by BJ Bentley
“When was the last time hiking or yoga made you laugh?”
I rolled my tongue around in my mouth. “Never.”
“When was the last time you laughed, period?”
“Last night,” I declared. I smiled, feeling victorious, until she asked her next question.
“What made you laugh?”
“Bridesmaids.”
“The movie? Did you watch it by yourself? At home? Alone?”
“Maybe,” I pseudo-conceded.
April rolled her eyes. “That’s it. We’re getting you some friends.”
“I have friends!”
“No, you have me, and I’m your sister, so I don’t count.”
“Whatever, I muttered, pulling my car keys from my bag.
“You know who else needs more friends? Damon,” she answered her own question. “It’s gotta be tough being a single dad. I bet he craves adult interaction. As far as I know, John is his only friend, and that just ain’t right.”
I let her keep talking as I unlocked my car door and slid into the driver’s seat. “Bye, weirdo!” I called out my open window as I shoved the gear shift into reverse.
“Love you, you friendless loser!” she called back.
Despite the tease hitting a little too close to home, I smiled, because she was my sister and she meant well.
***
By lunch time the next day, I was giving some serious consideration to crawling into the reading nook with Tierney. Nothing that morning had gone my way.
It all started with a blown tire. I was halfway to the school when I heard the loud POP and felt the pull of my car’s unevenly distributed weight. When I got out of my SUV to assess the damage, I inadvertently locked my keys inside. I had to flag down a passing motorist to call AAA, and while I waited for help to arrive, the skies opened up in a torrential downpour. Meaning, I looked like a drowned rat when Damon, of all people, pulled up behind me on the shoulder of the road. I watched in irritation as he exited his cherry red Ferrari with an oversized umbrella and walked toward me looking disgustingly handsome. It really wasn’t fair for him to be so good looking. And dry.
“Looks like you haven’t given up wet t-shirt contests after all.”
I looked down in horror when I realized my blouse was see-through now that it was completely soaked and my nipples were practically beacons in the storm. I’d be surprised if, at that very moment, they weren’t guiding ships into the harbor. I quickly crossed my arms and returned his smirk with a glare.
He stepped farther into my personal space than was necessary in order to share his umbrella with me.
“You don’t have a spare?”
“Oh, I do. But I’m not about to get down in the mud in my work clothes. Especially when I can pay AAA to do it.” To be fair, I wasn’t overly confident that I could change the tire on my own, but the first rule of dealing with Damon Hatch was to never expose your weaknesses.
“Fair enough. Would you like to get out of this rain and wait in my car?”
I didn’t think being trapped in a confined space with Damon would be any safer than standing in the chilly rain on the side of the road and catching pneumonia or risk being hit by a passing vehicle. “I’m good.”
“Sophie, come on.” He leveled me with a look that said you’re being ridiculous.
“Fine,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. He kept the umbrella over my head as he escorted me to the passenger side door of the Ferrari.
Once I was settled inside its warmth, I expected him to join me. Instead, he went back to my Kia and leaned against the trunk, likely soaking his fine suit. I watched him standing there, one hand in his pocket, the other carelessly holding the umbrella over his head, and his eyes aimed in the direction of oncoming traffic.
I tapped on the horn to get his attention. He strolled up to the driver’s side door and opened it before inserting the key back in the ignition and turning on the heat for me. “What are you doing?”
“Making sure you’re warm,” he said, straightening as he prepared to shut the door.
“No, I mean, what are you doing standing out in the rain?”
“Waiting for AAA to get here.” He shut the door before I could protest and insist that he also get in the car.
Another ten minutes passed before Damon strode back to the car and got in. Tossing the umbrella into the backseat, he pulled out his phone and placed a call.
“Yes, you’re sending a truck to this location, and I’d like you to cancel it.”
“What? Why?” I needed my tire changed, and I needed to get to work. Shit, I needed to call the school and let them know I’d be late.
Damon ignored my questions, disconnecting the call and placing another one. He spoke briefly to someone, giving them our location before disconnecting once again and placing a third call.
“Damon, I need to call the school-”
“Yes, this is Damon Hatch,” he spoke smoothly and efficiently. “Miss Sophie James is having some vehicle trouble this morning and will be arriving late. Yes. Yes, thank you.” He ended the call and turned to me. “Taken care of, doll.”
“Do you do that a lot? Just take over a situation like that?” I might have been mildly impressed. But just mildly. Mostly, I was annoyed, and for no other reason than I would have to concede that he did me a solid, and he did it without being asked.
“I do if it gets the job done. I’d say it’s an occupational hazard, but in all honesty, it’s just who I am.” He shrugged.
I sat with that bit of information for a few minutes, mulling it over and wondering why he wasn’t rubbing it in my face that he was doing me a favor. I expected him to gloat about me owing him one or something. Instead, we sat in the warm interior of his fancy sports car that smelled like leather and pine until a tow truck pulled over in front of my Kia.
Damon once again grabbed the umbrella from the back and glanced at me before opening his door. “Wait here.”
I watched through the windshield as he spoke to the tow truck driver. They’d managed to get the door open, and I was about to join them when Damon came back with my purse.
