Page 19 of Jagger
Jagger interrupted me with a shake of his head. “No, she understands now. She was upset yesterday, but she thought you just had something against bikers. It’s all good now. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if she has to take sides, she’s gonna be on yours. She was as bad as my dad was when she found out I didn’t even know your first name.”
I smiled and shook my head, still feeling ridiculous about everything that had happened, when a thought occurred to me.
“Hey, how did you figure it out? How did you know to show up here today?”
“I’d love to take credit for figuring it out, but I’m not that smart, apparently. Besides, I was hungover as hell this morning, so I wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders.”
I arched a brow at him, giving him my ‘teacher look’ that indicated he’d done something I wasn’t pleased about. He caught my look and rolled his eyes a little, dropping his head.
“What can I say, Angel? I was pissed as hell when I got your text last night and headed to the clubhouse to cool off. I had a couple of shots of whiskey, then a couple more, and then a few more after that. Before I knew it, I was well on my way to being completely shit-faced and had to sleep it off in my room there.” I resisted the urge to chastise him, knowing I wasn’t much better. I’d had a few glasses of wine during the pity party Brad and Emma had thrown for me.
“I’d sorta heard Rome last night, telling my dad about some woman who apparently had something against bikers, but I didn’t hear the details,” he continued. “Then, Rome stopped me and told me about her too, but I was distracted worrying about you and wasn’t listening. When I told my dad about what had happened and mentioned that you’re a teacher, he put it all together and told me to call Abby to find out what E’s teacher looked like. She actually had a picture of you that she’d taken on his first day, so she texted it to me.”
He tugged me a little bit closer so that we were standing only a few inches apart, then smiled down at me. “I gotta tell you, Angel, I was relieved as hell when I saw your face in that picture. I’d been ready to have our computer guru track you down by your phone number,” he admitted, not looking a bit guilty about it.
I just shook my head at him and smiled. “We’re a couple of idiots, aren’t we?”
Jagger threw back his head and laughed. “That we are, Angel, that we are. Maybe that means we deserve each other?” he suggested with a wicked grin that made my insides all fluttery.
“Hmmm, maybe we do,” I agreed softly.
“So, are you done for the day? Maybe we can have a do-over of last night. I can call and get us a table?”
I glanced at my watch to find that it was four-twenty-five. Technically, I was off the clock at four-thirty, although I usually stayed until around five to tidy my room and put things back in order before the custodians came in to clean in the evening.
“I need to put a few things away in my room and gather my stuff to take home. Can you give me about fifteen minutes?”
Jagger flashed me a quick smile. “Sure, Angel. Can I see your classroom?”
My brows rose in surprise at his request, but I was pleased by his interest. I nodded and turned to head for the building entrance. I smiled to myself when Jagger kept hold of one of my hands as we walked up the sidewalk. I noticed that all the parents and students were gone now, and Brad and Sarah had apparently lost interest in us at some point and had gone back inside themselves.
I saw Jagger’s eyes glancing around as we walked down the hallway to my classroom, taking in all of the posters and displays decorating the halls.
“How long has it been since you stepped foot in an elementary school?” I asked with a grin.
“Since the day I got out of fifth grade and moved up to middle school,” he said. “This place is smaller than I remember. Well, I guess it’s probably the same, my perspective has just changed,” he chuckled. “My kindergarten classroom was right there.” He pointed toward my room as we approached the doorway and I stopped with a gasp.
“Wait, you went to schoolhere? And this was your classroom?”
“Yeah, I went here. Grew up just down the road. God, this brings back a lot of memories,” he said, glancing around the hallway again.
“Jagger, this ismyclassroom!” I said in amazement, as I pointed to the door he’d indicated.
His eyebrows raised, and he barked out a laugh. “You’re shittin’ me, Angel. You’re teaching in my old room?” He shook his head and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, tugging me against his side for a quick hug. “This is some kind of weird mind-fuck.”
I snaked my arm around his waist and gave him a squeeze. “You have no idea how weird it is,” I told him as I looked up to meet his gaze. “The school changed the classroom layout about ten years ago, and the kindergarten rooms were moved. Over the summer, the administrators switched the classroom layout again, and the kindergarten rooms were moved back here. I spent part of my summer break getting my stuff moved from the other classroom and set up in here.”
“Damn, Angel. It’s almost like this was meant to be, huh?” Jagger said, with a look on his face that I couldn’t quite decipher. He smiled down at me and kissed my temple, similar to the way he’d done at the diner when he left that day. I felt myself melting at the sweet gesture.
I opened the door to my classroom, and Jagger followed me inside. I turned to find him looking around with interest. He smiled as he took in the various learning areas I had set up, then walked around, and checked out each individual area while I put away a few things that the kids had left out and gathered my stuff.
“This is great, Angel. So much better than what I remember of kindergarten. We just had our desks, little carpet squares to sit on for story time, and a toy kitchen set in the corner. That was about it, I think. Between this room and having you for a teacher, it’s no wonder Ethan likes school so much.”
I blushed at his praise, loving to hear that Ethan liked school. He was a sweet little boy, smart, helpful, and well-behaved for the most part. His only trouble so far had been teasing and chasing girls on the playground. After meeting his dad and uncle, I had a feeling that both natureandnurture had something to do with that behavior.
Jagger was in the corner of the room, crouched down looking at the books on the shelves in the reading area when Brad popped his head into the room.
“Hey, baby doll, you ready to head out?”
