My eyes widened, and my breath stuttered in my chest. That voice. It was a voice I would never forget, not since the first time I heard it when I was eight years old. The timbre was deeper than it had been back then, but the tone was the exact same.
It couldn’t be.
How could he be here? In my world history class of all places. No one had told me he was back.
“I’ll check attendance, and then we’ll go over the schedule for this semester.”
My lungs struggled to pull in air, but as soon as I looked to the front of the class, it whooshed out of me. My first ever crush stood front and center. A crush I had been sure was love when I was a little girl. I knew the difference now, but that didn’t stop my body’s reaction.
I tried to halt the memories flashing through my brain, but the first time he’d touched me was on repeat. I’d known him six months before the worst night of my life happened, but it had been the first time he’d held me and promised to make it all better. He'd had a true glimpse of what my life had been like up to that point, but he didn’t really know.
None of them truly knew.
Chapter Two
CADE
I hadn’t always wanted to be a teacher.
When I was a teenager, I was sure I would be a professional athlete. I probably could have if I had wanted it bad enough—if I’d have applied myself and worked toward one goal. But I hadn’t. I hadn’t wanted anything enough to go in one clear direction. I’d been floating through each day, angry at the world and what it had served me with. But the day I coached some kids while in my freshman year of college, I knew what I was meant to do.
Community outreach had been a requirement of being part of the lacrosse college team, and it was there I realized I wanted to coach kids. I want
ed to be a driving force to the kids who had a dream of being an athlete—show them they could be that even if they thought they couldn’t. I wanted to help them become exactly who they wanted to be.
Becoming a teacher was simply a perk of being a coach because it meant I got the best of both worlds. A couple of classes a day in a shirt, tie, and slacks, and then I could spend the rest of my time in sweats, teaching PE and coaching the next generation of athletes.
I’d built up contacts over my four years at college, and my plan had always been to stay there instead of moving back home. But my senior year, everything changed in the blink of an eye. One tragic event changed the course of my entire life. I’d tried to create a life for myself—tried to push everything out of my mind—but it hadn’t worked. Being constantly reminded of it every day wasn’t good for anyone.
For three years, I’d tried my hardest to put it all behind me, but as soon as my stepmom, Lola, told me about a vacancy so close to home, I knew fate had stepped in to take me down a different path. I’d moved back home a week ago, and now I was ready to start fresh. I also got to spend more time with my little sister, Belle—PB as I liked to call her—and my little brother, Asher. My family was everything to me.
More so now than ever…
My introduction to teaching in the same school I’d attended as a student had come in the form of freshmen, but now I was in the big leagues. Senior class. One year until these kids would be off to college or looking for employment. I moved over to the desk and pulled out my laptop, feeling several sets of eyes burning through the side of my face. My lips wanted to curve up into a grin, but I held them down, remembering what it was like when a new teacher would start at school. Especially if that teacher was under the age of thirty.
“I’ll call your name out, and I want you to raise your hand and tell me a fact about yourself.” I glanced up, not really taking in any of the faces, and then concentrated back on my screen. It felt a little like elementary school when teachers would call out students’ names every morning, but this would be a good icebreaker.
“Lydia.”
“Here,” a soft voice announced. She was in the front row, her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, and glasses too big for her face. “I love math.”
I nodded and smiled. “Nice to meet you, Lydia.”
I went through the list, frowning when I got halfway. “Aria…” I blinked, sure I read it wrong. “Aria Sayer?” My voice was shaky, a little unsure of whether I’d said the words right, but I looked up anyway, expecting to see the little girl I used to know. There was no way she was a senior already…
“Here.” My head snapped up at the tone that couldn’t be mistaken for anyone but the eight-year-old girl who had tried to nurse me back to health when I was sixteen. A girl who had sat by my side while her mom made us grilled cheese. A girl who now looked…like a woman.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Aria. I couldn’t stop staring at her wavy red hair and the small button nose I knew would be covered with the splattering of freckles.
Damn. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d seen her. Maybe five years ago? No, four years…
Had she really changed that much?
“I…I like to run.”
I raised a brow, surprised by her answer. I hadn’t been expecting it to come out of her mouth, but that was exactly who Aria was—unexpected. At least, the Aria I remembered.
I kept my gaze locked with hers for an extra second, trying to convey something I wasn’t sure of, and then moved on to the rest of the students. I wasn’t sure whether she’d want people to know that we knew each other, so I’d keep my mouth closed for now and teach the class in the same way I did any other time. By the time I’d gone through everyone’s names, and given them the rundown of what we’d be learning over the next semester, we only had five minutes left.