Page 4 of The One Who Risked it All

An hour later, I finished with a flourish—or at least as much of one as you can have when grading essays written by seventhgraders. Satisfied with my progress for the evening, I stretched my arms over my head and looked around once again at my messy living room.

I supposed this was why God gave us weekends. Somehow, teaching was the only job where you had to spend time at home preparing to do the work, then actually do the work, then spend time at home evaluating the results of the work. Before starting it all over again for the next lesson.

I shook off those thoughts and headed into the kitchen where dirty dishes were piled high in the sink. I needed to check a few more things off my list before I would feel like I could really relax. As I scrubbed away at them under hot water, my mind wandered back to Eli and our awkward encounter at the vow renewal.

Was he really just being friendly? Or was there something more there? Every time I thought I had moved on from my silly high school crush, he said or did something that had me spiraling back into it.

I shook my head at myself. I shouldn’t even be entertaining these thoughts. He was off-limits, and the biggest flirt in town. It was foolish to take anything he said seriously. My beauty rendered him speechless? Please.

I focused on the rest of Nathan and Rebecca’s vow renewal. The image of them, beaming and in love, tugged at my heart. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy.

They got their happily ever after. Meanwhile, I was still stuck in Singleville, Indiana. Population: me. I was approaching thirty, and I was nowhere near where I expected to be at this point in my life. I loved teaching, but I always pictured myself with a van full of kids, running them to soccer practice.

Sometimes, it was even hard to be around Rebecca and the boys. As much as I loved them, that green-eyed monster wasferocious. Rebecca was my best friend, but I couldn’t help but want so much of what she had.

As I reached for the next dish with soapy hands, my mind wandered traitorously to another pair of hands—larger, rougher, belonging to a certain infuriating firefighter.

I shook my head vigorously, banishing the thought. I had to push away those all-too-frequent thoughts of smoldering eyes. How did his cocky grin still give me butterflies, even after all these years? I was hopeless. The mysterious feud between our families loomed large, and though I didn’t even know the story behind the feud, ignoring it wasn’t an option.

Even if I somehow worked up the nerve to ignore my father’s subtle jabs at the Wells family, it had been Eli’s dad who put an end to our blossoming teenage romance. And while I’d been crazy enough for him and just rebellious enough to hope we could have a shot anyway? Eli had dropped me like a broken bat after a foul ball.

Then, he’d proceeded to date every girl in the tri-county area over the next ten years. I was not going there. I resorted to turning on a podcast while I finished my dishes to keep my mind occupied.

The next morning, I strode into the teacher’s lounge, my game face on.

“Morning, everyone!” I called out cheerily, pouring myself a much-needed coffee.

“Carla!” Mrs. Thompson greeted me. “Are you ready for the big day?”

I flashed her a confident smile, squashing down the panic bubbling in my chest. “Oh, you know me. I’ve got it all under control.” Career day at Minden Rogers High School was no minor event. And this year, I was in charge of it.

“That’s Carla,” Mr. Dawson chuckled. “Always on top of things.”

I laughed along, hoping they couldn’t see through my facade. Inside, I was a mess of tangled emotions and unresolved feelings. But out there, I was Carla Putnam: tough, capable, and definitely not running on three hours of sleep from pining over a certain dark-haired firefighter.

I took a deep breath and plastered on my best “I’ve got this” smile as I walked into the gymnasium. The echoes of excited chatter from students and professionals alike hit me like a wall of sound. Career day had officially begun, and it was absolute chaos.

“Okay, folks!” I clapped my hands, projecting my voice over the din. “Let’s get our presenters to their designated areas. Doctors to the left, lawyers to the right, and... where are my accountants?”

A group of individuals in business casual attire raised their hands timidly from the back.

“Perfect! You’re by the bleachers. Don’t worry, everyone, I promise the kids won’t bite... much.”

As I navigated through the sea of people, directing traffic and answering a million questions at once, I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure in the corner of my eye. Eli, looking unfairly handsome in his firefighter uniform, was setting up a display with his colleagues.

My heart did a little somersault, and I silently cursed its betrayal. Focus. I was a professional, remember?

But as I turned to help a lost-looking veterinarian find her spot, I couldn’t help but steal another glance at Eli. He was laughing at something one of the other firefighters said, his eyes crinkling at the corners in that way that always made me weak in the knees.

“Ms. Putnam?” A student’s voice snapped me back to reality. “Where should the police officers go?”

I tore my gaze away from Eli, hoping he hadn’t noticed my staring. “Right this way, officers,” I said, gesturing toward an empty table near the center of the gym. “Let’s put you front and center.”

As I led them to their spot, I could feel Eli’s eyes on me. The weight of our shared history, the unresolved tension between us, seemed to crackle in the air. But I squared my shoulders and kept moving. I had a job to do, after all, and I’d be a fool if I let my feelings for Eli Wells derail this event.

“Alright, everyone!” I called out, clapping my hands again. “Let’s make this the best Career Day MRHS has ever seen!”

I plastered on my best teacher smile as I wove through the maze of career booths. “Well, if it isn’t the dream team,” I quipped, sidling up to my fellow English teachers, Terry and Melissa. “How’re we feeling about being outshone by all these exciting careers?”

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