Free to Love

Chapter 46

We were back in Toronto. My parents had taken the kids to spend the night at their house, so they'd gone straight there from the house in the woods. Joanna and I had the condo to ourselves, and we were taking full advantage of the freedom.

"It was only a couple days since we last had sex," she said with a laugh.

We couldn't fool around over the weekend. The house was too crowded and there was too much of a risk of getting caught. It was funny how I'd gone years without sex, but now that I'd started back at it again, I was dying after 48 hours.

"It was a hard couple of days," I said as I stroked her back.

She scoffed. "I'll bet it was hard."

"You have such a dirty mind for a kindergarten teacher," I said with fake astonishment.

"Like that's not what you meant. You have the dirtier mind."

I smirked. She was right.

"When are we going to be able to do this once you move out?" I asked. "Are you going to show up at my place for a middle of the night hook up?"

"I guess I'll have to. Ugh. That's going to be a pain," she said.

"Just set your alarm for 2:00 every night."

She pushed herself off my chest to look at me. "School starts soon. How am I supposed to function on several hours of sleep a night? Every night isn't possible."

"You'll just need to go to bed at 7:00 to make up for it," I teased. Of course I knew every night was unreasonable as was coming over at 2:00 AM.

"I'm thinking one or two nights a week," she said.

"I'll take it, Jo. If you come over after the kids are asleep, we'll be fine. But we're going for quality on those nights, if we're not going to get quantity."

She kissed me softly on the lips. "It's always quality with you. You've got talent."

"You haven't even experienced my full repertoire," I said as I flipped her onto her back. "Let me demonstrate a tried and true move of mine."

                              ~~~~~~

It was the first day of school. This year, we arrived only slightly early. Most people at the school now knew my children went there and very few people reacted when they saw me.

"Let's stop by Miss Finlay's class first," I said as we entered the building.

Nolan laughed. "You mean Joanna?"

"We're in school so we need to use her formal name. You two can't call her Joanna in the halls," I reminded them.

"Evans!" I heard Grace squeal. Sure enough, he was standing by the gym entrance. My kids ran over to him to give him a hug.

"That's Mr. Culver at school," I reminded them. "Formal names, remember?"

I extended my hand and Evans shook it.

"How are you doing, Mendes?" he asked.

"Good. You? You liking the new job?"

Joanna had told me she'd had the unpleasant surprise on the first day back of finding out that her ex had transferred to her school.

"It's a great school. It'll be fun teaching these two," he said.

If he had any problem with me, he was doing a very good job of masking it. Maybe he'd moved on, or maybe he no longer believed that Joanna and I were together. Unfortunately, he'd learn the truth within the next couple months when we planned to go public.

We said goodbye and went to see our favorite kindergarten teacher. She was in her room sorting through some papers.

"Good morning," I said, giving her a big smile.

"It's the Mendes family!" she said cheerfully. "I've missed you!"

The kids hadn't seen her in ten days. I hadn't gone that long. I couldn't go that long.

They each gave her a big hug and started chattering about how excited they were for school and who was in their class and how cool the new playground equipment looked.

"Remember, if you need anything, just come to room 105," she told them.

"We should get going," I said as I put a hand on each child's back to point them towards the door.

The kids hurried into the hall. I made eye contact with my girl and licked my lips. "Have a great first day," I told her.

She winked at me.

I got Gracie and Nolan deposited in their classroom and had a quick chat with each teacher. Then I headed out, stopping to say hello to the parents I met along the way as I walked to the exit.

I arrived back to the condo and started to feel a little blue. Summer was over and it meant less time with my offspring. It also meant less time with Joanna. I needed something to distract me from my lonely thoughts. I walked to my studio and opened the door. I took a deep breath and picked up my favorite acoustic guitar. Taking a seat on the sofa, I started to play.