Vow of Devotion (Vow Series Book 4) Page 5

  I look over my shoulder. My eyes immediately lock on Hudson’s. His light blue eyes are crinkled in the corners and dancing with mischief.

  I spin toward him. He’s close, almost too close. If I inhale deep enough, my chest will graze his. I want to. I’m tempted to test my theory, just once.

  “Are we going to feed them, Uncle Hudson?” The young boy at Hudson’s side is barely in my peripheral vision, but I can’t tear my focus away from the brawny man in front of me. I can’t stop myself. I take a deep breath. The fabric of my top skims along Hudson’s chest just for a moment.

  His crystal-blue orbs ignite and smolder but don’t stray from mine as he answers the little boy. “Yeah.”

  When Hudson hands over a credit card, I’m snapped from my daze. “I can’t let you pay for this.”

  Hudson shrugs. “It’s already done. My treat. It’ll be fun.”

  “Hudson.”

  His big hand lands on my shoulder, his thumb sweeping across the exposed skin. He squeezes once before letting go. “Please.”

  His touch only lasted a second, but the heat lingers on my skin. After a moment, I nod once, agreeing. “Fine. Thank you.”

  Hudson grins.

  “I’m Lilly. Mommy says I can’t ride a giraffe. Will you let me?”

  I take a big step back from Hudson. He makes me forget where I am when he stares at me with his bright blue eyes, his deep voice entrancing me. He frowns slightly before sliding his focus to my daughter. His lips stretch across his face again.

  “Nice to meet you, Lilly.” He holds his hand up for a high five. Lilly jumps, slapping his hand as hard as she can. “I’m Hudson. You can’t ride giraffes, but you can ride an elephant.”

  “An elephant and a camel?”

  Hudson laughs. “Yeah, sure can.”

  “Do you know my mom?” Her blond hair cascades down her side as she tips her head to the side, regarding him with her mouth screwed to the side and furrowed brows.

  “I met her the other day at the park while you were playing. We’re friends.”

  I snort. I’m not sure I would call us friends. We’ve barely had one conversation. His finger brushed my shoulder. I’m more turned on by that small action than I have been in years. We’re not friends. I should stay far, far away from him.

  Hudson is trouble.

  Devilishly handsome trouble.

  Trouble walked in and out of my mom’s life for as long as I can remember. And her anger and hatred toward me grew worse and worse after each man left through her revolving door.

  “This is my nephew Eli,” Hudson says to Lilly.

  Eli tucks his hands into his pockets and lifts his chin in the way some men do. I cough to cover my snicker, but Hudson lets his laugh break free. Lilly’s round cheeks turn rosy as she waves at Eli, clutching my hand in hers. Eli slices his eyes to Hudson and stands a little bit taller under his uncle’s approving gaze. Eli could be Hudson’s son, they look similar enough, and Eli clearly worships him.

  I rub my free hand along my neck, covering my racing pulse point. Watching Hudson with kids cannot send me into a tizzy. I can’t let that happen.

  The teenage con artist struts back, handing Hudson his card with a grin so wide I can see his molars. I purse my lips. That grin has to be because he went from suckering two people to four. He guides us toward a balcony, motioning to the spots where we should stand for the easiest access. Lilly’s and Eli’s fidgeting gets worse the longer he carries on with his careful instructions.

  Hudson and I stand next to each other as the kids wait for the giraffes to come toward us. I nab my camera out of my bag and take a few shots of the kids. My brave girl steps up first, holding her steady hand out to the giraffe and smiling the entire time. When she reaches her other hand out for Eli and he grabs it, tears prick my eyes.

  Hudson nudges my shoulder. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Thanks for this. She’s loving it.”

  Hudson stares into my eyes. “I’m loving this, too.”

  Chapter 7

  Ava

  It’s three seconds into the school year, and I’m ready to run out of this classroom, find a dark room, and curl into a ball while rocking back and forth.

  During my last year of college, I student taught as a requirement for my degree and teaching certification. I’ve led a classroom of young kids before. This time though, there isn’t a more seasoned teacher next to me, helping guide me.

