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

  “Kristin? Threatening you?” Chuck let out a laugh. “I’m sorry, but that’s so out of character for her. She’s normally a very agreeable person. The students and faculty love her. She gets along with everybody.”

  “Obviously not,” I said, and I was beginning to feel a little less confident than I had ten minutes ago.

  Shaking his head, Chuck sat down behind his desk. “Kristin’s one of our alumni. She’s lived in this town her entire life and I’ve never heard of her having an issue with anyone. Heck, I’ve never even heard her say anything negative about anyone. Honestly, Declan, she’s a sweetheart. Are you sure you’re not just over-thinking this? Maybe you’re just stressed because of how overwhelmed you’ve been feeling and you’re taking what she’s saying the wrong way.”

  “Trust me, I’m not taking anything the wrong way,” I said through clenched teeth.

  For a minute, Chuck just sat there in confusion and then started spouting out more praise for Kristin—great student, great teacher, involved in the community, blah, blah, blah.

  Leave it to me to be the one person who didn’t think of Kristin Andrews as America’s sweetheart.

  “Look, we didn’t discuss giving me a background because it shouldn’t have come up. All the other parents have been great. But I have to be honest with you, I can’t do battle with this woman every damn day. She can clearly tell that I’m not a teacher, and I can’t tell her what’s going on and risk Jessileigh’s safety.”

  Chuck instantly sobered. “No, you’re right.” He huffed out a slightly frustrated breath. “What are her complaints exactly?”

  Where did I even begin? “Her daughter is the smartest kid in the class. I haven’t ever taught before or been around kids, but I can see that she’s way beyond a first grade level in everything. Basically, Lily is complaining that we’re not doing enough.”

  “You don’t hear of that happening very often—a student complaining about not enough work.”

  “Tell me about it,” I mumbled. “I’m doing the best I can in regards to the teaching, Chuck. You and I discussed this. I never claimed to be a teacher. My main concern is Jessileigh and keeping her safe. I am careful to almost never let that little girl out of my sight while she’s here at school. Kristin Andrews is a problem, and I need you to get her to back off.”

  “It’s not that easy, Declan. She’s a teacher here as well as a parent. It’s not like I can ask her to not talk to you.”

  “Throw me a bone here, Chuck. I have a job to do, and I can’t have some nosy parent distracting me. Can’t you talk to her? Feed her some bullshit to shut her up. Make up a college that I went to, tell her that you have fourteen golden references to my character and teaching ability… I don’t care. Just… get her to back off.”

  My frustration was coming through loud and clear, and I wasn’t proud of it. I’m a fucking Marine, dammit. I should be able to handle one tiny woman—no matter how annoying she was! I hated that this was what I was reduced to. A first grade teacher running to the principal because someone was trying to bully me.

  There was no way I was sharing this with the guys.

  No way in hell.

  “I’ll have a conversation with her today or tomorrow, Declan. You have my word.” He stood and held out a hand, and I shook it.

  “Thanks, Chuck. I appreciate it.”

  I walked out of his office and through the reception area and winked at Rose. She blushed. She was cute enough but not someone that I was really interested in.

  Damn. As soon as that thought entered my brain, the only face that came to mind as someone I was interested in was the girl next door.

  Kristin Andrews.

  “I just can’t catch a fucking break, can I?”

  ***

  “Okay, Jess…”

  “It’s Jessileigh,” the little girl said quietly. “My mom says that Jess is a boy’s name.”

  Right now I’d love to get my hands on Mrs. Mitzi Vanderhall and shake her. I’d been sitting with Jessileigh since the class got back from lunch. Everyone was working in groups to identify different plants. There was a nice garden set up outside the first grade classrooms—all two of them—and the other teacher had agreed to take my kids out with hers while I worked with Jessileigh.

  “So what’s the problem?” I asked carefully. When I went to line the class up to go outside, Jessileigh had stayed at her desk and refused to budge. Luckily, Robin Moore—the other first grade teacher—had come to my rescue. “Why don’t you want to go out in the garden?”

  She looked at her hands, which were folded in her lap, and even I could tell that she was nervous. The poor kid never looked like she was comfortable. From her first day back in class, I was able to see that the kid was obviously feeling the pressure of her parents’ situation.

  “I… I… I’m not supposed to get dirty. This is a new dress and… if I get anything on it… I’ll be in trouble.”

  Ah. Okay. Now we were getting somewhere. “How about if I promise that you won’t get anything on your dress?”

  She looked up at me with the biggest blue eyes I had ever seen. They were so big and so sad that something tugged at my heart. I could tell that she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure of herself.

  “What if I assigned you a buddy?”

  “A buddy?”

  I nodded. “Someone that would work with you and only you so you won’t be in a group and you could go at your own pace. How would you like that?”

  Without a word, she simply nodded.

  And then smiled shyly.

  “Okay.” Standing, I went to the back door of the classroom that opened up to the garden. I looked out at the group and knew that they still had a good thirty minutes of exploring time, and I wanted to make sure that Jessileigh had the opportunity to participate. I wracked my brain for a minute, trying to remember if there was anyone in the class that Jessileigh was friends with. Unfortunately, I knew for a fact that the little girl spent most of her time by herself.

