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He was singing our song to his daughter. My hand went to my stomach as my dream of Steed singing that to our child flashed before my eyes. I fought to hold back my tears.
“Paxton,” he whispered with pleading eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve sung it to her since the day she was born.”
I wanted to tell him it was okay. But it wasn’t okay. None of this was okay. Anger replaced whatever crazy emotion I was feeling right now. “You never called,” I said sharply. “This past week. You said you would call.”
Oh gosh. I sound like a silly wounded teenager.
He smiled. “I think you put the wrong number down on the packet.”
Pinching my brows together, I pulled my head back. What an excuse. “What? I don’t think so.”
“When I called the number, it was an older man by the name of Frank. He talked to me for nearly an hour before I was able to get off the phone.”
Oh no. Had I put the wrong number?
Steed took out his phone to show me.
Yep. I’d put the wrong number. I covered my mouth to hide my chuckle. “Crap,” I whispered.
“Ms. Monroe, should I go and sit at my seat?”
Pulling my eyes off of Steed, I glanced down at Chloe. “Give your daddy a quick hug goodbye and let’s get the fun started!”
She did just that before reaching up to take my hand in hers. She waved goodbye and Steed did the same. I walked Chloe to her desk.
“Well good morning my lovely kinders.”
“Good morning!” fifteen little voices cried out.
I walked up to my desk and leaned against it. “Today is going to be what I like to call fun day.”
“Will we never have fun after today?” a little boy named Timmy asked.
Laughing, I replied, “I hope we have fun every day, but today is an extra special fun day. We are going to learn all kinds of fun things. But first, we’re going to take a tour of the school and go see the library!”
Cheers erupted as I glimpsed past the kids to see Steed still standing, staring at Chloe. He must have felt my stare because he looked at me. Lifting my brow, he nodded and left before Chloe turned to see him still there.
Clapping my hands, I pushed off my desk. I was in my element. I loved teaching. I loved being with these kids and I would certainly love the distraction of keeping my mind off of Steed Parker.
“The first thing we’re going to learn is how to pay attention when the teacher is talking. I’m going to teach a song we’ll use when I need to get your full attention.”
I scanned all the adorable faces and stopped when I saw big blue eyes staring back into mine. She was the spitting image of her father.
So much for trying not to think of Steed. He’d conveniently left me a little reminder with blonde pigtails and bright eager eyes.
The keys made a clattering sound as I dropped them in the small bowl Chloe had made last year. Walking into the large living room, I started talking to myself. “What the fuck am I supposed to do now?”
The doorbell rang and I spun to answer it. Opening the door, I smiled when I saw my baby sister standing there.
“Hey,” Amelia said.
“Hey back at ya. What brings you here?”
She shrugged, then walked in. She was carrying a computer bag over her shoulder, a diet Pepsi in one hand, and giant shopping bag in the other. “Thought I would do some work here and keep you company. I figured today would be a rough day with dropping Chloe off at school and all.”
I raked my hand through my hair. “Yeah, it was rough in a few ways.”
Amelia placed her bag on the coffee table and turned to me.
“Paxton?”
With a nod, I dropped into an overstuffed chair. I still wasn’t used to having all of this. Not that we didn’t have a nice home in Portland, we did. But that was all it was. Nice. This was over the top. My parents were loaded; we knew that growing up. But they never spoiled us and we all had to work on the ranch learning every single aspect of the business. I always thought I’d come back from college and work alongside my father. Instead I got a degree in business management with a minor in math. I fucking hated math, but I was good at it.
“Since you left, Paxton has pretty much avoided the family. I mean if she ran into us, she was always pleasant. But when she came home from college she never stopped by no matter how many times Mom begged her to. Then when she moved back to town, if she saw us, she’d go out of her way to go in the opposite direction.”