  It’s just me and twenty-three pairs of eyes staring at me. Class officially started eight seconds ago. And I’m standing here wringing my hands and counting the seconds ticking by in my head.

  Smile, Ava.

  My mouth forms a tremulous smile.

  Okay, good. Kind of.

  Speak, Ava.

  Thirteen seconds of complete silence pass before I open my mouth.

  “Welcome back to school. I hope y’all had a great summer. I’m Ms. Kincaid. I’ll be your third grade teacher. I promise that we’ll have fun as well as learn.”

  I stop speaking, letting my introduction settle over the students. I make eye contact with a few kids, then sweep my gaze over the whole classroom.

  My limbs sag with the weight of their stares. I glance at the clock hanging in the corner. Forty-five seconds. Six hours, fifty-nine minutes, and ten seconds to go. I have to fill this silence all day.

  Hopefully Lilly is faring better than me.

  I edge closer to my desk, pressing my thigh against the corner to ground myself. My shaking knees feel like they’re about to give out.

  “First things first, let’s get to know each other a bit and share a thing or two about our summers. I’ll go first. I’m new to the Austin area. I’m from San Antonio. My favorite animal is a giraffe. The highlight of my summer was last week, when my daughter and I went to the zoo. We had the opportunity to feed the giraffes.”

  A memory of Hudson standing close to me rockets through my mind. Just the memory of his skin brushing mine raises the hairs on my arms. I shake my head, forcing back the reverie.

  I don’t know how many seconds have passed now, but I feel like a giant failure.

  The classes I student taught for weren’t filled with vicious third graders. Those students seemed nicer. Here, there’s not one student smiling at me.

  My trembling hand wraps around my lukewarm coffee cup, bringing it to my lips, but my hand is shaking so violently some spills over the side, landing on my white blouse.

  Wonderful.

  I grab a handful of tissues, dabbing the spot. Determined to push through and act as if nothing has happened, I smile at each student. One student snorts and another outright laughs, but it’s the few students in the front of the room who smile back that give me the confidence to keep the ball rolling. “Any volunteers to go next?”

  A girl sitting at the first table, her glasses electric blue, shoots her hand in the air. I grin and point at her. The moment she begins to speak, the clamp on my lungs eases a bit and my breath starts to steady.

  I keep my smile in place as I walk to my desk to grab my seating chart. Currently it’s blank, but as we go around the room, I’ll fill it in. I’m quick to memorize names, but I need to have a seating chart handy for subs, just in case. Though I really shouldn’t be thinking about the need for substitute teachers on day one.

  I move through the class, one student at a time. Each tells me their name and a little about themselves and their summer. My chart is coming along nicely. It’s only when I get to one student that I pause.

  “My name is Hudson . . .” He doesn’t trail off, but I don’t hear the rest of what he says. I manage to keep a smile on my face, but my mind drifts to another Hudson for the second time in a matter of minutes. One with blue eyes and blond hair and a devastatingly handsome face.

  His eyes captivated me and held me prisoner the first time we met. When he asked me out, I wanted to say yes, but no came flying out of my mouth without any hesitation. Hudson’s eyes widened and his eyebrows rose slightly
before he schooled his features. Just before he nodded his head and accepted my refusal, his eyes bored into mine and his shoulders pulled back. He didn’t press, simply nodded his head and continued to chat with me until his niece was ready to go home.

  As much as I wanted to say yes, saying no was the right decision. I know his type. Without a doubt, he’s a playboy. That’s the only type of man my mom brought around, and I can spot one from a mile away. I’m sure he goes from girl to girl. He was obviously surprised when I said no. Has he ever heard a refusal before? That guy is not an option for me. I can’t bring that type of instability anywhere near Lilly.

  When Lilly and I ran into him at the zoo though, he didn’t ask again. A part of me I’m trying to ignore was upset and a little disappointed that he didn’t ask, but I moved past it. I’m sure I’ll never see him again. Even if he were looking for more than a one-night stand, he would have no idea what he’s getting himself into with a single mom.

