Chapter Six
Ethan was driving home after a Sunday morning breakfast at Garner’s when he spotted the blond head of the woman who was never far from his mind standing on the opposite side of the road in a snug pink tank top and black leggings, kicking the tire of an old white Ford Escort.
He made a quick turn around the block and pulled up behind her. They were in Clover Park not far from Peak Fitness, where Charlotte worked. Ally had probably been working out.
He approached just as she threw her hands in the air and marched down the street away from him, high ponytail bouncing in indignation, apparently abandoning the car. “Ally!”
She stopped and turned. “The stupid thing just died on me!”
“C’mere, let me take a look.”
She marched back toward him, her breasts bouncing in time with her harsh steps, which he managed to ignore by the time she got close enough to notice his ogling by focusing on her pink cheeks and lush mouth. He had a real thing for that mouth with its plump pinkness.
“It’s broken.” She jabbed a finger at the car accusingly. “I called Triple A, but apparently I don’t have Triple A anymore and I forgot my wallet because I ran out of coffee so no credit card to get Triple A.”
Triple A wasn’t the only way to get a tow, but he let that slide in favor of the more pertinent fact. “You’re driving without a license?”
She growled.
“I’m just saying—”
“I rushed out the door and forgot to transfer my wallet to my gym bag!” She planted her hands on her hips. “Did you hear the part about running out of coffee?”
He cocked his head. “So you remembered your phone and keys but not the wallet.”
“Argh!” She punched and kicked the air, looking fierce, and his jeans suddenly had a lot less room. Something about a strong woman turned him on. Strong with soft underbelly drew him in. Not many women fit that description. Ally did.
“Kickboxing class?” he guessed.
“Yes.” She spoke through her teeth. “I can kick ass now. Go ahead, make my shitty morning.”
He bit back the smile he knew wouldn’t be appreciated. Instead he popped the hood on her car and peered inside. He was no mechanic, but it seemed the thing to do.
Ally stood by his side. “Is it the engine? Please don’t let it be the engine. I can’t afford a new car.”
“What happened?”
“I stopped at a stop sign and it just shut down. Completely quiet.”
“And when you tried to start it again?”
“It flatlined. Not even a peep out of it. Stupid car. Ruining my fitness high. Ugh! Last week I worked out and you tried to give me a ticket, and this week my car dies! It’s like some sign from the universe that I’m not supposed to get fit!”
He took in her flat stomach and toned legs. “It looks like it’s working. Don’t give up.”
She smoothed her hair, her voice considerably calmer. “Oh. Really?”
“Really.”
“Thanks. That means a lot coming from a fitness freak like yourself.”
“I prefer fitness god.”
She snorted.
He grinned. “I think it’s the battery. Let me give her a jump and see if we can get you back on your way.” He maneuvered his Jeep around, facing her car, retrieved the jumper cables from the back of his Jeep, told her to get in the car, and set everything up. A few minutes later, he signaled for her to start her car, and it roared to life.
“Woohoo!” she hollered. “Martin is back in business!”
He grinned and unhooked everything, shutting the hood. Martin. Everyone knew cars were feminine.
He stopped by the driver’s side window. “Let it run for a while. Give the battery time to charge and then get a new battery as soon as possible. There’s a place by the Eastman mall—”
“On my way!” She beamed and his heart stuttered. “Thanks so much. I’m adding get savvy about my car to my goal list.”
He leaned down. “I could teach you stuff. Maybe later today.”
“Thanks, but I’m really busy. After Martin’s fixed up, I’ve got a ton of planning to do for my wedding on Friday.”
His stomach dropped. “What do you mean? Who’re you marrying?”
She smiled serenely. “Myself. It’s called sologamy and it’s a real thing.”
He straightened, speechless. An actual marriage to herself? Was that legal?
She pursed her lips. “Let me guess, you think it’s dumb.”
“No, just different.” And so like her.
“It’s a thing,” she insisted.
“Okay,” he said slowly.
“Well, gotta go. Thanks for the jump start, Sergeant Case.”
“Eth. My friends call me Eth.”
She gave him a sweet smile. “Keep up the good work, Eth.”
Then she drove off, all happy with her single self.
He drove home at a sedate pace, not so happy with his single self.
