Page 49

“Did you see Mrs. Sandburg’s haul?” Mandy asks as she makes small talk on the drive back to her apartment.

We carpooled since we live together, but I kind of wish I would’ve just driven myself. I don’t want to make small talk right now. I spent the entire night making small talk with parents and kids, and I just want a few minutes of quiet.

“No,” I say absently as I look out the window.

“She won like three raffle baskets, and your make out buddy Woods won five or six, too.”

I missed the raffle prizes since I was still helping with the bounce houses.

“Seems unfair considering he has the means to buy whatever he wants,” I mutter.

“He gave them all away.”

My brows dip. “He what?”

She nods. “He gave them out to teachers. He gave me one.”

“What did he give you?” I ask.

“I didn’t look at it yet, but I saw some candles and a gift certificate to that new massage place by Target. Wasn’t that nice?”

“Sure,” I mumble.

“I talked to him after you walked out of your office, you know.”

My head whips over toward her. “About what?”

She shrugs. “A lot of things. I asked him how much his life has changed, and he said basically in every way. He said Harper crawls into bed to sleep next to him every night. Isn’t that the sweetest thing you’ve ever heard?”

I don’t admit my chest gets a little warm at the thought.

“I wonder if he could use some help with her. And once the season starts, I wonder how much that’ll change things with him and how it’ll affect her. I feel like as her teachers we have the power to help out if we can, you know? She doesn’t have any other female adults in her life to rely on right now.” She’s babbling, and I’m only half-listening as I think about how much his life must have changed since Harper stepped into it.

“Yeah,” I murmur. I’m not really sure what she’s getting at anyway.

“Maybe you should do it. You’re not her classroom teacher so you have a little more flexibility than I do, and I think she likes you more anyway.”

“Do what?” I ask.

“See what you can do to help out. Maybe dinner once a month or something, or helping get her home after tutoring sessions. What’s he going to do when he has to go to training camp? Maybe she can stay with us or something.”

I think about my sister and her two kids. She’s tied to her house now—she can’t just run to the store and grab a loaf of bread. If Jake isn’t home to take care of them, then she either has to make arrangements for childcare or she has to haul the two of them into their car seats and drag them along, and she has to fit it in between naps and activities she already has going on.

If it’s that different for my sister, I can imagine it’s a completely different life than what he was used to before, too. He seems like the type who went out every night and slept away every day in the off-season, at least, and now he has to be up early to get his daughter off to school in time. He can’t stay out all night hooking up, and I doubt he’s bringing random women home if she’s crawling into his bed every night.

“I just can’t imagine how overwhelming this must all be for him. We’re so focused on his daughter that I haven’t really given him a second thought, but what he’s doing with her is pretty incredible.”

“I get it.” I sigh. “You like him and for some crazy reason you think I should like him, too. I just don’t understand why you keep pushing me toward him.”

“I think you’d be really good for each other,” she says softly. “I think he could make you happy.”

I don’t answer that because I think she’s dead wrong.

But she had her hunches about Owen, too, and she was right when it came to him.

“Did I tell you my sister is getting married?” I ask, changing the subject.

“No! Congrats to her. When’s the big day?”

“June third. She’s doing a destination wedding, and I haven’t gotten up the nerve to ask her whether Owen’s going to be there,” I admit.

“You think he will be?”

I nod. “I think he and Jake are still close and I wouldn’t put it past them using this wedding to try to get us back together.”

“Then we need to get you a date to the wedding. Stat.” She glances over at me a little sideways.

“Get that thought right the hell out of your mind immediately, Miller. I am not asking Travis Woods to take me to my sister’s wedding. Then he’d be in all the photos and I already hate him.” I pretend like the thought didn’t already cross my mind.

It didn’t.

It wouldn’t even work. He has a child and she’d come too and it would be way too confusing for her.

“You can’t go alone,” she points out, and I know she’s right.

“Then you come with me.”

She shakes her head. “You need a boy toy to steal the show for you, and I’m telling you, Travis Woods would be perfect for the role.”

I sigh. I knew I shouldn’t have even brought this up with her. “It’s a hard no. Besides, what about Harper?”

“She could stay with Bella. Or with me,” she offers.

I shake my head. “It’s still a no.”

She raises both her shoulders dramatically. “Okay, fine. Then we’ll just have to start from square one. Hm, maybe Jaxon has a hot and single football friend he can hook you up with. Oh, wait…”

I roll my eyes as she manages to bring it right back around to Travis again.

“Stop it. No football players, okay?” But it would set Owen the fuck off. I still remember how jealous he was that I got hit on by a football player. Can you even imagine how he’d jump out of his skin if I brought one with me to my sister’s wedding?

It would be one for the record books, that’s for sure.

But it would also mean first I’d have to face the possible rejection of him saying no.

And if he said yes, I’d have to spend time in close quarters with Travis Woods, and that’s not something I’m willing to subject myself—or my heart—to.