Page 37 of Read With Your Heart

I make several attempts to call him back and even send a few text messages, but eventually, I need to leave with the girls and decide to give Levi some space.

The mall is a forty-minute trek from Elk Lake City. Once there, the girls each pick out something new for their fall wardrobe, and we have a late lunch. They dress differently than me, but I chalk it up to being teens. I’m well past the midriff tees and multi-sliced jeans. A few students see us together, but I simply wave and continue our day.

That night, we decide to watch a movie. It’s a chick flick, and Leon excuses himself when we invite him to watch.

“Not my thing,” he mutters, stating he’s going to Town Tavern for a beer. He sounds like Trent, but I quickly dismiss the thought. Leon and I aren’t anything other than roommates. Even though I’m convinced he was going to kiss me the other night in the hallway, he doesn’t owe me movies or dinner or anything. However, I find Lena watching me when her brother leaves.

As the movie plays, we sit around, interjecting throughout the production. Lena’s anti-romantic spirit crushes a lot of the sweet parts while Lys and I sigh dreamily at them. Still, I don’t think Lena is one hundred percent coldhearted.

“Do you like my brother?” she questions, and I almost spit out my diet soda. Instead, I choke. “I see you watching him.”

“What? I do not.” I sound like a teenager with a crush, denying the fact. Sitting up straighter on the couch, I clear my throat. “It wouldn’t be appropriate to have an interest in your brother. One, he’s my roommate, and two, I’m still married.”

“You’re married!” Lena shrieks, and Lys twists from her position lying on the floor. I should really pull up this shag carpeting because it is kind of gross.

“Yes. Hopefully, my divorce will be finalized soon.” Trent has been dragging his feet. My lawyer still has not heard from his, and I don’t know what the next move is. I’m afraid Trent’s denial or refusal to sign or whatever game he’s playing means he’s contesting the divorce, which could result in all kinds of headaches when I want this to be easy and over. He knows why I left. He knows what he did.

“What happened?” Lena asks, but Lys immediately interjects, “That’s none of your business.”

“He wasn’t nice to me.”

Lena rolls her eyes. “Here we go again with the nice versus mean people. What’d he do, say no when you wanted a new house?”

“We already had a house.”

“Was it better than this one?” Lena snarks with a chuckle.

“No, it was deep in the woods. A cabin, actually. He inherited it from his father, so to speak, which means we just moved into it on his dad’s property.”

Lena’s eyes narrow, and I feel Lys watching me. My voice trembles as I speak, but I haven’t said anything that isn’t common knowledge. “I wanted a home, and it’s why I live here instead.”

“Why didn’t he come with you?” Lys asks.

“Because I didn’t want him to,” I state.

“He’s mean, remember hermanita?” Lena mockingly snaps at her sister. While I don’t like her tone or her sarcasm toward my history, she doesn’t know what I’ve been through, and I’m not about to tell her the truth. She’s seventeen.

“How about another movie?” I suggest. Lena rolls her eyes and pushes herself up off the couch. “I’m going out.” Surprisingly, she hasn’t gone out much since moving in with me. She’s claimed she’s tired, and I’ve been concerned she’s depressed.

“Where?” I ask.

“None of your business,” Lena states, tipping her head side to side, and Lys hisses her sister’s name.

“I ask because I care. If I didn’t care, then you could have the attitude.” I glare back at Leon’s sister, knowing her heart hurts, and her mouth is trying to protect her. Lena stares back at me.

“Some kids are having a bonfire.”

“Who?” She rattles off some names I recognize as former students, and I nod. It’s innocent enough. I might be too close to this situation being their former teacher and knowing their behavior in school, but I’m trusting the names on the list and their families. However, it suddenly feels different, like I’m a parent, but I shake the thought.

“Midnight,” I say, and Lena’s mouth falls open.

“You are not seriously giving me a curfew?”

I glare back at her. “I am. Twelfth grade means midnight. Rules in my house when I was growing up. I’m not lame enough to think you can’t do before midnight whatever you might do after it, so do it before the clock strikes twelve and be home by midnight.”

“Or what? I’ll turn into a pumpkin and fall back to rags?” Her hand waves out, forcing me to glance around the living room. “I’m already living in hell without a fairy godmother.”

My breath hitches. She has no idea what hell is like even with a fairy godmother or in my case, just a good, decent mother. And while this house isn’t perfect, it has potential. It’s going to be all mine one day, so she can cut the shit attitude because from the hints I’m getting in Lys’s journal, I don’t think my home’s appearance isn’t too different than where they lived.