“Stay in the car, Sophie. I’m going to run you home so you can change your clothes, then I’ll drop you off at the school.”
“What about my car?”
“Mike there, is going to take care of it. He’ll drop it off at the school when he’s done.”
“That’s not necessary. If he can just put the spare on for me, it’ll be fine until I can get into the garage.”
“Nope. Now, buckle up, buttercup. Let’s get you home and then to work. I have a little girl who expects an education,” he said with a wink.
Not seeing any other option, I buckled up and sat back in the bucket seat. Fifteen minutes later, Damon was following me into my living room.
“Uh, make yourself at home, I guess? I’m gonna run upstairs and change.” I wasn’t really sure I wanted Damon making himself at home in my house, but he refused to wait in the car while I ran inside.
In my bedroom, I kicked off my shoes before peeling off my all my clothes. Looking at the clock, I wished I had time for a quick shower, but I didn’t. Having to make do, I washed off my ruined makeup and let down my hair so I could dry it before pinning it back up. With fresh makeup, relatively fresh hair, and a dry, clean clothes, I made my way back downstairs feeling much more comfortable and confident.
Or at least I was until I found Damon looking quite relaxed on my couch, flipping through a photo album from college.
“What are you doing?” I snapped.
He glanced at me over his shoulder. “You know, if I hadn’t seen it for myself, I might have thought that April’s story about you entering that wet t-shirt contest was a tall tale. But here it is, in all this photographic evidence,” he drawled, highly amused.
Snatching the book out of his hand, I snapped it shut. “What gives you the right to go through my things?”
“It’s not like I was being nosy. I mean, it was sitting out i
n the open for just anyone to see,” he insisted, though I knew he was full of it.
This particular photo album was kept on a shelf behind a multi DVD set of Ken Burns documentaries. It wasn’t exactly hidden as such, but for him to have gotten his hands on it, he certainly would have had to move some things around. Put some effort into getting at it.
I narrowed my gaze. “You and I both know that’s not true.”
“Do I? I’m not sure.”
“Ugh! Forget it.” I tossed the album on the coffee table to deal with later. “Let’s go; I’m already late for work.”
Once I got to work and got Damon out of my hair, it didn’t take long to notice some of the other staff giving me strange looks. And, it wasn’t much longer after that that I realized why.
“So, is it true? You know Damon Hatch?”
I looked at Eloise, the music teacher with the black corkscrew curls and vibrant green eyes behind glasses with bright purple frames, and shook my head. “Is that what all the weirdness has been about this morning? Damon called the office on my behalf this morning, and now it’s gossip, isn’t it?”
“Mayyyybeeee.” Eloise looked at the ground, kicking an imaginary rock.
“Un-fucking-believable,” I muttered. I weighed my options. One, I could admit to knowing Damon, which would only invite more questions, or two, I could lie my ass off. I didn’t want the spotlight on me, and I sure as hell didn’t want it to get back to Tierney, unintentionally putting her under a microscope. Tierney’s safety was my priority. “Well, you can tell the gossip mongers to stand down. I don’t really know Damon Hatch. He just saw me on the side of the road this morning and stopped to help. He’s a good samaritan, that’s all.”
“Really?” She looked disappointed. “Well, that’s not nearly as exciting as actually knowing him, but still...you met Damon Hatch! What was he like? Is he as handsome in person as he is in pictures? Did you swoon over that southern drawl? I heard him give an interview once, and I swore, if he ever spoke to me with that accent, it wouldn’t even matter what he said, I would drop my panties like that!” She emphasized her point with a finger snap.
“He was...nice,” I allowed. There were lots of adjectives I’d use to describe Damon, although ‘nice’ wasn’t typically one of them. Until today. Because, despite the photo album fiasco, he had been quite nice to me that morning. A perfect gentleman, really. Except for when he stole a kiss as he dropped me off at the school. Minor detail. I was trying not to think about it.
So, yeah, hiding in the reading nook held a certain type of appeal.
Chapter 8
Sophie
Sadly, there was no hiding for either Tierney or myself during lunch. Instead, Tierney was forced to participate in recess, and I was summoned to an impromptu staff meeting.
Seated around the conference table in a room adjacent to Principal Taylor’s office were Principal Taylor himself and the three other second grade teachers besides myself. I took a seat and wondered what we could be meeting about so early in the school year.
“Thanks for coming. I won’t keep you long,” Principal Taylor began. “As you’re all aware, the elementary school’s science fair was cancelled last year due to the unavailability of an adequate venue.”
That was true. Normally, the school would host events like the science fair in the gymnasium, but last year the school district finally came up with the money in the budget to refloor the gym, but the project hadn’t been completed in time for the science fair to be held. The high school gym hadn’t been an option either, since the science fair would have coincided with some ongoing sports tournament. With no other venue options that were within the school district’s allotted budget, the fair was canceled.
