Page 21 of Dangerous

Katy gave Mrs. Knight a nod. “Thank you.”

“I’ll check on him and you before leaving, okay?”

She didn’t verbally answer, but nodded and then to my surprise, she smiled at me.

And suddenly everything was right with my day.

16

Katy/Katherine

My feet hesitated outside the cafeteria doors. The noise of the student body talking, catching up on summer exploits and morning classes seeped out through the small crack between the double doors. On one hand, I wanted to go inside, sit with my friends, and do what I said—enjoy my senior year—but there was a call within me to head back to the daycare and cuddle with Liam. In there, there was peace. Things were simple. And the smiles Liam gave when hetoldhis stories to me, melted my heart.

It's why I’d been late to my first class. Once I calmed Liam down and got him excited to play with the new playmobile, I’d been hesitant to leave. Missy, along with another worker named Susan, had returned to the infant room before three girls arrived with their infants. Most daycares no longer had infant rooms for babies under a year since most people were able to take the full maternity/paternity leave that covered off the first year of a baby’s life. But ours, since it was geared to primarily help young parents to continue with their education, cared for babies of allages. It meant that at three and a half months old, Liam wasn’t the youngest baby there.

While Susan helped the other infants and their moms to settle in, Missy tried to force me to leave, telling me that I would be marked absent if I stayed at the daycare after first bell since I wasn’t a parent. I’d rolled my eyes at that because I knew that Peter had already cleared my help with Principal Kotiuk and it was marked on all my classes that I would have daycare privileges. Once he’d finished his talk with Ms. Knight, he’d also told me that he’d tell my first period teacher that I’d be a little late so I could remain with Liam. It wasn’t until I’d put him down for his morning nap and made sure that Susan knew where all his things were, that I’d left.

And since none of my close friends were in my morning classes, I’d been able to avoid them like I’d been doing for most of the summer.

After everything that happened at the party that they’d talked me into going to and then left me on my own, drunk as a skunk, I hadn’t been all that happy with the girls. Between studying for exams, writing them, and then work, I’d managed to limit my interactions with Sasha, Deena, Kailee, and even Daisy which meant I was still a little butthurt about their actions. And now that the whole school probably knew about Liam, I was sure that that would be all they’d want to talk about.

Well, that and Ethan.

That is if they hadn’t already thrown themselves at him this morning.

“Crap,” I muttered as I forced myself to step towards the door. Even though Ethan was Danny’s cousin, I wasn’t sure if he knew too many people at the school since Danny had graduated last year. After which, he’d headed off to university almost immediately to work a summer job he’d found, so he could be there for football training. And earlier in the summer, beforeEthan had travelled back to Winnipeg to spend some time with his soccer team, he’d extracted a promise from me to eat lunch with him on the first day of school.

I wasn’t one to break my promises, no matter how much I wanted to.

I pushed open the doors and nearly fell over from the sound wave that hit me. I couldn’t stop the slight grin from climbing onto my face. With all this noise, I could play deaf when Sasha, Deena, and others tried to corner me about Peter, Liam, Jarrod, and Jason. Because, yeah, they’d let everyone know that they weren’t just a couple, but rather a throuple. With a baby.

An arm landed across my shoulders, scaring me. “You weren’t trying to ditch me on my first day, were you?”

I stared up at Ethan’s grinning face and tried to act all innocent. “Who me? Why would I do that?” I tapped my chin with my pointer finger. “Although, I did receive a better offer from the cutest and sweetest guy. When he smiles at me and tells me stories, I just melt.”

His gaze narrowed but then he laughed. “Yeah, I’d probably want to eat with Liam, too.” He glanced into the cafeteria and shuddered. “His world is a lot less dangerous than this one.”

“Agreed.” My softly spoken word echoed. Only then did I realize that the noise in the cafeteria was nearly non-existent as everyone stared at us.Absolutely craptastic. Just what I wanted on the first day of classes.

“Well, since everyone’s watching, you’re not going to publicly humiliate me by walking away and leaving me alone, are you?” Ethan batted his eye lashes and gave me that stupid puppy dog look that he’d successfully used on me before… a few times. And despite telling myself that I would no longer give in to it, I caved.

“Fine. Let’s go in and get this over with. But don’t blame me if you’re mobbed by all the girls wanting to date you. For that, you’re on your own.”

“What?” He pouted and I wasn’t sure what was worse, the puppy dog look or the pout with his thick lips. “You wouldn’t save me from their evil clutches? Keep me safe from all their nefarious ways?”

I couldn’t help it. Laughter spilled from my lips as he led me inside the room. While Mason had been funny and a long-term friend who I missed, Ethan was different. Sure, he was still considered hot and would have all the girls falling over themselves to date him, his demeanour didn’t scream player like Mason’s had. Ethan was quieter, studious, and seemed to prefer being on the sidelines instead of the centre. In that way, his personality was a better match to mine than the one Mason had grown into.

“Katy! Over here,” shouted Sasha as stood and waved her arms like I didn’t remember or know which table we sat at. We might be seniors this year, but certain tables weren’t allocated by grade, instead they were assigned to various sports teams. And although I could have sat at the table for the cheerleaders, I refused to. Spending hours with them during practice had been enough.

An arm slipped through mine as a body, clouded in perfume pressed up against mine. “Yes, come join us, Katy, and bring your delicious new friend with you. How is it that for the second year in a row, you manage to walk in with the hottest guy in the school already wrapped around you? Save some for us mere mortals, won’t you?”

I struggled not to, but I don’t think I was successful at containing my eye roll, if the frosty glare that entered in Kailee’s eyes was anything to go by. Not needing to add another jealous, bitchy girl to my circle now that Krissy and others had graduated, I smiled at Kailee. “Let me introduce you to Ethan. He’s one of Danny’s cousins and is living with his uncle and aunt for the year. Ethan, this wonderful person is Kailee.”

Kailee gave my arm a little squeeze before releasing me. But her little power play wasn’t down because she stepped in front of me, forcing me to stop if I didn’t want to run into her as she held out her hand to Ethan.

Pain shot through my arm as Ethan’s grip tightened briefly before he released me so he could shake Kailee’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Before he even finished his four-word sentence, he’d released her hand and had his wrapped around my shoulder again. I wanted to push him off, worried he had the wrong idea about what type of relationship we had, but his arm and his presence would keep the vultures on good behaviour. And that would be the only way I’d get through this lunch period.

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