Finding Our Forever (Silver Springs #1)(55)

“Shh...it’s okay,” he whispered. “Give me two seconds. Everyone’s at lunch. Your back’s to the door, anyway. The worst anyone will think we’re doing is kissing.”

That was bad enough.

“Meet me at my place after school, okay?” he said as he found and stimulated her most sensitive spot.

She could hardly think straight. “You mean after dinner? You usually work until six.”

He ran his nose up her neck, breathing deeply. “Coach Sanders can get football practice started without me, for a change. I’ve got better things to do today.”

“That will be okay? He—” she moaned as a finger joined his thumb “—won’t mind?”

The way his pupils dilated and his body tensed made her worry he might try to take this further, but he didn’t. “He won’t mind. But you’re right. I’m only making this harder on both of us.” Pulling his hand away, he set her back on her feet as if he had to put her out of reach while he still had the presence of mind to do so. “I’ll come up with some excuse,” he said. “Then I’ll join him for the rest of practice and let you nap. Knowing you’re naked in my bed, waiting for me, will get me through the rest of the day.”

Which meant he’d also come home to her after. Whatever she’d started with Eli, it seemed to be accelerating very fast.





Chapter Eighteen

Cora enjoyed getting to know her students over the next several weeks, despite facing some difficulties when it came to Zack Headerly. With Aiyana’s help, she muddled through the challenge he presented and was actually glad for the opportunity to have something important to speak to her biological mother about. Trying to turn a specific boy around was a project they could work on and feel good about together.

The passing time brought other good things, too. She admired Aiyana more and more as the days went by, and she spent every extra minute she could with Eli. When they weren’t together, she looked forward to his calls, texts and lunchtime visits. He often stopped by her classroom if he could. And, true to her word, in early October she took him to meet her folks, which went over well, except they liked him enough that they grew more worried instead of less about what might happen when he found out she hadn’t been entirely truthful with him.

“That man’s in love with you,” Lilly would warn whenever they talked on the phone. But Cora would stubbornly refute that.

“He hasn’t said anything about love,” she’d argue. Although she longed to hear him speak those three words—had choked them back time and again herself—she was also sort of relieved. As long as he didn’t make that verbal commitment, she could justify what she was doing by pretending their relationship wasn’t that serious, that they were merely enjoying each other while she was in Silver Springs.

Jill agreed with her parents. “What do you mean he doesn’t love you?” she’d scoff. “Of course he does! Maybe he doesn’t come right out and say it, but he shows you in so many ways.”

Jill, who’d seen them together twice and heard all the details of their relationship over the phone, was right. Cora had his full attention whenever they were together. He never acted like he didn’t want to see her. They spent every night together, except for when he’d go out with his brothers or do something with his mother—or she was with Darci, Jill or her big brother, who met her in LA between trips to New York. Even when they split up for various commitments, he’d check in with her often and slip into bed with her after. In addition to all of that, he took her with him to Sunday dinner at Aiyana’s every week. He even invited her along when he did extracurricular activities with the students, all of whom had come to view them as a couple. Some jokingly called her Mrs. T—or warned any new student that he’d better not flirt with “Eli’s girl.”

It was Thanksgiving almost before she knew it, and she and Eli were trying to figure out how to split their time between both families, just like a married couple. They ended up doing Thanksgiving dinner with Aiyana, the Turner boys, Aiyana’s parents and one of her brothers—who were all so wonderful to meet—on Thursday and driving to LA to have dinner with her parents on Friday, since Ashton was hung up in New York and couldn’t get back until then, anyway.

“He’s quiet, but I love the way he looks at you,” her mother said as they finished cleaning up after the big meal. Although Eli had helped with the dishes, too, he was now in the living room, watching football with her father and brother.

“You’re making more of it than it really is,” she said. “We enjoy each other. But we know it’s only a short-term affair.”

Her mother stopped scrubbing the big roasting pan she’d used to cook the turkey. “You’re still planning on moving back at the end of the year?”

“Of course.”

“What about Aiyana?”

Cora did her best to act as though she had everything under control. “I’ve decided not to say anything—to just...let it go. That solves everything, right?”

“Does it?” she countered. “After everything you did to find her?”

Surprised that it was Lilly who was pressing the issue, Cora nibbled at her bottom lip. This almost sounded as if Lilly would encourage Cora to tell Aiyana the truth, even though doing so came with the obvious risk that Aiyana would accept Cora into her life and Lilly would no longer be Cora’s only mother. “She didn’t want me for a reason, or she wouldn’t have given me up. And she must not regret her decision because she hasn’t come searching for me.”