Remi went over to talk to Jennifer, who was all smiles. “That went great!” she said. “Those hockey players were fantastic with the kids!”
“Yes. They were.”
“Come on. I’ll introduce you. You’ll be working with them over the next few weeks.”
Remi nodded, sucking her bottom lip as she followed Jennifer toward Jason. Her heart picked up speed and her head went just a little light as she neared him, tummy tight and fluttery. She’d given him her number, but he hadn’t called.
Yet. It was only Wednesday.
Maybe he had no intention of calling her.
Maybe he was going to be horribly embarrassed to see her.
Maybe he was going to regret that he’d volunteered to work on this program.
Remi pressed a hand to her stomach and stopped with Jennifer. Jason was bumping fists with a boy—Remi’s student Ryan—who’d stopped to talk to him. She’d never seen Ryan so focused.
Then Jason straightened to his full, imposing height and turned and his gaze landed on her.
She felt it like a touch.
His eyes widened and then a slow smile spread across his face.
She liked that smile.
She gave him a tremulous smile back.
“Remi, this is Jason Heller, Dominic Griffin and Matthieu Lalonde. Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Remi Buchanan. She’s a grade six teacher here at Lincoln and she’s the one who was instrumental in bringing the kickoff rally to our school this year.”
Jason’s smile disappeared, replaced by a glower. Oh lord. He was embarrassed. She automatically held out her hand. Jason took it first.
“We’ve actually met,” he said, his face smoothing and that charming white smile flashing.
“Oh, really?” Jennifer looked confused, and shot Remi a curious look.
“Nice to meet you, Ms Buchanan,” Dominic said, shaking her hand with a grin. Matthieu did the same. Remi hadn’t paid that much attention to Jason’s companions that night, since all her attention had been focused on Jason, but she was pretty sure they’d both been there too. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire. Did they know she and Jason had…yeah. They must know.
Her whole body blazing, she kept a smile firmly in place. “Thank you so much for coming today. I understand it was somewhat short notice.”
“Not a problem,” Jason said. “I’ve been involved in the program for a few years at other schools. I’m glad to do it again this year.”
“The kids really seemed to enjoy it,” Jennifer said. “I think we’re off to a great start.”
“So for the next six Wednesdays we’ll be back here to work with smaller groups,” Jason said. His gaze held Remi’s and she resisted the urge to fuss with her hair. Did she have any lipstick left on? Likely not. Usually by the end of a school day she didn’t care.
“That’s wonderful,” she choked out. “We really appreciate it. It helps the kids get more involved when there are role models for them participating.”
They made small talk for a few more moments and then Jennifer offered to show the three athletes out, their jackets having been left in her office.
Remi watched them leave, feeling a weight of disappointment settling on her. She left the custodians in the now empty gymnasium dismantling the sound system and putting the bleachers away, and walked slowly down the hall to her classroom, also empty but much quieter.
She sank onto the chair behind her desk.
She’d felt his stiffness. The coolness of his greeting, although he’d smiled at first. He was so freakin’ good-looking. She couldn’t believe she’d done what she had with him. And had so much fun. Watching him with the kids here had been a whole other side to him—boyish and charming and fun. Yeah. He was all about fun.
Which was the opposite of what she was all about. She was all about serious responsibility. Boring.
She sighed and picked up a folder of math quizzes she had to mark that night. She bent to pick up her briefcase from under the desk.
“Hey.”
She straightened up so fast she cracked her head on the edge of the desk.
“Ow!” She rubbed her temple, blinded by the pain.
“Jesus, Remi, are you okay?” Jason’s voice, heavy footsteps and then his hands on her shoulders.
“Yes, yes. I’m okay.” She blinked up at him. “Dammit.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Th-that’s okay.” She tried to shake off the pain. “I’m fine.”
“I was surprised to see you here,” he said slowly, releasing her and stepping back.
“Have you really been involved in the Stars program before?”
“Yeah. This is my fourth year.”
“That’s…impressive.”
“It’s important.”
“I…it surprises me. To hear you say that.”
“Why? Because I’m a big, stupid jock?”
“No, of course not!”
“I like kids,” he said, shrugging those big shoulders, now wearing a black leather jacket. A buttery soft, thigh-length black leather jacket.
“I could tell that. They liked you too.”
“I didn’t know you were a teacher.” The glower returned to his face.
“Well, I didn’t know you were a hockey player.”
“Really?” His brow creased.
She tightened her lips against a smile. “Sorry. I guess you’re not that famous.”
He looked at her, smiling wryly. “I guess not.”
“What’s wrong with being a teacher?” she asked.
He pressed his lips together. “Nothing, I guess.”
A silence stretched between them.
“Well,” he finally said. “It’ll be fun over the next few weeks. So…I guess I’ll see you again next week.”
“You don’t have to.” The words spilled out her mouth. “You can work with a different group. It doesn’t have to be mine.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“I just thought…we had that one night….thing…and you might be…”
Lord help her, she was stammering like Joey Kupchuk, a boy she’d once taught who had a painful stutter.
