Page 8 of My Grumpy Billionaire Protector

All at once, he was being tossed to the side, glass showering us in every direction. Then, I tasted blood in my mouth, metallic and cold. My hands were pinned to my sides. A scream was trapped in my throat until the car came to a complete halt. I remembered my head snapping forward.

Afterward, the world went dark.

* * *

Someone snapsa finger in front of my face and then the world around me shifts back into focus. I am no longer trapped in a car by the side of the road with TJ gasping and spluttering next to me while blood poured out the side of his mouth.

Instead, I am in the teacher’s lounge, with its beige walls, desks scattered here and there, and a kitchenette on the far side of the room where a line is already forming in front of the microwave and the toaster.

“Are you okay, Evie? You look like you’re going to be sick.”

I give a slight shake of my head and offer Dottie, the kind librarian with dark eyes and streaks of silver in her hair, a tight smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think I just spaced out.”

Dottie pats my hand. “We all do that, dear. You should get some rest.”

“Do teachers ever really rest?”

Dottie throws her head back and laughs, the sound youthful and full of life. “I was a teacher for twenty years before I decided to become a librarian, so I can honestly tell you that we do not get any sort of rest.”

My heart rate returns to normal, and I relax against my bean bag. “You should’ve told me that, Dot. I thought we were friends.”

Dottie rolls her eyes and uses one hand to smooth out the front of her skirt while cradling a mug of steaming hot coffee in the other. “We are friends, but if I’d told you, you never would’ve taken the job, and I knew you’d be perfect.”

I choke back a laugh. “Now I know you’re just being nice.”

Dottie lifts her chin up and brings the mug up to her lips. “I’m telling the truth. I’ve known you’d make a great teacher since you were still in school, so it doesn’t surprise me that you came back here and applied for the job.”

My stomach lurches. “Things have a strange way of working out.”

Before the accident, my heart had been set on pre-law, and my family couldn’t have been more thrilled.

Unfortunately for them, having survived an accident and emerging unscathed while my oldest friend hadn’t… Well, it destroyed something inside of me. Since then, I haven’t been the same person. Although it took months for me to be able to look TJ in the eyes, I am finally able to do it without feeling like I want to empty the contents of my stomach.

Yet, whenever TJ walks toward me with his limp pronounced, guilt churns inside of me. I’ve been carrying it around for ten years like a dark secret etched into my bones, and I’ve gotten used to it. A year of therapy has helped me cope with it, but it hasn’t erased the feeling. I doubt anything ever will.

And a part of me doesn’t want it to be gone, not when it reminds me to be careful.

I’ve been on a tight leash ever since, of my own volition.

Dottie peers at me. “They do, but I think it was meant to be. You were born to be a teacher, dear, and those kids adore you.”

“They drive me crazy,” I admit in a low voice. “However, they have this way of worming their way into your heart, you know? I don’t know how or why, but they do.”

Dottie chuckles. “That’s teaching for you.”

I roll my shoulders back and blow out a breath. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Any plans for the weekend?”

I shrug. “Not really. I’m probably just going to sit in my pajamas, watch Netflix, and ignore the mountain of paperwork on my desk.”

Dottie grins. “Spoken like a true teacher. You should go out more. Live a little.”

“Sienna and TJ have been trying to convince me to, but I just don’t have the energy.”

Dottie frowns at me. “You’re way too young to be thinking like that. Trust me, you’re living your best years.”

“Even with the back pain and the headaches?”

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