  “Lily?” I called out. “Can you come here, please?”

  This could quite possibly kill two birds with one stone. First Lily could help Jessileigh with the assignment in a nonintimidating way, and second, it would give Lily more responsibility and therefore make her feel like she was doing more.

  And get her mother off my back.

  “Yes, Mr. Curtis?” she asked as she skipped over to the door.

  “I have a very important job for you,” I began, hoping to pique her interest.

  “You do?” Her eyes went wide, and I almost grinned.

  “How would you like to be a helper?” I have to admit, the idea literally just came to me. Jessileigh needed someone to help her, and I needed something that was going to make Lily Andrews focus on something other than my shortcomings.

  “A helper?” she asked, carefully considering my words. “What’s that?”

  I crouched down and carefully explained to her about Jessileigh’s concerns about walking around in the garden. “I thought that you would make an excellent helper. You could show her all the different plants and flowers and, you know, make sure that she doesn’t have any problems.”

  For a minute I thought the kid was going to turn me down. She looked up at me with that same look that her mother usually gave me while she considered her options.

  “I didn’t want to ask just anyone to do this, Lily,” I said, doing my best to convince her. “I know you’re the number one science student and you’ll know exactly how to show Jessileigh the right stuff without making her get too hands-on. So what do you say? Will you be a helper?”

  She studied me for another minute. “Will I get an extra star on my science chart?”

  I almost wanted to kiss her. “Sweetheart, if you help Jessileigh out with this assignment, I’ll give you two extra stars.”

  I saw her eyes go wide again right before she high-fived herself. “Deal.”

  Without another glance in my direction, I watched her walk across th
e classroom and over to Jessileigh. Two minutes later, the two of them walked outside like they were the best of friends.

  Maybe I didn’t totally suck at this teacher thing.

  ***

  I was relieved when I looked up and saw that the end-of-the-day bell was about to ring. I lined the kids up and prepared to dismiss them and made sure that Jessileigh was at the back of the line.

  Our general routine was that all the bus riders got dismissed first, then the carpool group. Jessileigh fell into the second group, but I always walked her out and waited with her until her father’s car pulled up.

  The bell rang, and the first group walked out—following one of the assistant teachers who handled the task on a rotating basis. Three minutes later, the second bell rang for the carpool group. Jessileigh and I followed at the back of the group like we always did. I felt more secure knowing that no one was behind us.

  Usually we made the walk in silence, but today the kid seemed to have a lot to say.

  “Lily showed me the daisies and the sunflowers. Yellow is my favorite color, and both of those flowers had yellow in them. I think I’m going to draw of picture of them as part of our science homework. Would that be okay, Mr. Curtis?”

  I was stunned silent by the amount of words the kid just spewed out at me. Looking down at her, I noticed that a bit of the sadness that usually clouded her eyes was gone. It made me smile.

  “Sure. I think that would be a great idea.” We made it to the front door, and we stayed back and watched as the line of cars flowed through. I had to hand it to the kid. She was a trooper. She never complained and did what she was told. I knew that the situation with her parents was a bad one and it was taking its toll on her, but she held it together.

  “Do you… do you think that Lily could be my buddy in art class tomorrow?” she asked shyly.

  Her eyes didn’t meet mine, but I crouched down and looked at her until she did. “I think that’s a great idea. I’m sure she’d really enjoy that.”

  I stood up and looked out the door and saw the black BMW pull up to the curb. “Your dad’s here,” I said, and together we walked out to the car. I waited until she was safely inside and buckled up before stepping back and watching them drive away.

  As much as I wanted to talk to Jackson Vanderhall, we had agreed that all communications would be done over the phone so that we didn’t upset Jessileigh and didn’t draw attention to ourselves on school property. I made a mental note to call him later and let him know that his daughter was finally starting to feel comfortable enough with me to start opening up about some of her fears.

  Progress.

  Walking back to the classroom, I knew I had about twenty minutes worth of cleanup to do before I could leave with a clear conscience. There was a ton of handouts to grade—all of which I planned on doing at home—and I was just ready to have some time to myself with no chattering six-year-olds surrounding me.

  Picking up books was its own brand of torture and something that seemed to be never ending. I was in the middle of clearing up the reading corner when I heard someone enter the room. I turned and forced myself to smile.

  Lily.

  “Hey, Lily. Did you forget something?”

  She shook her head and slowly walked over to me. The kid was totally transparent. There was something on her mind, and she was trying to gather up the courage to talk to me.

  Stopping about three feet away, Lily took a deep breath and then looked me square in the eye. “I wanted to tell you that I really liked helping Jessileigh today.”

  You wouldn’t know it from the look on her face, but I waited her out to see if she had more to say.

  “I never really tried to talk to her before. She never seemed to want to be anyone’s friend. But today was really fun.”

  “She liked having you for a helper too,” I said, and now I was the one mentally high-fiving myself.

  “She did?” Lily asked, her eyes going big with wonder.

  I nodded. “She sure did. Actually, she asked if you would maybe be her buddy during art tomorrow.”

