Page 18 of Lipstick Kiss

“Is your fiancé working here tonight?”

“Why would he be working tonight?” she asked.

“He’s a teacher, right?” Luke said evenly.

Shit. She’d forgotten that lie.

“There are no single male teachers in the school, Mr Turner,” one of the kids helpfully offered.

Freya made a mental note to give the kid detention every time he broke any rule. No leniency for him. She swung her gaze over the kid and back to Luke.

“I never said he was a teacher,” Freya said.

It made things ten times worse because Luke’s grin widened so much that he was devilish. Freya usually backed away when he broke out that grin, but today she had the delinquent kids looking at her, waiting for a reply.

“Plug your irons in and ensure they sit on their ends. I don’t want us burning down the school. Cynthia Turner would not be impressed that her family’s donation was in ashes because we couldn’t iron a shirt,” she ordered.

Freya wimped out and got back to work.

Luke’s grin was now approving as he nodded.

“Find your pairs.”

Freya watched as Luke looked around the room at his options. He strode over to the quietest kid in the room. Kenny. He muttered something to the boy. Round eyes and an open mouth responded to whatever Luke had said. The older gentlemen paired up, and so did the other kids, making a two and a three team. There was minimal shoving. Instead, the five boys, thick as thieves on a bad day, looked over at Luke and Kenny. They weren’t so smug now.

If Luke paired with Kenny, the other five made two teams, and the older gentlemen made a pairing, she wouldn’t need another ironing board.

Once they were all set up at their stations, Freya opened her other suitcase and draped four white shirts over her arm. She circled the room to each pairing and gave them their shirts. Luke and Kenny were last in the semi-circle.

“Are you okay with being paired with Luke Turner?” she asked Kenny.

“Yes, Miss Riley,” he replied immediately.

“Do you know this man?” she asked.

Freya knew Luke hadn’t been back long, but maybe Kenny had been with his dad up at the estate and met Luke then.

“We’ve met before, Miss,” he said.

“Oh?”

She directed her question to Luke.

“We met the morning I got off the boat. It’s a small island. I’m bound to meet everyone eventually, Miss Riley,” Luke said.

There was that grin again, making her flush. She wished he’d turn it off in public.

What he said was true, Freya reasoned. Still…

“All right. Get ironing, and while you’re producing the perfectly ironed shirt with no tram lines, we’ll go through what we learned on Tuesday. I want the American states.”

Luke rubber-necked around the room, looking for answers to what Freya was talking about. Kenny muttered to Luke, and he nodded.

“We’ll start with Luke and Kenny.”

“Virginia,” Kenny said.

“North Carolina,” Luke said.

---