Her Imaginary Husband (Contemporary Romance) (14 page)

She turned back to the hall. Ross approached with a serious face, and she immediately began to apologize. “That probably didn’t look so great, but—”

He held a hand up and leaned close. “It looked very great. That kid probably hasn’t had a hug in years. Rough home life.”

Overcome with gratitude, Nikki threw her arms around him. “Thanks for understanding! I just…” Her train of thought derailed as she realized how warm and powerful Ross’ arms were.
Oh my gosh, I could stay here all day
.
It’s just like I was telling Ma…

He gently extricated himself from her embrace. “Now, now. I won’t tell about the kid, but let’s not make this a habit. Not everyone is as inclined to forgive you as I am.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Get to class,” he said, opening the door with a big smile. “Your kids need you.”



Nikki picked up the flawless Pink Lady apple and inhaled its aroma. It had to be safe, didn’t it? But who had left it there? Dropping her purse into her file cabinet bottom drawer, she went back out to the back door where she’d seen Ross patrolling. When he turned and made eye contact, she waved the apple at him.

His eyes widened. “Another one?”

“All right, royal taste tester. You said you’d check to see if it was safe.”

“Where was it?” he asked, taking the apple.

“Corner of my desk, like always.”

Ross sniffed at it just as she had. “You sure? It smells heavenly. Pink Lady and everything!” She nodded, and he took a big bite, crunching with relish. Suddenly, he clutched at his throat as if struggling to breathe. “It’s…”

“What?” Nikki gripped his wrist in panic. “What?”

“It’s…” he croaked. “It’s delicious!” He stopped gagging and grinned.

Nikki slapped his arm. “Not funny!”
I don’t want to slap him. I want to hold him.

He proffered the rest of the apple. “You want this back?”

“No,” she laughed. “I’ve got gum in my mouth. The flavors will clash. You can have it.”

“What are you going to do if you keep getting these mysterious apples every day?” he asked.

Nikki rolled her eyes. “Wonder who my stalker is.”

“Or wonder who’s sweet on you.”

Nikki blushed and waved the idea away.
Coach?
She shrugged. “I can always make apple salsa.”

“You make apple salsa, too?” he asked through a mouthful. “Can I be royal taste tester for that?”

Laughing, Nikki felt a jolt of warmth rush through her. It dried her mouth instantly, and she licked her lips. “Yeah,” she said with an embarrassingly breathy voice.
I don’t want Ross thinking I’m a wanton wife. I need to tell him I’m not married—now!
She gave him a half-smile. A horrible thought hit her.
What if he’s already attached?

“How about you? Have you got someone sweet on you?” When he hesitated, she bit her lip. “Sorry. Too personal?”

“No, no. It’s just…” His eyes fixed on her with a faraway look. “You know. I have my eye on someone, but…”

“She doesn’t know you exist,” said Nikki.

“Right. Story of my love life. Captain Unrequited Love.”

Nikki drew a slow, deep breath and smiled sadly. “Then she’s blind. Any fool can see you’re the nicest guy around.”

Ross’ face brightened at her words, and he held open the door for the Biology teacher, who walked in with a tri-fold chart of
Plant vs. Animal Cells
.

“I’m glad you found someone.” He didn’t look exactly glad.

“Yeah.”
Why did I say ‘yeah’? This is where I’m supposed to tell the truth. Gaaaaak!
Fear gripped Nikki, and she felt inexplicably compelled to elaborate on the lie instead of dispel it. “It’s kind of corny, but we just enjoy spending time together. Walking, talking, cooking, watching old sitcoms and action flicks.” Ross raised an amused eyebrow, and she went on. “It’s not all glamorous or anything, but he’s a great listener and he makes me feel really special.” Her voice trailed off as she saw the melancholy look in his eye. “I just wish he was here more, you know?”
Real would be good, too.

“We’ll take care of you in the meantime,” he said softly.

Nikki clicked back down the hall, too distracted by the jumble of emotions she carried to care how much noise she made.
Why can’t all men be as easy to talk to as Officer Ross? And yet why am I afraid to tell him the truth?
She stopped and glanced back down the hall, spotting him through the door he held open for a pack of teenage girls. An image of his apple juicy lips came unbidden to her mind and she blushed. She forced the thoughts away, but they pulled her back to his laughing eyes, his dark curly hair, the little patch he missed shaving his chin…



“You would not believe how ready I am for a snow day.” Kristin slurped the dregs of her Mt. Dew Super Big Gulp.

Dusty shook his head and mumbled through a mouthful of turkey salad, “It’s not even Halloween yet, Kristin. Don’t start now.”

Nikki laughed. “I had no idea teachers would want them more than the kids.”

“Infinitely more!” Gayle said.

Nodding, Nikki said, “You may be right.”

