Page 113 of Fierce-Baker

“I know. I’ll take a break after this... maybe.”

His wife’s laughter said maybe not.

33

RECKLESS MOTION

“Tasha.”

She turned two weeks later as she stood in the school parking lot, her hand on the door to her car, the color draining from her face, dropping to her gut, then seeping out of her toes to paint the concrete.

That voice.The one that once turned her on, now only made her want to vomit with dread.

“Shane. What are you doing here?”

He smiled as if it hadn’t been two-plus years since they’d seen each other.

As if he hadn’t lied to her.

Broken her heart.

Made her feel like such a fool.

No, he opened his arms wide and took a few steps closer trying to embrace her.

Fuck no!

Her hand came up sharp, steady, and ready to cut him in half if she could have. “Don’t even think of it.”

His steps faltered. “You can’t still be mad, can you?”

The audacity of him. Of this situation. Of everything!

“Yeah. I can. But actually, you’re a figment of my imagination now. A ghost of my past who can crawl back to where you came from.”

“Don’t be that way,” Shane said, shaking his head like he were talking to a child. “We had something great.”

“I’m sure your wife thought that too,” she hissed, then looked around the parking lot to make sure no other teachers could see or overhear her.

His shoulders dropped. “I messed up. I told you she and I weren’t getting along. We split about four months ago. Things have been rough and my uncle and I decided it was best I come back here to run things. To give me a break from Morgan and the kids.”

“No.” She shook her head, the word solid and immovable. This couldn’t be happening.

None of it.

Shane being states away had been bad enough. Him being here—in the same city, in the same orbit as her life, as her son—was dangerous. There was no hiding from that. No keeping secrets clean and contained like she’d been perfecting.

She could lie.

She could say Micah belonged to someone else.

Claim a rebound, a one-night mistake, a baby born early. Lots of things.

It would work.

But it wouldn’t be right.

And standing there, staring at the man who had unknowingly set her entire life in reckless motion, she realized sooner or later, Shane was going to find out the truth.