  The fact that he’s already distracted me twice from my class is just another confirmation that I made the right decision.

  I tune back into my class just in time for student Hudson to finish his introduction.

  “That sounds like a great summer,” I say. Here’s hoping he didn’t talk about sitting at home on a couch the entire break.

  My sweep of the open-plan classroom for the next volunteer snags on a woman standing in the back. A mass of tight curls frames her round face and pudgy cheeks. A cold sweat breaks over my skin under her head-to-toe perusal. The stain on my shirt feels magnified under her icy stare.

  I don’t wait for another student to volunteer. I call on the boy who laughed when I spilled coffee on myself.

  “My name is Warner and this is dumb.”

  My eyes fly to the back of the classroom. The imposing woman standing there, the freaking principal, shakes her head before continuing her walk down the hall. I hold back a groan and turn to face Warner. Was she there long enough to notice me staring off into space?

  “That is not the question I asked you to answer. You are required to complete every assignment, regardless of your opinion. Every single person in this classroom deserves respect and we will all give it to each other. Start over. Tell me your name, something about yourself, and something about your summer.”

  Warner stares at me. A couple of his friends snicker. A proud smirk crosses his face before he opens his mouth again. I’d hoped to be graced with the best of students, the perfect classroom full of kids eager to learn. We’d bond and they would remember me fondly as they went on to the next grade at the end of the year.

  What a joke.

  I match Warner’s stare and wait for him to answer the question. He does. Reluctantly. It feels like a minor win this morning.

  By the end of the day, the brown coffee stain on my shirt mixes nicely with the orange french dressing on the other side of my top. I look like I’ve been in the middle of a food fight. My hair is frizzy and has completely lost its bouncy curl. I’ve been choking back tears for the last two hours. It wasn’t until the last thirty minutes that I realized dry-erase marker was streaked across my cheek.

  I underestimated Warner. By the time class assembled after lunch, he’d roped other students into joining his little army of torture. The barbs and laughs kept coming all day. I tried to restore order. I failed.

  Lilly is sitting at one of the tables in my now-empty classroom with her head down on top of her arms. We’ve agreed that she’ll come to my room at the end of the day and wait for me until I’m done with bus duty. I collapse into the desk next to her and turn toward her.

  My arms open up and Lilly crashes into me, wrapping her arms around my neck. Her squeeze is so tight she’s expelling all the oxygen from my body, but the warmth of my little girl against me after a long day is filling me with life.

  I lean back, running a hand over her tangled hair. “How was your day?”

  “Fine.”

  So her day wasn’t exactly a peach either. “Did you make any friends?”

  She shakes her head. “No, but I still have my friends at home.”

  “Honey,” I say, preparing myself for a breakdown, “this is our home now. We can still visit your friends in San Antonio, but we need to make new friends here.”

  Her teeth run over her bottom lip and her eyes fill with tears before her fist wipes them away. “Okay.”

  I sit silently for a few more seconds, waiting for a tantrum, but it doesn’t come.

  “Ms. Kincaid.” I spin in my seat, turning to meet the hostile glare I caught several times throughout the day. Her eyes fall on Lilly and her lips flatten into a thin line. “May I speak with you? In the hallway.”

  “Of course.” I stand, sweeping my hand over Lilly’s head one last time before marching to my slaughter.

  When I shuffle into the hallway, Eunice Pritchett, the principal, is standing ramrod straight with her hands clasped in front of her. The boxy purple suit she’s wearing looks as crisp and starched as if she’d just pulled it off a hanger fresh from the drycleaner.

  Her eyes sweep my hair down to my top and then to the run in my stocking. The bridge of her nose crinkles. “You have toilet paper stuck to your shoe.”

  My chin quivers and my hand falls to my stomach. Sure enough, there’s a strand of toilet paper stuck under the toe of my shoe.

  “Just a second please.” I turn, hustle back into my room, grab a tissue, and tear the offending item off the sole of my shoe. My nose stings and my eyes burn, but I take a deep breath and scurry back into the hallway.

