“Looking for someone?” It was Adam, leaning against the corner of the schoolhouse. “You must be, the way you’re craning your neck about.”
Bella wanted to punch him and hug him at the same time. “I should be inside bragging on my students instead of waiting for some no-account man to show up.”
“I’ll watch for him,” Adam offered, “and tell him you’re riled he wasn’t here sooner.”
She found herself doing a sweeping take of him from head to toe. “Get yourself some food before it’s all gone.”
“I’ll help serve first.”
If her parents hadn’t already known she was spending time with Adam after school, it would have been obvious from the way the students gathered around him. He’d often chewed the fat with them in the schoolyard while he waited for Bella to finish tutoring a struggling student. Bella smiled as Teddy pulled a frog out of his pocket to show Adam. Had that thing been in his pocket all morning? Probably, but it was the last day of school, and the boy had waited for his froggy entertainment as long as he could.
After conversing with his adoring throng, Adam came around the table and started handing out cornbread muffins to those in line.
“I need to talk to you,” he said as he served. “Tomorrow is that contest, and if I lose, I’ll be banned from stepping foot back in Oak Springs. If that happens . . .”
“Do you think it will?”
“Not a chance. It’s impossible that a team of three men can do the work a thresher can do, but if by some miracle they did, I want to take you with me.”
A jolt of happiness shot up Bella’s backbone. The heavy spoon full of beans wobbled as she splatted the contents on the side of Max’s plate, covering his thumb.
“I’m sorry.” Bella grabbed a towel and handed it to the boy. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
Max took a rueful look at Adam. Then, remembering their gentlemen’s agreement, he sighed. “I reckon you have other things on your mind. Thank you, Miss Eden.”
Once the boy was out of earshot, she dropped the spoon on the table.
“What do you mean, take me with you?” she whispered to Adam. “Do you think I’d just pack up my things and run away?”
To her annoyance, he merely shrugged. “Would you?”
“What was the point of all this, then? All the studying and test practicing? I did that so I wouldn’t lose my position, not so I could abandon it.”
“I told you, Bella. My job will take me far from here every year. I won’t be a man who is home before dark every night and leaves at first light every morning, but I want to be the man for you. That might not be what you want, and if not, I need to know. I need to know before tomorrow, because I can’t leave this place without knowing if you’ll follow.”
“Would you want me even if I couldn’t be with you all the time?” she whispered as she lowered a basket of chicken from the table so a little one could get another piece.
She couldn’t look at him—couldn’t bear to see the regret in his eyes. Wiping her hands on her skirt, Bella straightened, but before she could turn to face him, Adam grasped her hand. His grip was iron. She stared straight ahead, aware that the parents and students visiting in the corner of the schoolhouse had no idea that her happiness hung in the balance as they gnawed on chicken drumsticks.
“Would I want you?” His voice strained. “Oh, Bella, getting a single day with you is worth months apart.”
Their hands tangled in a desperate clasp. She laughed, and it was a low, throaty sound that surprised her. “In the summer, I could go with you,” she said. “That is, if it isn’t too much trouble to have me along.”
“And I need a home to settle in over the winter. I was hoping for it to be here.”
“But I won’t hold you back. If you’re willing to let me stay and teach . . .”
“We both have dreams.” His eyes searched hers as he lifted her hand to cover it with both of his. “We’ll pursue them together, even when we’re apart.”
With Adam’s encouragement, everything seemed possible.
“My students.” Against her wishes, Bella pulled away. “I’m supposed to be talking to the parents about the children. It’s their party, after all.”
Adam stepped out from behind the table to clear the way for her. “I’ll be outside,” he said with a hand on her back.
She sighed, then made her way to a grouping of parents. Most of them had already seen the report cards and knew their children’s marks. There shouldn’t be any surprises about the performance of their kids, but from the way the parents in this group were acting, you’d think they were dreading her appearance.
Bella smiled and made her way toward them regardless. It was her job to be welcoming, even if they were uncomfortable. She’d just held out her hand when she caught the last line of the conversation from Mr. Whitlock.
“It’s not as if we would’ve selected her over another teacher. She was the only one available.”
Bella’s smile vanished. Seeing her, Mrs. Longstreet cleared her throat and glared at Mr. Whitlock. The warning was obvious, but it was too late to spare Bella or anyone else in the group. She’d heard, and they all knew she’d heard.
Borrowing from Adam’s show of courage, she addressed them. “I understand the sentiment,” she said, “but do you have any suggestions on how I could be a better teacher? I’m capable of improving.”
Mrs. Longstreet dabbed at her mouth with a napkin before answering. “You’ve done a fine job for someone in your circumstance. We aren’t criticizing your efforts, but you don’t have the qualifications that a