~ ~ ~
Ethan told himself it wasn’t weird for a police officer to show up in a friend’s classroom to teach kids about stranger safety. Sure, he usually passed the duty off to a rookie officer, but this was Ally’s classroom and they were on good friendly terms. Only two days ago he’d come to her rescue and jump-started her car. He was also curious about her solo wedding and…aw, hell he was hooked. He couldn’t stop thinking about her no matter how hard he tried. He peered through the glass window of the closed classroom door, where Ally was enthusiastically explaining some basic addition on a whiteboard. She wore schoolteacher clothes—crisp white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, navy blue skirt that ended just above the knee, and navy blue flats. Not sexy. Shouldn’t be, anyway. He must be caught in some kind of Ally-attraction field, because even her geeky outfit on their hike with the socks on the outside of her pants turned him on. He blew out a breath and focused on the kids. About twenty of them, mixed in their attention. Some of them appeared to be listening, some half asleep, and some wiggling around in their seats and whispering to each other. He would’ve been the kid in the back, throwing spitballs. He knocked on the door.
She went to answer it, her blue eyes widening. “Eth, what’re you doing here?”
He warmed at her casual use of Eth. “I’m here to talk about stranger safety, stepping in for Wayne.”
She flushed pink. “Well, this is a surprise.”
He tipped the end of his cap at her. “I’ll do a good job, ma’am.”
She shook her head. “Silly. Of course you will. Come in.”
He set the plastic bag full of coloring books illustrating today’s lesson on her desk, along with his cap, and then joined her in front of the class. The kids stared in awe. He would’ve too at this age, seeing a real live police officer in uniform complete with handcuffs, nightstick, and gun. They were probably six.
Ally introduced him. “Class, please say hello to Sergeant Case.”
“Hello, Sergeant Case,” the class chorused dutifully.
“Hello,” he said.
“He’s here to teach us about stranger safety.” She turned to him. “You want me to gather them on the rug, or would you prefer to stand in front of the class?”
“I’ll stand.”
“Take it away.” She retreated behind her desk and smiled encouragingly.
He cleared his throat. “So does everyone know who the safe adults are in their life?” He knew the required speech. He’d done it before when he was a rookie and had reviewed it before coming in.
The kids all shouted answers at once. “Mommy!” “Nana!” “Daddy!”
“Raise your hand,” Ally gently reminded them.
They came to order pretty quickly. He was impressed. A gentle reminder would not have been enough for him at this age. He launched into the ten points he was supposed to get across on safe adults, strangers and their various enticements, the best response to a dangerous situation, and made sure not to give them any time for questions or comments. If he didn’t barrel straight through to the end, he’d forget something, and he didn’t want to read the lessons straight from the coloring book. That was lame. Several hands were in the air, which he studiously ignored.
Finally, he wrapped up with a review of the ten points and what constituted a safe “green light” situation and a dangerous “red light” situation. “Okay, any questions?”
The hands flailed around. Seemed like everyone had a question. He pointed at the girl with two long braids who was practically falling out of her seat in her effort to stretch her hand toward him. “Yes, what’s your question?”
“Are you Ms. Bloom’s boyfriend?”
He stiffened.
“Gabby!” Ally exclaimed. “Why would you say that?”
Gabby batted her big brown eyes. “He made the sexy eyes at you, Ms. Bloom.” The kids giggled and Gabby nodded sagely at her friends. “I heard my parents talking about it before.”
Heat crept up his neck. Was he that obvious that even a six-year-old could tell? And, geez, didn’t they hear a word he just said? What the hell was he doing here if they weren’t learning something important?
Someone started singing, “Cop and Ms. Bloom k-i-s-s-i-n-g!”
“Stop that at once,” Ally said sharply. “Sergeant Case is a friend of mine. Now I want to hear good questions on what he taught you. Remember not all strangers are bad. Safe strangers like a police officer or a teacher can help you. Now does everyone remember how to handle a dangerous situation?”
The kids were quiet. He’d said the phrase several times. No, Go, Yell, Tell.
He turned to her. “Maybe we could role-play a few situations.”
“Sure.” She stood and crossed to him.
“Could you help me feed my puppies?” he asked. “They’re in my van.”
She looked up at him and smiled sweetly. His heart kerthunked. “No!”
“Louder,” he told her.
“NO!”
“Now run away.”
She did a little jog back to her desk that had the kids giggling. He turned and gave the kids his best intimidating cop stare. They settled down.
“Then it’s okay to yell for help even if we’re inside or in a quiet place,” Ally said. “When you’re safe, tell a trusted adult what happened.”
