Smitten Book Club (20 page)

Tuesday morning seemed to move at a snail’s pace for Lia. The kids were restless and so, it seemed, was she.

She glanced around the room, thankful for the bright colors and chalkboard paint where she allowed her students to get creative with their artwork. She loved how she’d made the classroom her own.

“And let’s spell this color, class?” Lia held up the red card and waited for the class response.

“R-e-d,” the children said in unison, legs swinging, fingers fidgeting.

Just then someone knocked on the door and opened it. Principal Hunt stood with Joey Oliver and a petite replica of him, right down to the thick head of blond curls.

“Ms. Burton, this is Grace Oliver. She will be joining your class.”

Lia’s head began to swirl. Joey was in her classroom. With
his daughter. That meant he had a wife. The fantasy she had been building up in her mind came to a crashing halt.

“Ms. Burton?” Mr. Hunt looked at her as though to ask if she was all right.

“Yes, of course. Nice to see you again, Joey—um, Mr. Oliver.” The heat rushed to her face, most certainly staining her cheeks the color of her auburn hair. He had always teased her about that when they were teenagers. She looked at him, and he winked at her.

“No white coat today,” he said with a smirk.

She smiled. Then, on shaky knees, she scrunched down in front of Grace. “Nice to meet you, Grace. I’m sure you will like it here.”

Grace smiled and signed,
Thank you
.

“Oh.” Lia stood to her feet.

“She’s not hearing impaired,” Joey said, “but it’s how she communicates. If you know any sign language, it would mean a lot to her if you tried to communicate with her that way. We can talk more about this after class.”

“I know some sign. I’ll do what I can.” She looked at Grace and signed,
You’re welcome
. Now her curiosity was piqued, but she’d have to wait to find out the particulars.

Mr. Hunt and Joey said good-bye and left the room with Grace watching after them.

Knees still a bit wobbly, Lia said, “Class, I’d like to introduce you to our new student, Grace Oliver.”

“Hi, Grace,” they said in unison, all wiggles and darting attention spans.

Lia pointed her to a seat, and they continued on with their lesson on spelling colors.

She hadn’t noticed so much the first time she’d seen him, but Joey hadn’t aged much. Still had that mop of thick, unruly blond curls and crinkle lines around his shiny blue eyes. And a smile that could melt the snow off Sugarcreek Mountain. She imagined his life with a family. His laughter, his teasing . . .

Todd, a chubby boy with black glasses and a green-and-yellow shirt bearing the University of Vermont’s Catamount logo, asked to get out of his seat for a drink of water, setting off an avalanche of thirsty children. While they shuffled up to the water fountain for their drinks, Lia pondered the fact that Grace appeared to know how to spell all her colors, but only revealed them through sign language. Fortunately, Lia had taken some classes in sign language to help with the hearing impaired ministry at church, so she was able to communicate with the little girl.

Lia continued to watch over her students. “Don’t crowd the line, Maddox. Zoe and Abby, no talking, please.”

Joey had seemed genuinely happy to see her, if only for a moment. But she couldn’t think about that anymore. He was married and had a little girl.

“Okay, class, back to your seats. Please get out your writing tablets. We’ll practice writing our names.”

One little girl’s hand shot up.

“Yes, Mia?”

“Xander said I smelled funny. My mommy got me some perfume,” she announced with great pride.

“And it’s lovely. You smell like a princess,” Lia said, causing Mia to sit a little taller in her seat. “Xander meant to say you smelled nice. Right, Xander?”

Xander’s expression seemed to say that all girls have cooties.

“May I sharpen my pencil, Ms. Burton?”

Lia gave a nod and watched Micah, dressed in blue jeans and sneakers, walk politely to the pencil sharpener and set to sharpening.

“I need to go to the bathroom.” Macy gave a dramatic sigh. Her long hair looked much like Rapunzel’s, contributing to the theatrical look.

Grace got out of her seat.

Lia felt she was losing control of her classroom.

“Macy, you may go to the restroom. Then I want everyone in their seats.” She looked at Grace. “What do you need, Grace?”

Grace ignored her and twirled around the room.

“Grace, please sit down.”

Grace continued to twirl.

Finally it caused a disturbance with the other kids, so Lia took her aside and signed to her,
You
have
to sit in your chair unless I give you permission to get up. Do you understand?
Grace nodded and went back to her seat.

If Lia didn’t know better, she would say the child was indeed hearing impaired. But she’d wait and see what Joey had to say.

The classroom was empty, and yellow buses bulging with children had trundled down the windy road toward home. Lia put away a box of crayons and noticed the light snow falling over Smitten. The snowcapped mountains in the distance made for an enchanting scene.

“Sorry I’m late.”

She swiveled around to see Joey standing there. Grace smiled when she saw her daddy, picked up her school bag, and ran to him.

“I had a root canal patient that took longer than expected.”

“Couldn’t Grace’s mother have picked her up?” Maybe she was out of line for asking, but it was out there now and there was nothing she could do about it.

Joey looked surprised. He rubbed the afternoon stubble on his chin. “Wow. That’s right. I need to catch you up on a few things.”

