by Raquel Belle
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
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“The Princess And The Punk”
About the Author
The Not So Bad Boy
Raquel Belle
Copyright © 2019 by Raquel Belle. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations or excerpts for review purposes.
Belle, Raquel. The Not So Bad Boy.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank my friends and family for always being there for me and listening to my crazy stories when I call or facetime them! I love you guys! My friend and editor Patty, whom I’ve had far too many cocktails with over the years…I hope to have many more!
I want to thank my publishers for giving me this outlet to tell my stories and do what I love. And, lastly…the couple who inspired this story, thank you for letting me in to your lives.
Chapter One
Here we go, Hayley Wright thought as she put the finishing touches on her makeup that morning. Minimal makeup was all she could do thanks to her job as a Kindergarten teacher, but she still liked to look pulled together when she got into school even if she knew that by noon that day, she’d be covered in finger paint and have been peed on at least once. On that particular Thursday, her outfit was a dark blue cotton button down shirt with skinny jeans and brown leather boots. A new peach-colored lip-gloss that she had picked up at Ulta the previous Saturday with her best friend and fellow Kindergarten teacher, Kerry, was slicked across her lips. Hayley’s light brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and gold hoops too small for a little kid’s finger to fit through ran through her ears.
Perfect. Casual, comfortable, but still stylish, Hayley thought as she looked in the mirror. She smoothed her shirt down before going into the kitchen to pack her bag. Not that she had anyone to impress. Most of the other teachers at Hayley’s pre-school were women, and though her teaching assistant was an attractive man, Thomas was infatuated with his guitar-playing boyfriend Stephen and barely spared Hayley a glance most days. They didn’t have the easiest of working relationships—Thomas wasn’t great at planning and rarely helped out at parents’ evenings, but he was amazing with the kids, which when you were teaching Kindergarten, was the most important thing. He and Hayley had been working together for two years, and Thomas was nearly ready to take the content examination in Early Childhood Education to become a fully certified Kindergarten teacher. Since it was only just passed Christmas, though, he’d be with Hayley for the full year. She couldn’t quite decide how she felt about that yet.
The walk to school was uneventful. Hayley listened to one of her favorite podcasts and savored the view of the clear, blue sky afforded by the bare trees in her Chicago neighborhood. It had been an abnormally cold fall that had slipped into a brutal winter, but Hayley didn’t mind. She liked the brisker temperatures—they made her feel more awake, more alive.
Brightside Pre-School was connected to one of Illinois’ top charter schools, and Hayley had worked there for almost five years. She loved the job. She’d originally studied art in college, but realized once she graduated that as much as she loved drawing and painting, she didn’t want to do it for a living. She’d always gotten along well with kids, and had babysat and nannied all throughout high school and her time as an undergraduate at Northwestern, so she went back to school and got her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education. Brightside was arts-focused and tried to instil a passion and flair for the creative pursuits early on in kids’ lives, which was why Hayley had initially chosen to work there. Well, that, and her college advisor was the principal.
The school itself was a twenty-minute walk from Hayley’s one-bedroom apartment, and she arrived at the gates just after 8:15. She walked past the main office, waving to the secretary, Hannah, who she sometimes met for a drink after work. Hayley’s classroom was at the end of the first-floor hallway, so she popped in to put her coat in the closet before walking back to the teacher’s lounge to make a cup of tea. As she turned around after hanging her coat and scarf, however, Hayley noticed a note on her desk. In the familiar handwriting of the principal, Dan Sumners, were the words “See Me” written in block capitals.
***
Dan Sumners was a kind-hearted man of fifty-five. His greying hair was slowly receding at the temples and his watery, blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of tortoiseshell glasses. He had a uniform of sorts, always wearing either corduroy pants or jeans with a blue or red button down shirt and, when the weather called for it, a brown, plaid blazer with patches at the elbows. Dan had been Hayley’s advisor during her masters and had taught all of her favorite seminars, and he’d been a sort of mentor to Hayley ever since, helping her apply to Brightside, suggesting various professional development measures she could take part in, introducing her to colleagues in the educational sphere. He never raised his voice, never showed his anger and never made any of his employees feel intimidated, so Hayley wasn’t worried about whatever he needed to talk to her about. It might just be about the upcoming field trip to the aquarium for all she knew.
But when Hayley entered Dan’s office after being let through by Hannah, Dan had a somewhat grave look on his face. Upon seeing Hayley, he momentarily brightened, standing up and offering her the comfy armchair across from him, but once they were both seated, his face returned to its previous expression.
“What’s up?” Hayley asked.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, Hayley, but Thomas has quit.”
Hayley was silent for a moment. Thomas? Quitting? That wasn’t possible. He had signed a contract for a full year, a contract which also stipulated that any employees of Brightside had to give at least two months’ notice before leaving, to allow the school adequate time to find a replacement.
“That’s… that’s not possible. He can’t have just left! We’re not allowed to just leave!”
