by Irene Hannon
“This isn’t every day.”
“It doesn’t matter. I still have to go to the school.”
“So, why not let me come along? If anyone is waiting on the road, hoping to catch you out alone, he’ll be disappointed.”
“Thanks for giving me more to worry about.”
“That wasn’t my intention.”
“Then what was?”
“To keep you safe.”
“That’s not your responsibility.” She shoved the key in the ignition, but didn’t bother putting the car in Drive. There was safety in numbers, and she’d be foolish to turn down Levi’s offer just because they’d dated years ago.
Just because he’d broken her heart years ago.
“Go ahead and get in.” There. She’d said it, and it hadn’t been nearly as difficult as she thought it would be. Levi was an old crush. Nothing more. As long as she kept that in mind, she’d be just fine.
Chapter Nine
Levi rounded the car and got into the passenger’s seat, the scent of his aftershave filling the car as he closed the door.
Closed the two of them in.
Together.
Maybe letting him escort her to the school wasn’t such a good idea. Shauna pulled out of the driveway, anyway. What else could she do? Admit he made her uncomfortable and kick him out of the car? That would be the same as admitting he still had a hold over her, and there was no way she planned to do that.
“Don’t look so scared, Red. I don’t bite.”
“I’m not scared, and stop calling me Red.” She took the turn onto the main road a little too quickly and forced herself to ease off the gas pedal.
“Why? I’ve always called you that.”
“You called me that a lifetime ago. We’re different people now.”
“If you’d said that to me a day ago, I would have agreed. But right now, sitting in this car with you, it feels like we haven’t changed at all.”
“We’ve changed plenty.” But the way her pulse raced, the way every nerve went on high alert when Levi was near, that was the same. Too much the same. And it really did scare her.
“Shauna—”
“I didn’t let you come along so we could discuss the past and how we have or haven’t changed, so how about we drop the subject and move on to something else?”
“Like what?”
“Like why you were up working at three in the morning.”
“I’m running my uncle’s business, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have fingers in my own.”
“Jack said you’ve got a large architecture firm in Seattle. I guess it’s not going to run itself.”
“No, but I’ve got good people in place. I was just checking over a few things they sent for approval.” He leaned forward, switching the radio station without bothering to ask permission just as he had when they’d dated. Classical music filled the car. His favorite.
“You could have asked before you switched stations.”
“Sorry. I guess that’s something else that hasn’t changed.”
“I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to discuss the past.” Her fingers clenched around the steering wheel, but she absolutely refused to lose her cool again.
“Then I guess it’s my turn to choose a different subject.”
“Like?”
“Matthew.”
“What?” She sputtered the word, too surprised to do anything else.
“Who was he?”
“That’s part of the past, and not open for discussion.”
“I see.”
“You see what?”
“He either broke your heart or—”
“Levi, if you don’t drop the subject right now, I’m going to pull the car over and walk to Deer Park Elementary. Alone.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to kick me out of the car?”
“Knowing you, you’d refuse to go,” she said without thinking of how it sounded, of the way “knowing you” made it sound as if she did know him. As if the past twelve years hadn’t changed anything between them.
He chuckled but didn’t say another word about Matthew or anything else—which was fine with Shauna. She preferred the silence. She really did.
Still frustrated, she switched the station back to the one she preferred, let the upbeat music fill the car. It did little to ease her irritation. God had a reason for everything. That’s what she’d always believed, but Shauna couldn’t think of one good reason why Levi McLeary had walked back into her life. And, as far as she was concerned, the sooner he walked back out, the happier she’d be.
Chapter Ten
Deer Park Elementary School hadn’t changed much since Levi was a kid. Tile floors still gleamed beneath overhead lights. Student artwork still decorated walls. The scent of cafeteria food and bleach still hung in the air.
“You can wait here. I shouldn’t be long.” Shauna pointed to a bench outside the principal’s office, but Levi had no intention of sitting on it. He’d done his time when he was a trouble-making kid.
“I’ll come with you.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Shauna! Thanks for coming.” A dark-haired woman hurried toward them, interrupting any further argument. That was fine with Levi. He had no intention of arguing. He was simply going to stick with Shauna until she was locked safely in her house again.
“No problem. Is there much damage?”
“It’s more of a mess than anything else. Hopefully, it won’t take long for you to put together an itemized list of what’s missing. I’m sure you and your friend have better things to do with your time than hang out here.”
“We’re not friends. Levi is my new neighbor. Levi, this is Krista Mallory. She’s the principal here.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Mallory.” Levi offered his hand, but his attention was still on Shauna. She’d already started down the hall, her ponytail swinging with every step. She was as slender as she’d been when they were in high school, but she carried herself with more confidence. Not a kid anymore. A woman. And a beautiful one.
“So, you’re Shauna’s neighbor?” Krista asked as they followed Shauna down the hall.
