Page 91 of Returning to Everton

“Declan! Are you Violet's teacher?” I ask him excitedly.

He chuckles at my obvious delight, “It appears so. Good morning Violet. Are you all ready for school?”

Violet lit up when she heard Declan talking, she was really hoping he’d be her teacher this year. I’m glad she got her wish. “Yes! I can’t wait! This class looks so fun!” You can definitely tell she’s excited, hell I think the people in the hall could tell she’s excited.

“Well, since I never got a student list for some reason, I don’t know who’s going to be in class, so I didn’t assign seats yet. This is going to be my table,” he points to the table we’re standing by. “The other table will be overseen by my teacher’s aide. If you wanna take a seat before everyone else gets here, you can pick out your seat.”

Of course, Violet takes a seat at Declan’s table. Right in the center so she can have friends on either side of her and happens to be Declan’s main focus until he turns to look somewhere else. That’s always a hard decision for me. Do I want to sit across from the guy or next to him? Luckily, Violet doesn’t have to worry about that for many years to come.

Declan sees where she chose to sit and chuckles, “You like to be the center of attention, don’t you Violet?” She just smiles up at him trying to look innocent.

“Okay Violet, I’m gonna talk to your mom for a minute. You stay in your seat; more students should be here soon. Don’t want them to try to take your seat,” Declan warns her and she plops her cute little butt in her seat to make sure no one can take it.

Declan pulls me to the side of the class. “How are you doinga mhuirnín?” he whispers in my ear then kisses my neck.

“Better now. I’m so glad she’s in your class, Dec. I hope it doesn’t cause a problem if people find out we’re dating though,” I voice my newest fear.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, and I believe you meanwhenpeople find out notif. I have no intention of hiding our relationship from anybody,” he asserts.

I smile, I’m glad he doesn’t want me to be his dirty little secret. No sooner do I think that than his hand is gripping my chin and holding my face to look at him. “Never. Don’t even think that. I would never hide what we have. Do you understand me?” he demands an answer, so I squeak out a yes. “Good.” He kisses me hard on the lips and only pulls away when we hear a haughty fake cough, interrupting our moment.

I jerk my head over to see who caught us, and instantly tense when I see it’s none other than Britney. Why god? Why me? She walks over to us in her inappropriately high heels. Wearing a tight dress that shows off way too much cleavage and leg to be wearing at a school. Trailing behind her is this adorable little girl, who is looking everywhere but at us.

We’re standing there in a bit of a standoff. It seems Britney is content to just give me dirty looks instead of engaging me, for now at least. This is starting to get awkward, so I finally speak up. “Hey, Britney. Is your daughter in this class too?” I try to be friendly because I know how much she hates it.

“Too? You mean you actually have a kid in this class? You didn’t just stop by on the busiest day to maul the hot teacher?” she sneers. “Aren’t you dating Hudson anyway? I’m sure he’d be thrilled if I ran to the bakery right now and told him his new girlfriend is already putting the moves on one of his best friends,” she attempts to threaten me. Too bad for her that’s not really a threat for me.

I just sigh and roll my eyes. “Do what you need to Britney. I need to get to work... at the bakery,” I retort.

I walk away because I don’t really care to deal with any more of her bullshit right now. I go over to Violet and give her a goodbye hug.

“Have a good day, Bug. Be good, listen to Declan, and make lots of friends. I’ll be back to pick you up when school’s over.”

“Okay, Mommy! Love you!” she tells me with her trademark smile.

“Love you too Bug,” I kiss her head then walk away. As I’m leaving the classroom I turn to wave at Declan. The poor guy is stuck with Britney now. Hopefully, she behaves herself since she’s in a school. Though I wouldn’t count on it.

35

Declan

Ithink I have to agree with Rowen’s thoughts about Britney being here. Why me god? Unfortunately, I also agree that she probably won’t behave just because she’s in a school. It never stopped her before after all. I put my professional face back on and smile down at Emma.

“Hey, Emma, why don’t you go pick out your seat. I haven’t assigned seats yet, so you get to pick where you want for today,” I tell the little girl standing near her mother, but not close enough to touch like a normal kid would. I wonder what that’s about,

She looks up at me with shy eyes and nods her head. “Yes, Sir,” she whispers and walks away.

I watch her explore the classroom looking pretty much the opposite of Violet. She’s not as excited to be here, she seems more resigned to me. Violet must see the same thing, because she leaves her backpack on her chair and walks over to her.

“I didn’t know you were into taken women Declan. If that’s your kink, you could always upgrade to me instead,” Britney says with a smirk, and I have to stop myself from gagging.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m pretty happy with Rowen. No need to downgrade,” I keep my tone calm and steady, even though inside I’m raging. How dare she think she’s better than Rowen in any way. She’s not half the woman Rowen is. That was made perfectly clear by the way she just volunteered to cheat on her husband with me.

She sputters when she finally realizes what I said to her. “What did you just say to me?! I amnota downgrade!” she screeches at me. “I am better than that slut in every way!”

She tries to continue with her tirade about how she’s somehow better than Rowen, but I put a stop to it. “That’s enough of that.” I use my teacher’s voice and she immediately snaps her mouth closed. “I will not have you talking that way about my woman. Now you will leave this room and you are not welcome back for any reason until your attitude changes,” I declare. She’s just standing there gaping at me, with her mouth hanging open. “I saidleave,” I command.

“I can’t believe I spent all that time getting my daughter in your class for this! I hope screwing your friend’s girl was worth it, because I’m going toendyou! All of you!” she screams before she leaves the room without even saying goodbye to her daughter.

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