Dan gave Hayley a faint, bemused smile before continuing. “While that is true, it seems that Thomas didn’t really care about the rules. I got an email from him last night saying he was flying to London with his boyfriend for some band tour and that I should accept the email as his resignation. I tried calling him, but he seems to have disconnected his phone.”
Hayley started breathing heavily. Dan reached across the desk to pat her on the shoulder, whispering that she should calm down, that everything would be fine, that he’d sort it all out, but Hayley barely heard him. Thomas had quit. Hayley had to handle a class of forty five-year olds on her own for weeks, possibly months. She had a million spring-related lessons coming up, and Thomas was supposed to cover for her when she went to her yearly check-up at the doctor’s on Friday, and he was her main source of help at the upcoming field trip to the aquarium. She was, in a word, screwed.
But she couldn’t say that in front of Dan. Dan was telling her to be calm, and that he would sort everything out, make sure she got the help she needed, that in fact, he had a nephew whom he thought was going to
be able to fill in, and… Wait, what?
“You have a nephew?” Hayley asked, which was a stupid question because she knew for a fact that Dan had at least five nephews and quite a few nieces. He had a huge family spread out all over the Midwest that he talked about frequently but, at that moment, Hayley was focused on the nephew.
“Yes. My nephew James, like Thomas, is in the process of getting certified. He’s been looking for a temporary position to hold him over until he takes his exam, and I’m going to call him right after we finish our meeting and see if he can fill in. He’s excellent—great with kids, very professional, organized. I think you two would really get along well. Certainly better than you got along with Thomas,” Dan said, winking at Hayley. He knew about some of Hayley’s frustrations with Thomas.
“So… I wouldn’t be alone teaching all those kids by myself and taking them on field trips and teaching them about Groundhog Day?”
“Nope. If all goes well, James will be there to help.”
Hayley breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that she had an understanding boss with a huge family that apparently included a Kindergarten teacher or two. “Thank you, Dan. Thank you thank you thank you.”
Dan waved her gratitude off and looked at his watch. “Now, it’s 8:45, so you have about forty-five minutes to get yourself in a slightly calmer state of mind before the masses start arriving. Why don’t you go to the lounge and make some tea, and I’ll call James? He might not be able to come at such short notice today, but I’ve cancelled my morning meetings so I can assist you if need be.”
Hayley nodded and left Dan’s office, feeling a little light-headed from so many strong emotions so early in the morning. She needed a cup of green tea and a few minutes of silence to feel like her normal, not-freaking-out self again.
***
Hayley was mid-way through the morning’s art lesson when Dan popped in and motioned her over. Checking that all the kids weren’t about to eat a crayon or throw paint at each other, Hayley tiptoed over to the door.
“Any news?” she asked Dan. He’d been helping with her first few lessons of the day, including reading time, but his phone had rung in the middle of the third story, and he’d been gone for an hour.
“Yes! Good news at that! James can come tomorrow morning, and he said he’s happy to cover you so you can still go to the doctor’s.”
Hayley nearly screamed with joy and hugged Dan, but at the last minute she managed to hold in her emotions and simply gave him a grateful squeeze on the arm. She’d texted her mom that morning to let her know her visit was dependent on a few things, and her mom had messaged back that of course she and Hayley’s stepdad understood, but that they’d miss her if she couldn’t come down. Hayley rarely got the chance to go back to Minneapolis, where she grew up, and she’d been looking forward to the trip for months. She knew her parents felt the same way, and she’d hated that she might be disappointing them.
“Thank you so much, Dan.”
“Don’t sweat it. James is a great kid. Do you mind getting here a little early tomorrow so you can give him the rundown? He said he could be here at eight,” said Dan. “Oh! And here’s his number, in case you need to contact him.” He slipped her a hot-pink Post-it with a local cell phone number written on it. She tucked it into her pocket, returned to her students, and spent the rest of the day calm, collected, and a little excited for a new, hopefully more competent teaching assistant.
***
That night, Hayley had plans to meet her boyfriend Eric for dinner at a local Italian restaurant down the street from his apartment. She and Eric had met online and while she wouldn’t say they’d hit it off immediately, over the last few months they’d grown closer, and she felt like they were on their way to falling in love. Eric was thirty-three, a real estate agent who worked with charities to help rehouse refugees and residents who had been evicted from their homes. He was tall, with sandy brown hair, light blue eyes, and muscles toned from hours at the gym each week.
Their first date together had been an absolute disaster. Hayley had knocked the wine over, Eric’s salad had ended up in his lap, and they had bumped heads when they were trying to read the bill. They’d ended the night in fits of laughter, and Eric had given Hayley the sweetest kiss she’d ever received. She hadn’t felt anything precisely like attraction to him that night, but she’d liked him, and as they continued going out on dates and she’d gotten to know him better, Hayley had started falling for Eric. He was kind, understanding, slow to anger, and had the cutest laugh that seemed to rise from his belly and tumble from his mouth in a low huh, huh, huh. Because of it, Hayley loved making him giggle.