“What’s wrong, Nikki? What’s got you tired?” asked Gayle.

“Student apathy,” said Dusty.

“Endless meetings and memos,” said Gayle.

“Stacks of grading,” said Kristin.

“Actually,” said Nikki. “Flickering fluorescent lights and squeaky student desks. My eyes and ears twitch all day.”

Gayle threw back her head and laughed. “You’re forgetting what I told you.”

“About what?” asked Nikki.

“The two most important people in the school.” Gayle stood up, cramming the last of a microwave taquito in her mouth. “Come on. Let’s go find Doug.”

Walking through the halls at lunch time, Nikki observed young love in full swing, with kids locking tonsils, saying loud, stupid, flirty things, and generally acting like giddy, hormonal fools. When Nikki’s eyes lingered on a particularly tender pair, Gayle scoffed. “It’s always mating season in high school, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” said Nikki. She tried to sound aloof, but a piece of her called out,
When will you let yourself be in love?
She considered this as they descended a flight of stairs into the bowels of the building. After a few disastrous dates in college, she had just given up on finding a respectable boy like Craig. He had been creative and funny, and the two of them had morphed from gangly, awkward tweens to attractive youth together, always seeing the inner good in each other more than the outer looks. The longer she waited to try dating again, the less confident she felt.
I’m so inexperienced. I’ll make a fool of myself.
She snorted at herself.
I should take notes on what I see in the halls in case any of it is useful later.

Gayle misinterpreted her amusement. “Oh, Doug’s here, and he’s not hiding. I’ve got one last place to look.” The custodial closet, storage room and boiler room had all been as uninhabited as the dark hallway, but now they stepped into a huge basement auto shop with a ramp that led up to the main level parking lot outside. The wide, metal garage door was open, casting a shaft of light on a blue Ford Taurus with its hood up.

“Doug, you in here?” Gayle approached the car and pointed to the feet extending from beneath it. Tapping one with her toe, she called again, “Doug!”

The custodian rolled out on a dolly. “Oh, hey Gayle!” He tugged earbuds from his large ears and scrambled to his feet. Nikki had never really paid attention to him before, but now saw that he was just past middle-aged with many friendly lines on his face. His large nose and pale blue eyes peeked out from under a layer of grime. Wiping his hands on a cloth tucked in his belt, he asked, “What’s up?”

“Doug, have you met Nikki Fallon yet? She’s the new gal in my department.”

He bobbed his head with a polite smile. “I’ve seen you around. I guess I thought you were just a really well-dressed student.”

Nikki laughed. “I get that a lot.”

“We were wondering if you could help us out. Nikki’s got some maintenance issues.”

“Ah, I haven’t been in your hall for a while. Was there a crashing fight or something?”

“Don’t you have to clean it every day?” asked Nikki.

Doug smiled like a father. “I’m the
chief
custodian. That means I get to boss the braves around while I tinker.”

“He’s got a cleaning crew, but this is your man for repairs,” said Gayle. “He’s also the best mechanic in town.” She looked at him appreciatively. “Is that Katie’s car,
again
?”

“You know it.” He gestured for them to head back into the hall. “Tell me your troubles, and we’ll see what my wizardry can do.”

They entered the stillness of the corridor and Nikki stopped, bunching up her brows in confusion. “Is that…
Christmas
music?”

“Oh, that!” Doug fumbled with his ear buds, retrieving the iPod attached to them. He turned it off. “Sorry. That was me.”

“Christmas, Doug?” asked Gayle.

“I’m dreaming of a white Halloween.”

“So am I!” said Nikki, brightening. She hummed the tune, and Doug joined in with harmony. Before she knew it, he’d swept her into a ballroom dance pose with his hand lightly on her waist. He glided with her a few paces before twirling her and bowing.

Flushed and surprised, Nikki applauded. “You are a man of many talents!”

“I do windows, too,” he winked. “I didn’t get grease on your shirt, did I?”

“She’s clean,” said Gayle, checking Nikki’s back.

They reached his closet, and he rummaged for a clipboard. “Okay, what’s the work order?”

“The lights—”

“Room number first, please.” He said it so business-like that Nikki had to pinch her lips shut to keep from giggling.

“31.”

He raised an eyebrow. “The
clean
room,” he said soberly. “Very nice.”

“The clean room?”

“Yours is the room the staff always says is so clean they don’t have to vacuum.”

Nikki blushed. “I just go through the room at the end of each day and pick up the candy wrappers. Good grief, there are a lot of candy wrappers.”

“Wait ‘til Halloween,” said Gayle.

Nikki described the room’s defects, and Doug took down the work order, hanging the clipboard on a nail. “That’ll be a snap. I’ll get to it today right after classes.”

