The Summer Deal (Wildstone #5)(74)

Okay, so there wasn’t all that much difference. The difference was in Brynn. She was far less willing to put up with crap. “If someone hurts your feelings, it’s okay to tell them. A good friend will apologize. Be friends with someone who can admit their faults and tries to be the best friend they can be to you.”

Everyone nodded sagely.

She smiled. “Okay, let’s switch gears to share time. Who’s got something they’d like to share with everyone?”

A few minutes later, after some cringe-inducing sharing, Brynn became aware of someone in the doorway, and knew by the little quiver deep in her belly that it was Eli.

“Hi,” he said as all thirty-three heads turned his way.

“Hi!” all thirty-three heads said cheerfully.

“Class,” Brynn managed, focusing on the guest pass pinned to his shirt instead of his eyes. “This is Eli Thomas. He’s a marine biologist.”

They all just stared at him, not sure what “marine biologist” meant.

“It means I get to play in the water with the sea lions,” Eli explained.

The kids all boggled at that, and oohed and aahed. Eli grinned, and Brynn found herself doing the same. “I don’t want to interrupt,” he said. “I was just trying to leave lunch for Ms. Turner.” He had a pizza box from her favorite pizza place.

The kids cheered over this, and Brynn couldn’t help but both salivate and smile. “I already brought my lunch. Leftover enchiladas.”

“Raina’s?” he asked hopefully. “Because maybe we could arrange a trade.”

“A deal?” she asked playfully.

His eyes darkened. “Yes.”

“If you want to join us in share circle, we can swap after we finish here.” She scooted over to make room for him. “Where were we?” she asked the kids.

Carly raised her hand for the talking stick. “Tabitha called me the b-word.”

Brynn looked at Tabitha. “Did you call Carly the b-word?”

Tabitha shook her head. “‘Motherfucker’ doesn’t start with a ‘b.’”

After a stunned silence, during which Brynn didn’t dare look at Eli or she might laugh, she reprimanded Tabitha’s use of bad words, and then they all had a long conversation about acceptable words and unacceptable words. Brynn said one more person could share if no unacceptable words were used. That was a new and very hard-and-fast rule.

Carly raised her hand for the talking stick. “My mommy made a new rule too. Now we have to knock and wait before entering her bedroom on account’a sometimes my daddy’s giving her special medicine in the morning.”

Brynn grimaced and risked a glance at Eli, who looked like he was choking on the laugh he was clearly holding back. “Maybe that’s enough for today,” she said.

“Ms. Turner!” Suzie was bouncing up and down. “You share something. Like yesterday, when you told us the reason that you smile more now. It’s cuz you like someone.”

“Okay,” Brynn said, blushing, standing quickly, back to avoiding looking at Eli. “I think we’ve definitely shared enough for today—”

“One more!” Cindy yelled enthusiastically. “From the sea-lion man!”

Eli looked down at the talking stick after it was passed to him. “Okay, something to share . . .” He looked around at the kids. “Well, I’ve got a new friend. And at first it was really scary because making new friends can be scary . . .”

Everyone nodded. They completely understood this.

It was adorable.

So was Eli, sitting on the floor in the sharing circle, holding the talking stick.

No, wait. He wasn’t adorable. He was . . . amazing.

“Does your new friend hold your hand when you get scared?” Suzie asked. “Because that’s what a good friend would do.”

Eli looked at Brynn. “Yes.”

“Do they want to eat with you and share their stuff?” Suzie asked. “Because that’s what my best friend does.”

Eli smiled into Brynn’s eyes. “Yes.”

The lunch bell rang and everyone sprang up. They ran, jumped, skipped, raced to their cubbies for their lunches, then headed out to the cafeteria with an aide. Brynn took the pizza box to her desk, turned to the small fridge she had behind it, and pulled out her lunch box for Eli.

He set it down, took her hand, and tugged her around the desk so they were toe to toe. Cupping her face, he gave her a soft, sweet kiss. “Hi.”

She smiled. “Hi back.”

“You’ve had a day so far.”

“It’s better now. Thanks for the pizza. And thanks for letting me be your new friend.”

“Thanks for always treating me like I’m important to you.”

“You are,” she said, and surprised them both. She thought maybe he’d say it back, but he didn’t. In fact, he didn’t say anything for so long that she sucked in a nervous lungful of air.

“I think,” he finally said, voice serious, “that you’re more important to me than you can possibly imagine.”

Warmth and affection hit her, as well as a whole bunch of other things, things that shouldn’t be happening at work. “It’s not been very long,” she said softly.

He gave a low, wryly amused laugh. “It’s been years. Lots of years.”