Page 14 of Breaking Rules

“I didn’t think so,” she said. “Skylar was upset about it too, but she’s his mom so he can’t tell her what not to say. She’s not my mom, though, so if she says it again, I’m going to tell her it’s mean.”

For a moment, I allowed myself to entertain the vision of Evanne having that conversation, but it wasn’t something I could support for several reasons, not the least of which was that I doubted Mrs. Crenshaw would even hesitate to be rude to my daughter, and that would just start a whole pile of shite.

“If she says it again, I want you to tell me,” I said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Good.” Evanne smiled brightly. “You should stand up for people you care about, like Ms. Browne.”

Eoin glanced at me. “Who is this Ms. Browne?”

“Evanne’s teacher,” I answered automatically.

“Daddy calls her Lumen, and sometimes I do too, but not when I’m at school.”

Heat flooded my face. I now had both of my siblings looking at me with questions in their eyes. I didn’t know how to respond to Evanne’s statement. It was true, so I couldn’t have said she was wrong or pretending or anything like that, not even if she hadn’t been listening too. But I wasn’t sure if I was ready to tell my family that I was sort of seeing Evanne’s teacher. If that was what we were doing. I still didn’t know.

Aye, I’d decided I wanted more than a single night of fun with her, and I’d given her a house key, but we’d had no discussion about what any of that meant. Wouldn’t the gentlemanly thing to do, the right thing to do, be to talk to her before I started using labels?

“Lumen…” I cleared my throat. “Ms. Browne has been helping Evanne adjust to the new school and the new…circumstances.” All of that was true. “She’s a kind lass, and Evanne is quite taken with her.”

Paris seemed to accept my explanation and went back to helping Evanne with the dinosaur kit. Eoin didn’t press the issue, but the skepticism in his eyes said he hadn’t been completely taken in. He suspected there was more to the story than I was saying.

He was right.

Our parents knew about Lumen. Well, I’d talked to Da about her, and he and Theresa kept no secrets between them, which meant she knew too. Da had been the one I’d gone to when I’d needed advice, and a part of me wanted to go to him again with this. What held me back was that I hadn’t brought Evanne here for me to deal with my romantic life. We were here for her, to keep her mind off what had happened and to process what she couldn’t forget.

Perhaps if I kept telling myself that shite lie, I might eventually believe it.

For someone who considered himself a man of integrity, I was messing about with the truth an awful lot.

Nine

Lumen

Josalyn had givenme plenty to think about, and I knew I wasn’t going to figure it all out at once, so when I got back home, I declined Mai’s offer to watch a movie with her and her boyfriend, saying I’d head to my room after dinner to get ahead on some work. I liked Hob well enough, and Mai was the closest thing to family that I’d ever had, but I wasn’t in the mood for company tonight. I had too much going on in my head.

Besides, with Hob’s crazy work schedule, he and Mai didn’t get as much alone time as I knew they both would’ve liked. He was a third-year resident working toward becoming a pediatrician, and just a generally good man. The two of them had been together for a while now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a ring was in the near future.

I wished all the best for them.

And I wasn’t jealous at all.

I allowed myself a small smile as I bid them goodnight and settled in my room. It wasn’t very big, but at least it was all mine. I’d shared a room most of my life, and while I knew it’d been that way for a lot of kids, even one who’d grown up with real families, it didn’t make me appreciate having a room to myself any less.

I sat on my bed and opened my lesson plan book, laying it flat on the bedspread. I liked to write out a basic overview for each quarter, but that often meant I had to adapt things as the days went by. I supposed by the time I’d been doing this for a few years, I’d be tired of working that far ahead and having to tweak things. Right now, however, I intended to stick with what I’d been doing so far.

I’d gotten through my early lessons yesterday the way I’d planned, but I’d be a full week behind in my afternoon classes. I’d need to adapt if I wanted to stay on track. With that thought in mind, I took out a notebook and began copying down the things that were absolutely necessary and took out the extra things I’d put in for filler, exactly for instances like this. It was nice to have fun activities that supplemented the lessons, but if I needed the time, they were easy to take out.

I’d made my way through half of next week when my phone rang. I felt the smile spread from ear to ear when Alec’s name popped up on my screen. I told myself not to sound too eager and waited until after the second ring before I answered it.

“Hello there, Mr. McCrae.” I closed my eyes and slapped a hand to my forehead. I’d intended to say something light and flirty, but I was fairly certain that I’d only sounded creepy.

“Ms. Browne.” The hint of humor in his voice chased away my mortification. “It’s good to hear your voice.”

“And yours.” I pushed my things aside and stretched my legs out to get more comfortable. I deserved a break anyhow. “How’s Evanne doing?”

“She’s enjoying herself. Her grandma and aunt took her shopping.”

“And what about yesterday?” I asked, even though I hated bringing that horrible day back to life. “How’s she doing with that?”