“Mr. Brooks, I’m so sorry that I missed you yesterday. I got the news that you visited our school.”
“It seems you’ve taken on drop-off duty for little Kai.”
Kai paid no mind to the school principal, who was trying to get her attention. Instead, she kept her smile directed fully at Ms. Jordon.
“That was unfortunate, Principal Cole,” Kendrick said, but his tone clearly indicated that it wasn’t unfortunate at all. Even though Jemma picked up on the cue instantly, Principal Cole missed it as she went on.
“Oh, Mr. Brooks, how many times have I told you to call me Sophie?” Sophie reached out to rest her hand on Kendrick’s arm, her red-painted nails flashing as she clung to the man.
Jemma stood there awkwardly, waiting for a chance to escape. The chance never came. “So, what happened? Are Kai’s parents okay?”
Kai’s attention was caught by that, but she still didn’t look at Principal Cole. She grinned cunningly at Jemma as if she had a secret burning her lips. A secret she was dying to spill. Kai spilled it like a glass of milk.
“Mommy and Daddy are fine. Daddy told me Uncle Kenny thinks Ms. Jordon is really pretty.”
Kai managed to shock all the adults to a stunned silence. Sophie’s hand slipped from Kendrick’s arm and fell to her side. Jemma let her eyes settle on Kendrick’s, and she saw a glint in them. A glint she wasn’t sure of the meaning of, but she was willing to find out.
Kendrick didn’t dispute the claim. He just added fuel to the fire. Stooping down to Kai’s level, he fake-whispered, “I think Ms. Jordon is more than just pretty.”
The man was playing hardball. Jemma knew she was blushing, and she didn’t try to hide it. As he stood once more, she smiled sweetly at him.
If they were alone, she’d ask him to tell her exactly how he’d describe what he thought of her. But they weren’t alone, and she could practically feel the heat coming off her principal.
After dropping the biggest bomb yet, Kai pulled away from the adults to go skipping into the classroom. Jemma thought perhaps it was her imagination, but she was sure the little girl was whispering, “K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” as she shuffled by.
Kendrick’s heated gaze brought her attention back to him. He lingered as if hoping to say something to her, but in the end, he simply said goodbye to both her and Sophie and walked away.
As soon as Kendrick left, Principal Cole was on Jemma’s ass. “May I speak to you in the corridor, Ms. Jordon?”
Jemma glanced back at her students for a moment, noting they were all preoccupied with coloring in their books.
She followed her into the corridor. She couldn’t help but take in her pantsuit ensemble; the all-black suit was chic and sleek. Sophie had good taste in outfits, and she rarely had a bad look. With her tall, slender frame, her ivory skin, and honey-colored hair, she could be a model.
Her personality, though, left something to be desired. Sophie stepped closer. She gave a stiff smile, which faded into a deep scowl before she spoke. “It seems I forgot to share a very important rule during your interview. We do not tolerate flirting or fraternizing with the students’ parents or guardians. You’re new here, so you don’t know the rules, but it should be obvious that Kendrick Brooks is not for you.”
“That makes no sense. He is her uncle. Does he even count as a parent or guardian?”
“Ms. Jordon, this school has almost had its reputation tarnished by women like you who think a kindergarten campus is a place to ‘cop’ a husband. We’ve kept it under wraps, but there have been board meetings and court cases because women like you think you can use these students to get a man. We will not tolerate favoritism and interpersonal relationships. You will not suddenly become an aunty or a stepmother to any of my students.”
“What are you even—?” Jemma tried to defend herself, but Sophie shut her down.
“Listen to me carefully, Ms. Jordon, because I am telling you in no uncertain terms that you will lose your job here, and you will never work as a teacher in this town again if you get involved with Kendrick Brooks. I will ensure it. That is all, Ms. Jordon. You may return to your classroom.”
“He’s been coming all week. Wow, we’ve never seen that much of Kendrick here.”
“Turns out Kai’s mom is having more episodes of nausea and vomiting, and so Kyle has been taking care of her around the clock. By the sounds of it, it’s getting serious. For now, Kendrick is on drop-off duty.”
“Why do you sound so sad about it? I thought you were looking.” Maisy waggled her eyebrows, but Jemma could hardly fake a smile.
She was looking but not anymore, not after what Sophie had said. And to make matters worse, she couldn’t even bring it up to her friend. Just as she had been walking away from Principal Cole, she had been stopped.