But that night, as they sat across from each other perusing the pasta menu, Eric wasn’t laughing. Hayley had just finished telling him that Thomas had left and a guy named James was replacing him, and if Hayley wasn’t mistaken, Eric was looking a little jealous. Her suspicions were confirmed a moment later when he opened his mouth.
“I dunno, Hayl. Can’t they get a girl to replace James?”
She hated being called Hayl. This was the first time Eric had called her that, so she hadn’t yet had a chance to tell him how much she hated the nickname, but if he did it again, she would definitely give him an earful. Currently, however, she was focused on something else Eric had just said, about James needing to be replaced by a ‘girl.’
Hayley hated the people who assumed that all Kindergarten teachers needed to be women. True, the profession was inhabited mostly by women, but that didn’t mean that you needed to be a woman to be a Kindergarten teacher. Hayley had been happy when she found out she was going to have Thomas as her teaching assistant. She liked seeing more men getting into the profession.
Eric had never explicitly said that he thought of her career as a “woman’s job,” but comments like that made her think that perhaps that was essentially what he felt.
“Why should they replace him with a woman? The guy Dan hired sounds perfectly competent.”
Eric shrugged and tore a piece of bread off the garlic loaf in the basket between them. He shrugged, and before he popped the piece into his mouth, said “I dunno. I’d just feel more comfortable if you were working with another woman.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Hayley asked, silently fuming. Was Eric seriously insinuating that men wouldn’t be able to handle themselves around her in the workplace? Or vice versa?
“Look, don’t get all bent out of shape,” Eric said, his mouth full of half-masticated garlic bread. “I’m just saying that I think I’d be a little jealous if I knew there was some hot guy sniffing around you all day every day. I mean, with Thomas, it wasn’t an issue, because he was gay, but even then I felt a bit weird about it. I mean, aren’t most Kindergarten teachers women?”
“You realize what an asshole you sound like right now, right?”
Eric looked exasperated as he responded. “That’s not my intention, but am I not allowed to express my feelings here? I’d just feel more comfortable if your teaching assistant was a woman. You’re a beautiful girl, Hayley, and any guy that spends as much time with you as an assistant has to is bound to fall in love with you. I mean, I’ve only spent a few hours each week with you, and I’m definitely falling for you.”
Hayley knew that in some weird, messed up way, Eric had meant that as a compliment, but it didn’t make it right. She spent the next ten minutes trying to explain to Eric why exactly what he’d said was offensive, but all she got out of him was an “I’m sorry I made you feel that way, but…” followed by more sexist bullshit.
Hayley wasn’t much for confrontation and she really didn’t want to draw attention to herself by storming out of the restaurant, so instead, she accepted Eric’s not-apology and ate her pasta in silence. When Eric asked her later if she wanted to go back to his place, she declined, saying she needed to be up early to meet James. He looked distinctly disgruntled at that, which had been her point.
Hayley gave him a chaste kiss on the
cheek and began walking home, wondering, not for the first time, if she was doomed to date assholes forever. Eric had been part of her effort to go for the exact opposite of her normal type: bad boys with body art, but it was obvious that douchebags existed everywhere.
Chapter Two
The next morning, Hayley got up extra early so she could fit a run in before going to school to meet with James. As she powered along Lake Michigan, her breath making little puffs in front of her, she began to feel a bit calmer. She’d tossed and turned all night, frustrated that she’d once again fallen into like/love with an obvious asshole. Her previous boyfriends had all turned out to be the same, and she had no idea what she’d done in a former life to warrant such assclowns falling into her lap. Sure, they were all extremely good looking, and with the exception of Eric, textbook bad boys with the sex appeal to match, but they’d all left her broken. She’d even taken a break from dating for a year, only going on Hinge at the behest of her mother, who was worried that Hayley would finish her 20’s alone and single. At 29, it was definitely looking that way.
Eric had seemed so kind, so funny, and hell, he worked for a charity! How could someone so liberal be such a stick in the mud? As she sprinted the last mile back to her apartment, Hayley vowed to delete his number from her phone and forget about him. She’d focus on her job and herself and forget about fuckboys.
But her resolve slipped the moment she rounded the school gates to see a gorgeous man waiting at the doors. No one else, except for the school chef, Ronda, and the janitor, Harry, were there at that time of morning, so the guy at the door had to be James. He was a little taller than Hayley, 5’9 or 5’10, with dark black wavy hair that was longer than most men were wearing it these days. He had on a leather bomber jacket, but it was unzipped, affording Hayley a clear view of his muscular chest underneath his black, button-down shirt. She could see what looked like a band t-shirt peeking out from beneath the shirt and Hayley just knew there were tattoos hiding somewhere on that body. Slim, dark jeans revealed his muscular thighs and, if she wasn’t mistaken, a sizeable cock, and his feet were decked out in vintage Doc Martens. Hayley had to keep herself from audibly panting. He was her idea of the perfect man.
