Outcasts MC (Complete Series), page 61
Not if I was in the middle of some strange mission for Otis, though. And suddenly, making friends with Cora became even more important than before. Fuck.
“I just don’t understand why Otis would even stick me on a project like this if he were thinking of sending me to New York,” I finally said.
Dax shrugged, wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve. “He trusts you,” he said simply. “He knows that you’ll do what he asks you to do.”
I rolled my eyes. “So would anyone else in the club,” I reminded him. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the club anymore; you know that.”
“He also trusts you to keep things quiet if something is going on,” Dax said in a low voice. “Whatever it is this Cora girl is involved in, it’s clearly something that Otis wants handled with the utmost subtlety. He knows you can give him that.” He paused and then shrugged, grinning at me. “And anyway, the rest of us are fucking swamped this week with that one guy, the neurosurgeon. He’s been calling Kane, like, every single hour of every day trying to make sure that his ass is still covered.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes.
“Look, the best I can promise you is that I’ll look into this teacher and see if I can find out anything about her,” Dax said. “Maybe I can help figure out what kind of information Otis wants about her. He is my father, after all; theoretically, I should understand how his brain works.”
We exchanged a look of amusement at that; Otis’s motives were generally never clear until after the fact.
“I think I’m going to skip heading back to the school this afternoon,” I told Dax as we finished eating. “Go do something productive. Maybe some time away will make the whole project make more sense.”
“Worth a try,” Dax said, nodding. “Still a couple of days left in the week for you to continue your second-grade education.”
I gave him a look, and he laughed. I shook my head as I headed outside.
8
Cora
On the one hand, I couldn’t believe that Xander had just walked out of my classroom like that. It was the middle of the day, and only his second day at the school. But then again, his disappearing act fit with the rest of what I had seen from him. I was surer than ever that he wasn’t a superintendent, and that he wasn’t there to observe my classes so he could get ideas to take back to his school district.
No, he was there for some other reason. But I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was.
I had tried talking to Evan about my concerns after class on Tuesday, once everyone else had gone home. But by the time I had shooed Xander out of my classroom, the whole office was empty, the doors locked up. I would have gone in this morning before classes, but Piper had been adamant about wanting to wear her hair in braids, and it had taken a little longer than I’d hoped. We hadn’t been late to school, but it had been a near enough thing. There definitely hadn’t been time to talk to the principal about the new guest in my classroom then.
And Xander had already been waiting there in a chair in the back of the room. I had simply sighed and got to work for the day, resolving to ignore him. I hadn’t even said hello to him, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Of course, then midway through the day, his phone had started ringing in the middle of the class, much to my annoyance, and not only had he had the gall to get up and go into the hall to answer it, but then he had totally disappeared without even saying a word.
I knew he didn’t owe me any explanation. And to be honest, it was almost a relief to have him gone. He was distracting in ways I didn’t want to examine too closely. My eyes kept sliding past my students’ cute little faces and back to his manly jawline, his intense green gaze.
It was more that I was curious. I wondered what his disappearance was about. Had he received bad news over the phone? Was something wrong? And more importantly, was he going to be back in my class tomorrow?
I tried not to feel disappointed at the thought that I might never see him again. I mean, that was just crazy. I didn’t want the guy in there. I didn’t want to feel like everything I did was under scrutiny for some unknown reason. But I did have to admit that the guy had been nothing but cordial to me since he had first walked into my classroom. When I told him to sit in the back and be quiet, that’s exactly what he did. Other than the phone incident.
Moreover, it seemed like he was trying to get to know me. He had tried talking with me the previous day while the kids were at gym, and again after school was done for the day. If he was lying about being a superintendent, I had to at least assume that he wasn’t planning some nefarious criminal activity; he was being way too careless about the fact that I would remember his face from a lineup.
Definitely, with the amount I’d caught myself both staring at him in class and picturing him while I was out of class. I shook my head at myself, not sure whether to feel more exasperated or disgusted with the fact that I couldn’t seem to get him out of my head.
It was a good thing he didn’t come back that afternoon. Really.
Piper had jazz dance club after school that day, so I hung around in my classroom waiting for it to be time to go home. I had plenty to keep me busy, but it still was difficult to keep my mind on what I was doing.
Again, I shook my head. “Hopeless,” I said under my breath.
I was even gladder than usual when it was time to get Piper and head home.
“So how was your class?” I asked, hoping she didn’t realize anything was off about me.
But of course she didn’t; Piper loved her dance club, and all she wanted to do was tell me about, and show me, all the moves they had worked on that day. I had to grin at that. She was adorable.
“…and Mrs. Thompson said that if I keep practicing, then I can maybe dance all by myself on the stage at Easter!” Piper finished excitedly.
“Wow, sweetheart, that’s amazing!” I told her enthusiastically. I grinned down at her as I buckled her into her car seat. “You know, I still don’t know how you learned to dance so well because Mommy definitely cannot dance like you do.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “Mommy, it’s practice,” she reminded me in her “duh” voice.
