Fall From India Place

CHAPTER 29

June

The late June sun streamed in through my classroom windows, the light spilling over the kids’ empty desks. My last class of the year had already left, but I found myself immobilized. I couldn’t take my eyes off Jarrod’s desk. It had remained empty for the rest of the year whenever his class came into my room.

I didn’t want to forget.

It had been hard the past few months to find myself as a teacher again. Part of me had wanted to fall back on old habits and create a distance between myself and the kids. There was always supposed to be some distance anyway, but it was hard not to care about them, and in the end I decided if I stopped caring about them, I’d stop being a good teacher.

It hadn’t started out as the best year, but the past few months had begun to make up for that. One way in which they had was the permanent job offer I received from the department here at Braemuir. I’d be returning as a fully qualified English teacher after the summer. It was one less thing to worry about.

I had thought I would feel relief that the year was over and that I had the summer to enjoy before it started all over again.

But standing there in my classroom that last day, I couldn’t stop staring at Jarrod’s desk.

Sometimes it still made my breath catch when I remembered that I wouldn’t see him next year, that he wouldn’t get to grow up and become the amazing man I knew he could have been.

I hadn’t realized how hard the last day of school was going to be with that hanging over me.

“Knock, knock.”

My gaze jerked away from the desk and my eyes widened in surprised pleasure, my mood instantly lifting at the sight of Marco and Dylan walking into my classroom.

“What are you two doing here?” I asked, grinning happily as Dylan’s steps quickened. He reached me and instantly slid his arms around my legs. I hugged him close as Marco bent down to give me a quick, sweet kiss on the lips.

“I thought maybe you’d want some company. Not an easy day for you, babe.”

I shook my head in wonder. How had he known when even I hadn’t known? “I love you,” I murmured.

“I love you, too.”

I looked down at Dylan to see him watching us. I scrunched my nose up at him. “Guess what?”

“What?” he returned, genuinely curious.

“I love you, too.”

He smiled shyly and ducked his head.

So cute, I could die.

“Dylan, what do you say?” Marco chucked his chin.

Dylan shrugged. “Hannah knows I lu huh.” His words became a mumble, but I got the gist.

I gave Marco a look. “He’s four and he’s uncomfortable saying ‘I love you.’ I already pity his future girlfriends.”

Marco laughed. “He’s a man. He has a hard time showing his feelings.”

“You’re a man and you don’t have a hard time showing your feelings.”

“In public I do.”

“You just said you loved me in front of Dylan.”

“It’s just Dylan.”

“So you’re telling me that when we get married you’re not going to say you love me in your wedding vows?”

“You don’t say ‘I love you’ in wedding vows.”

“You do if you write your own.” I was completely messing with him and it was worth it to see the flicker of panic in his eyes.

“Write my own… vows?” His grip on Dylan’s shoulders tightened.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“You want me to write my own vows?”

I turned my mouth down at the corners as I shrugged. “Well, I might let you off with it, if you actually get around to proposing sometime.”

The light dawned in his eyes. “You manipulative —”

I grabbed my purse off my chair, ready to leave. “Finish that sentence and I won’t say yes.”

“I never asked,” he argued, ushering Dylan out behind me.

“But you’re going to.” I glanced back at Dylan. “Your daddy is a slowcoach.”

Marco looked at his son for help, but Dylan just looked at him with this “Really, dude” expression that made me love him even more.

“Are you sure he’s not my child?” I joked.

“Sometimes I wonder,” Marco muttered.

From school we got a cab back to my place so I could change for the evening’s event. It was Lily’s fifth birthday, and Gio and Gabby had generously offered the restaurant as a place to host it, closing off the back room for our private party.

Outside the restaurant we bumped into Cole and his new girlfriend, Larissa. She was a quiet, pretty auburn-haired psychology student who was clearly one hundred times more madly in love with Cole than he was with her.

“D-Man,” Cole greeted Dylan first. The two of them bumped fists, the brightness in Dylan’s eyes the only indication that he was thrilled to see Cole. While it had taken a few months for Marco to come around to Cole, his son had latched on to my best friend within a matter of hours after meeting him. They shared an overall seriousness that put them beyond their years and had a seemingly innate understanding of each other.