“That’s okay,” he said. After a short pause, he said, “I was going to call you.”
She waved a hand, anxious to stop him before he said something she didn’t want to hear. “That’s okay. It was just one night of fun. Right?”
“Right.” Relief lightened his scowl and he gave her a faint smile. “That’s right. Okay, then. I’ll see you next week. Bye, Remi.”
She watched him leave, then sank back onto her chair, her legs soft as butter. Damn. She’d known it was only one night, and now knowing who he was made it that much clearer—he’d never really intended to call her.
“Wasn’t that the little blonde you picked up last weekend?”
Jason stared out the passenger window of Dominic’s car as they left the school parking lot. “Yeah.”
“You didn’t know she was going to be there?”
“Nope. We didn’t get into a lot of conversation.” Hell, that wasn’t true. They’d talked about a lot of things. Just not their professions.
Dominic laughed. “Right on, dude.”
“She did not know you were a ‘ockey player,” Matthieu said from the backseat in his rhythmic French accent.
“Nope, she didn’t know that either.”
He couldn’t believe she was a teacher. He’d picked up a teacher in a bar, taken her home and fucked her! Jesus!
“Kinda awkward, running into her again like that,” Dominic said, signaling and making a lane change.
“I was going to call her again,” Jason said, still staring out the window. He had wanted to see her again. She was adorable, but fuck! A teacher! “But not now.”
“Why not?”
“She’s a teacher.” Dominic was probably his best buddy, in Chicago at least, and even he didn’t know about the trauma inflicted on him by teachers. “I don’t date teachers. Don’t want anything to do with teachers.”
Teaching was a noble profession. He couldn’t judge all teachers the same. Just because a few teachers had made his life hell didn’t mean they were all like that. Hell, he should thank Ms Wong. If it wasn’t for her, he probably wouldn’t be where he was.
“Huh.” Dominic shot him a mystified glance. “She’s kinda cute. What difference does it make if she’s a teacher?”
“Never mind. Not going there. Let’s go get some food.”
But he couldn’t get the sexy little teacher out of his head for the next week, until he was back at Abraham Lincoln Middle School a week later, sitting in her classroom with a bunch of grade six kids.
He watched Remi with another group as he sat in a corner of her classroom. He seemed unable to drag his eyes away from her, and his concentration kept drifting off into images of her naked, his hands on her…dammit. He had a hard enough time paying attention without a major hot distraction like her.
He should just ask her out again. He’d wanted to. He’d planned to call her. He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
And yet, the intimidation factor was high. Teachers were smart. Bossy. Know-it-alls. Teachers made him feel like a speck of dirt on the ice.
Why he kept thinking about Remi, he’d never know. She was clearly unimpressed with the fact that he played a game for a living. He’d caught that comment about how surprised she was that he was involved in the reading program. She probably thought he didn’t even know how to read.
A familiar knife twisted in his gut at that thought. He had to get over all that old crap.
Dammit. A teacher.
She laughed at something one of the kids said and at that moment looked up. Their eyes locked on each other across the room. His heart knocked in his chest.
He tore his gaze away from her, sucked in air and tried to focus on the kids he was supposed to be paying attention to. Christ, she’d really think he was illiterate if he couldn’t even read a short story with the kids and she’d really think he was stupid if he couldn’t focus long enough to put a few sentences together about what they’d read.
“I cried when Travis had to shoot Old Yeller,” Lindsay confessed. Two boys groaned.
“Hey,” Jason said. “I cried too. He loved that dog. Don’t you think that was a tough choice he had to make?”
Again, he caught Remi’s eyes on him and had to refocus.
As the session drew to a close, Remi retreated to her desk and began tidying up. Jason found his jacket and slid his arms into the sleeves, taking his time, picking up some books and placing them on a table, until the kids were gone and he and Remi were alone.
She looked up at him, her pretty face expressionless, as he approached the desk, a book clasped in his hands.
“Is this what we’re reading for next week?” he asked.
She nodded, lifting an eyebrow. “Yes.”
His face heated. She knew he’d already told her students that. He felt like one of those kids, a kid with a crush on a classmate, practically scuffing his feet on the floor as he hung around on a pretext.
“So, I…uh…” Jesus, she had turned him into a stammering idiot. Why did teachers have that effect on him? He drew in a long slow breath, and forced a smile. She was just a woman. A hot, sexy woman, one he’d already in fact had in bed. Nothing to be afraid of.
He was terrified.
“I’ll…uh…see you next week,” he said and booked it out of there.
Helping kids with reading, being back in school in the classroom, creating hopefully positive experiences for other kids had seemed like an excellent way for him to deal with his own crappy past and the other years he’d done this Stars for Reading program had been great. But this year…why was he getting all screwed up again?
So he’d nailed a teacher. She was just a woman. It didn’t matter if she thought he was big and dumb. It didn’t matter what she thought at all.