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Heidi waved a hand. “That was nothing. Common workplace decency. I like you, Leah. I want us to be friends.”
“Youaremy friend, my first one in Maplehaven.”
“Friends tell each other stuff.” Heidi released her hold on Leah and folded her arms across her chest.
And the thing was, Leah could picture herself telling Heidi stuff, but talking about it wouldn’t change anything. Nothing could be undone, and Leah was trying to move on the only way she knew how.
“You want me to tell you stuff?” Leah took a step back and scanned Heidi from head to toe. “I’ll tell you that this outfit makes your boobs look spectacular.”
Heidi laughed and some of the tension drifted away. “Kyle bought me this dress. Figures it would make my boobs look good. My husband is a boob man through and through.”
Chuckling, Leah broke into a stroll beside Heidi, looking only once over her shoulder to see if Dakota had entered the building. If he had, she couldn’t find him behind them. Perhaps he’d taken all his hotness and gone off on an adventure. He struck her as a guy who didn’t like to stay in one place for long and he’d already had his entire morning sucked up by the ceremony. He was probably eager to go off and do something rugged and manly. Something that put all those muscles to use.
Stop thinking about Dakota’s muscles.
She busied herself for the next hour talking with families, students, and other teachers at Maplehaven Elementary. She did her best to come off as a professional educator who had a working heart, not one that had shriveled and died in New York four years ago. None of these people looked at her with pity on their faces. That was at least an improvement.
After another hour making sure her new classroom was ready for students and with a promise to bring coffee for Heidi on Monday morning, Leah got into her SUV. As she started the vehicle, a piece of paper stuck under her windshield wiper caught her attention as it blew in the breeze. She got out and plucked it free, glancing around the empty parking lot.
Slowly, she unfolded the paper, her gaze immediately resting on a sloppily scrawledDakotaat the bottom. An all-over heat swept through her as she read the note.
Maplehaven is too beautiful to be seen only through a window. Let me show you.
Leah scanned the area again, hoping for what? To see him? To let him show her right now? To let him show her more than the outdoors?
Shaking her head, she crumpled up the note and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. She didn’t need the temptation hanging on to a note like that would cause. She had a plan in place for this new phase of her life and she’d stick to it. Over six feet of Dakota Brenton wasn’t going to change that.
She got into the SUV and drove to her cottage less than five miles from the school, which didn’t give her much time to obsess over throwing that note away. Besides she had the weekend mapped out. She had the rest of Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday to put the finishing touches on her lesson plans for the week ahead, maybe read a romance novel or two, catch the latest Hallmark Channel movies, and eat her way to the bottom of a maple walnut ice cream carton. The perfect weekend as far as she was concerned. She didn’t have time for traipsing around in the woods with a hunk even if he had gorgeous eyes, an adorable dog, and a daredevil aura.
Leah had come to Vermont to play it safe. Her days of risking it all were over.
Chapter Two
“Dakota, your first group is here.” Krista’s voice echoed from the phone’s intercom on Dakota’s desk.
“I’ll be right out.” He closed the email from Heidi Lennings. The one he’d read about seventeen times over the past week. The one that simply said,Be patient with Leah.He’d known Heidi since high school and knew her to be a straight shooter. If she suggested Leah needed some time, he believed her, and while being patient wasn’t his thing, he had a feeling Leah Greenstead might be worth the wait.
He wasn’t in a rush anyway. If Leah agreed to an adventure with him, great. If she needed to be convinced, he could do that too. He was known to be persuasive when necessary and something about their first meeting at the school last Saturday had him wanting to be persuasive.
Closing his laptop, he stood and made his way to the front office where a family of four waited. He didn’t know them so he quickly labeled them as tourists and put on his best isn’t-Vermont-wonderful smile.
“Hey, everyone. Ready to become one with the woods?” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
“We’re ready,” a man probably in his mid-forties said. “I’m Matt Jackson, and this is my wife, Sherri. Our two sons, Tim and Mark.”
Dakota introduced himself and shook everyone’s hands. “All right. Let’s get rolling then.” He’d reviewed the family’s package. They’d signed up for the canoeing and ziplining combo—one of Dakota’s favorites. Brenton Lake had a nice calm section, perfect for canoeing and the back side of Mount Woodrich had a great slope for ziplining. He preferred ziplining in October when the colors were at their peak, but soaring through the treetops was always a good time, even in September.
He led the family to the warehouse where he outfitted them with helmets and lifejackets, did a quick how-to on canoeing, and guided them over to the canoe launch behind the warehouse.
“Wow,” Matt said. “I didn’t realize everything was right here.” The man turned in a circle, taking in the view of Brenton Lake and the surrounding mountains.
“I purposely built my business at this location so we’d have direct access to all the fun.”
“Smart man,” Sherri said. “Get your customers right into their adventures.”
“You got it.”
Dakota helped them each pick out a canoe and ease it into the water. He got his own and used his oars to maneuver to the front of the family. With a few quick instructions, they were on their way, the two boys getting excited when they spotted a moose drinking by the lake’s edge.
