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“What do you mean—because she’s his teacher? It’s not like she’s my teacher.”
Now my mother also had a worried look on her face. “That thought never even crossed my mind. Do you think there might be some sort of policy that she’s violating? She certainly seemed like a lovely person, but it seems as though they might have rules or something against that sort of thing.”
“Well, he’ll be starting kindergarten in the fall, so it’s not like he’ll be going to the Learning Center for that much longer, anyway,” I said.
My mother seemed satisfied with this answer, but my father looked skeptical.
“I’ll talk to her about it,” I said. “I’ll mention it to her, anyway. I don’t think there’s really going to be a problem, though.”
Even if there was, that wouldn’t be enough to make me stop seeing her.
Instead of going for a ride when my parents took Declan out a little later, I went over to Allie’s house.
“I was just thinking about you,” she said when she saw me. “Come on in. Where’s Declan?”
“He’s with my parents,” I said as I followed her into the house.
“Cool,” she said. “That means I can do this.” And she stepped right over to me and put her arms around my neck, pulling me in for a long kiss.
“So, I happened to mention to my parents that I was seeing you,” I said when we finally pulled apart.
“Seeing me?”
“Yeah. Is that...okay?”
“I guess we are seeing each other. I mean, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be a one-time thing. Though I’d understand if it was,” she added quickly.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want it to be. I’m not saying we should be talking about moving in together and what sort of seating arrangement we want at the wedding or anything like that, but...I’ll be completely honest with you, Allie—I really enjoy spending time with you.”
She smiled—coyly, it seemed—and raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” she said.
“Absolutely.”
“It’s not, say, because of a bet you might have wagered with a certain friend of yours?”
I winced. There was no point in denying it, because she’d obviously knew what was going on. “Errrr... how’d you hear about that? Did Ben tell you?”
“Declan did.”
“What? Declan? Seriously?”
She started to laugh. “Yeah, he must’ve overheard you guys talking about it whenever it was you were setting it up. Now, I know that some people in my position would be... oh, I don’t know, offended by such a thing, and I was at first, but...”
“That bet has nothing to do with the way I feel about you,” I said. “It was a stupid thing to agree to in the first place.”
“I guess you won, though, huh? What’s the prize?”
“Just getting to be with you is good enough for me.”
“Aw, that’s sweet of you. But really, though, what was the wager? I’m curious.”
“Well, after he talked to you that day, he seemed to think that you had no interest in being with anyone at all, so he bet me that I wouldn’t be able to sleep with you. And if he won, I was going to have to take him to a playoff game of his choice.”
“And if you won?”
I thought back, trying to remember. It took me a second. “He was going to hang out with Declan a couple times a month so I could go riding. Or just have that time to myself.”
“So I guess you get that now.”