I laughed. “Bug, even if I practiced for a million gazillion hours, I would never dance as well as you,” I promised Piper.
She giggled, and I went around to get in the car.
Mandy was coming over for dinner that night, so we stopped off at the grocery store on the way home to grab a couple of things. Mandy arrived just as I was putting the pasta and garlic bread on the table. She gave Piper a big hug. “Did you set the table all by yourself?” she asked Piper.
“Yeah!” Piper said.
“Well, it looks great,” Mandy said, ruffling Piper’s hair. She turned to me. “And it smells great too.”
I grinned at her. “Nothing fancy, just some clam linguine and garlic bread,” I told her.
“And salad!” Piper added. She turned to Mandy. “I helped with the salad. I got to stir things.”
“That’s a very big responsibility,” Mandy said gravely, her lips twitching with the hint of a smile. “I bet you did a great job.”
“Uh-huh,” Piper said happily.
“So how has your week been?” Mandy asked Piper as we sat down around the table.
Piper spent the next half an hour telling Mandy all about her week in fine detail, but Mandy, as always, laughed and nodded along, her attention never wavering. Then, she turned to me. “And your week?” she asked.
I made a face. “Kind of weird, to be honest,” I said before I had even considered what I was about to say.
“How so?” Mandy asked, sounding confused.
I shrugged. “This guy came into my class yesterday. Evan brought him in. And apparently, he’s the superintendent for some other school district, or so he claims, but I don’t see it. Anyway, he wants to observe my classes, and that’s always stressful.”
“Weird,” Mandy said, frowning at me. “So he’s not even from this school district?”
“Nope, not that I know of,” I said, shaking my head. “They’re trying to get enrollment numbers up in their district or something, and they think that the classrooms are where they need to start. So he’s trying to figure out tricks to share with his teachers or something.”
“Don’t they have, like, national teaching conferences for that sort of thing?” Mandy asked uncertainly.
“Exactly,” I said. “The whole situation is just weird. Anyway, Evan seemed to know who the guy was and trust him, so I don’t know what to do about it.”
“If he isn’t a supervisor, who do you think he is?” Mandy asked, looking just as confused as I felt.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve seriously been racking my brains ever since he came into my classroom. I almost think that maybe he’s got to be there to observe me on behalf of Evan and our school, but normally we get a heads-up about that kind of thing. I think it’s even written in my contract that they have to give me some warning. And there’s no reason for the guy to be there day after day for the whole day. Unless I’ve done something wrong.”
“Yeah,” Mandy said, still frowning. “Have you tried talking to Evan about it?”
“I did yesterday,” I said. “But he had already gone home for the day by the time I made it to the office, and then this morning, we were running a little bit late. And the guy disappeared around lunchtime today and never returned, so I guess I didn’t go to Evan this afternoon because I’m hoping he doesn’t turn up again tomorrow. I’m ready for him to stay the heck out of my classroom.”
Mandy shook her head. “Aren’t you curious to know who he is, though? And what he’s doing there?”
“I guess.” I sighed. If I was being honest, I wanted to know who he was more for personal reasons than anything else. Not that I would ever date him or anything, but there was no harm in imagining his broad shoulders and calloused fingers as I worked myself over, right? A few more details would make the mental image all the more alluring.
He wasn’t a superintendent, that was for sure.
“If he comes back to your class tomorrow, you should try to talk to him,” Mandy suggested. “I bet you can figure out who he is. And then you’d have a reason to go to Evan. Either this is some weird thing that Evan is a part of, like he’s doing a lengthy observation on you for no reason, or else there’s something fishy about this that Evan should know about.” She glanced pointedly at Piper. “For the safety of all the kids.”
I swallowed hard. I hated to think of anything happening to Piper at school. There were so many horrible stories in the news these days about gunmen and kidnappers and everything else. So many things for a mom to worry about.
Xander didn’t give off that kind of a vibe. As strong and burly as he was, he didn’t seem like he was in my class to cause any sort of trouble. Not only that, but like I had already realized, he had made it damned near impossible for me to forget his face. If he tried anything, the police would be able to nab him in no time.
He didn’t act like a criminal, as far as I could tell. Not that I had much experience in those things.
Still, Mandy was right. If it was a matter of safety for the kids, a matter of knowing just who was in our school building and, indeed, who was in my classroom, then I had an obligation to unmask this man and figure out who he really was and what he was doing there.
So as much as I might not want to interact with him, as much as I wanted to just ignore that he was there at all, I knew that Mandy was right. If he came back to my classroom for a third day in a row, I had to talk to him and try to figure out who he was. I didn’t have a choice.
I tried to put those thoughts out of my mind for the rest of the dinner. But I could tell from the semi-concerned looks that Mandy was giving me that she could still sense my inner turmoil. After dinner, while Piper was upstairs picking out her pajamas and a book for me to read, Mandy caught my arm.
“Hey, are you okay? This guy has gotten under your skin, hasn’t he?” she said.