“Yeah,” he chimed in. “Remember, a stranger adult shouldn’t be asking a kid for help.”
They did a few more scenarios minus the running away because he didn’t want the kids laughing. This was an important lesson. Ally did a fantastic job, really looking like she was thinking about some of the maybe scenarios, like when he said her mom asked him to pick her up. In some weird way he felt like they were connecting, united in a task, the give-and-take of the role play. He soaked in her bright blue eyes, her beautiful smile, the exuberant energy that seemed to radiate from her.
He had to force himself to focus. The kids were getting louder now, shouting, “No!” right along with Ally.
“I think they’ve got it now,” Ally told him.
“Yeah,” he said, surprised he didn’t want it to end. Normally these assignments were boring to him. “I’ve got a parting gift for everyone.”
The kids all started talking at once, wondering what it was. A boy piped up. “I hope it’s a video game.”
Damn, was that kid going to be disappointed. Ethan opened the plastic bag and pulled out a stack of coloring books. They were pretty good for a coloring book—superhero-themed lessons with lots of cool lightning bolts and bold zigzagging words to color in. “No video games. Coloring books.”
“I love coloring!” Gabby said.
“This sucks!” a boy in the back with messy brown hair proclaimed.
Ethan took in the boy’s belligerent expression, his faded black shirt with a hole in it, his unkempt hair, and felt a stab of recognition. His chest ached and he couldn’t get a word out through the tightness in his throat. Ethan was that kid—hand-me-down clothes, no mom to make sure his hair was combed properly, big chip on his shoulder.
“Nate!” Ally exclaimed. “That is not how we respond to a gift. Say thank you to Sergeant Case.”
The boy’s lip curled. “You’re not the boss of me.”
“She’s your teacher and you’ll treat her with respect,” Ethan barked. Holy shit. That did not just come out of his mouth. He was not that asshole authority figure he’d despised as a kid. Was he? He wanted to be one of the good guys.
Ally shook her head at Ethan and walked to the back of the classroom, stopping to talk quietly to Nate.
Ethan ground his teeth, aware he’d stepped into her jurisdiction. She was the boss here, him barking out orders didn’t help her authority with the kids. He focused on counting out the right number of coloring books for each row. The kid in front automatically passed them back. He followed with the crayon packs. And then he couldn’t help himself, he walked back to where Ally was still with Nate and waited for her to finish up so he could apologize for stepping on her toes.
“I know I’m not your boss,” Ally told Nate in a patient, even tone that probably meant she’d already covered that a few times. “I’m your teacher. Draw your boss for me here.” She pointed to the blank page on the inside of the cover.
Nate got to work.
Ally turned and met Ethan’s eyes.
“Sorry,” he mouthed.
“It’s okay,” she whispered.
They both watched as Nate drew fast and furious. It was a dragon and pretty damn good for a first grader.
“Wonderful,” Ally said. “You’re really good at drawing. Be sure to color it all in. I can’t wait to see your great work.”
Nate flushed at the compliment and industriously continued, adding jagged flames.
Ally turned and spoke to the next kid, encouraging them gently. Ethan just stood there, his heart thumping hard, the blood rushing through his veins, everything in him focused on this amazing woman who reached out to the class troublemaker and turned it around—bam! Just like that. No yelling, no berating, no making the kid stand in the corner. Just gentle encouragement. How would his life have been different if he’d had a teacher like her?
He swallowed down a lump of raw emotion, his gaze locked on this incredible woman like no other. And all he wanted was to be close to her. He wanted her in his life more than he wanted his next breath.
She walked toward him and he forced his hands to his sides, fighting the urge to pull her into his arms.
“Thanks so much for stopping by,” she said.
“No problem,” he forced out over the lump in his throat that just wouldn’t go away.
She turned. “Class, Sergeant Case needs to get back to work. Can you say goodbye?”
“Bye, Sergeant Case,” the class dutifully droned.
“Bye, everyone.” But he didn’t want to leave.
Ally smiled up at him, filling his vision with beauty. “I really appreciate you taking the time to visit. Hope you have a great rest of the day.”
“You too,” he replied gruffly.
She resumed walking up and down the aisles, checking on the kids, and he took the hint and left.
He stopped outside the classroom door and took one last look at Ally; then he gave himself a mental shake for being such a sap and strode out of the building.