  “Eunice,” I begin. “I’m—”

  “It’s Mrs. Pritchett.”

  The scolding tone knocks me back. Suddenly I’m three feet tall in front of my mother, listening to her berate me for coming out of my room when one of her “friends” was visiting. Bile works its way up my throat and steals my ability to speak. I nod, hating myself just a little bit. Hating that just a tone of voice can send me back to my perpetually angry mother and the vile way she made me feel.

  “It’s the first day of school and you’ve already lost control of your classroom. It’s embarrassing and, frankly, disgraceful. This school is known for its high-performing students and excellent test scores. I will not have you ruining our streak.”

  “Mrs. Pritchett—”

  “I witnessed you distracted multiple times throughout the day and I even saw you with your cell phone out while the children were working on an assignment.”

  I close my eyes. I forgot to silence my phone this morning. It hardly ever goes off. Lilly is always with me and it’s not like I have friends beating down my door. Except this morning I received a phone call. Spam. At the worst time. I hadn’t even noticed Mrs. Pritchett in the hallway as I dove to silence my phone. Hudson popped into my mind a couple times throughout the day, entrancing me from far away. Damn those baby blues and the dimples that poke out when he smiles.

  Between the phone incident, daydreaming about Hudson, and first-day-of-school nerves. I wasn’t on my A game. I wasn’t on my B game, either.

  Hell, I wasn’t even on my D game.

  I swallow. “I’m—”

  Mrs. Pritchett cuts me off again. “I’ll be monitoring you more throughout the week. Get your act together and eliminate your distractions or that class will eat you alive.” Her eyes move to the wall of bookcases that divides my classroom from the hallway and the other open-plan classrooms. To Lilly, on the other side of that bookcase.

  She spins before I can say anything or even attempt to stand up for myself. But before she gets more than a couple feet down the hallway, she stops, turning on her heel. “You should have your husband come get your daughter after school. You should use this time to focus on lesson plans and be available for meetings.”

  “I’m a single mother.”

  Her eyes rove over me again and she sighs. “Of course. My mistake.”

  My bottom lip trembles and heat creeps up my neck and cheeks. The single tear I’ve held back
all day finally falls from one eye. I wipe it away, walking back into the classroom with a smile on my face for Lilly.

  Chapter 8

  Hudson

  My knuckles rap against Roman and Harper’s front door. This is my last shot. My cousins are busy doing stuff as a family, and Savannah flat out refused.

  “Answer the door, Roman,” I call out, turning my face toward the hidden camera. Roman’s house is rigged with cameras at every angle. The guys from his security firm regularly monitor the exterior of their house. I wave at the camera in case Kiernan is working behind the screens.

  I haven’t seen Ava in over a week. It’s the weekend now, so hopefully she’ll be at the park with her daughter. I just need an excuse to go to the park. Seeing her will turn this shitty week around and get my mind off of the missing materials at the site.

  Roman opens the door, his body filling most of the frame.

  I start speaking before he can even open his mouth. “Is Harper here? I need to ask both of you a question.”

  Roman steps back from the door, allowing me past him. “Come on.”

  I follow Roman into their living room. Harper is sitting on the massive sectional, buried deep in its depths, holding their son Caden and feeding him from a bottle. Roman plops down next to her, stretching his arm around her.

  The picture-perfect family.

  Before Roman stormed back into Harper’s life, this is what Mom wanted for me. She wanted me to be the man planted on that big couch with my arm wrapped around Harper while she held our child.

  Harper is a fucking knockout, it’s true.

  But she’s like my sister. Although, I did pretend to be her boyfriend for five minutes when Harper wasn’t ready to forgive Roman for his ten-year absence. I didn’t like him all that much at first, but now, he’s one of my closest friends.

  “Hudson. What are you doing here?” Harper sits up straight, adjusting Caden in her arms and resituating the bottle.

  I stand in front of them and prop my fists on my hips. “I need to borrow your baby.”