Page 43 of Poppy Kisses
“Jehr-eh-me.”
Frustration flickered in his eyes. “What am I saying?”
I spun to face him. “You’re saying germy.” I walked through each sound of Jeremy and how it should feel for him. He didn’t shrink away, but he couldn’t smother his embarrassment.
“Jehr-eh-me. Jeremy.” Concentration filled his eyes. “Jeremy. I shouldn’t fuck up Kate.”
“Since we’re working on it, mind if I ask how the keyboard app is working?”
“Fine. I’ve been using voice-to-text more.”
A lot of my students who were old enough to have phones often used voice-to-text. “Remember punctuation though.”
He flashed me a grin. “I will when I’m not texting you. Nice to not have to worry about it.”
Pleasure filled me. I was his exception. “You don’t have to impress me.”
“I very much want to impress you, Poppy, but in this, I know I can’t win, and you know why. There’s a comfort there. I can just be my miswired self.”
I put my fingers on his forearm. “You’re not miswired. Just wired differently.”
“And that’s why it’s nice not to worry about it with you.” He put his hand over mine, blanketing my hand with his. “You understand. Not many do. I get shit as an adult for stumbling over words.”
“Well, the Elijahs of the world suck.”
His smile was tight. “I worry about it with Auggie, but people like you get him and teach him how to live in this world. How to be easy with himself when he has trouble spellingwhatas an adult.”
“The curse of the sight words.”
“Lifelong,” he agreed. “At least it’s not all the time. Just every once in a while I get stuck knowing that the word I’m writing is wrong, but I can’t fix it for the life of me. Or that I’ll know what I’m trying to say, but I can’t summon the word for it.” He brushed his fingers along the back of mine. A light shiver traced down my spine. “I really do appreciate what you’re doing for Auggie.”
“I’m just a sub.” Any other tutor would do the same.
“You’re so much more.” He leaned closer, sparking a glow inside of my chest. “He asked about a soccer team this morning. Said he told his teacher that his friend plays and ‘she’s real good.’”
I laughed. “Is that a quote?”
“Direct. She actually wants to talk to you about starting a summer travel team.”
My good feeling took a nosedive. “I don’t have anything to tell her.”
He gave me that look, the one that said he knew I was brushing him off without explaining. “Are you sure about that?”
“I can be impulsive with my planning and things fall through, so yes. I’m sure.” Saying it out loud was a release. He had his own business and he was doing well. He didn’t think so, but he hadn’t moved towns when his plans and hard work tanked—twice.
“Wanna tell me about it?”
No. “It was humiliating.” But if he could relax and be himself with me, maybe I could give a little something in return. Wasn’t that how we worked? “After graduation, I played soccer for a school in South Dakota.”
His hand was still on mine. He continued with his slow caresses, and I soaked up the comfort.
If he kept that up, I’d let him find out how many freckles covered my body. I didn’t stop him, but soccer was a safe subject. “After, I was all soccer all the time. I coached it, and I even reffed.”
“Yeah? Gettin’ after those parents.”
I grinned. “Sometimes, but I mostly got in trouble for taking too much time when I corrected the kids in the middle of the games.”
“Coaching is in your blood.”
