Page 11

Sinclair

H e wanted my help with his daughter. How could I possibly say no to such a request?

Dagger didn’t strike me as a man who asked for help easily.

In fact, he seemed more like the kind of man to dig out his own bullet and stitch up the wound before he’d ask another person for help.

It was a testament to how much his daughter meant to him, that he was willing to ask a stranger for help improving his relationship.

Helping him would help Dani, and she deserved the father that he wanted to become for her, which meant I had to do it.

I needed to get over the off-the-hook attraction and just say yes. It had nothing to do with his rugged good looks or the fact that he could be more than charming when he wasn’t snarling at people. It was the right thing to do for both of them. That was all.

I hoped.

“If you don’t want to do it,” Dagger began in a surly, uncertain tone, “you can just say so. No hard feelings.”

His deep voice managed to cut through my thoughts, drawing my attention to his deep blue eyes.

In them I saw just how much it cost him to make the request. “No,” I sighed, and tore my gaze from his handsome face and focused on the small swirl of dark liquid cooling in the bottom of the cup. “It’s not that, I was just… thinking.”

His lips slowly parted into a grin. “Thinking of saying no?”

This fun, teasing version of Dagger was too damn irresistible, so instead of smiling back, I shrugged. “Just weighing my options.”

Dagger nodded, his smile dimmed at whatever he perceived about my words or my tone. “Am I the thing keeping you from saying yes?”

“No, not really.” I could be honest with him without revealing my attraction, which I was sure I hadn’t done a good job hiding anyway.

“If I say yes, that means getting involved, and that could be a sticky situation for all of us. I know what you’re talking about is purely business, but if the school found out about us meeting then it might reflect badly on me. ” I let out a long, heavy breath.

Concern clouded his eyes. “I understand.”

That resignation touched something deep within me, and I opened my mouth, almost agreeing to help without thinking things through. “I’m not saying no, Dagger. There aren’t any rules, it’s just something that I have to keep in mind. To make sure it all stays professional.”

Even if I want to jump your bones.

His brows shot up.

That made me smile. “I need to think about this and put some safeguards in place to protect all of us. Dani had some trouble a few weeks ago from one of the girls in her class, it’s all water under the bridge now, but if they thought she was getting special treatment that might cause problems.”

Some of the tension left his broad shoulders. “But you’ll think about it?”

I nodded. “Of course. I want to help Dani and you, but it’s not just a simple yes. You get it?”

“I do,” he answered with a nod. “Thank you for hearing me out and thinking about it.”

“There are plenty of parents who expect their children to just accept what they’re given, to believe they’re getting the best their parents have to give. I’m glad you’re one of the few trying to do better and to give more.”

“Now you’re just trying to make me blush.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “Something tells me you’re not a man who blushes often, if at all.”

He shrugged. “I guess you’ll find out if you agree. Another coffee?”

I shook my head. “I’ve already risked insomnia with a double espresso this late in the day, but thank you.

” I finished off the now ice-cold espresso and sighed.

“You should probably give me your number.” I cringed hard at the way the sentence came out.

“So that I can call you. With my answer,” I rushed to add, heat flaming my cheeks while Dagger watched me with amusement.

“Yeah, sure, Sinclair, you can get my number.”

My gaze narrowed. “That’s not how I meant it.”

“Of course not,” he replied with a tone that said he didn’t believe me. His smile was wide and bright as he removed his phone from a pocket inside his leather vest and slid the sleek black device across the table.

I slid my phone across the table before picking his up and adding myself as a contact.

I ignored the urge to look for women’s names in his contacts and quickly blacked out the screen and slid the phone back towards him.

“I’ll call when I have an answer. Actually, I’ll probably text because I can be a little awkward on the phone, and in person if I’m being honest.” I let out another long sigh, breathless from rambling.

“You done?” His eyes sparkled with pure amusement, as if he found my rambling endearing, maybe even charming.

But that couldn’t be. It was just awkward, and I was just me. Plain looking, maybe cute on a good day, and awkward. Not beautiful or sophisticated, and terrible at flirting even though we definitely weren’t flirting.

Were we?

No, of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.

***

After Dagger and I went our separate ways, I headed to the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner tonight and a quick breakfast in the morning.

To most people it seemed old-fashioned to stop at the market every single day, but it was something I started as a child to make sure I always had dinner.

With Dad, you never knew. I could come home to a fridge filled with food, which happened rarely, or a house void of food, furniture, and basic utilities.

It was also a great way to shop seasonally and locally, which I tried to do wherever I moved. I picked up a couple of trout, carrots, and a few potatoes. I had a plan as I moved through the grocery store, but my mind was still fixed on the conundrum of Dagger. And Dani.

The urge to help was strong. It was why I’d gone into teaching in the first place, to help kids who might otherwise slip through the cracks. Kids very much like I’d been, abandoned but not alone, overlooked. Forgotten.

The distraction continued as I put away groceries, and while I prepped dinner I weighed up the pros and cons.

I understood where Dagger was coming from, keeping people at arm’s length, because that’s exactly what I’d done my entire life.

Losing Mom changed something inside me, that sense of stability in my life had been torn away.

At first it was just grief that made me curl into myself, but then it was Dad, drowning in his own grief and then sorrow, and then he fell apart completely.

So yeah, I got it. You couldn’t trust people, even your own parents, to stick around or be there when you needed them.

That distance, that wall, was the reason I had no friends to call and talk to about my new life and the single dad occupying too much of my mind. And my time. I kept my friendships short and sweet, so that when I moved on to the next school and the next town, saying goodbye didn’t hurt.

But the job with Steel City Elementary was a test of sorts. The three-year contract would give me some semblance of stability and home. This was my chance for a few small but lasting interactions, to see if I was capable of opening up and letting people in.

I knew this was no way to live, but it was the only way I knew how. It was how I’d crafted my life up to this point. But Steel City was my chance to change. Dani and Dagger were my first chance to prove I could change.

“Dammit,” I muttered to myself.

If I wanted to save Dani from a life of loneliness, I had to help, my attraction to her father be damned. I pulled out my phone ready to give him my reply.