Читать книгу Sunrise Cabin - Stacey Donovan - Страница 8

chapter three

As Paige stepped through the front doors of Jefferson Elementary, its faint but distinctive smell surrounded her—a mingling of cleaning products and freshly sharpened pencils. Not everyone would’ve found it pleasant, but Paige had worked there long enough to find it welcoming.

One of the teachers, Brittany, stood chatting with the principal outside his office. Paige waved at them both as she passed, wondering if Brittany was talking to him about the details of her maternity leave. Paige still had a couple of weeks to figure out what to bring to her baby shower.

A voice called out. “Morning, Paige! You sell those kids’ books yet?”

Paige looked up to see Linda Goff, who taught second grade. Linda had been at the school forever, and often had teaching advice for Paige—whether she wanted it or not.

“Not yet,” Paige chirped and strode down the hallway, the bakery box in her hands, before Linda could ask more questions.

She’d almost reached her classroom when her best friend Jessica intercepted her. “Hey!”

“Hey. How was your weekend? Is your mom still in town?”

Jessica shook her head. “She went back home yesterday morning.” Her mother and stepfather lived in San Antonio, where Jessica had grown up. “On Saturday we went wedding dress shopping.”

“Ooh. Come tell me more.” Jessica followed Paige into her classroom. Paige set the box down on her desk. “So did you find The Dress?”

“No. I’ve tried on so many pretty dresses, but there’s always one little thing I don’t like.” This didn’t surprise Paige. Jessica paid a lot of attention to details. “And let me tell you, those dresses are not made for short, curvy ladies.” She was smiling, but Paige could hear the insecurity in her voice.

“You’ll find the right one. You’re going to be a stunning bride.” She meant it, too. Jessica, with her curly dark hair, big brown eyes, and flawless amber skin, would look beautiful if she went down the aisle in a flannel nightgown.

Jessica’s mouth turned down. “My mom keeps telling me about how much weight my cousin lost for her wedding.”

Paige had heard a lot of stories about Jessica’s big but close-knit family. “You don’t mean the cousin who got divorced three months later?”

Jessica nodded. “She did look great on her wedding day, though.”

“Well, I guess that’s all that matters,” Paige quipped, and they both laughed.

Jessica sat down on top of Paige’s desk. “And guess what? Yesterday I volunteered at Furever Friends. I took three dogs on walks.”

Paige looked at her askance. “I thought you were going to get through your wedding first, and then help rescue cats and dogs.”

“I know…but it’s good exercise. And you know how I want to adopt a dog with Steve as soon as I move in.” Jessica had talked about this so many times that Paige had teased her about marrying Steve for his big fenced backyard. Jessica lived in a dog-friendly apartment building, but she’d be moving into Steve’s very nice three-bedroom house.

Paige asked, “Did you meet any you wanted to adopt?”

Jessica laughed. “Pretty much all of them. But especially the senior dogs. Some of them are so sweet.” She scrunched up her shoulders.

“I can’t wait to meet your future furry friend,” Paige said.

She wanted to tell Jessica about the cabin, but class would start soon, and she’d need at least an hour to go over all her hopes and fears.

Jessica pointed at the box. “So what’s in there?”

“Cupcakes. It’s Sam’s birthday.”

Jessica lifted the lid. “Oh, man. These are like, gourmet.” She gave Paige a quizzical look. “They’re way too good for six-year-olds.”

“Yeah, that occurred to me after I got them.” She should’ve gone to the grocery store.

“Next time you won’t break the bank.” Jessica closed the box again.

“Actually…” Paige didn’t know why she was hesitating to tell her best friend this. “I didn’t buy them.”

Jessica raised her eyebrows. “I don’t see how you could’ve stolen twenty-five cupcakes. Which, by the way, would be wrong. Impressive, but wrong.”

“The guy behind me in line paid for them.”

Jessica’s mouth dropped open. “Just totally out of the blue?”

“Yeah.” Well, that wasn’t exactly true. “But before that, I was sitting next to him and we were talking.”

Her friend’s eyes narrowed. “How old was this guy?”

“A few years older than me, I guess?”

“Was he cute?”

Extremely. Or handsome might be the better word. The truth was, Paige had sat down right next to Dylan on purpose with a vague idea of striking up a conversation. Then she’d almost chickened out, but when he’d seemed to be looking at her, she’d said hello.

Jessica added, “He must’ve been very interested in you.”

“It wasn’t like that!” She’d already told herself about three dozen times that it hadn’t meant anything. “He was just being friendly. And generous.”

“Sure. People buy stuff for strangers all the time. You won’t even tell me what he looked like?”

“White guy, tall, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a nice suit.” After Jessica spread her hands wide in impatience, Paige added, “Yes, he was good-looking.” She felt that flutter in her nerves again, the same one she’d felt earlier with Dylan. Some kind of unspoken connection had flared between them.

But that was nonsense. She’d just met him.

Jessica asked, “What did you talk about?”

Still trying to act casual, Paige shrugged. “I told him about Clean Slate Mondays.”

Jessica’s eyes widened. “What did he think of that?” Paige knew that sometimes her best friend found her optimism a little over the top.

“He wasn’t convinced.” And he wasn’t the kind of guy to ever be taken in by fanciful notions, she was sure. “Listen, he wasn’t dating material. He’s a banker or something. And he was working on a spreadsheet.” She shuddered.

“Um, excuse me. Steve works on spreadsheets.”

Paige winced. Jessica’s fiancé was an inventory controller. The truth was, Paige had never found him to be very easy to talk to. But he and Jessica loved one another, and that was the important thing.

