Protecting the Girl Next Door (The Protectors Book 3) Read online

  Lily might just be in first grade, but she couldn’t lose that much of her schooling.

  “He was probably just getting to know everyone on the first day, and you’ll get into your subjects tomorrow.”

  “I hope so.”

  I slung the strap of my bag over my shoulder and smiled as Lily placed the last books on the shelf. She was very intelligent, and she did everything with infinite seriousness. Sometimes I thought she should have some more fun since she was just six, but reading and schoolwork seemed to be what she found the most fun.

  “Ready?” I asked her.

  “Yes.” She straightened up and pulled on her backpack, which looked almost as big as she was. “I’m ready.”

  “We can do some reading tonight to make sure you don’t forget anything.”

  She seemed to perk up at this news, and she reached for my hand as we walked down the hall and outside toward the car.

  The school was quiet now since students had been dismissed almost an hour ago. The staff parking lot was about half-empty.

  “There he is,” Lily announced as I was searching for the keys in my bag. “Mr. Curtis.”

  I glanced up and over in the direction she indicated and saw a tall man leaning against an SUV across the lot.

  He was talking on the phone, and he didn’t seem to be aware of our presence.

  He really was very good-looking, with broad shoulders, long legs, and that hair that shone a dark gold.

  I knew it wasn’t right to stereotype, but he didn’t look at all like any other substitute first grade teacher I’d ever seen.

  He had to be around thirty. If he wanted to be a teacher, then he’d certainly had time to get his certification and get a full-time job by now. I wondered why he hadn’t. Maybe he was some kind of a slacker, just hanging around and taking on substitute jobs because they were easy. I hoped that wasn’t the case. Not only was that not the kind of teacher I wanted for my daughter—or for any student for that matter—but it also wasn’t the kind of teacher we needed for our school. Private schools required a more dedicated type of instructor. And if this man was only looking for an easy paycheck, then…

  Okay, I was getting ahead of myself, and Lily had a tendency to easily read my moods. If I continued to stand here scowling, she was going to catch on.

  Fast.

  “I’m sure things will be better in class tomorrow,” I said to Lily, who was frowning in the man’s direction.

  Like mother, like daughter.

  “I hope so.” Lily looked up at me with big blue eyes. “I asked him why the sea was salty, and he said I should look it up because right now was playtime.”

  I hid my immediate indignation at this half-hearted answer to a genuine question from an intelligent girl. “We can look it up when we get home. How about that? I’ve always wondered why the sea is salty too.”

  “Okay.”

  We both climbed into the car, and I glanced once more at Mr. Curtis as I started to pull out of the parking lot. He was still on the phone, and he didn’t appear to be having a happy conversation. He was scowling, as if he were angry.

  Fight with his girlfriend or something. He was probably really popular with women.

  I dismissed the man from my mind as I turned onto the street.

  “Do you want to go pick out a Christmas tree this weekend?” I asked, glancing at Lily in the rearview mirror.

  I saw her face break into a smile. “Yes! Can we get a really big one?”

  “We can get as big a one as will fit in our living room.”

  “How big is that?”

  “I’m not sure. We’ll measure it before we go out and look so we’ll know exactly how big we can get.”

  She nodded, obviously thinking deeply on this issue.

  I was glad she was excited about the Christmas tree. About Christmas.

  Last year had been really hard—being the first Christmas without Nick.

  My husband, Nick, had been a SEAL, but he died on a mission a year and a half ago. We’d been married seven years. Sometimes I looked at myself in the mirror and couldn’t believe I was a twenty-eight-year-old widow.

  But I was. That was me. Living the rest of my life without Nick, who’d been just as sweet and serious as Lily.

  We’d grown up together and had been high school sweethearts. It was our love of literature that had first drawn us together in our tenth grade English class. I had known from the first time he read to me from Pride and Prejudice that he was the one for me. And just knowing that I’d never hear him do so again was sometimes too much to bear.

  As if she’d read my thoughts, Lily said into the silence, “Remember when Daddy brought home the tree that didn’t fit.”

  My throat ached slightly at the memory of Nick cursing under his breath as he tried to get a too-big tree into our small house. “I do remember. He had to chop off the top to make it fit.”

  Lily giggled. “He wasn’t happy.”

  “But it still looked good, didn’t it?”

  “Yes. It was pretty. I picked out a bigger star for the top so it didn’t look so silly.”

  “Your daddy always wanted the best for you.”

  “Yes.” She was giving a little nod when I glanced to the mirror to check her expression. “Even the biggest Christmas tree.” After a pause, she added, “I remember he liked to read to me.”

  “He did. He loved books just as much as we do.” Nick had loved his job, but he hadn’t been what most people thought of in a SEAL. In fact, he’d been thinking of getting out so he could go to graduate school. He’d just about decided on that plan when he’d been killed in action.

  If he’d made the decision a little sooner, he might still be alive.

  I shook the thought out of my head. Nick had always done his best—in his career, for his family—and there was no use thinking about could-have-beens.

  For some reason I pictured again the handsome substitute teacher, leaning against his SUV.

  But he was clearly nothing like Nick.

