"Oh okay, let me know when you know the day." Shrugging, Kevin went back to eating.
Reed loved his family. They were all about helping people when they needed help and they always stuck together. And his cousins were probably going to razz him about the fact that Alice was living with him, even if it was for a week. Most of his cousins knew about his feelings for her because Reed wasn't exactly subtle.
Alice moving in with him was still an idea he couldn’t fathom. Yeah, it was only a week, but it still seemed crazy. Reed couldn't decide if this was a good or bad idea. It would definitely give him a better handle on whether or not they would be a good couple or should remain friends. It wouldn't be a trial run for dating, but it would give him more data to draw from. He couldn't believe he was thinking about a relationship in forms of data points, it made him sound like his cousin, Jared.
"Okay, I need to stop thinking about this. Let's talk about something else," Reed announced as he felt his mind whirling about events that were still two and a half weeks away.
"All right, so how about the Mariners?"
"You realize it isn’t even baseball season, right?" Reed answered as he chuckled at his cousin.
The other man shrugged and grabbed another fry from Reed’s plate. "It doesn't matter, it’s still a good icebreaker for everything and you will never convince me otherwise." He shoved the stolen fry in his mouth. Reed couldn't help but snort. "Yeah right, whatever." With that they moved back into a more regular rhythm the rest of dinner.
Chapter 4
"All right, honey, this is the last load I’ll be able to help you with because I have to pick up baby girl from daycare. I'm available tomorrow after work to help." Trinity set the last of Alice's boxes down in the garage.
Alice's parents still lived in the house she grew up in. Even though they had a guestroom and told Alice she was more than welcome to use it, she didn't want to stay with them if she could help it. But they had volunteered to let her use some of the space in their oversized garage to store the boxes of stuff she wouldn't be needing until she moved in to her new apartment almost two weeks from now. That had been a life saver because she didn't want to shop around for storage units. Especially considering they usually charged by the month and she wouldn't be using it for the full thirty days.
"I appreciate you helping me, Trin. If you and Reed hadn't volunteered your cars, especially considering you both drive SUVs, I would've never gotten this done so fast."
"Are you sure you don't want my and Josiah's help with moving the furniture?" Trinity offered, pulling her car keys out of her back pocket and flipping them about on one of her fingers.
Shaking her head, Alice smiled. "No, we’ll be okay. Reed has lassoed in several of his cousins to help me and they're bringing two trucks. He says between the five of them they should be able to get most of the big furniture in two or three trips and he's bribing them all with pizza for dinner."
Trinity gave her a look for a second as if she was trying to decide how to respond, but eventually shrugged her shoulders and leaned in to give Alice a quick hug. "All right, let me know if you need help. I'm usually free on weekends." She walked away, turning and blowing a kiss when she was about halfway to her car.
Reed came up the driveway with the last of the boxes from his car. As he dropped it on top of the box Trinity had been carrying, he smiled over at Alice. "I don't think we have time to run another trip. My suggestion is either we each go home to clean up or we can swing by my place because it's closer and carpool to the parent-teacher night. I still have your box of toiletries in my trunk. I was going to drop it off in the guest bathroom when I got home. If there's anything in there you can use, we can do that if it’s easier. Not to mention, I have fixings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which we can eat pretty quickly and not be late for the parent-teacher conference or go to the conference hungry. I know, I don't mean to brag. I know it's super fancy of me but that's how I roll." His grin grew as he finished.
Alice couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, we can carpool. I think there's enough toiletries in that box that I can freshen up, plus I have a change of clothes for the parent-teacher conference in my car. I'll follow you back to your house and we can have your artisan peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."
"Great, we’ll set out and I’ll see you in about ten to fifteen minutes." He headed to his car; he sat in the front seat watching Alice, making sure everything got locked up tight and she made it to her car. He even made sure she pulled out of the driveway first.
Alice was so grateful for all her friends were doing for her. She was in a tough spot being kicked out of her apartment and the fact that Reed was willing to give her a place to stay and Trinity helped her look for a place, and Reed's family were helping her move. It was one of the reasons she moved back here after college. The sense of community in Lantern Lake was much stronger than any she'd felt on the west side of the state and, now that she had lived with it, she was fairly certain she could not live without it.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed aside her thoughts. Tonight was the second semester's parent-teacher night. Parents would spend roughly ten to fifteen minutes with each teacher, as if in a mock class. The teacher would have those ten minutes to explain what the kids would be learning in class that quarter. The last five minutes would be for questions. There was also a five-minute transition for the parents to walk across the building. It could be nerve-racking if you got a helicopter parent or a problem child but so far, knock on wood, Alice hadn’t had any of those, so she expected tonight to go relatively smoothly. Now that she was thinking about it, she knew she was probably jinxing herself.
~~
So far so good. Bunny Ridge Middle School had a six-period day and they were in the transition area between fifth and sixth. So far, the parents she had to deal with had been polite and interested. Sure, there had been one couple asking questions about how rigorous her curriculum was. They had been a little aggressive about it, but other than that it had been a pretty easy evening. She almost felt she was due one of those since the last two semesters had been a little difficult with some of the parent interactions. This year she wasn’t teaching any of the advanced classes so maybe there was a correlation between the two.