“What d’ye get?” Dylan gestured to the wrapped gift in Cole’s hand.

“Girlie stuff. You?” He indicated the present Dylan was carrying for us.

He scrunched up his nose. “Girlie stuff.”

Cole patted him on the back of the head and pulled open the door to the restaurant. “I hear you.”

“Hi, Larissa,” I greeted her with a coaxing smile.

In return I received a pinched smile. I couldn’t quite work out if it was because she was shy or because she, like most of Cole’s girlfriends so far, resented my presence in his life. I was sure it was the latter.

Marco and I held back as the three of them walked inside.

“She hates me,” I grumbled.

“You’re hot and Cole loves you. Of course she hates you.” Marco tugged on my hand, pulling me inside.

“Well, thanks for that very comforting and concise summary of the situation.”

He gave me a wry half smile as we walked through the front dining room and into the hall to reach the back. “She’ll get over it. That better?”

“No, because now you’re lying.”

He looked up at the ceiling as if talking to God. “I can’t win.”

“He’s not listening.”

He cut me a dry look. “Obviously.”

“Oh, shut it. You love me and you know it.”

“You kill me with your sweetness, babe.”

“Ah, there you are!” Liv came hurrying forward as we entered the back dining room. Pink and purple decorations had literally exploded all over the room. There were balloons, ribbons, flower chains, and sparkly confetti everywhere. Liv gave me a quick hug and grinned up at Marco in greeting. “Your aunt and uncle are amazing to do this. I think I’ve thanked them so much they’re ready to kill me.”

“It’s no problem.” Marco shrugged. “You’re family.”

Her eyes bugged out at me and she whispered comically, “I’m family.”

I patted her shoulder. “They’re not the Mafia, Liv. Calm down.”

“Nanna!”

My nephew William came flying at me, dangerously unsteady with momentum. I grabbed him before he made hard impact with my legs. As soon as I lifted him into my arms, Beth, Lily, and Luke were at my side. I greeted them all before bending down to kiss Lily’s silky dark hair. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”

She smiled shyly and leaned into my leg.

Surrounded by the kids, I watched happily as we appeared to magnetically draw everyone else to us. Jo and Cam came over to say hello, Cam holding little Bella in his arms. Holding Bray in his, Adam came over with Ellie, who scooped William from my arms to hers. Joss and Braden sauntered over to join the pack and were quickly crowded in by Mum, Dad, Mick, Dee, Cole, Dylan, Larissa, Declan, Penny, Nate’s mum and dad, and Gio and Gabby.

Chatter sparked off all around me as I leaned against Marco, my hand resting lightly on Dylan’s head, and I didn’t feel overwhelmed.

I felt content.

I felt at peace.

I had just taken a wolflike bite of birthday cake when Gabby approached me. She smiled and I quickly tried to swallow the delicious sponge cake and buttercream icing so I could return the gesture.

“Marco says it was your last day today. You’ve got the summer now before you go back to school?”

I nodded, putting the cake down, only somewhat reluctantly, to converse with Gabby. I’d met Gabby and Gio officially a week after we took Dylan to the zoo. It had been difficult to be congenial to Gio, despite how charming he was, because I knew what a prize shit he’d been to Marco. However, Marco had moved past all the ugly stuff with his uncle and I didn’t want to constantly remind him of it, so I did my best to move past it too. Gabby was a different story. I loved her straight off the bat. She had a dry wit, a warm demeanor, and her fondness for Marco was obvious to everyone. “I’m just glad I’ve got a job to return to.”

“I heard about that.” Gio suddenly appeared, smiling warmly at me. “Congratulations on the permanent position.”

I gave him a small smile. “Thank you. And thank you both for hosting Lily’s party. It’s beautiful and the food is amazing, as per usual.”

“No problem.” Gio waved off the thanks and put an arm around his wife’s shoulder. “Lily is your family, which makes her our family.”

“She is beautiful.” Gabby looked over to where Lily was sitting on Nate’s knee and grinning up at whatever Liv was saying to her. “So well behaved too.”

“Oh, she’s an angel.” My eyes darted across the room, where I could see Beth doing what appeared to be a bad job of attempting to talk Dylan into swiping an extra piece of cake. “And some of them are angels with dirty faces.”

