Page 19 of Grin and Bear It

I smiled then, able to feel Nash’s hand on my shoulder still, if I focussed for long enough.

“Definitely ‘or’,” I replied with a wink, slinging my bag strap over my shoulder.

“What? What ‘or’?” She followed me out of the kitchen and down the hallway. “What ‘or’, Ellie!”

“I’ll fill you in when you get back from work,” I told her and then swung out the front door.

I saw now why other people got up early. Driving to school on near-empty streets was so much more peaceful. I could get into lanes without having to wait for ages for some kind soul to let me in, and waiting at the lights wasn’t the same rage-inducing experience. When I got to school, the cleaners looked up as I walked down the hallway and I waved, almost to reassure them it was actually me. When I got to my office, I set my marking down and grabbed a red pen as I got to work.

Hyperfocus waswhat my therapist called it. The ability to shut everything out because you just know exactly what to do and how to do it, time stopping as you tore through tasks, knocking out in just hours jobs you’d been trying to tackle for days or even weeks. I was on my second coffee of the day and filled with the kind of wellbeing that came from seeing the pile of marked work rise as the stack of essays still to be marked dwindled, when a call came through.

“Greenbank High School,” I said as I answered the office phone. “Eleanor Jennings speaking.”

“Ellie.” In just one word, I could hear the war between her unwillingness to show a level of obsequiousness and her preference to be in command in June’s voice. “Did you end up calling the Walker family?”

“I did.” My feeling of wellbeing fractured slightly then as I remembered the phone call and the events that led up to it, but I forced a smile in my voice. “I spoke to Nash Walker and he assured me that he would take the issue up with the boys.”

“And he sounded OK when you spoke to him?” she probed.

“Concerned, obviously. I think we should’ve been keeping him abreast of the issues before now.” I couldn’t help but insert that little jibe. “But there didn’t seem to be any ill feeling on his part.”

“Right, well, he’s requested a meeting this morning. He and the boys’ other guardians will be coming in.”

“Oh?”

I felt a curl of something in my guts, though it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. In the hopes of stifling whatever it might be, I took a sip of my coffee. But the hot liquid hit me the wrong way, as I hadn’t eaten a thing since lunchtime yesterday.

“And he’s requested that you be present. You’re not teaching first lesson?”

My eyes flicked to my timetable pinned to the wall.

“No, that’s one of my frees.”

“Excellent. I’ll set them up in the conference room and you can join us there at 8, OK?”

“Of course.”

I blinked as I put the phone down, my former sense of accomplishment fading as it was replaced by my old friend, anxiety.

“El!”Meg loped towards me in the main staffroom as I made my way towards the conference room ten minutes early. “It’s Fri-yay!” I smiled weakly. “Got anything cool planned? A hot date maybe?” She nudged me with her hip, but all of her good humour transmuted as we saw one of the office ladies escort three men into the conference room. “Dayum, maybe one of those guys, because they are hotties…”

She drifted closer and for some reason a small growl formed in my throat, because I knew exactly who they were. Nash hadn’t seen us, but he walked into the room with hair that was still wet and combed neatly back, his uniform of high vis shirt and jeans all clean and well pressed.

“Are we getting some work done on the conference room because I might need to schedule a ‘meeting’ in there if they are,” Meg continued with an impish smile.

“That’s the Walker twins’ guardians,” I explained. “They’re here to talk about the boys.”

And as if to illustrate my point, another man joined the three of them, Knox and Maddox in tow.

“About yesterday?” Her face fell. “Shit, El, I hope they’re here to fucking apologise because that was bullshit.”

“I’ll let you know,” I said and then forced my feet to take me to the conference room doorway.

“Morning,” I said brightly, then regretted it as six sets of masculine eyes flicked around to settle on me. Meeting with parents when their child had been misbehaving was always intimidating, but four guardians? Maddox and Knox didn’t look at me for long, both of them flushing as they stared at the table. “I’m Eleanor Jennings, the boys’ history teacher.”

“Nice to meet you.” This guy’s voice was so deep and resonant, it felt like it reverberated all the way down to my bones and when he stood, I looked up, up, up. He was massive, his body powerful, with shoulders so broad they were hard to take in with one look, so I went back for another. He grinned at my inspection; his smile bright against his deep burnished bronze skin. A fucking dimple popped and his dark brown eyes twinkled as he raked his fingers through his short-cropped hair. “I’m Tyson.”

He had a smooth American accent, making me wonder about the connection between him and the boys. They’d said their great-grandfather was American, but not anyone else.

---