A knock on the classroom door shook her from her thoughts. The parents didn't knock as they came in, they just walked in and headed to a desk. When Alice looked up from her notes on the desk towards the door, she saw Simon, one of the three physical education teachers at Bunny Ridge Middle School. Alice gave him a friendly smile that was pleasant and inquisitive.
He smiled back and strode the two steps from the door to the side of her desk. "Hey, Alice. I wanted to check in and see how it was going so far. I know last quarter you had a couple rough parents." The side of his mouth quirked up as he spoke.
Simon coming to check on her was a nice sentiment. His free period was usually fourth and last semester he came in to help when she had several loud, rowdy parents. He had been walking by on the way to the restroom and stopped in to help her calm the situation down. They had not been particularly close beyond sharing a friendly smile in the hallway before then, but since they had almost become friends. Going out of his way to check on her was sweet, though she didn't want to jinx it since they were headed into the last class of the day. She smiled as she spoke and rapped her knuckles on the desk for luck.
Looking relieved he said, "Good, I'm glad to hear that. Do you need a ride home? I noticed you carpooled in with Reed but since he's the advisor for the newspaper this year he's probably going to be here longer to talk to the parents whose kids are in that club. I figured you'd need to get home as soon as possible. No pressure, just figured you could use a lift." His smile dimmed a little as he spoke letting her know he was trying not to pressure her into doing anything.
She appreciated it because while the night was going well, she was exhausted from packing and moving as many boxes as they had this afternoon. Though Reed had helped, she and
Trinity started a good half hour before he was able to come help them, partially due to his responsibilities as the advisor for the school newspaper.
"I would actually appreciate that. My car is at Reed's house but hopefully that's not too far out of your way."
His smile grew and he shook his head. "No, not at all. I'll come and pick you up in about twenty or twenty-five minutes. Don't worry about letting Reed know, I can go do it now since I'm on my free period." He backed out a few steps from the room, almost bowling over a shorter parent since Simon was well over six feet tall. He politely muttered his apologies before pivoting and heading out facing the hallway.
The whole exchange felt ridiculous. Simon had been very excited to take her home and it was flattering. He was tall and muscularly built from his days playing baseball in college, before he blew out his knee his senior year. His hair was cut short to frame beautiful blue eyes. He was an attractive man and Alice wasn't entirely sure they had anything in common, but seeing someone, especially since she’d be staying with Reed, was probably not in her best interest. They might develop feelings for each other or have something in common that Alice wasn't aware of. Smiling at the decision to get a ride home from an attractive man that might lead to dinner or something more, Alice turned her thousand-watt smile to the parents in her room and proceeded to tell them how she ran the historical literature class.
Chapter 5
A knock on the wooden door to the classroom startled Reed. He had no class during this last chunk of the day so all he was doing was prepping for the next group of parents who would be coming in to see what afterschool activities their kids were involved in. When he looked up and saw Simon, he was surprised.
Simon didn't wait for Reed to do more than look at him before he strode to the desk, placed his hands flat on it, and loomed. It was clearly an aggressive gesture. Not overly aggressive to the point where someone walking by would think Reed was being threatened, but enough to set off warning bells in Reed's head.
"Can I help you, Simon?" For all he knew something horrible had happened in the gym and Simon wanted to vent about it. Though that didn't make a lot of sense either since he and Simon were not exactly on friendly terms. They taught at the same school, but Simon had gone to high school with him and Alice and had been in the same class as Kevin, one year above Reed. He and Kevin had been rivals and that kind of spilled over to Reed when he started working at Bunny Ridge Middle School.
"I wanted you to know that after this last session Alice is hitching a ride home with me. I saw you carpool in today and I figured she wouldn't want to wait until you are done with the newspaper crowd because who knows how long those parents will stick around."
Reed hadn't thought of that. The seventh fifteen-minute session had been added to the end of the parent-teacher night. It would only be an extra twenty minutes tops and he had not thought Alice would mind. But maybe that twenty minutes was a big deal. Or maybe she had been put in a tough spot, much like she had last quarter, and was ready to leave. Either way, while he was disappointed to not ride back with her, he could get why she would want to leave earlier if she could.
"All right, thanks for letting me know, man." Reed moved his gaze from Simon and proceeded to go back to the layouts for the newspaper. But only for a moment, until he realized Simon wasn't moving. When he looked up again, Simon’s blue eyes were boring into him.
"Is there something else, Simon?" Reed asked with a sigh.
"I heard what you’re doing for Alice. And while I appreciate it and it's a really kind gesture, I want you to know that you need to remember boundaries while she's under your roof. I don't want you getting any ideas simply because she's living with you. You got me?" His hard-as-steel tone caught Reed off guard.
He wasn't entirely sure whether Simon was just direct or trying to stake a claim on Alice. Either way he frowned. "Are you and Alice a thing?" He hadn't heard anything about it, but then Alice didn't talk about her love life in general. The teachers at the school could be gossipy so it was understandable that people would want to keep their love lives under wraps, especially if they were dating another teacher at the school. Though that thought did make his heart sink into his stomach. As far as he was concerned, Simon was a jerk and the idea that Alice would be with him somehow made it worse than if she'd been with anybody else.
