Page 36 of Since the Day We Wished

“Hey, at least you’ll be stuck here with me,” Emma said, shrugging her shoulders.

Charlotte gave her a half-smile. “I guess not.”

Kara shook her head as Charlotte walked away. “I love her, but she is such a handful sometimes.”

Emma leaned in. “Really? I thought Charlotte was one of those self-sufficient kids.”

“She used to be, but now that she’s getting older and the hormones are raging, things are getting a bit more...dramatic,” Kara explained.

“It’s always dramatic with you two.”

“But it’s not just me anymore. It’s the boys too.”

Emma raised her eyebrows. “Ah, the boys. They’re a handful too.”

“Speaking of boys...will you be hanging out with Luke anytime soon?”

Emma’s cheeks turned tomato red, unable to stop it. She looked down and cleared her throat. “I should probably get to class.”

Kara smirked, deciding not to tease her friend about the new handsome stranger in town. “Well, I won’t keep you. Have fun and I’ll see you soon, okay?”

Emma gave her a hug. “See ya later, Kara. Take care.”

She watched Kara walk down the hall, then turned on her heel and headed in the opposite direction. But as she passed by the front office, Principal Kennedy called out to her.

“Oh, Ms. Wright! Ms. Wright! You are just the person I was looking for.”

As Principal Kennedy approached her, Emma smiled in greeting. “Yes, what can I do for you?”

“Well, it’s what you can do for us, actually,” the principal said. “Do you remember Mrs. Anderson?”

Emma took a moment to remember. “She teaches calculus, right?”

“Yes, she does! You’ve got a good memory. Well, she was expecting at the end of the spring semester, and she’s going to have the baby any day now. The sub we had lined up resigned. So, you’ll be subbing her class full time while she’s out on maternity leave until the end of October.”

Emma’s eyes widened. “Oh wow! I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Here’s Mrs. Anderson’s classroom roster and the keys,” the principal said, handing them to her. “In case you want to check her lesson plans, she mentioned having them in a file cabinet behind her desk.”

Emma took the items from him. “Okay, well it looks like I have my work cut out for me. Thanks for letting me know.”

As she walked to Mrs. Anderson’s classroom, Emma chuckled to herself. She had never held a full-time substitute position for that long before.

Glancing down at the roster, Emma read through the names written on it.Tate Harmon,Charlotte Walker, Jeremiah Grayson...She would have them all in the same class. “This should be fun,” she thought to herself with a wry smile.

Chapter 16

Luke

One month later

The warm August sun was still high in the sky as Luke eagerly finished his afternoon conference call and looked up at the clock. It was almost time to pick up Jeremiah from his first day of school. He hadn’t gotten any frantic phone calls from the principal yet, so he took that as a good sign to the start of the semester.

With the windows of his Range Rover down, Luke put on an upbeat country song to set the mood. As he drove through the scenic coastal town, he realized the small-town charm and peaceful atmosphere were starting to grow on him.

As he pulled up to the school, Jeremiah came rushing out of the main doors and over to the SUV. After he was inside, Luke rolled his window up and switched off the music.

“So, how was it?” Luke asked. “Did you make any new friends?”

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