“That’s right.”
“You must have moved into the Harrison place.”
“That’s what I’ve been told.” A few yards ahead, Shauna stepped into her classroom, and Levi and Krista followed behind.
The room had been trashed, and two police officers stood beside a broken window near the back of the room. Shauna was at her desk, sifting through piles of school supplies. Despite the chaos, she looked at home there. Levi couldn’t help remembering how often she’d talked about being a teacher, talked about having a classroom filled with children and a house full of the same.
Even as a teen, Levi had known that Shauna was the kind of person who’d make her dreams come true. He’d been afraid he’d become part of them, be locked into small-town life and never escape.
Right now, watching her gather papers from a desk littered with debris, he wasn’t sure what he’d been so determined to escape from.
She looked up, meeting his gaze, her eyes a darker blue than he remembered. He could get lost in them if he let himself, could look into their depths and imagine he was seeing more than the present. That he was looking into the past, looking into the future. Maybe that should have scared him, but it didn’t. He’d dated plenty of women over the past twelve years, had toyed with the idea of marriage once or twice, but no one had ever touched his heart the way Shauna had.
The way she still did.
That was something worth fighting for—something worth giving up city life and big-time dreams for. He’d been too foolish to realize that when he was a teen. But he knew it now, and he had every intention of doing what he should have done twelve years ago. He was going to offer Shauna everything she’d once dreamed of, and he was going to pray it was enough to win her heart.
Chapter Eleven
“Anything missing?” Levi asked as he ap
proached Shauna’s desk. She didn’t look up. Maybe she was afraid of what she’d see if she looked in his eyes.
“It’s hard to tell.” She scooped up a handful of pencils and dropped them into a metal pencil holder.
“Want some help cleaning up?”
“What I want is to go back in time and start yesterday over.” She picked up a broken ceramic mug, righted the trash can and threw the mug into it.
“So you could do things differently and prevent this from happening?”
“So I could pull the covers over my head and stay in bed. Maybe it wouldn’t prevent this from happening, but it could help me avoid some other unpleasant things.”
“Are you talking about the armed robbery or seeing me again?”
“Both.”
“I hope seeing me doesn’t rank as low as being accosted at knifepoint.”
“You’re a few steps up from it.” She offered a brief smile and handed him a half-dozen bottles of glue. “Since you offered to help, how about putting these in the supply closet across the room?”
“Is that your way of getting rid of me?”
“If I wanted to get rid of you, I’d have asked you to leave.”
“How is it going, Shauna?” One of the officers approached—a young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties.
“I’ve had better days.”
“I guess so. I just spoke to Richard Anderson. He said there was trouble out at your place last night.”
“That’s right.”
“It doesn’t seem like this can be a coincidence, does it?” The officer gestured at the vandalized room.
“I wish I could say it did.”
“Have you had any run-ins with your students? Is it possible one of them did this?”
“I teach third grade. My students are still babies.”
“Third graders are capable of breaking and entering.”
“Most aren’t capable of driving cars, though,” Levi cut in. There was no way the person he’d seen running from Shauna’s house had been a third grader.
“That doesn’t mean the knifeman wasn’t connected to one of Shauna’s students.”
“I have a really sweet group of kids this year. I can’t believe any of them would be part of something like this.”
“So you don’t have any loners? Maybe a kid who doesn’t quite fit in?”
“I have a new student. Nicolas Samuels. He’s quiet and keeps to himself, but that’s because he’s still trying to find his way.” Shauna threw papers into a box and lifted a pink jacket from the floor. A brown purse lay open beneath it, Chapstick and a wallet on the floor beside it.
“What in the world? Where did this come from?”
“Is it yours?” The officer asked, and Shauna nodded.
“It’s the one that was stolen earlier. Why would someone take it and then break into my classroom and leave it?” She looked scared and vulnerable, and it seemed natural to put an arm around her shoulders and pull her close. She fit perfectly there, just as she had when they were teens. If they’d been alone, Levi might have slipped his other arm around her waist, pulled her in for a hug.
She met his gaze, her lashes long and golden and shielding whatever was in her eyes. Even without makeup she was beautiful. And looking down into her face, Levi couldn’t remember why he’d ever believed that she wasn’t the kind of woman he’d want to spend forever with.
“We’ll have to take it in for evidence.” The officer lifted the purse and put it in an evidence bag, her words seeming to break whatever spell had held Shauna in Levi’s embrace.
She stepped away, put a few feet between them. “No problem.”
“Aside from finding the purse, is there anything else that you’ve noticed? Missing items? Things that don’t belong?”
“Some of my students’ folders are missing. I keep them in the bottom drawer of my desk, and I’d say a good third are gone,” Shauna said, leading Krista and the officer to her desk and fanning out a pile of folders.