The students had been devastated. So many of them look forward to building experiments and entering them in the fair, sometimes just for fun, but I was pretty sure some of them counted on the prize money. Sadder still, some kids even hoped that winning would finally get them their parents’ approval or even attention. It was a sad reality for some kids, that they had to do something exceptional in order to be acknowledged by their own parents, when just the fact that they existed should be enough.
“This year, it looks like we have a guardian angel looking out for us,” Principal Taylor continued. “Now, normally, this is something that would have been budgeted for and announced prior to the beginning of the school year, however, this year’s budget also included a private grant. Our benefactor has supplied us with an extremely generous amount with the stipulation that any funds that do not go toward securing a venue be used to provide supplies to the students, so that no student is left out due to financial constraints.”
“Who’s the benefactor?” Stella Starling, another second grade teacher and my arch nemesis, asked.
“Ah, apparently, they wish to remain anonymous,” Principal Taylor said, frowning.
“Do you know, Sophie?” Stella asked.
“Me? How would I know?”
Stella shrugged. “I hear you have...connections. Maybe the benefactor is a certain tech billionaire.”
I narrowed my eyes at the dark-haired witch. With sleek black hair that fell in a curtain down her back, dark doe eyes, and full, red lips, Stella Starling was an absolute bombshell. It really was too bad her personality was akin to a rabid possum on meth.
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to, Stella, though I’d advise against listening to gossip you might have heard. It really is absurd the kind of rumors some people will spread.” I gave her my fakest smile.
Stella was my arch nemesis for a reason. Stella sees everything as a competition, and two years ago, when I was nominated for Teacher of the Year, Stella tried to sabotage my chances of winning by hinting to some parents that I only got nominated because I was having sexual relationships with at least two different members of the school board.
One of whom is in his sixties and had just lost his wife to cancer.
“You’re all welcome to theorize as to who our donor might be, but let’s refrain from spreading any information we can’t substantiate, please,” Principal Taylor said pointedly. “I’m going to be meeting with the other teachers later today and tomorrow to make sure that everyone gets the same information. In the meantime, you can start thinking about which projects your students would like to enter. A formal announcement will go out school-wide and to parents next week.”
Dismissed and heading back to my classroom, my mind was already reeling with the possibilities. I had several students in my class who I thought would enjoy entering a project in the science fair, and I was excited at the prospect of helping them plan the experiment. I was compiling a list of names in my head when I sat down at my desk to scarf down my lunch before the kids came back from recess.
A gold foil wrapped package sat in the middle of my desk. Picking it up, I looked for a tag or a note to indicate where it had come from, but aside from the gold foil wrapping, the only accoutrement was the green ribbon tied around it. Not knowing where it came from, I was hesitant to open it and set it inside my top right drawer to debate on later. I was starving, and I had to eat something before class resumed. The mystery gift would have to wait.
The afternoon flew by, and before I knew it, the kids were shoving their things into their backpacks, toes tapping waiting for the final bell to ring. It did, and the majority of my students scurried toward the door.
“No running!” I hollered after them.
I blew out a breath as I slumped in my seat, nearly tipping the rickety thing over. I began packing up my own things. I opened up my top right drawer for my phone and my eyes caught on the gold wrapped package I’d shoved in there. Curiosity finally getting the better of me, I untied the green ribbon and slid a finger under the piece of tape holding the wrapping paper in place.
“What the hell?” I muttered, turning the small wooden box over in my hands. I turned it every which way, looking at it from every angle, but couldn’t figure out how to open it.
“Oh, cool, a puzzle box.”
My eyes snapped up to meet Tierney’s who was standing in front of my desk. “I don’t suppose you know how to open this thing?”
I laid the box in her outstretched hand and she had it open within seconds.
“How’d you do that?”
She shrugged. “My dad has one just like it.”
Ah. Now, it all made sense.
“I think there’s something inside.” She pointed to the piece of paper that was sticking out of the box.
I was sure that whatever was on the paper was something neither Damon or I wished her young eyes to see. “Thanks,” I said, taking the paper out and slipping it into my pocket. “I’ll read it later.”
Tierney shrugged again. It was neither here nor there to her what I did, and once she had left, I pulled the note out and read it.
Just when I think I’ve got you figured out…
As far as romantic gestures go, comparing me to a puzzle was...odd. But, this was the second time Damon had made such a reference, and he apparently thought it was a compliment. I didn’t think I was all that complicated or interesting. I blamed April and her big mouth. Damon obviously had it in his head that I was some free, fun-loving wild woman thanks to all the tales my sister had spilled over dinner. The truth was, April was right. I was boring. If Damon thought he was going to get Party Girl Sophie, well, I was just going to have to disabuse him of that notion. She was retired.
Chapter 9
Damon
Thursday evenings were traditionally reserved for dinner at Johnny’s, and this week was no different. Between the high of getting to play her hero that morning when I’d rescued her from the side of the road, and the anticipation at getting to be near her again that evening, it was a wonder I’d gotten any work done at all. In fact, it was a miracle I didn’t send the company into bankruptcy for all the attention span I had. All I could think about was the kiss I’d stolen just as I was dropping her off at the school and the thought that I’d be getting another one very soon. Sophie James drove me crazy in the best of ways.
