Page 11 of Finding You

“Nice to see you. Good talk!” Katie called after him. “Way to Dad, Dallas. A-plus!”

He ignored her sarcasm. It wasn’t worth it. The only comfort he took was that he’d found her cheating before they settled into a routine. They weren’t an epic love story. They hadn’t been high school sweethearts or anything like that. They’d met on an app, and they got along well enough that after two years and seven months, when she started dropping hints about engagement rings, he bought one.

It was a synthetic diamond because he’d been a broke grad student at the time, but she hadn’t complained. They got married at her parents’ estate in Savannah, in the backyard next to the horse paddock, which smelled like grassy piles of shit. But the photos had come out spectacular, and he’d had fun that night.

But the last time he ever felt connected to her was on the honeymoon. Her parents had paid for it—their gift to them. A week in Cabo in an all-inclusive resort where they had too much booze and enough sex that her birth control hadn’t stood a chance. At least, that was the joke she made at the doctor’s office two months later.

Bronx had wondered aloud once if Katie had skipped her pills on purpose. Dallas didn’t much care, if he was being honest. He got his daughter out of it, so he couldn’t bring himself to regret how it all went down.

He just wished he wasn’t some sort of social pariah because he loved his child and wanted to be an active father. The world seemed to expect him to fall into the role of part-time parent, and people seemed almost disappointed when he hadn’t.

Pulling into the staff parking lot at the school, he thought about Kylen and how he’d said the same thing. He’d been thinking about him quite a bit since the flight. He couldn’t help his wandering gaze whenever he was in public. It was a small town, after all. He’d have to run into him at some point.

But Kylen was starting to feel almost like a figment of his imagination. Maybe his stress had caused him to hallucinate the kind, gentle man who worked him through his fear. Or maybe he really was just losing his mind.

“Enough,” he told himself aloud, then stopped because talking to himself was not a good look. At all. He needed to get his head in the game.

It was parents’ night at the school, which he was looking forward to because he’d missed the Kindergarten Round-Up, where all the parents got to tour the classrooms. Audra had come down with croup, and he’d been in the ER with her and Katie for forty-eight hours.

He’d met a few parents at drop-off, but he was looking forward to seeing the rest of them. Their children were often little windows into their homes, and while some of them were total nightmares, several were pretty cool.

He already had a little teacher’s pet—a little girl named Flora with big, bright eyes and dark curls she always wore in intricate braids. He knew she had a dad, a mom who didn’t live with her, and an auntie. He’d met the aunt—a woman named Grace who didn’t seem to like him very much. She’d caught a glimpse of his tattoo once and asked if that was against district policy.

She hadn’t liked his answer that if it was, he hadn’t gotten the memo.

He had a feeling she probably called about it too, but since he hadn’t been dragged into admin to talk about it, he figured he was good to go.

A lot of parents didn’t like the idea of a man teaching kindergarten though. Hers wasn’t the first side-eye he got. No matter what answer he gave them when they asked why he wanted to teach little kids, they always thought he was a creep. Usually, it took him to the end of the year to gain their trust.

But the truth of the matter was he enjoyed it. He liked knowing that he was part of shaping who these kids would grow up to be. He wanted to start them off on a good note—to support their tiny little passions, to see how it started so in twenty years, he might run into someone at the store, and he would get to see their wild successes.

And maybe even a few failures because that was life.

But he wanted them all to look back on their first year of school and think it was one of the best years they’d ever had.

He’d take all the side-eyes and scoffs if it meant he was making a difference.

“Morning, Dal.”

Genny, the receptionist, was the only one brave enough to shorten his name. He gave her a head-nod and hurried over to the coffeepot to pour himself a cup. He had exactly twenty minutes to set his shit down and get to the playground for lineup.

“Please, God, tell me this is full caf.” Two of the teachers were pregnant and had been swapping the morning coffee with half-caf, which was killing him.

“You’re good,” Genny said with a wink. “You need anything for tonight? I’m making a run to Costco later.”

He frowned in thought. “Uh. Maybe some water and…pretzels? No, packs of chips? I don’t know. Some kind of snack that doesn’t suck.”

Genny laughed. “I’ll check back in at lunch.”

“Thanks.” He sipped his coffee as he walked across from the office to his classroom. Luckily, the kinder rooms were all by the front gate, which meant he could leave things to the last minute. He could hear the kids screaming and playing, and he tried not to sigh. A headache was pressing in on his temples, but he had to keep it together. It was going to be a long day and an even longer night.

He set his bag down, his knees bending in a half sit, when he heard a faint tapping on the classroom door. His back ached, and he wanted to cry and maybe go back to bed. Instead, he walked over and opened it, peering down into the face of his little classroom shadow.

“Mr. Reed.” Flora looked like she was on the verge of tears.

He opened the door for her, and she shuffled in. “What happened?” When she turned, he saw she had a little red mark on her cheek, and he dropped to a knee. “Did you get hurt?”

She nodded, biting her lip.

---