Love at First Spark

7| August: Parent-teacher Night

The gymnasium swarmed with teachers mingling with parents who now dressed down to casual slacks and blouses.

"Congrats on surviving the first week and a half of school!" Daphne greeted me when I arrived. She held a plastic cup with a bright red liquid in it. Next to her stood a woman in her thirties whom I recognized from the teacher's lounge. She had a name tag that said, "Miss Rachel Atlas, 5th grade."

"Ah, if only they were all as easy," I joked and waved to them. "Looks like a good turn out tonight."

Daphne nodded. "And speaking of looking good..." she jutted her chin toward a spot behind me. "Isn't that Braden Callahan?"

I whacked my friend's arm. "Daph!" Heat rose to my cheeks as I took in his easy going outfit of slacks and a dark blue shirt. Damn, he cleaned up nice.

Rachel laughed next to us. "Don't worry about it, Amelia. Many of the young first time teachers develop crushes on the single parents. And the same goes for some of those not-first time teachers." She raised her own plastic cup to her lips.

"It's not a crush," I said hurriedly.

Rachel and Daphne looked at me with matching eager grins.

I rolled my eyes and gave the short version of the 'forbidden love' story that we could've almost had together.

After the exhausting rehashing of the story to my friends, I walked over to the drink table and poured myself some juice from one of the clear containers.

"Is the punch any good?"

I choked on my drink, turning to find Braden standing there. He had impeccable timing. My hand flailed around in the air to signal that I was ok, but I needed a second to regain control of my lungs.

"Yes, it is," I finally managed to say. "Sorry, you scared me. I didn't see you standing there."

Braden chuckled. "Seems like we can't get away from each other. Lucy loves you, by the way. You're all she talks about at home."

I smiled. "I'm glad. She's a great kid."

Braden rapped his knuckles on the drink table. "Amelia—Miss Lawrence—I wanted to apologize for...well, for not telling you the truth about Lucy sooner. Maybe it's not something typically divulged on the first date," he said, lowering his voice, "but it's still something that I should've said. And now that you're teaching my daughter, I don't want things to be...weird between us, you know? This week has been busy at work but I do want for us to be friends. I think...I think it can work."

"Thank you. I need to apologize too. I also just got out of something complicated too, although I can't really say that it was anything because he confessed his feelings before moving away, but I want to make sure we set some ground rules if we're going to do this friendship thing. You and me...it's a lot to process right now."

"Amelia." Braden slipped a hand over mine, sending electric shocks down my spine. "We'll start over as many times as we need, okay? I can't just forget that I met you but I can sure as hell can suppress my feelings for you when we're in the same vicinity at school."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Braden nodded.

I leaned forward. "Then take your hand away before you get us both in trouble."

He uncovered my hand and shoved it back into his pocket.

"Good boy," I murmured.

A mischievous twinkle glimmered in his eyes as a grin slipped onto his face, and I couldn't help but burst into a fit of giggles. That earned us a few odd stares from people passing by the drinks table.