“Okay. Let me just set Grace up with some coloring books and crayons.” Lia could feel Joey’s gaze follow her as she walked across the room to the supplies. It was uncomfortable having him here. Back in town. So silly that she should feel that way after all these years.

Once Grace was settled at her desk, Joey took the adult seat beside Lia’s desk. He pulled in a deep breath. “It’s like this. McKenzie, my wife, was hearing impaired.”

“Was?”

“That’s how Grace learned to sign. It was the way we communicated with McKenzie.”

Lia nodded, hoping to encourage him to continue.

He stared at his hands for a moment. “She was killed last December in a random shooting at the mall.”

Lia’s breath caught in her throat. “Oh, Joey, I’m so sorry.” She was surprised she hadn’t heard, the way gossip traveled through their little town.

He swallowed hard. “McKenzie’s friend and Grace were with her.”

Tears welled in Lia’s eyes, though she tried desperately
to hold them in check. She looked at Grace, whose furrowed brow showed her determination to color a beautiful snowman. Lia’s heart ached for what this precious child had been through.

And Joey.

“That’s why she signs.” He nodded toward Grace. “The counselor says it’s her way of holding on to her mom.”

With her head bowed, Lia nodded and lifted a barely audible whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

Joey took another deep breath. “Yeah, me too. I haven’t taken her to a mall since it happened.” Then with resolve he said, “But it is what it is and we have to move on.”

His comment brought back her professional side. “Of course.”

“I plan to pick her up on time, but there may be times like today . . . If you could bear with me for a week or two—just till we get settled.”

“The good news is she is in all-day kindergarten. There is plenty of after-school care nearby if you’re interested.”

“That makes me pretty uncomfortable. I hate to throw her into another situation where she doesn’t know the adults in charge.”

“The thing is, I won’t be here next week. Remember, I’ll be attending a kindergarten literacy conference in Morristown. So I can’t guarantee anyone would be able to stay after school with her. You’ll have to make arrangements before Monday.”

“Fair enough.” He stretched out his hand to hers. “Thank you for your time, Elliana. It’s so great to see you again.”

The way he said her name ribboned through her like
warm cocoa. No one called her by her full name, but the first time Joey met her, way back in grade school, he had declared that Elliana was too pretty a name not to use.

His hand was strong, protective—she didn’t want to let go. A weak moment enveloped her, and she wobbled to her chair. “Oh dear, I think I need to eat something,” she said, refusing to allow the heat to reach her face.

Joey lifted a sweet smirk as though he wasn’t buying her excuse, but handed her a packaged cracker from his pocket. “I keep them on hand for Grace.”

“Thank you.”

His eyes held hers. Deep in those eyes she got a glimpse of the Joey she had known, the carefree I’ll-lasso-the-moon Joey. But only a glimpse. A shadow cast it away. He walked over to Grace.

As they edged toward the door he said, “Thank you, Ms. Burton.”

Sadness tugged her heart as she watched him leave the room and close the door behind him.

“You’re awfully quiet tonight, Joey.” Suzie passed the dinner rolls to Grace, who pulled one apart and smeared on a glob of jelly.

“Yeah, I noticed that too,” Sam joined in. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. Just explained things to Grace’s teacher today.”

Grace stuffed a bite of roll into her mouth and signed,
I like Ms. Burton. She’s nice. She lets me color
. She waited a moment and signed again.
She smells good too. Like a happy day
.

“That’s right,” Suzie said. “I’d forgotten Lia was the kindergarten teacher.” She turned to Grace. “Just what does a happy day smell like?”

Ms. Burton
, Grace signed with a grin.

Joey laughed. “It’s funny; now that she mentions it, Elliana did smell good. Like peaches.”

Once Grace was excused from the table, the guys started to get up as well.

“Could you wait a moment?” Suzie asked. “I’ve already talked to Sam about this, Joey, but we thought we should mention it to you.”

Joey studied her. “What’s that?”

“If it’s all right with you, we want to buy Grace a gym set for the yard.”

“Whoa, now hold on.”

“Oh, come on, Joey. We don’t have any children, and we would enjoy watching her play.”

“Suzie, Sam, we’re not staying here. I’m going to build a house. And in fact, I’m looking for a place to stay while we build it.”

“But you can stay here,” Suzie encouraged.

He knew they meant well, but he didn’t want Grace confused as to who her parent was. Kids could get messed up with too many bosses. He wanted her
around
family; he just didn’t want to live with them.

“I appreciate it, guys, I really do. Ultimately, we won’t be
staying here. We need to get established in a place of our own and settle down to our new normal, you know?”

Sam nodded.

“I guess,” Suzie said with a sigh of resignation.

They cleared the table, and the discussion moved to sports and talk of work. Afterward, the guys settled into TV and Suzie got out her childhood tea set and played with Grace awhile.

Joey walked into Grace’s room and saw she was already bathed and in her pajamas. He thanked Suzie and read a story to Grace before she went to bed. Once he kissed her good night, he peeked again before closing the door. They had to find their own place. And soon.