Page 343 of Branded
But not with my baby.
I opened my eyes, shoved a drawing that looked like a combination of the Grinch and a pile of horseshit crossed with a radiated fish into the proper folder, and flicked my gaze up to Mr. Philips. “I’ll keep talking to it.”
He held my eyes and I say that, yeah, my past had definitely come into play with him. “I know you will.”
Then he moved away, sipping his coffee and watching his students play through the open classroom door.
I kept filing. I hadn’t mentioned the letter to Ethan as we’d talked, had just tried to gently navigate to the topic of his father.
It might have been easier to address it head-on, and I might have to if it came up again. But he was five years old, and I hadn’t wanted to invade his privacy that way.
But I had made it clear that it wasn’t his fault that his dad wasn’t involved.
And seriously, I hated Nate Miller.
It wasn’t enough for him to fuck me over, now he had to fuck over my kid?
But if I allowed myself to think that, to be upset about my idiocy, then I’d get bogged down in it. Right now, I needed to focus on giving Ethan the best life he could have.
“He has mentioned someone name Cas a few times.”
This was a tricky statement, from the teacher whose gaze was still on the playground, and it was tricky mostly because I’d already shared far too much with Mr. Philips. We weren’t friends or acquaintances, and I didn’t want to discuss my love life with anyone, let alone Ethan’s teacher.
And yeah, I was calling it my love life—and not freaking out over the L word.
Miracle of miracles.
And also…maybe it was the miracle of video call sex.
“Ah,” I said in response (or maybe, it would be better described as in non-response).
“Someone you’re dating?”
Now he was going to get more non-response.
I’d barely gotten it straight in my own head. I couldn’t talk about it out loud. So, I shoved the final paper in my stack into the proper folder and then glanced over at Mr. Philips. “Did you have any other tasks for me today?”
A glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Message received, loud and clear,” he said softly. Then that amusement grew. “Will you organize the leveled reading books?”
Oh man, that was mean even as I said, “Sure.” Mostly because it was a lesson in futility—the books promptly became unorganized since the kids never managed to put them back in the “proper” order.
“I’ll just say one more thing.”
My shoulders inched up.
“I’m glad you’re dating. Ethan needs a good man in his life.”
My shoulders inched up further. That was two things.
“And you do, too.”
Three. Shit.
That was three.
“And—”
The bell rang.