Inside, Jemma struggled not to label Principal Cole as what she was: a hating bitch, because whether or not Sophie was just trying to be cruel didn’t erase the fact that her job was in that woman’s hands.
Sophie was the one who had interviewed her over a Skype call while she was still living in the city—a city she was desperate to escape.
Desperate… That’s how she felt constantly: desperate to know more about Kendrick, desperate to explore the tension between them that only seemed to crackle with more and more energy each time they were near.
And now she was desperate to erase that tension, desperate to erase the cries of her heart because she needed this job. She needed this job so she could stay in Felora, the place she’d vowed she would make her home.
Jemma had gone to college to get her degree in education. Her aunt had covered all the expenses for her ambition. After all, she had been the only living relative Jemma had left.
College had been her aunt’s last gift to her before she died too. That’s when Jemma had fallen into the hole she did. So lonely and grief-riddled, she was young and…desperate.
Brian had been nice to her; he’d been her shoulder to cry on and someone to depend on when she’d needed someone close. So, he’d moved in and hadn’t wanted to leave. He’d demanded her attention, money, and time, but he’d given her little to none of his.
After a year and nine months, she’d finally let Brian go and opened the doors for Shawn in her final year of college.
Shawn had seemed perfect at first. She’d met him in the supermarket while she was picking up tampons. He’d wanted to take her out; he’d wanted to wine and dine her, and he had. He’d reeled her in and made her fall in love. He had been perfect and someone else’s husband.
The last straw had been a fellow teacher at her last workplace. He had been handsome and smart, and he’d loved children and learning just as much as she did. They had been planning a future together or she had been planning a future.
What had she overheard him laughing about with their colleagues in the teacher’s lounge? How she was so scared to be alone, and all he had to do was whisper a few sweet words, and she would be all over him? Something like that.
Jemma had used up all the money her aunt had left her, plus all her savings, to start fresh. She’d left the city. She’d had to escape that place where she didn’t have anyone and find a new place where she could be away from the house, school, and streets filled with memories of people she didn’t have around anymore.
She bought a quaint cottage-style home just outside the town of Felora. She purchased that house from Maisy, who was still sitting across from her, waiting for a reply.
“I guess the newness wore off…” Jemma finally gave her answer.
“Wore off? Last I heard in the school whispers is that he asked you out!”
“He asked me out,” Jemma confirmed, recalling the morning before.
Maisy’s eyes narrowed as the wheels of her mind began to turn. “So you sassed him, but the newness is gone?”
“Yes, I sassed him, and the newness is definitely gone, and the rose-colored glasses are off. Kendrick Brooks is just like every other man I’ve ever met. He thinks he can come into my life, and I’ll just make way for him because I’m single and alone. It doesn’t matter if he’s handsome and rich. I’m standing on business for myself now. I’m going to be daring and sassy. I’ll flirt when I want to and let it fade when I want to. I can turn on and off like a light.”
Maisy drew back in her seat. “Ouu! I wish Hanna was here to hear all this.”
Jemma’s face heated with embarrassment especially because despite her claim to be done with Kendrick Brooks, she was still carefully picking out her outfits each morning so she could look good for him.
She knew she had to let him go; she knew it was going nowhere, but while he was still appearing before her, she wanted him to find her beautiful.
“Still, I’m sure if Hanna was here, she’d also find it suspicious how you’re suddenly ‘off’ Kendrick Brooks. No heterosexual female in her right mind would ever suddenly stop wanting that man.”
Hanna was Maisy’s partner and when Maisy had sold Jemma her house, the two women moved in together above Hanna’s bakery.
The two women were Jemma’s closest and, well, her only friends in Felora. They helped her settle, and now, weeks after their meeting, they spent a lot of time together.
“We are definitely revisiting this conversation at our dinner date.”
“Ugh! Let’s not ruin our ladies’ night out with boy talk. It’s supposed to be a de-stress night.”
“That’s exactly why we need to have ‘boy talk,’ if you can call that man a boy with a straight face.” Maisy smirked.
Jemma’s heart began to race as she scrambled into her chair, adjusting it to sit up straight, and checked the email.
“What is it?” Maisy asked.
“I just got an email from Kendrick.”
“He must have gotten your email address from the school website. What does it say?”
“He’s writing on behalf of Kyle and Tia. Kai’s bodyguards just rushed her off the playground. They didn’t want me to be alarmed that she was removed from the campus. Kai collapsed.”
As if on cue, a school staff member came racing into the lounge. “Ms. Jordon! One of your students collapsed—”
