Lesson Learned {Student Teacher Romance}

Chapter 24

Will is leaning against the counter looking casually cute in a simple button-down shirt and jeans under a worn leather jacket. The light scruff on his squared jaw and the way his steely blue eyes are smiling right at me almost take my breath away.

"Hello, Moira," Mr. Benedict's hushed tone is shy. 

"Hi, Will," I try and smile through the blush scorching my cheeks. 

"I'm glad you're calling me Will," he chuckles softly (like he's as nervous as I am). 

"I figure we're on a first-name basis tonight," I shrug.  

Will looks down at his leather boots briefly, shaking his head. 

"Ready for our field trip?" Will straightens up and gestures for me to take the lead. 

"Ready," I covertly study his beguiling expression on my way to the door.

 He's keeping a respectful distance, but that can't contain the exhilarating electricity in the air. 

Those bothersome butterflies are back, too. 

"Hey, guys," Rory's condescending sneer poisons my happiness and halts us at the door of the diner. "Moira, you never told me you knew Fitz."

It was obvious that Rory had been waiting around for me like some kind of creep, but I couldn't work out why he was leering at Will (or why he called my teacher, Fitz). 

"Why would I?" I crossed my arms under my chest.

"Hello, Rory," Will sighs. "What, praytell, are you doing here?" 

"Aw, c'mon, cuz," Rory is practically humming with delight as his sinister eyes bounce between the two of us. "A man's gotta eat, and Mike's got some of the best side dishes in Auburn." 

"All you ordered was coffee," I reminded him while inwardly reeling. 

Will was Rory's cousin? 

Oh, Universe, you never cease to amaze me.

"So you two know each other?" The disappointment in Will's tone is palpable. 

"Of course," Rory smirks knowingly. 

"We went to the same high school," I explain.

"Ah," Will clears his throat, visibly collecting his thoughts. 

"Is this some kind of date?" It's hard to miss the agitated edge in Rory's question. 

"Not that it's any of your business, Rory," Will clenches and unclenches his jaw. "But, no, it isn't." 

My heart squeezed so hard it hurt. 

Will was just confirming what I already knew, that this wasn't a date. So, why did it suck so much to hear him say it out loud? 

"Then what, praytell, are you two kids doing?" Rory's wolfish grin seems to be pressing some unseen buttons with Will.

"Why are you so interested?" Shockingly, Will closed the distance between them to get within inches of Rory's chest. 

Face-to-face and squared off, it was easier to see their resemblance. Both men had the same Romanesque bone structure and model-like looks, but Will was taller than his smarmy cousin.

"I've known Moira a long time," Rory's tone made my body tense with rage. "And she's a good girl, so I'm just making sure you're not going to break her heart, too, cuz."

Rory enjoys watching as I realize that he's accusing Will of being a heartbreaker too. 

"Rory," Will sighs with exasperation, "you're making us late."