Page 8 of Unbreakable Love

Despite my earlier tantrum, Miss Pesco remained the topic of conversation all night long. “I bet she’ll be a really good teacher.”

I hated to admit it, but after listening to her, and then Faye and the principal describe the plan moving forward to ensure a smooth transition, I was impressed. Miss Pesco, Penny, had to be nervous, standing in front of a room full of strangers, knowing she was being studied and she hadn’t batted at the pressure for a moment.

“Yeah, and really pretty,” Josie murmured. Another yawn hit her, and she snuggled so deep into her covers only the tips of her curls were visible.

She wasn’t pretty. She was otherworldly stunning.

It didn’t even matter that Josie kept talking about her new teacher and how pretty she was, how beautiful and nice and funny. With as pretty as she was, I wouldn’t have been able to stop thinking about her either. Sure, Josie’s rambling didn’t help, but I could still feel that pulse of attraction that was swarming in my gut and my veins.

I felt electrified. Bursting with as much energy as I did anytime Josie performed a miraculous feat—like sleeping through the night for the first time, crawling and then walking, or her first cartwheel. Nothing in my life excited me outside Josie. My job was good. Great, even. I enjoyed the work and running a construction company and building and renovating homes and businesses in my town and in neighboring counties. It was steady work. Hard and honest work and at the end of every project, I felt like I accomplished something important.

It said a lot about our town and the trust they had in someone as young as me to take on such large projects, but my dad often joked I’d been born with a hammer in one hand and a drill in the other. Building came naturally to me, always had, and I’d been designing builds for people in town and helping complete them since before Josie was born.

But I couldn’t remember a time when something had left such a lingering impression on me.

Penny Pesco.

I wandered into my living room and glanced at the television. There had to be a game on. Either hockey or football. Hell, Caleb could be playing, which said a lot about my mental state because I never missed a chance to watch him play, but grabbing a drink and settling in with the television and a sports game like I did every single night of my life had no appeal.

Instead, I headed outside to my front porch. I’d bought the house when it was on the verge of collapsing from the next calm breeze and rebuilt the entire thing from the ground up. I was eighteen when I started working on it, choosing to go my own way instead of staying on my family’s ranch or heading to college. I managed to get most of it done on my own, with my dad and brothers and other men from town helping on things I was uncertain about. The roof tresses and electrical wiring and plumbing being the most important things. I was proud of this small, three-bedroom home I gave to Josie. I was even prouder that at my age, I’d not only started my own business, but made a solid, strong living at it. Sure, it helped that I came from the Kelley family. Everyone in three counties knew us and everyone in the state knew us now due to my brothers both being professional athletes. Hell, we’d even had offers over the years of being a reality TV show family, showing the public all over the world what ranching life was really about.

That all helped my success, and I was grateful for it. But I’d kept and grown that success with my own blood, sweat, and tears. If I’d sucked, I would have flopped.

Thankfully, I didn’t, and tonight, I was damn proud of the life I was able to give my daughter.

The air was crisp and cool, proving winter was quickly on its way, and I hissed in a breath at the sting of cold on my bare arms before I rested my forearms onto the railing.

I’d been a jerk to Josie’s new teacher. Once word got back to my mom, and I had no doubt it would because gossip in New Haven traveled faster than the breeze, she’d have words for me about that.

And I’d even been more distant with Josie because of it. Sure, we’d come home and done our night routine. A bath and then a chapter of her new book, Charlotte’s Web. I still wasn’t sure how to prepare for the end I knew was coming.

But preparing my daughter for the heartbreaking ending of a book was nothing compared to the pain I felt coming.

Penny Pesco was going to make my life difficult, that was for sure, and somehow, I’d have to find a way to suck it up and deal with it like I’d learned to deal with everything else.

Car lights appeared down the street, moving slower than most. It passed me, snagging my attention because it was unfamiliar. In a town the size of ours and on a street where I’d lived for the last five years, I knew everyone. Every vehicle. This was new, and so I pushed to standing until the silver, older model Nissan pulled into a driveway two doors down from me and across the street.

It was the Markhams’ old house, been empty since old man Markham passed away a few months ago. His grandkids had come and packed it up, had a cleaning company come clean it up, and it’d been available to sell or lease ever since. But things didn’t move fast around here, and I’d been so busy the last week, I hadn’t noticed anyone moving in.

I stepped around the pillar on my porch, closer to the stairs, to get a better look at my new neighbor.

The garage door opened, and the car pulled in, giving me nothing.

But that tightness from earlier was back in my chest.

I waited, expected the door to close behind the car, but the garage light stayed on, the door open and soon, a skirt I’d spent all day hearing about appeared, and Penny Pesco, my daughter’s teacher and apparently, my new neighbor, strolled down to the end of the drive toward her mailbox.

The universe was playing a sick joke on me. She was my neighbor?

I was moving before I planned it, jumping off the stairs of my porch and jogging across the street before I knew what was going to come out of my mouth. I was sensitive to the fact it was night and dark and cleared my throat to give Penny a heads-up someone was near her.

Her head turned in my direction, and her lips parted.

One blink later and she gave me the same wide-eyed, brow raised, surprised look she’d given me earlier.

“Mr. Kelley?”

“Miss Pesco.”

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