“Wow, really? So fast? How can I ever thank you?” Nikki couldn’t believe she’d waited so long to meet this man.

“He likes brownies,” said Gayle with a playful poke to Doug’s belly.

“Ah, anything edible will do,” he said.

“Salsa? I make a mean salsa.”

His face brightened. “That sounds great. Here, I’ll escort you ladies back up to the land of the living.”

As they went, they sang and danced “Let it Snow”. Gayle caterwauled dissonantly, but with great flair, and Nikki laughed as much as she sang. At the top of the stairs, she turned a breathless grin on Doug. “I’ll see you after school, and I owe you salsa. Thanks so much for the snow dance!”

She and Gayle pressed their way into the throng of students. Doug waved hello to Ross, who had clearly just broken up a fight. “Hey, you were right about the new kid!” he called, pointing at Nikki.

She glanced back and caught the exchange. Ross cast a sheepish glance at her and then turned back to the work of talking to the fighters.

Nikki stared at the graded essay in front of her.
Oh, David, what am I gonna do about you?
Though he had shown marked improvement in class, and his attitude had been positive overall, he kept scraping the line of eligibility to play sports, and she worried that his one beloved activity would be taken away if he couldn’t get his academic act together. With a sigh, she glanced at her watch. She still had half an hour left in her prep period.
I wonder what
Coach is doing this period?

She made her way through the deserted halls to the gymnasium, smelling it before she reached the doors. Voices shouted quick commands, and she heard the squeak of tennis shoes on the hardwood floors and the occasional bounce of a ball. Standing in the doorway, she watched two simultaneous games of volleyball going on, each boys vs. girls. The groups had clearly been divided by ability, with the more skilled students playing against each other, and the beginners, closer to her, floundering, but having fun.

Will roamed back and forth between the two games, calling out to the kids. He was more inclined to correct the gifted players, whereas with the struggling ones, he just encouraged.

At least he isn’t one of those P.E. teachers who is out to humiliate the nonathletic kids.

A sharp whooping holler sounded from the far end of the gym, and Nikki recognized Sammi. Her teammates all gave her high-fives, and Will shouted, “Nice work, Sammi! One more, now. One more!”

Rather than monitoring both games, he leaned forward with his hands on his knees, watching the play intently. A girl on Sammi’s team said, “Game point,” and served the ball just barely over the net, causing the boys to scramble to get beneath it in time. They managed to volley it back, and then, with astonishing speed, Sammi bounded into the air and spiked the ball with a force disproportionate to her tiny frame.

The girls went wild with victory, screaming and hugging each other. “Sam-mi! Sam-mi!” Will clapped loudly—Nikki noticed coaches could always clap more loudly than normal humans—and shouted, “Take your victory lap!”

Sammi took off running, followed by her teammates, and they rounded the perimeter of the gym smiling rather than complaining about the run. As they neared the door where Nikki stood, she waved, “Nice job, Sammi!”

“Ms. F!” Sammi’s face shone even brighter. “Did you see that?”

“I did! A+ spiking!”

Sammi turned and jogged backwards, giving a double thumbs-up to Nikki. In the background, Nikki saw that Will had spotted her and felt her heart skip at the way his eyes lit up. Distracted by his flexing chest muscles, she didn’t track Sammi’s course and so didn’t warn her.

Crash!

Sammi backed forcibly into the pole holding up the beginners’ net. She spun and grabbed the pole in an attempt to stop herself from toppling backwards, but that rocked the net. Another student reached out to steady her, and someone tried to grab the net. A moment later, everything smashed to the floor.

A moment of stunned silence broke when Sammi raised a fist of victory. “I’m okay!”

Laughter and more cheers of “Sam-mi! Sam-mi!” erupted, and the students scrambled to help lift the pole back into place. Very quickly, however, they made it worse, and Will roared, “All right everyone. Take a lap and shower up!”

Sammi grinned and brushed herself off. “The cosmos is keeping me humble.”

Will slapped her shoulder. “Skip the lap, Sammi. Head on down and get the hottest shower.”

“Thanks, Coach,” she said. She waved to Nikki in parting.

Will and Nikki smiled awkwardly at each other for a moment while the room drained of teenagers. Left alone in the silence, Nikki forgot why she’d come. She glanced down at the net. “Need some help with this?” she asked.

He surveyed the damage. “Yeah, that’d be great. I don’t know how a handful of kids can make such a mess.”

Nikki stooped to pick up the net, and Will unhooked the ends of it from the fallen pole. “Here, pull it long,” he directed. “We can sort the knots better that way.”

She obeyed, and they worked at unwinding the twists.

“Ugh. It got knotted somehow. Do you have long nails?”

