Page 55 of Homecoming for Beginners

Technically Ty worked half-time. That meant he didn’t get a paid lunch, so they couldn’t schedule him for duty. Ty should probably take less pleasure in putting his feet up in the staff room and making a show of unwrapping his sandwich while whichever schmuck trudged outside like a condemned prisoner, but sometimes you had to enjoy the little things.

“Please,” Jason Kim begged. “I will do whatever you want. Seriously. I will wash your truck. I’ll bring you lunch for a week. I’ll enter the grades for all your classes into the report card system you hate.”

Ty put his feet down and leaned forward, because if there was one thing he’d learned teaching, it was that the program the school used to track grades hated him. It crashed at least once every time he opened it. “I’m listening,” he said intently. “But first… why?”

Now Jason looked hunted. “Really?”

So it had to bejuicy. “I’m waiting.” Ty took a bite of his sandwich and chewed slowly.

“Fine!” Jason looked over both shoulders and around the whole room—not without reason; the only thing teachers loved more than they hated lunch duty was hot gossip—and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I want to take Peggy out for lunch, okay? Off school property. But I’ve got lunch duty the only day she’s available.”

Damn, he’d hit Ty in the softest place possible. He’d suspected Jason had a thing for Peggy ever since the whole saluting-with-the-morning-mail thing, and he’d caught Peggy blushing afterward enough times to believe the two of them had a decent shot at happiness, and Tylovedlove.

Ty was especially weak for love after the significant looks that had been exchanged last night in the hot tub. He could’ve sworn he saw—felt—something flickering back at him in Ollie’s warm brown gaze. Something that hadn’t been there before.

But he could be imagining it. It wouldn’t be the first time. Plus, talk about lousy timing—Ty literally had a call with his boss in Chicago on Monday to figure out his return-to-work schedule. And either way, he had to live with Ollie for a few more weeks, so he needed to get his romantic fix vicariously rather than hope a magical teapot was about to sing him a classic Disney love song.

Oh fuck, he lived in a creepy old mansion and he’d conned Ollie into moving in with him. Did that make him the Beast?

The townspeople did kind of hate him. It was probably only a matter of time before they stormed the castle.

“So will you do it?” Jason asked.

“I—am I allowed?” Ty replied. “I mean, you’re gonna be entering all my grades and maybe my report card comments too, if they let me do it, but we probably have to make sure it’s not violating some union agreement or something.”

Jason’s face fell. “Fuck, I don’t know, I’ll have to check. But if it’s cool—”

“I’ll do it,” Ty said. “Not for you, though, just FYI. Because Peggy deserves a nice lunch date.”

Jason broke into a grin that knocked at least five years from his face. “Ty, you are the best. Seriously. I’m going to enjoy entering those grades for you.”

Ty had been in the middle of a bite and almost choked on his sandwich. “You’re a weirdo, Jason. So, where are you taking her?”

“There’s only two lunch restaurants in town, and one of them is McDonald’s.”

That did narrow it down some. “Oh, hey—” Ty put down his sandwich and put on his most serious eat-shit expression. “I guess I have to give you the talk, don’t I? As the resident health education specialist, I mean. Remember to always use protection, and lube is your friend.”

“I am afraid to ask how many of your lunch dates have involved lube.”

Ty snorted. “I did once spend what wassupposedto be my lunch break teaching a probie how to patch an oil leak on an ambulance. She didn’t even buy me dinner first.”

“The probie?”

He grinned. “The ambulance.”

Jason was shaking his head when the overhead speaker crackled to life. “Ty, are you in there?”

Something in Peggy’s tone had Ty dropping his half-eaten sandwich back onto the wrapper. She never used his first name over the PA, even when she was buzzing him in the teachers’ lounge. “Yeah, what’s—”

“It’s Theo Kent. He’s been stung by a bee—”

Ty was out of his chair before he even finished processing the words. “Where is he?”

“Main office.”

“Has he taken the EpiPen?”

But he didn’t wait to hear the answer. He sprinted out of the staff room and down the hallway, dodging occasional children, grateful that most of them were outside enjoying recess. He didn’t want any more obstacles between himself and Theo.

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