I rolled my eyes. “I just don’t like random surprises like this, and especially not in my classroom. That’s all,” I said.
But Mandy, of course, saw right through that. “So is he cute?” she asked knowingly.
I gave her a look. “Mandy, for the last time, I’m not interested in dating,” I said.
She laughed and held up both hands. “Okay, okay,” she said. “But hey, if he is cute, maybe I should take him out sometime. You know, for the sake of research. I bet I could figure out who he really is and what he’s after.”
I snorted at that. “I’m sure you could,” I said. “I’ll see what I can figure out about him first, though, before you go on a date with him. If he’s dangerous, I don’t want you anywhere near him.”
Mandy grinned and gave me a hug. “Thanks for dinner,” she said. “And keep me posted about this guy. Let me know if you need any help.”
“Thanks,” I said. “See you soon.”
I headed upstairs to put Piper to bed, trying to forget all about the mystery man. But now that Mandy had asked whether he was cute, I was right back to thinking about his looks again. Oh, he wasn’t cute. Certainly not that. There was something altogether too masculine, too testosterone-filled for him to be cute.
Dangerously sexy. Those were the words I’d use to describe him. Not that I was ever going to tell Mandy that.
I found myself hoping that he would be back in my classroom the next morning. I’d ask him about his disappearance today, and he’d give me some clue into who he was. It was like a jigsaw puzzle; I just had to gather enough pieces so I could figure out what sort of picture they might make.
Despite my reservations about the man, despite my frustrations about having him in my classroom, even though I never wanted to date anyone again, let alone date someone like this guy, the mystery of it all was intriguing. I was looking forward to seeing what I could find out about this Xander Tidwell.
9
Xander
I ended up blowing off Thursday at the school as well as Wednesday afternoon. I couldn’t handle sitting there in the back of the classroom watching Cora ignore me again. I wasn’t learning anything about her from being there in the classroom with her, and she hadn’t seemed to be warming up to me. I was sure it was time to try a different plan.
I just had no idea how else to befriend the woman. It wasn’t like I could follow her and find out where she hung out. Not without possibly getting caught stalking her, which could have a whole different set of ramifications.
Besides, I had a couple of other projects for the club I needed to work on. Otis surely didn’t expect me to devote every single day to gathering information on this woman.
But on Friday, with no other plan figured out, I knew that I needed to go back to the school. Today would be my final day to try to figure out some information about her before next Monday’s club meeting, after which Otis would probably call me into his office expecting a full report.
I grimaced just thinking about how little I had to tell him. And grimaced again at the thought of sitting in the back of the second-grade classroom for the duration of the school day.
But this time when I got to the school, Cora greeted me with a smile. “Hey there, ghost,” she said. “Didn’t know what to make of it when you disappeared the other day. Was everything okay?”
I blinked, surprised she was being nice to me. Was that what it took? Disappear for a couple of days, and suddenly she realized that, what, she missed my presence at the back of the classroom? Somehow, I doubted it. No, I was skeptical as to why she was being nice to me. But it wasn’t like I could just come out and ask her about it.
Instead, I just smiled at her. “Yeah, just another work thing,” I told her, and that technically was almost true. I had gone to lunch with Dax, and Dax was in the club. He’d wanted to talk to me about this project. So therefore, it had been work.
I didn’t know why I was trying to justify it in my head. If I had a problem with lying to Cora, well. This whole thing was a sham. I wasn’t a superintendent; I wasn’t even a teacher. I was just some guy that the president of the local MC had asked to befriend her.
I had a feeling that information wouldn’t go over so well with her, though.
“Well, it’s good to see you back,” Cora said.
Most of the kids had filed in by now, and I took that as my cue to head to my usual spot at the back of the classroom. I took one of the empty seats and watched as Cora wrote on the whiteboard.
Suddenly, a small sandy-haired kid stood in front of me. “Please, can you help me?” he asked.
I blinked at the kid, trying to figure out what he wanted. “Help you with what?” I finally asked.
The kid turned around and held out his arms to either side. “Can’t get my jacket off,” he told me.
I had to fight the urge to laugh at the baleful note in the kid’s voice. “Sure thing,” I said, helping tug the sleeves off. To be honest, I’d never really liked kids, but it wasn’t like I was going to tell the little guy I wouldn’t help him. I wasn’t that much of an asshole. And besides, I didn’t want to upset this tenuous peace that Cora and I seemed to have somehow reached.
I managed to get the jacket off and handed it back to the kid. He beamed at me, wide enough to show me that he was missing a couple of teeth. “Thanks!” he said, hurrying to his cubby and shoving his jacket inside before rushing back over to his seat just as the morning announcements began.
The morning was just as uneventful as my previous days at the school had been. I couldn’t help feeling that I was wasting my time being here. Cora might be warming up to me, but I still doubted I was going to be able to get her to meet me anywhere outside the school. And it wasn’t like watching her teach was giving me any insight into who she was as a person, or what her life was like outside of teaching. I couldn’t imagine that Otis wanted to know about her teaching style. His kids were long past the second grade.