  ***

  The next morning, I made a point of dropping by Lily’s classroom before school started to introduce myself and have a few words with the substitute so I could get a better sense of him.

  The kids weren’t in the room yet, so I stopped in the open doorway to glance inside. The room was kind of messy, with toys and books not all put up from yesterday. Mr. Curtis was standing in front of the blackboard with a piece of chalk in his hand. He hadn’t written anything yet. He was just staring at the board. I kept waiting for him to write something, but after a few minutes of observing him, I realized he wasn’t going to.

  Something in the set of his shoulders looked tense, like maybe he didn’t want to be here.

  I cleared my throat.

  He whirled around, obviously surprised, but his face almost immediately relaxed into a smile.

  His smile really was amazing—broad and warm and transforming his entire face. Women must just swoon away at the sight of that smile.

  Women more vulnerable than me.

  “Good morning,” I said, feeling strangely awkward for no good reason. I stepped into the room. “I’m Kristin Andrews. I teach fourth grade here, and my daughter Lily is in your class.”

  He reached to take the hand I extended, his grip warm and strong. He paused a moment before he said, “Oh. Lily. Great. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Declan Curtis.”

  I wondered if he even remembered there was a Lily in his class. His hesitation made me wonder.

  It wasn’t fair to expect him to know all the kids’ names in just one day, but still… I felt a rising of annoyance that I tried to stamp down.

  He could be a very nice guy and a perfectly acceptable substitute teacher. No need to jump to conclusions.

  “I teach just down the hall. I wanted to introduce myself and see if there was anything you needed.” For some reason I thought that sounded stranger than I meant it. “I mean if you had any questions about the school or anything like that.�
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  That sounded better. Right?

  “I’m glad you did.” He was still smiling at me and still holding my hand, but it felt almost reflexive. As if this was just what he did. Flirt with women as the only way he knew to relate to them.

  My annoyance rose even more as I pulled back my hand. “How long have you been teaching?”

  “For a while. What about you?”

  I was looking for a more specific answer to my question than “a while,” but I wasn’t sure how to ask it again without sounding outrageously rude. “I’ve been teaching for eight years. Five years at this school. It’s a nice place to work.”

  “It seems that way.” He was still smiling, but I saw that tension again in him. Maybe I was imagining it, but I kept thinking he didn’t want to be here.

  I tried to relax my smile so it didn’t seem forced. “Believe it or not, I used to go to this school. I’ve lived in the area my entire life. It’s a great place for kids and we have a great academic record here that we like to uphold.”

  He didn’t say anything to that, just nodded.

  “Anyway, Lily is already a really strong reader. I’m sure you’ll discover that soon. Any extra encouragement you can give her would be great since she really wants to keep advancing. She loves school.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” He hadn’t lost that smile. In fact, it broadened even more. He held my gaze without breaking it.

  I suddenly wondered if he was one of those smarmy, charismatic guys who charm their way through life but don’t really invest in anything serious. I’d met my fair share of them, and I was starting to recognize the signs.

  I took life seriously. So did Lily. We’d both had some really hard things happen to us, but we were getting through them as well as could be expected. It sometimes grated on me that some people could ease through life without taking things seriously.

  I tried to stamp down the reaction since it was probably not fair. I’d just known this guy for two minutes, after all.

  But I felt like I had a measure of him, and I didn’t like it.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let me know if you need anything. I know it can sometimes be a challenge getting used to a new place.”

  “Nah,” he said, overly casual. “First grade is easy.”

  I stiffened instinctively. First grade was not easy—not if the teacher understood it was important. I was about to go on a bit of a rant about it, but figured that I needed to calm down. It was only his second day here and maybe I was just seeing things that weren’t there. “Okay. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

  I turned around and stepped on a book that shouldn’t have been on the floor. It was one of the very thin children’s books with slick, paperback covers. There was no traction between it and the floor, and my foot slipped forward slightly.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have worn these shoes. Teachers at this school could dress fairly casually, but I always tried to dress nice since I was small and looked young, so dressing nice gave me a little extra authority. Even with fourth graders, I’d found it mattered.

  Today I wore a straight gray skirt that I thought was flattering without being sexy and a stylish blue top that looked almost vintage and brought out my eyes. My heels weren’t super-high, and they were fairly comfortable, but they weren’t made for stepping on books that slid on the floor.

  I gasped as my whole body jerked with the slide.

  I would have caught myself, no trouble, but Declan was there before I knew it, putting an arm around my waist for support.

  And, damn it, I liked how it felt. He was big and strong and masculine, and he smelled absolutely delicious—nothing strong or obnoxious, just nice. I leaned against him instinctively for just a minute.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, a texture to his voice that made me shiver.

  Then I suddenly realized what I was doing, and I straightened up and pulled away quickly. “I’m fine,” I murmured. “Thanks. You might want to pick up your classroom.”

  “Thanks for the advice.” He sounded slightly—just slightly—sarcastic.

  Frustrated with the entire situation, I walked quickly out of the room without really looking at his face again.

  I felt flustered and confused, and I wasn’t used to feeling that way. My life since Nick had died had been simple. Straightforward. Revolving around teaching and Lily.