Nikki fluttered her modestly tipped fingers at him. “Not much, but I’ll give it a try.” She bent over the jumble of twine that he held and became acutely aware of his proximity. He exuded strength, and even with her head bowed, she could sense his eyes on her. Their hands never quite touched, and yet she could feel a surging electricity. Excitingly uncomfortable, or uncomfortably exciting. She wasn’t sure she could trust herself. If he grabbed her now and kissed her, she might not fight back.
Can he hear my heart pounding?
Am I really as hormonal as the girls I teach?

“Did you need me for something, or are you just an angel that seeks out good deeds to perform?” he asked, his voice warm and close to her ear.

Nikki closed her eyes, hidden from his view, and tried not to tremble at the chemistry she felt.
You can’t tell me his cologne is doing all of that!
She took a deep breath and answered without looking up. “It’s David.”

“Pembroke?” He sighed heavily. “Did he flunk something?”

“No, no. Not quite that bad.” Nikki released the final knot and stepped back, allowing Will to rehang the net. She was grateful to put space in between them.

“The kid’s amazing with his body, just not his brain.”

“Different kind of intelligence,” said Nikki. “He’ll have to be a coach when he grows up.”

“Did you just insult me?” he asked with puppy-dog eyes.

She batted her lashes innocently. “Did I?”

“I resemble that remark,” said Coach, now looking at her intently. His half-smile disarmed her, and when he moved in closer again, she felt her heart skip a beat. “It’s very sweet of you to worry about him like that.” His fingers brushed her arm lightly, sending tingles down her back.

“You asked me to,” she said, stepping back. “Just trying to follow through.”

He smiled knowingly, and she wondered what he thought he knew. “I also asked you to go to lunch with me again,” he said, his voice a hoarse whisper. “Any chance you’ll follow through on that one?” He winked and moved to put his hand on her shoulder.

Nikki inwardly chastised herself for not staying on guard.
Red alert! I’m not sure how to handle this!
“I’m a married woman,” she said, her voice cracking.

“Been there, done that,” he said, shrugging off her concern. “You can trust me to be discreet.”

Ew!
“Will!”

“And very worth your while.”

A grating buzzer sounded to mark the end of class, only partially masking the sound of her frustrated scream.



The next morning, Nikki hatched a plan to help David that didn’t involve Will Carlin.

“Robert, Sammi, can you come here, please?”

The two cast curious glances at each other and left their peer editing groups. “What’s up?” Robert shoved his glasses back up his nose and leaned with both palms on Nikki’s desk. Sammi squatted so that her chin rested on a stack of handouts.

Nikki drew a deep breath, choosing her words carefully. “I know how much you two love peer editing.”

Robert groaned and Sammi snorted. “Unless we’re editing each other, no one finds our rare mistakes,” said Robert smugly.

“What if I let you off the hook on that duty in class for the rest of the semester?”

Robert’s eyes narrowed with suspicion as Sammi’s grew with excitement.

“What’s the catch?” Robert would not be easy to persuade.

Nikki leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Do either of you know David Pembroke?”

“Oooh, I do!” Sammi bounced a little.

Robert rolled his eyes. “She has a physical fascination for the guy.”

When Nikki raised an eyebrow, Sammi shook her head. “No, no. Not like that. I don’t think he’s cute or anything. Just fast. He’s amazing! I wish I could get some coaching from him.”

Nikki’s other eyebrow jumped up to join its mate. Suddenly, her face melted into a pleased smirk. “Well, isn’t that convenient?” She flicked her fingers at Robert. “You can go sit down now, Robert. I won’t trouble you further.”

He started to go, but returned with a stage whisper. “Wait. Do I still have to peer edit?”

“Yes. Go. Sit.”

Robert groaned, but did as he was told. Sammi scooched herself to take his spot directly in front of Nikki. “What’s up? What’s up?”

“What if I could arrange a swap of sorts? You help Pembroke with English and he helps you with…whatever, running?”

“But he’s a junior.”

“But you’re the best writer I have in all my classes.”

Sammi’s eyes widened. “Even Robert?”

Nikki licked her lips. “You’d better not tell him. It’ll destroy his ego.”

Sammi grinned, her perfect teeth gleaming and her olive cheeks rising. “I won’t tell him. But thanks! So what’s the deal?”

“Let me iron it out with Pembroke, but maybe you guys can work an exchange. Can you do it without making him feel…”

“Dumb?”

“Yes, please don’t make him feel dumb.”

Sammi shook her head. “He’s not dumb. He’s just a really smart athlete. When he’s in the zone, he can do anything.”

Nikki reached out and grasped Sammi’s hand. “You, Samantha, are wise beyond your years. You have no idea how important this is. I owe you, like...five things…of indeterminate value.”

Sammi squeezed Nikki’s hand. “You’re okay, too. Just get Robert out of peer editing, and we’ll call it even.”