“God, what am I going to do?” I ask her. I can’t go out with him. Not only would it chance breaking my heart, but the teachers would talk. They always talk, and more so when it’s about Jack and what he’s up to. I’m pretty sure they even read crap about him online. Maybe I should be reading the articles, too.
“Oh, you're going to dinner.” Apple has a giant smile on her face.
Why is everyone so excited to play matchmaker here? Even if I agreed to go on a date with Jack, I’d be so in over my head. I can barely form sentences around him, or stop myself from blushing like a schoolgirl. What would we even talk about?
“Stop overthinking it. I can see your mind going a mile a minute. We’ll have some wine and talk it out. Also, what are you wearing tomorrow?”
Crap, I forgot about my costume again. “Maybe we should stop for an extra bottle of wine,” I tell her, throwing my bag over my shoulder.
I have a feeling Jack isn’t going to go down easy when I inform him I won’t be going to dinner. I don’t think he’s a man who hears the word no very often.
Chapter Two Jack
Scott runs through the front door and tosses his backpack on the stairs before heading into the kitchen. I follow him, hearing the sounds of my sister and knowing she’ll probably have something to eat.
I smile when I see Scott give her a hug and take a plate of something over to the table.
“Where’s mine?” I ask, placing a hand over my heart and pretending to be injured.
“On the table,” she says with a smirk.
My sister, Kim, is a damn good mom and always has food in the house, which is why I like coming here. She and her husband, Eric Grayson, have been married since they were nineteen. Eric works in pharmaceutical sales, so he travels a lot during the week. I like to help out when I can by taking Scott to school or picking him up, even though Kim is more than capable. She and Eric are still hopelessly in love. They have been from the day he transferred to our high school and they saw each other for the first time. I always wondered what that was like…until the day I saw Raven and it all became clear.
“Did you see her?” Kim asks, leaning up against the counter.
I take the plate she’s made for me and walk around to the breakfast bar and take a seat. I look over to see Scott playing with something at the dining room table. I want to make sure he’s out of earshot, though the kid seems to hear everything.
“I have a date,” I say proudly, popping a strawberry in my mouth.
She puts her hands over her mouth and looks at me in shock. “She said she’d go on a date with you?”
I grimace at her excitement. “Not exactly.” I think about how shocked she looked when I told her we were going out to eat. I smile. “But she’ll go.”
“Maybe I can finally start taking Scott to school then. I swear they probably think his parents have abandoned him. But in reality my brother has a crush on my son’s teacher and he’s borderline stalking her.”
“Borderline?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. She knows some of the things I’ve done to get Raven in my sights, but not everything.
“It’s probably better that I don’t know all the details,” she says, holding up her hands and walking into the dining room, where Scott is sitting. I watch from a distance as she leans down and kisses the top of his head and then sits beside him, asking him about his day.
I watch her and think about our parents and how proud they would be of her. Our dad died in a work accident when we were little, leaving my mom with a big chunk of insurance money to help provide for us. Kim and I were lucky that we were both able to go to college and do what we wanted without having to worry about struggling financially.
When our mom passed suddenly from breast cancer last year, it was a big blow to all of us. We’ve managed to make it through, even though there’s an empty space in our family that can never be filled.
My mom always encouraged me to follow my dreams, so I did. I went to school and got my degree and then my Master’s in architecture. After I’d done that, I decided to open my own business, and have since become one of best architects in Seattle. I’ve been focused for so long on building my firm and creating new and exciting things that I let any sort of love life fall to the side. I haven’t had a girlfriend since middle school, and the last time I took a woman on a date, a Bush was president.
I’ve taken Scott to school every so often since he’s started. His school is right next to my offices, so it’s easy to pop over and pick him up and then run him home afterwards, saving my sister a trip. But one day when I walked into his class, I spotted Raven. That’s when I knew what my mom and sister had been droning on about all these years. That first spark and the feelings of protectiveness and love that come out of nowhere. One glance at Raven and I was instantly head over heels. She hadn’t so much as spoken a single word to me and I was already imagining her walking up the aisle towards me.
The
