Page 29 of Breaking Rules

“All right.” Evanne nodded. She straightened her shoulders like she did when she tried to be overly formal. “Let me walk you to the door.” Then she grinned, and I saw all the humor she’d gotten from her Uncle Brody.

As the two of them walked toward the front door, Keli looked at me. “Ms. Browne? As in our daughter’steacher, Ms. Browne?”

I held up a hand. “Not now.”

Instead of arguing with me as I expected, she broke out in a smile. “Of course not. We have to talk, but Evanne’s going to be back in a minute, and we have to prioritize.”

She was right. There were more important things for me to be discussing with her, not the least of which was the question she had managed to avoid answering for nearly two weeks.

“Why are you back?”

Keli looked hurt, but I saw a familiar glint in her eyes that told me she wasn’t going to be completely forthcoming. “The whole time I was gone, I missed my family. Alessandro couldn’t understand that just sitting around all day in a place where I didn’t know anyone wasn’t what I wanted anymore.”

That had the ring of at least some small truth.

“We need to make things work, Alec. For Evanne’s sake.”

Just as I thought I couldn’t be shocked anymore, Keli managed to do it again when she leaned in and kissed me.

Fuck my life.

Eighteen

Lumen

Mai was working,which meant I came home to an empty apartment. Considering the chaos that my thoughts and emotions had become, solitude was a good thing. Granted, it meant that I didn’t have anyone to help distract me, but that also meant I didn’t have Mai trying to pick my brain, something at which she excelled.

Voices had woken me this morning, and for a few seconds, I’d thought Alec had turned on the television. Then two of the voices registered, and I realized the third had to be Evanne’s mom. I’d thought Alec had said Evanne would be with Keli until later tonight, but perhaps I’d misunderstood.

My face flushed as I thought about how foolish I must’ve looked when Alec had woken up to find me still next to him – and naked, of course. Spending the night had been a poor decision on my part. Sure, Evanne had seen us together once before, but I didn’t want to make a habit of it, not until Alec and I were on more solid footing. One date where he’d met Mai and Hob hardly meant we were getting to know each other’s families. And I had no idea what Keli knew about me either.

Unless that was the reason Alec hadn’t woken me up when he’d realized I was still there. He’d hoped I’d sleep through Evanne being dropped off and not have to explain to Keli why another woman was in his home. I’d only been able to think of two reasons why a man wouldn’t want his ex to know he’d had someone sleeping over. One, he’d known her reaction wouldn’t be a good one, or two, he hadn’t wanted her to think he’d moved on because he hadn’t.

The first I could accept, but the second had been what had spurred me into action. I’d grabbed my bag and had taken the first clothes I’d laid my hands on. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and Evanne had seen Alec and me together before, but that had done little to calm me.

The adults had gone silent the moment I’d stepped into the living room, but Evanne had come to me immediately. I’d been too much of a coward to look at Alec’s face, but me making an excuse not to stay when Evanne had asked had been more about not wanting to prolong an awkward situation to the point where Evanne would have noticed that something was wrong. And as much as I hated admitting it, somethingwaswrong.

Keli was back, and she was Evanne’s mother. I didn’t know what her return meant for Alec and my relationship. I didn’t know what it meant for Alec’s custody of Evanne, or how all of this would affect my student. Then there was the guilt I felt for being worried about Alec and me at all when the person we should have all been concerned with was Evanne. She’d made absolutely no decisions that had led to this point, but she’d have to live with the consequences as much as any of us. Probably more.

I needed to get my shit together.

Evanne deserved a teacher who was wholly focused on her well-being. All of my students deserved that, and there was a meeting in a few hours that would play a role in the safety of everyone at Kurt Wright. I couldn’t go into it still consumed with trying to figure out what’d happened or how to react, especially since I couldn’t really do the latter without the former. That meant I needed to put on my big girl panties and be a grown-up about things.

The first step to that was taking a shower to get rid of Alec’s scent all over me. Maybe then I could think more clearly.

When I walked into the school that evening, I felt much more like the professional educator I was and less like the inexperienced neophyte…which Ialsowas. Needless to say, Mai had gotten home in time to help me with my clothes. I wore the outfit I’d gotten for my interview: black slacks and matching suit jacket with a nice white dress shirt. Hair in a ponytail and minimal makeup went with my sensible heels to complete the ensemble. Mai had lamented the lack of fun but didn’t argue, so I considered it a win.

The first people I saw in the assembly hall – Kurt Wright would never use something as crass as a gymnasium for a meeting of this magnitude – were Mr. and Mrs. Crenshaw, but since their son Skylar wasn’t with them, I didn’t feel much guilt for ducking behind my colleague, Mr. Buchannan. Every conversation I’d had with Mrs. Crenshaw had been a list of all the things I was doing wrong in regard to her son’s education. Mr. Crenshaw had barely said a word to me, and I was under the impression that he didn’t talk much.

“Avoiding the Crenshaws?” Mr. Buchannan asked as he turned toward me.

The grin on his face told me that he wasn’t admonishing me for it. He was the sort of man who fit the physical stereotype of a gym teacher, but after talking to him for ten minutes at the beginning of the school year, I’d felt guilty for making assumptions based on his looks. Massive and almost scary, he was a former Marine now in his mid-fifties, and he just celebrated his fifth anniversary with a man he’d met in the service. He was also one of the most intelligent and articulate men I’d ever met.

“What gave me away?” I asked.

“Probably the fact that I’d be doing the same thing if they weren’t on the warpath for Principal McKenna.” He rubbed his bald head. “Rumor is they’re furious that no one will tell them the name of the kid who had the gun.”

“It never should have happened,” I said, “but at least this was an accident and not malicious. We have the opportunity to address an issue without having to suffer the consequences other schools have had to face.”