"Come on, Dad, I have to show you my paintings!" Clover grabs him by his jacket and practically drags him past me and into the classroom.
As they walk by me, we never break eye contact. Just as he's about to walk through the door, he pulls back, slowing Clover's efforts to drag him through, and smiles at me. That fucking perfect smile that makes the area between my legs tingle in anticipation. The same smile he gave me before devouring me and making my whole body shake. The smile that says he's got me right where he wants me.
I close my eyes to break the trance I'm in and stand out in the hallway for another moment to collect myself before following them in.
This is going to be painfully uncomfortable.
What was supposedto be twenty minutes of “show and tell” turned into forty minutes, mostly thanks to Doloris and her big mouth. Now, I’m getting out of here later than I’d planned, making me late for drinks with the girls.
As everyone wraps up their paintings to safely take them home, I pack up my bag and avoid eye contact with a certain DILF. Or is it DIDF (dad Ididfuck)? Throughoutthe presentations, I caught him glancing over at me several times, which means he also caught me glancing over at him. How embarrassing…
I was hoping it wouldn’t give him the idea that he can come talk to me after, but as I watch Clover hop off her stool and head this way, I think I’m out of luck.
“B! B! B!”
No chance of ignoring them now. I set my things down and reluctantly give them my attention.
“I just had the best idea ever,” she says, glancing between Kass and me. “I think B should keep giving me painting lessons.”
I try to keep my eyes at a normal size, not letting them get big like they want to. I’m not sure what I was expecting her to say, but it wasn’t that.
Kass puts his arm around his daughter’s shoulders and sighs like he’s done this before. “Youjusthad this idea, or you’ve been plotting this whole time and are just bringing it up now?”
“Probably the second one.”
We both smile at her half-hearted confession. Kass and I make eye contact, silently trying to communicate to come up with an answer for her. For a split second, I wonder if this is what parents do all the time when they don’t want to say what they’re really thinking out loud in front of their kids.
Kass shrugs, so I guess it’s going to be me who bears the bad news today. “Sorry, Clover, I don’t really do lessons. I was just covering for my friend, Liam, remember? But he’ll be starting another session in a couple of weeks that you could sign up for. I know he’s super excited to see you again.”
The way her smile melts off her face causes aslight twinge in my chest. These damn chest muscles are getting a workout today. But I cannot, under any circumstances, put myself in a situation where I’m going to be seeing Kass on a regular basis. My self-control isn’t that good.
“Okay…”
“Sorry, kiddo.” I tug on her braid, drawing out a small smile from under her frown—a frown that’s too animated to be natural.
Her eyes light up like she just had the most brilliant idea she’s ever come up with. “But just in case you change your mind, you should give my dad your number.”
I press my lips together to conceal my smile, because clearly she doesn’t know he already has my number. “Funny enough, your dad actually?—“
Kass cuts me off before I can finish that sentence and reveal our secret. “Why don’t you take her number, Clover?”
“Oh yeah!” She whips her phone out of her pocket so fast that I’m afraid her small hands are going to drop it again. “I just got this phone for Christmas. You’ll be the fifth number I have!”
“Well, five is my lucky number.” I take the phone from her, looking at Kass to confirm it’s okay, even though it was his dumb idea to begin with. He nods, and I start punching in my number.
I hand it back to her when I’m done, and she starts to giggle when she reads what I put my name as.
“The coolest art teacher you’ll ever have? That’s a pretty confident statement.”
I wink at her, knowing she’s going to get a kick out of what I'm about to say next. “Well, you know, a wise person once told me that a woman’s greatest weapon is her unwavering confidence."
Clover smiles so big that I'm afraid her cheeks are going to explode, as I expected. But what I don’t expect is Kass's reaction.
"What did you say?" His eyebrows are knitted together as he stares at me.
I hadn't thought about how that statement might affect him; I was only thinking about Clover. I have no clue what his relationship with Clover's mom is like. Are they on good terms? I'm assuming they're not together, but with men, you never know.
"Nothing." I try to brush it off, not wanting to be the victim of his stare any longer. "Well, I have to lock up, so we’d better get out of here. Clover, do you need help carrying anything?"
