One Night with her Bachelor(48)
“Who’s ready for recess?”
Little hands shot into the air as bottoms wriggled on their seats.
“Everyone line up behind our line leader.”
Madison Williams burst out of her chair and speed-walked to the door, her bearing as straight and proud as any soldier’s to be this week’s leader. The other kids fell into line behind her, and Molly winked at her teaching assistant, Sarah, who would supervise the kids for the next twenty minutes while Molly prepared their art session. Since all of the school’s other students were on a different schedule than the kindergarten, Molly reminded the kids of one of their rules. “Okay, what kind of voices do we need to use in the hallways?”
“Cotton-ball voices,” the kids stage whispered.
“That’s right.” She made her voice very quiet. “Voices as soft as cotton balls. Have fun, and play nicely.”
The kids left with Sarah, and Molly went into the teachers’ supply room to grab the construction paper she needed. Claudine was in there loading up on paints for her fourth-graders. “Hey, Mol.”
“Hey. How’s it going?”
“Crazy. It’s Tucker’s birthday, so his mom brought in Spider Man cupcakes, and the kids are high on sugar. She brought a batch for the teachers too. They’re in the lounge, if you want one.”
“Mmm, Spider Man. My favorite flavor.”
Claudine laughed. “I know, right? Oh, before I forget, I kinda went on a shopping spree this weekend and I need to make room in my closet. If you want any of my clothes, let me know. I can bring them in tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?” Molly fought her natural inclination to turn the offer down. She’d felt like a charity case so much lately that she’d become overly sensitive about kind gestures. But dang it, she’d loved wearing Claudine’s clothes a couple weeks ago, and she couldn’t afford her own shopping spree.
“So sure. If there’s anything you don’t want, just leave it in the bag and I’ll see if anyone else wants it.”
“Thanks, Claudine. That’s really sweet.”
Claudine snorted. “Are you kidding? You’d be doing me a favor. Right now my new stuff is all spread out on the couch because I don’t have enough hangers. I’d buy more hangers but there literally isn’t room in the closet. Plus, when you tried my clothes on before, you looked way cuter than I do in them.”
“I don’t know about that, but I’ll take your old stuff any time.”
Claudine grabbed her box of paints and nudged Molly’s shoulder with hers on her way out. “Why don’t we go out sometime? We only ever hang out here, and I think we’d have fun together.”
Molly smiled. “I’d like that. Let me look at Josh’s schedule and we can plan something.”
“Cool. See you later. And don’t forget the Spider Man cakes.” Claudine left, and Molly couldn’t wipe the grin from her face. In the two weeks since Gabriel dropped her off, she’d been challenging herself to do something scary—making time for herself. Whether it was taking a candlelit bath before bed or going for a walk on her lunch break, she took time every day to be alone with her thoughts. She’d treated herself to her first haircut in months and even found time to read a whole novel. Now she would let herself accept new clothes and the offer of friendship-outside-of-work from Claudine.
It helped that Josh was becoming more and more settled. His friends had welcomed him back to school with open arms. Construction workers were modifying their house to make it more wheelchair friendly. Most importantly, she’d discovered a group of kids in Bozeman who’d suffered life-changing injuries. It was early days, but she was making friends with several parents who were helping her overcome her own fears and focus on encouraging Josh to discover how many things he could do.
One of those things was spending the night at friends’ houses. Tomorrow was Friday, and he’d been invited to a slumber party at Jake’s house. Last Saturday, they’d had a trial run. She’d spent the night with him at Jake’s, mostly for the comfort of Jake’s parents and her, so they could all be confident about the other family’s ability to see to Josh’s needs without making him feel singled-out in front of his friends. The night had gone off without a hitch, and Josh hadn’t stopped talking about it since.
Tomorrow he would go home from school with Jake, and she would have a whole night on her own. A whole night of forcing herself not to think about Gabriel.
The more she thought about him, the more certain she became that his talk about just wanting to help her have fun was bull crud. She might’ve believed it if he hadn’t gone out of his way to look after her in the months Josh was recovering in Boulder. Participating in the auction and taking her out had been difficult for him—she had no doubt about that. Plus, he’d confessed she was the first woman he’d been intimate with since the crash. That had to mean something, right?
But maybe he’d needed no-strings-attached fun as much as she had.
Only problem was, her heartstrings had gotten attached, and going two weeks without a note or gesture from him felt like being cut off from one of the most vital parts of her life.
She took her art supplies back to her classroom and set them up, but she struggled to pull her mind away from that lonely cabin in the mountains and the man who refused to let her in.