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Allison nodded. “One of my own students stopped me after class the other day to tell me how much his friend loves Colin’s recitation.”
Fighting the cringe off her face took concerted effort. Allison had basically just admitted that her teaching was so bad her students had to compliment other people in her stead.
If Colin realized that, his expression didn’t show it. It was open and gentle and uncertain, and it made her heart squeeze. “Really?” His thumb grazed the inside of her wrist, the touch so soft it almost hurt.
“Really.” She could hardly get the word out.
His shoulders relaxed, and he leaned back into the couch cushion.“I bet it was that discussion questions activity I tried. They seemed to love that one.”
“The what?”
“My students were having trouble talking aboutBeowulfbecause they were worried they didn’t understand it. So, a few weeks back, I asked them to write down every question they had about the poem, no matter how stupid they were afraid it was. Then I read them all anonymously. Starting with my own—‘Why is there only one creature like Grendel?’” He smiled sheepishly. “It seemed to break the tension. Ever since, they’re much more willing to ask whatever questions they have.”
“Wow.” Something thick clogged Allison’s throat. She struggled to even come up with discussion questions, never mind finding good ways to use them. How did he do this?
And why couldn’t she?
“I can share my write-up of the activity if you want.” His face was bright, eager. It tightened the knot in her stomach.
“Luckily, my students don’t seem to be afraid to ask questions. Most of the time they have so many, we can’t get anything else done.” God, she couldn’t seem to stop lying about teaching. Even if it meant making Colin look bad in front of his aunt. She tried to smile as she backpedaled. “But thanks. It sounds fantastic.”
Beside her, Jane clapped her hands. “I always knew you’d be an excellent teacher, Colin.”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Charlie rotated Monty in his lap so he could better pet the dog’s ears. “Allison, this boy taught me so much when we were living together. All about the French Arthurian romances and the Vulgate Cycle and the Lancelot tales.” He had eyes the same color as Colin’s, though they were much smaller in size and closer together on his face, and they gleamed with every word. “He’s a bastion of knowledge. And those facts never leave him. Like he’s the Tower of London.” There was so much admiration in his voice that it caught in the back of his throat. Charlie coughed to clear it, apologizing to Monty with each jerk of his body.
“Dad,” Jane piped in. “Remember when he was little and he used to give us lessons after Sunday dinner?”
“Wait,what?” Allison’s hands fisted in delight. Embarrassing childhood stories were the best ammunition.
Colin groaned, trying to block her ears. She swatted him away.
“I had this old blackboard in my study,” Charlie said. “It was on rollers and that boy would wheel it out every Sunday night, positioning it at the head of the dinner table. Then he’d teach us about something he read that week.”
“He had these little bottle-cap glasses that never stayed on his face, and a pointer,” Jane added.
Charlie’s eyes crinkled against the widest of smiles. “And he’d rap it against the board”—he flicked his hand to demonstrate—“tap, tap, tap, and clear his throat, like some salty old schoolmaster.”
Allison glanced back at Colin, her lips flattened together and her eyebrows arched high. His face was practically the color of his glasses. “I hope your methods have improved,” she joked.
That got a laugh out of everyone, including Colin, who rested his head against Allison’s temple as if she might hide him from the memory.
It was so easy to picture, this little Colin Benjamin, puffed up by his own knowledge, demanding the attention of his adult pupils. But as the image warmed Allison’s heart, it also opened a crack right down the center.
Because that was the other thing about their cozy Maine bubble. There’d been no talk of school. Wendy’s class and her advisee position and their grad careers had felt a million miles away. A problem for some alternate version of them.
But as Jane extracted her phone from her purse and asked Colin if she could share his lesson plan at her next faculty-development workshop, she ushered those realities back into the room. They haunted its corners like phantoms, cooling Allison’s skin.
Her eyes strayed to the clock on Charlie’s wall. “I should get home,” she said abruptly, rising to her feet.
As much as she didn’t want to face Sophie, Allison wanted to listen to more celebration of Colin’s teaching skills even less.
It didn’t matter how good it had felt to be close to him this weekend. Or how much he’d helped her. Colin wanted that mentorship with Wendy every bit as much as Allison did, and, if she wasn’t careful, he could very well snatch it right from her fingers.
Chapter 26
MOM: Went back to see your father after you left. Just got home. They did that shock procedure and everything is looking good.
MOM:MOM has sent you a picture