  Lily’s face was suddenly brighter, her smile lighting up her whole face. “I’d really like that, Mr. Curtis.”

  I nodded again. “Then it’s settled. You are Jessileigh’s official buddy.”

  Lily thanked me and turned to walk away. I thought that we were done, but she turned around again to face me. “Mr. Curtis?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Jessileigh seems sad.”

  The kid was definitely insightful. “She is.”

  “Is it because she doesn’t have any friends?”

  There was no easy way for me to answer that. “Maybe. Would you be sad if you didn’t have any friends?”

  She thought about that for a long moment before nodding. “I would.”

  “Maybe you could be Jessileigh’s friend—and her buddy at school. What do you think?”

  There was that smile again. “I hope she likes to play with dolls. I have lots of them. Do you think she does?”

  It seemed logical. “Sure. What little girl wouldn’t like to play with dolls?”

  I could see Lily’s mind going a million miles an hour. She turned to leave again only to turn around one more time. “Mr. Curtis?”

  I tried to keep my frustration out of my tone. “Yeah?”

  “Do you think tomorrow we can work on math first? You know, instead of having extra reading time?”

  The kid had really pulled through for me today. How could I say no? “Yeah. I think we can definitely do math first.”

  “Yeah!” she cried. “Thank you, Mr. Curtis! Thank you!” Then before I knew it, she lunged her little body at me and hugged me before running from the room excitedly.

  And damn if my heart didn’t tug again.

  I needed to get going. Suddenly it felt as if the walls were closing in on me. I did a quick cleanup and decided that it would have to do. I grabbed the books and folders I was going to need to work on and stalked out of the classroom.

  And walked directly into Kristin.

  “Oh!” she said as we collided.

  I didn’t have both hands free, thanks to the load of books I was carrying, but I did manage to steady her with at least one hand. “Sorry,” I said a little distractedly.

  “No, no… It was my fault,” she said.

  “Is everything all right?” There was no reason for her to be here, and at the moment, I wasn’t sure I could even handle talking to her.

  “I wanted to thank you. Lily just came down to my room and told me about what happened today. I know she’s a little overwhelming at times and she’s a stickler for the rules, but today you made her feel… special.”

  And there was that smile.

  That beautiful damn smile that took the tug I felt earlier and turned it into a full-on squeeze.

  “She’s a great kid,” I said, desperate to focus on something other than her smile, her lips, and how much I wanted to touch them, taste them. “I knew she’d be the perfect choice to help Jess.”

  “Well, whatever the reason, I want you to know that you made a real impression on her. All her teachers praise her for her work ethic. She’s a good student. But no one has ever given her…” She paused. “Lily’s like an old soul sometimes. And yet she’s only six. So no one treats her like anything more than a six-year-old. Today you changed that.”

  Her eyes met mine, and I felt like I was drowning. Then her hand reached out and rested on my forearm—much like it had the other day—and the contact burned. I’m sure it was an innocent gesture, and there was nothing forward or coy about it. That wasn’t who Kristin was. It was something—if I was being honest with myself—that I found oddly appealing. She didn’t flirt. She didn’t play games. The only one thinking about this touch as being more than a friendly gesture was me.

  And now I wanted to touch her too.

  And not so innocently.

  For my own self-preservation, I stepped away. “Thanks,” I mumbled, looking down a
t the ground. “I’m glad that she’s happy about… you know. Anyway, I need to go. Have a good night.”

  And then like a coward, I turned and walked away.

  And secretly hoped that this time Kristin watched me until I was out of sight.

  Five

  Kristin

  The following day, I was feeling rather frazzled as I walked outside to the after-school pick-up line. It wasn’t my day to help with crowd control, but I wanted to catch Lily before her grandparents picked her up.

  Nick’s parents still lived here in town, and since he’d died, I’d done everything I could to make sure Lily continued to have a good relationship with them. She usually spent the afternoon with them once a week, coming home after dinner.

  I found Lily in line with her class, talking to Jessileigh, a pretty classmate who always looked like a princess with her perfectly coifed hair and expensive clothes.

  When she saw me, Lily smiled and reached her arms out for a hug.

  “How was school today?” I asked after we’d pulled back from the hug.

  “It was pretty good.”

  “Did you learn anything interesting?” I tried to keep the question discreet so it didn’t appear to outside observers that I was poking around for information on Declan.

  After yesterday, I’d half decided that there wasn’t the cause for concern I’d originally thought, but I wasn’t completely convinced yet, so I needed more information.

  “We started with math, so that was good, but we didn’t do very much. We finger-painted. Jessileigh was my partner for art.” Lily looked up at me with big eyes. “Mr. Curtis tried a science experiment.”

  “Really?” I was surprised and somewhat relieved by this news—since it seemed like a sign that he was trying to take the classroom more seriously. Maybe things were really looking up. “What was the experiment?”

  “He made parachutes for these little soldier men. It was supposed to show how the wider the cloth the slower they fell. That’s the way the air works.”

  “That sounds fun. Did it work?”

  Lily looked like she was almost smiling. “No. All the men fell down to the ground real fast.”