Page 68 of Sweet Surrender

“I hope it’s okay that I stopped by,” he said, holding up his hand so she could see what was in it. “Doc Robertson said these were ready, and I didn’t want Nick to wait another minute for them.”

“Dad,”Nick and Cal yelled, leaping out of their seats to greet him.

“Hey, boys,” Zane said, turning to them with a warm smile.

“Are those my glasses?” Nick asked, his eyes on the case in his father’s hand.

“They sure are,” Zane told him. “You can wait until we get home if you w?—”

“I’ll try them now,” Nick said excitedly.

Zane handed him the box and Becca noticed that Nick brought it over to his desk very carefully and unpacked the glasses from a little pouch that was inside the case. He held themup to his face and slid them on, then turned to look toward the back of the room.

“Oh,” he said, his face soft with wonder. “Oh, wow.I can read the posters now. Cal, could you always read those posters from here?”

“Yeah,” Cal said. “I could see them.”

“You look really cool,” Tucker Martin told him, nodding his head up and down.

The kids suddenly broke into applause and Nick smiled so brightly that it looked like he might just float away.

The sight of it put a lump in Becca’s throat, and she found herself quickly wiping tears from the corners of her eyes, so the students wouldn’t see.

“I can show you how to clean them,” little Anna Filbert told him, with a big smile. Anna had a very cute pair of glasses herself.

“Thank you, Anna,” Nick said politely. “Hey, guys, let’s try ‘em out.”

He darted between the desks to the very back of the room.

Understanding immediately what he wanted to do, a few other kids dashed to the board and began gleefully writing things on it.

Cal was the first to finish. He stood back from the board.

“Merry Christmas,”Nick read triumphantly.

“Yes,”Cal said, jumping up and down a little.

“I want a puppy,”Nick read, when Aubrey Jensen gestured at what she had written.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”Nick read next, to the delight of his classmates, who all began giggling.

They all waited for Alex Gutierrez to finish writing the answer.

“To get to the other side,”Nick yelled.

Everyone laughed, and more kids scrambled up to the board with ideas.

There was another tap on the doorframe, and Becca turned to see Mrs. Staley standing there.

“I’m sorry we’re making so much noise—” Becca began, bracing herself for the woman to scold her.

“I can’t believe you figured this out,” Mrs. Staley said with a big smile. “Go ahead and celebrate. I just wanted to pop in and tell you great job.”

“Thank you so much,” Becca said, amazed. “Thank you.”

The other teacher nodded, and ducked back out to get back to her own class.

Becca glanced at her watch and realized the kids only had a few more minutes to enjoy themselves before they needed to get packed up.

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