Page 8 of The Nicolaides Baby

If anything, his face had grown more tense. “You had no problem waking me earlier.” He’d stared hard at her, one brow raising. “Although I found waking up to your mouth on me much more pleasurable than this.”

She’d picked up her purse from the dresser and slung it over her shoulder, her anger rising. “That was a rather crass thing to say.”

He’d thrown the sheets aside and left the bed, with the first pale rays of sunlight from the window touching the hard planes of his body. It had been too much of a temptation not to watch him, so she’d kept her head averted while he’d found his boxers and put them on.

“Really,” he’d said on a hard note and then let out a harsh laugh. “You’ve seen and tasted almost every part of my body and now you can’t look at me?”

“Okay,” she’d said, facing him. “I can see you’re hurt, but?”

“Hurt?” He’d shaken his head and laughed again while grabbing his wrinkled suit pants from the floor. Then he stared a hole through her as he’d pulled them up his long legs. “Try pissed off.”

The rest?

Well, she had never been able to recall the exact words, only how they had been filled with growing anger. And then it had been too late, as they’d gone beyond the point where he could have said the three words she’d have thrown all her doubts away for...

Stay with me.

“Ms. Stallings.”

She’d grabbed the handles of her other two suitcases and left the room, her heart breaking, but not before glancing behind her one last time. Leo had stood shirtless in the middle of the room with his narrowed eyes on her. Her last thoughts when the door had closed behind her were,He hates me.

“Ms. Stallings.”

She blinked hard to keep the tears threatening at bay and smiled at her student. “Yes, Paisley.”

“I think it’s story time,” the little girl said, holding out the book Rowan had chosen to read a chapter from after her students’ rest time the past several days.

Rowan glanced at the clock to see she’d had her kids keep their heads down a little longer than normal. “Thank you,” she said before standing up and going to the chair she used for reading to the class. She then said in a voice sure to get their attention, “Let’s get ready to listen.” She used the time the children took rousing to pull herself together. She had responsibilities, and she couldn’t let the memory of that one night keep her from them.

“Gooney Bird Green,” she said, opening the book. “Chapter Four.” Several of the children perked up while a couple of the boys rolled their eyes because they thought it was agirliestory, even though she was fairly certain they secretly loved it.

She was finishing up the last paragraph when a light knock came at her classroom door. “Just a moment,” she called out and then finished reading the last few sentences and closed the book. “I can’t wait to find out what Gooney does tomorrow. Can you? Now, get out your crayons and paper, and draw me a picture of something that happened in today’s chapter.”

Shuffling paper and chatter followed her to the door. She opened it to find her vice principal standing in the hallway. “Sorry about that, Ms. Clements. We…” Rowan’s smile wavered when the other woman didn’t smile back. “Is something wrong?”

“We have an urgent call on hold for you in the main office.”

“Urgent…”Sierra. She didn’t wait for Ms. Clements to tell her who it was. Instead, she ran down the hall to the main office and then rushed through the door. “Are they still on hold?” she asked the receptionist, slightly out of breath.

Laci nodded, her gaze concerned, but curious, and pointed to an empty inner office. “You can take it in there—line three.”

She shut herself in the office and took a deep breath. She didn’t want to sound panicked if it was Sierra and the baby was coming early. Babies born at thirty-two weeks flourished all the time.

She picked up the receiver and pressed the blinking button. “Hello?”

“Rowan.”

Her pulse raced. “Leo…” She didn’t have time to process hearing his voice again after so long. “Is it the baby?” Silence… “Sierra?”

“I…” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “Rowan, I—”

“What’s happened?” She grabbed hold of the chair in front of the desk and sat down hard while her heart pounded and her eyes stung at the emotion and unusual uncertainty in Leo’s voice.

His deep breath filled her ear. “There’s been an accident. Sierra and Andr—”

“Oh God.” Her mind raced with thoughts of how she would get to her sister. “I’ll be on the first flight out.” She’d have to get Mara from daycare and—

“It’s bad.”

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