The older man leaned forward a little further so he could speak quietly to Reed, "Just keep your hands off her, all right? Stick with being a Good Samaritan and don't try to turn this into something else." Simon loomed close to him another moment before shoving off the desk. Reed sat there blinking, staring into the hallway a moment, confused and angry. He didn't take to somebody threatening him and the whole thing seemed super juvenile. He had no idea where any of that had come from. But he was crushed Alice was spoken for. He’d thought her moving in with him was his chance to finally ask her out, that fate had smiled on him. It turned out he might only be the butt of fate's joke.
Looking at the big clock above the door, he saw he had a little under ten minutes left until the newspaper parents would get there. He pulled out his phone and dialed Kevin who picked up after two rings.
"Aren't you supposed to be at the parent-teacher thingy thing tonight?" Kevin said by way of answering his phone.
"I am, it's my free time. I had the weirdest thing happen." He relayed his conversation with Simon to Kevin in detail.
When he finished there was a pause followed by a low whistle. "Whoa, that's oddly aggressive. Why didn’t Simon bring this whole thing up weeks ago when you offered to let her move in? Come to think of it, why wouldn't he be offering it if they were a thing? I feel like there's something else going on here." Reed could practically hear Kevin's frown through the phone.
Rubbing his temples, Reed sighed. "Maybe he didn't know about it before now. Or maybe this is the first chance he had to say something. I don't know. Maybe seeing us carpool together released all the possibilities in his head and it hit home for him."
"Want me to do some investigating? Want to go out and get drunk?" The last was said in more of a light tone almost as if Kevin was hopeful.
Reed chuckled. "No, I don't want you to do your brand of investigating and I don’t want to go get drunk on a school night. I'll deal with this like a normal adult. It's ridiculous; I was thinking this was the perfect chance for my shot and it turns out fate had other plans."
There was silence a moment as if Kevin was digesting Reed's dejected tone and shifting through possible answers. "Or, hear me out. Fate knows Simon is a moldy spec of a human being and wants you to steal Alice away from him because she deserves better."
Reed should’ve been amused by the fact that his cousin’s tone when speaking about Simon was the same as it had been when they were younger, but he was too distracted. Not to mention he needed to finish prepping for his class. It had been his gut instinct to reach out to Kevin and tell him about the absurd gesture and posturing Simon had done.
"Okay, well, I really do have to go. I just wanted to keep you appraised. While I appreciate your suggestion that fate is trying to intervene, I somehow doubt it.”
"All right, cuz. Let me know if you need to spend some time or vent. I'll see you on Saturday."
With that, they both hung up and Reed tried to force himself to concentrate on the newspaper and what they were planning to put together for the first issue of the quarter. It was hard to stay focused and by the time the parents arrived Reed wasn't as prepared as he would like to have been. That made his agitation at Simon even stronger. It was a dick move anyway, but even worse considering they were at work with things to do at the time. Reed tried his best to set it aside and plaster on a smile he didn't feel as he turned to the parents.
~~
When Sunday rolled around, he and four of his cousins had been at Alice’s bright and early to take apart furniture and move it in the two trucks they had. As a group, along with Alice, they were able to make quick work of the first trip with the tru
cks. But that all changed when they arrived at Alice's apartment complex for the second trip and found Simon waiting in the parking lot for them. Reed snuck a glance at Alice and saw her surprise before she plastered a smile on her face. He watched as Alice strode quickly over to him and spoke to him in low tones. Reed was dying to know what they were saying, but he knew it would be nosy and frankly obvious if he got close enough to hear it.
"Who the heck is that?" Max asked from over Reed's left shoulder.
"That's hopeless wonder boy, as in Simon from high school," came Kevin's voice from the same direction, dripping with disdain.
"Ugh! Are you kidding me? The heck is he doing here?" Max’s voice now held as much disgust as his older brother’s.
"He works at Bunny Ridge Middle School with us, teaching PE," Reed responded quietly, trying to keep his tone as calm as possible. He didn't want to feed his cousin’s ill feelings and have someone make a scene.
"We’re trying to figure out if they are a thing or not. Simon seems to think they are or is trying to convince Reed that they are. But we don't know for sure," Kevin explained as both he and Max walked far enough for Reed to see them in the side of his vision.
"Well, her body language doesn't say she's all that comfortable with him." This time it was Jared, their oldest cousin there, chiming in, standing to Reed's right.
And when Reed glanced over, he saw Robert standing next to Kevin both scrutinizing the hushed conversation. He could feel his cheeks turning pink. The last thing he wanted was all of his cousins involved in his love life. The older two might not know he had a crush on Alice, but he was afraid it would be painfully obvious by the end of the day and that was if Kevin didn’t tell everybody, which he was fairly certain would happen because Kevin was terrible at keeping secrets.
Lantern Lake Winter Collection: Books 1-3 Page 19