  I hadn’t had any sort of physical reaction to a man since Nick, which was why it was so upsetting to feel breathless and overly warm right now. When I didn’t even like the man.

  When I returned to my classroom, I make a conscious effort to brush Declan from my mind.

  After all, I certainly wanted there to be the possibility of romance in my life in the future, but if I was going to be attracted to a man again, it would absolutely not be to a man like Declan Curtis.

  Two

  Declan

  “Why, Miss Andrews, I do believe you were checking up on me.”

  Of course there wasn’t anyone here to hear me say it, but there it was. When she first walked in, I was pleasantly surprised. Kristin Andrews was… cute. Totally not my type. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate a good-looking woman, but I wasn’t blown away. She had seemed genuinely sincere when she walked in.

  Boy, did that change.

  Fast.

  I was a fairly good judge of people—I could pick up on body language pretty easily—and that woman was going to be a thorn in my side. I could already feel it. It wasn’t only the things that she’d said but the way she’d said them.

  Okay, so maybe, just maybe, I was a little out of my element here, but it had only been a day. One damn day. Couldn’t she cut me some slack? There was no way that any substitute teacher could possibly be expected to get it right after one day. Did she already need to come into my classroom and look down at me?

  That thought made me laugh because she was easily five or six inches shorter than me—and that was while she was wearing heels. Sensible heels. I cringed. Yeah, she was going to be making regular appearances here in the classroom to check on me, especially since her daughter… crap. What the hell was the kid’s name? Lisa? Laura? Lilah? Lily? Yes, Lily. Whew.

  So now not only did I have my job to do protecting my child client, I also had to be watching over my shoulder for Kristin and her kid. I snorted with disgust. The kid had ratted me out, no doubt. Why couldn’t she just be happy? Hell, when I was in school, we used to love the days when there was a substitute. Nonstop playtime and coloring… It was every kid’s dream.

  Apparently not Lily Andrews’s though.

  Shit.

  The next time I saw Levi, I was going to personally kick him in the throat. There had to be someone else more capable. Or maybe we needed to re-evaluate how we were handling it. This case was so not my thing, and I really didn’t have the time or the patience to deal with snooping parents who wanted to pass judgment on me and how I was running this classroom.

  Although looking around, it was kind of a mess in here. I hadn’t wanted to deal with it yesterday. All I wanted to do was leave by the time the last kid was gone. Who knew a group of six-year olds could be so exhausting? It was too early in the morning for this kind of nonsense. There were books all over the floor, crayons seemingly scattered everywhere, and a ton of shredded paper. Where did all that come from?

  I shook my head to clear it and felt my glasses begin to slide. Crap. I had forgotten about them. I thought they made me look a little more studious. They were completely fake—nonprescription and whatnot—but I thought that they might help me in my “role” of teacher.

  There were voices out in the hallway, and I knew that my quiet time was up. It was time to get on with the day and figure out how the hell I was supposed to act like I belonged here. My desk was covered in folders and notes from Eileen Bradbury to help me out, but I hadn’t even bothered to look at them. It was first freaking grade! Why did I need all this information?

  “Hi, Mr. Curtis!”

  I looked u
p and saw one of the kids walk in. I was completely stumped on who it was. I knew she was here yesterday, and she wasn’t the kid I was assigned to protect, but her name was a complete blank to me. I could feel myself starting to sweat as the kid put her backpack on her assigned hook and then put her hands on her hips and stared at me with the same judgmental look I had seen only minutes ago.

  “Good morning, Lily,” I said. I knew that the kid was going to be just as big of a thorn as her mother.

  ***

  An hour later, I had pretty much gotten the room back in shape. I made a game out of it and let the kids rack up some bonus stars on their behavior chart—whatever the hell that was—and soon everything looked like it had when I arrived yesterday.

  Lily’s hand was up, and she was practically bouncing in her seat.

  “Yes, Lily,” I said, trying to sound patient.

  “Are we going to work on our math now? Mrs. Bradbury always starts the day with our math assignment.”

  There were several groans from the other students, and I could tell that no one—other than Lily—was going to be upset if we left the math for later. “Actually, no. Since you guys just did a super job getting the room cleaned up, I figured you’d be a little worn out. Now we’re going to… um… we’re going to… read. Yeah. Everyone find a book and let’s have some reading time. Quiet reading time.”

  “But…,” Lily said out loud.

  I was about to turn around and go over to my desk, but I did my best to smile sweetly at the kid. “I heard that you enjoy reading,” I said, remembering her mother’s comments from earlier. “Don’t you want to spend some time honing your reading skills?”

  “Honing? What’s that?” she asked quizzically.

  “Uh… I’m sure there’s a dictionary in here somewhere. Why don’t you look it up?” Geez, why couldn’t this kid just be quiet like everyone else. All the other kids had their books out and were reading already.

  “But what about math?” she asked.

  Now my patience really was wearing thin. I walked over to her desk and crouched down so we were eye level. “Look, Lily,” I began, “I’m still going through Mrs. Bradbury’s stuff. Things are going to be a little different in here now. I’m the teacher, and we’ll do things when I think we need to. Okay?”