Dylan’s corporate vibe wasn’t the only reason she had mixed feelings, though. “He asked me if I worked on Mondays. I work very hard.” Of course, things weren’t as difficult as her first year on the job, when she’d still been trying to figure everything out at once, and the sheer mental effort had left her exhausted at the end of the day. But it still took a lot of organization, energy, and prep work at home.

Jessica gave a dubious shrug. “He was making conversation.”

“He also said he was busy. Like I wasn’t.” Well, maybe he did work long hours, given the fact that he’d been poring over columns of numbers before seven a.m. But still.

“He paid for your order. What else does he have to do, write ‘I’m interested in you’ on a big sign?”

Paige smiled. The truth was, when he’d said That’s very kind of you, and had looked at her like he could see straight through to her soul and appreciated it, Paige had melted. And that had been before he’d paid for the kids’ treats.

Jessica said, “I don’t suppose you got his name and number.” She was already shaking her head at the lost opportunity.

“Just his first name. Dylan.”

“Well, that’s something,” Jessica said. “Does he go to that café a lot?”

“It sounded like it.”

“Great! All you have to do is hang out there in the mornings until you see him again.”

“Because that wouldn’t be pathetic at all,” Paige said…as if she hadn’t considered doing that exact thing. Her ears burned with sudden embarrassment.

Jessica looked up at the clock. “I better go.”

For reading circle time, Paige had picked out a book about a lost dog. “This book has our sight word of the day in it.” She pointed to the word she’d written on the board. “Kind. K-I-N-D. Does anyone know what this word means?”

“It’s like, what kind of cupcake do you want,” Sam burst out. Paige had told him privately about his birthday cupcakes at the beginning of the day, explaining that they’d have them after lunch and he’d be able to choose his favorite flavor first. Sam’s eyes had lit up, and clearly, he hadn’t thought about much else.

“Yes, exactly,” Paige said. “Kind can mean a type of thing. For instance, there are lots of kinds of animals: dogs, cats, and so on.”

“And birds,” someone added.

“Dragons.”

“Dragons aren’t real!”

“But they’re still animals!”

Paige said, “Kind also means something else. It means nice. If we yell at each other, that’s not being kind. But if we share with each other or say nice things to each other, that’s being kind.”

“I shared crayons with Ava yesterday,” Katy said.

“That’s a good example of being kind,” Paige said. One time, when Linda had stopped into her classroom, she’d told Paige she shouldn’t ever let the kids talk unless they raised their hands and Paige called on them. But during circle time, Paige relaxed things a little. “Okay, I’m going to read today’s story.”

Clara, a little girl with light brown bobbed hair, raised her hand. Secretly, the girl was Paige’s favorite, although she tried to encourage all of them. Paige asked, “Yes, Clara?”

“Could you read one of your stories instead?”

Several voices assented to this plan. Paige lit up inside. At least somebody liked her writing. The most important somebodies, in fact.

“Miss Reynolds?” Jaden had his hand raised.

“What is it, Jaden?”

“Um, why are stickers sticky?”

Well, he’s got me there. It wasn’t the first time the child had stumped her with a question. He was easily her brightest student, and not particularly good at following directions or staying on topic.

“I’ll get back to you on that,” she told him. She was going to have to do more with science in this class.

Clara raised her hand again. “Yes, Clara,” Paige said.

“Do you have a new story?”

“I’ve started writing a new one,” she admitted. “It’s about a princess who finds a magical cabin in the woods.”

“I wanna hear!” Sam said, bouncing up and down where he sat.

“Stop it!” a girl said. Paige looked over to see Tommy tickling the top of her head.

“Tommy Bradley,” Paige said in her no-nonsense voice. “You know you’re supposed to keep your hands to yourself. You come over here and sit down right next to me.”

“Okay.” He shuffled over to her and sat. Paige dug her journal out of her purse and flipped to the right page. “Here’s a picture I drew of the princess and the cabin,” she told them, holding it up so they could see.

“Why is the house magic?” one of them said.

“You’re a good draw-er,” said another.

Clara raised her hand. Paige asked, “What is it, Clara?”

The little girl’s eyes were wide. “My mom…is a real artist! She had a galley show!”

Paige smiled at her pride. “Get out of town!” She didn’t bother to correct her pronunciation. Hey, a galley show wasn’t such a bad idea. Paintings or photographs hung inside a ship? It might be fun.

Clara’s face crumpled.

Immediately, Paige asked, “Sweetie, what’s wrong?”

“You told me to leave town.”

Oh, no! Paige might’ve laughed if the poor child hadn’t been so distressed. “No, no! I would never want you to leave town! ‘Get out of town’ is just an expression. It means… ‘That’s amazing!’ It’s great that your mom is an artist and had a show.”

“Clara, Miss Reynolds likes you,” the boy next to her said, rolling his eyes.

“That’s right,” Paige said firmly. “Clara, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, and I’m sorry. Do you forgive me?” Children needed to learn forgiveness. She’d even done a weekly unit on it, earlier in the year.

Clara nodded, looking much sunnier.

“Thank you,” Paige said. “How about I read the story now?” Clara nodded again. “‘Once upon a time, there lived a princess who was far away from home. She traveled through a deep, dark wood. Wolves howled. The cold wind blew.’”

“She’s going to meet a witch,” a little boy said.

“A wolf’s going to eat her.”

“Shhh, let’s stay quiet for the story,” Paige said. “‘And then she came to a meadow full of tulips, and in the middle of the tulips stood a cabin…’”