

“It’s just that… something’s come up,” said Jake.

Ava frowned and crossed her legs. “What kind of something?”

THERE WAS MUCH hushing and shushing which made the Upper Infants procession toward the stage not quite as quiet as the children might have believed they were being. Ava led them, Hope brought up the rear, and when they reached the front of the hall, they stopped. Ava gave a gesture and all twelve children sank silently to the floor, crossing their legs and arms.

She gave them a small smile of approval and got a toothy grin from Alice in return. Her heart burst with pride at the sight of them, all dressed in their costumes, ready to go, excited and tamping down nerves.

Keeping a strict eye on them, she took her seat in the front row, Hope sitting beside her, parents and friends chattering quietly in the seats behind them.

Ava was just starting to worry that the kids wouldn’t be able to sit still for much longer when the heavy spotlight shone on the stage and Jake Lowell strode out to the podium.

“Good evening, good evening,” he said, with a broad smile.

Ava’s heart started throbbing hard in her chest because she knew what was about to happen.