Dylan didn’t look convinced, so Beth reached up to the table to take another bit of cake by herself. Her little hand had just closed around it when Joss appeared. She didn’t say a word. She just held out her hand, palm up. Beth wrinkled her nose in annoyance and plopped the cake in her mother’s hand. Joss raised an eyebrow at her and nodded her head to the right. Beth followed the direction of the gesture and her shoulders slumped at the sight of Braden. He was sitting beside Adam and Ellie, holding his nephew, Bray, in his arms, but the look of rebuke on his face was leveled at his daughter. At the expression on her dad’s face, Beth’s shoulders suddenly flew back, and as if she was marching to her end, she strode across the room to her dad with the look of a martyr on her own face.

I could tell it took everything Braden had not to laugh.

My eyes went back to Dylan. Joss said something to him, smiling, and he gave her his serious-little-boy nod and began to move away. I expected him to head toward Marco, who was standing chatting with Cam, Cole, and Mick about something, but Dylan headed toward us.

I assumed he was coming over to Gabby and Gio, who were pretty much beloved grandparents to him. However, Dylan just looked up at Gabby and Gio as he walked by them, before dropping his gaze to me. Without a word he climbed onto my lap and rested his head against my chest.

He probably heard my heartbeat banging away in his ear.

I could tell by Gabby’s and Gio’s amused expressions that my face was a picture of surprise and absolute adoration. Looking down at the top of his head, I tentatively lifted my hand to stroke his soft curls. “Tired, sweetheart?”

He nodded slowly, and relaxed even deeper into me.

“Do you want to go home and I’ll read Where the Wild Things Are before bedtime?”

He nodded again.

My chest tight with emotion, I looked up from him to search out Marco. It didn’t surprise me to find his eyes were already on us, and there was such intensity in the way he was watching us that my chest tightened that little bit more until I was entirely breathless.

My mum always said it was the simplest things in life that moved you.

My mum had never been more right than she was just then.

“‘… and it was still hot.’”

I closed the picture book and looked down at Dylan, whose eyes were already closing. Carefully, I extricated myself from the bed, put the book on his bedside table, kissed his forehead, whispered good night, and walked over to the door.

Marco gave me a loving look from his place in the doorway and then strode inside to say good night to his son. I left them, giving them their time, as I had tried to a lot over the past few months. I didn’t spend every day of their alternative weekend arrangement with them because I felt it would be an easier transition for Dylan if he at least got his dad to himself sometimes. That was hard for me, not just because I missed Marco whenever he wasn’t around, but because those alternate weekends were the highlight of my month. I missed Dylan when he wasn’t with us, so I knew Marco must miss him a million times more.

This summer, however, we were getting him for two full weeks while Marco was on holiday. We’d booked into a holiday park in Cornwall, so we were praying for some of the sunny weather it was known for. I couldn’t wait to spend so much time with two of my favorite guys in the world.

I was in the sitting room, pushing my feet into my shoes, when strong arms wrapped around my waist and I found myself pulled back against Marco’s chest. “Where are you going?” his gravelly voice rumbled sexily in my ear.

A shiver chased down my spine, but I knew I had to ignore it. “Time for me to go home.” Not once had I remained overnight when Dylan was staying with Marco. We wanted to take things slow when it came to introducing me into Dylan’s life.

Marco kissed my neck as his hand coasted up my side, and over my ribs until he was cupping my left breast.

I sighed in pleasure, arching my back. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to get my girl to wrap those long fantastic legs of hers around me.”

Reluctantly, I broke the embrace to turn to look at him in question. “But Dylan —”

“We’ll be quiet,” Marco murmured hungrily against my mouth. “And I think we’re good to start introducing you as a permanent feature to his weekends with me.” His lips brushed over mine. Mine tingled in answer. Like always.

“Do you think he’ll be okay with that?” I panted, my hands already roaming over his strong chest.

“You make those great pancakes of yours in the morning, he’ll be fine.” He reached for another kiss, but I grinned, stalling it momentarily.

“Pancakes I can do.”

“Good,” he growled, crushing me against him. “Now do me.”