Levi stayed where he was, giving her the space she seemed to want, knowing that pushing Shauna too hard would only drive her away.
Chapter Twelve
Monday morning came too quickly, and Shauna barely managed to drag herself out of bed and into the shower. It had taken most of Saturday to right her trashed classroom. Sunday had been church, dinner with the folks and fielding questions about the break-in at school, the armed robbery and Levi.
Levi.
She still couldn’t believe he’d moved in next door.
Couldn’t believe that her heart still skipped a beat each time she saw him.
Couldn’t believe how right it still felt to be in his arms.
“Enough! He’s just an old friend,” she muttered to herself as she grabbed a can of diet cola from the fridge and hurried outside. The police had returned her purse the day before, and she pulled her keys out as she jogged down the porch stairs. Things had been quiet since the break-in at the school, but she still felt uneasy and anxious. Someone had an ax to grind with her, and Shauna wouldn’t feel completely safe until the police found out who it was.
“Looks like we’re both starting our days early.” Levi’s voice carried across the yard, and Shauna turned, her heart doing exactly what she knew it would when she saw him—skipping and dancing and celebrating.
Fickle foolish heart.
“Jack must be a real taskmaster for you to be out and about before seven. The way I remember it, you didn’t believe in opening your eyes before eight. How many first-period classes did you miss in high school?” The question left her mouth before she could think it through, and she blushed. She should not be bringing up the past when she was trying so hard to forget that she and Levi had shared one.
“More than I want to admit.”
“You still managed to pass every class.”
“I had a good tutor my senior year.”
“Not that you ever really needed one.” She’d tutored him in calculus the year they’d dated. She didn’t remember much teaching going on, but he’d somehow managed to ace every test.
“I needed you, and you were a great teacher, Shauna. I don’t know why I ever tried to convince you to do something else with your life.” He smiled, walking toward her, his suit perfectly fitted, his face clean shaven. He wore the past twelve years well, fine lines at the corners of his eyes giving him a look of maturity he hadn’t had when they were dating. It appealed to Shauna in a way she hadn’t expected and didn’t like.
“You didn’t want to be limited by my small-town dreams.” That’s what he’d told her the day he’d said he was going to Seattle to attend college and to create a new life for himself. A new life that didn’t include her.
“I should never have said that. I was young and—”
“It was meant to be, Levi. We weren’t. There’s no sense in rehashing it all.” She opened the car door, would have gotten in and driven away. But Levi put a hand on her arm, the heat of his touch shooting through her.
“I was young and foolish. I’m older now and hopefully a little wiser.”
“Meaning?” She knew she should pull away, but his touch was familiar and new all at once, and she couldn’t make herself break the contact.
“There were better ways to say goodbye, and I wish I’d taken them.”
“But you don’t wish you hadn’t said it?”
“I had to leave, Red. If I hadn’t, I’d never have learned what it was I was missing.” His hand slid up her arm, rested on her shoulder, his fingers playing with her hair. He’d done the same dozens of times when they were teens, but it was different now—more compelling, more deliberate.
He knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get it.
And if Shauna wasn’t careful, she’d fall right into his plans.
Chapter Thirteen
Breathless, Shauna pulled away and got in the car, anxious to put some distance between them. Even then, she could feel the warmth of his hand on her shoulder, feel her heart’s shu
ddering response.
That wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.
She grabbed the door handle, but Levi put his hand on the window, his grip light. She could have closed the door if she wanted to, and she knew it.
So why didn’t she?
Maybe it was the way he’d looked at her when she’d stood at her desk early Saturday morning. She’d seen things in his eyes that she’d never seen before—understanding, respect, admiration. And she’d responded in a visceral way that had made her want to turn tail and run.
But she hadn’t.
And she wouldn’t.
She wasn’t a teenager, anymore. She was an adult, and she’d act reasonable and in control no matter how muddle-headed she felt when Levi was around.
“I need to go. I’ve got a classroom to get ready.”
“I guess we both have busy days ahead of us. How about we have dinner together? We can finish our conversation then.”
“We are finished.”
“Then let’s just have dinner.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not? We’re old friends. What could possibly be wrong with us having dinner together?” He made it sound so reasonable that for the life of her, Shauna couldn’t think of one reason why they shouldn’t.
“Give me a few hours. I’ll think of something.”
He laughed, and Shauna couldn’t help smiling in return. “You’re laughing, but I’m not joking. I can’t have dinner with you.”
“Why? Are you dating someone?”
“I don’t date.” That, at least, was the truth.
“Since when?”
“Since my fiancé announced that he was in love with another woman and left me at the altar.”
“Let me guess.... His name was Matthew.”
“Good guess.”
“And that was how long ago?”
“Two years, and I haven’t been sitting around pining for him, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just don’t see any reason to get involved in another relationship.”
