Page 59 of Sweet Surrender

“She was?” he asked, brightening up.

“She didn’t like it one bit that everyone was saying you cheated,” Zane went on. Leaving out the rest of his thought—even though it was obvious that you did.“And when theydecided to move you back, I never saw a teacher so unhappy to have onelessstudent in her classroom.”

Nick was grinning now and looking very pleased with himself.

“I’m glad you boys like your teacher,” Zane said. “And I appreciate that you want to find me a girlfriend…”

“Awife,” Cal put in firmly.

“A wife,” Zane allowed. “But I’m very happy with things just the way they are. The three of us are enough, right?”

“Sure,” Cal said. “But the four of us are better.”

He couldn’t blame the boy for thinking that—he’d thought the same just a day ago.

“Well, Miss Hawthorne is younger than I am,” Zane told them. “And she is going to be very busy with her new work schedule for a while, as she gets used to being a teacher. She doesn’t want some old boyfriend?—”

“Husband,” Nick said.

“Husband,” Zane agreed, sort of liking the sound of it, “holding her back from working as much as she needs to. And when she does want a husband, she’ll choose someone more like her—maybe another teacher or something.”

“People are good at different things,” Nick pointed out, handing Zane back his own speech from earlier in the day. “And that’s okay.”

Zane was glad the boy had listened, even if he was using his own philosophy against him.

“You just don’t know anything about love,” Cal decided sadly.

Zane figured the boy was probably right. But he also knew they needed to look up to him. If he was going to pour his heart out about his insecurities, he’d better track down one of his brothers, or better yet Allie.

“Let’s get some lunch,” he told them. “Would you like to go toBean Countersand have breakfast for lunch?”

That got a big enough reaction to take the boys off the case for a moment. With any luck, they’d be too sleepy after a nice warm lunch to throw him off anymore with their talk of love.

And he could get back to pretending everything was just fine before he saw Becca again at the tree lighting.

19

BECCA

Becca stood with the other members of the choir and looked out over the park. The group was supposed to be warming up quietly, and a handful of the singers were doing just that. But many were chatting over thermoses of hot tea and waving to friends as they gathered in the park.

The sun was already sinking behind the mountains, the fiery sky casting the snowy park in shades of pink and gold. Happy people wandered toward the big Christmas tree, carrying festive bags and armloads of gifts for donation.

It was beautiful, like something out of a picture book that could have been set today or one hundred years ago, if not for the handful of pickup trucks parked around the square.

But Becca just couldn’t get into the spirit of it. The events of the past week weighed on her too heavily. How could she have messed up so badly about Nick and Cal?

She had woken up this morning wishing she could just spend the whole weekend in her bed, hiding under the covers. But of course she couldn’t, because she was an adult that needed to face her problems, and she was in the choir, which had a big role inthe celebration today. So she was here, trying her best to let the festive atmosphere change her mood.

Her mother would’ve told her that staying busy was the best thing for her—if Becca had actually gotten up the nerve to call and confess anything. Normally, calling her mother was the first thing she did anytime she made a mistake or felt bad about something.

But money was tight in her family, and her parents had skimped to help her with her room and board at college since she was borrowing a fortune for her tuition. The idea of telling her mother how completely clueless she had been now that she finally had a classroom of her own—well, the idea was just too awful. Maybe she had made a mortifying mistake, but at least she didn’t have to make her mother suffer too.

It was unthinkable not to notice students cheating, especially when they were sitting in the front row. Had she really been too busy patting herself on the back, or daydreaming about their handsome father to pay attention to her actual job?

But she really didn’t think that was it. No matter how many times she thought back, she honestly couldn’t remember a single time that she had seen Nick’s eyes on his brother’s work. The boy always had his gaze fixed on the board or on Becca’s face, looking engaged and enthusiastic, like he was having the time of his life.

It doesn’t feel right.

---