Page 3 of Hold
He was tall, though probably not any more so than her five-ten. Finely carved biceps were highlighted by his T-shirt, which had the name of a plumbing company on it: Pat the Plumber. Was it a hipster thing?
He caught her looking at him. Thea gave him a small smile. He scowled.
Ookay, then.
Being offended at her looking at him—okay, checking him out; he had biceps all the way to next Tuesday, for heaven’s sake—didn’t stop him from taking a seat in their group, next to Chloe.Figures. Redhead for redhead.
“Hi!” Chloe said.
“Hello,” he said, his mouth a thin line in his beard, and reached down into his bag. He had a dark-green backpack with a BU patch sewn on it, from which he pulled a notebook like Thea’s.
You can stop looking now, T.
Chloe lifted her eyebrows at Thea over his head. Thea shrugged one shoulder a fraction but held back a laugh when he straightened and looked right at her again. At her, not Chloe.
You’re just in his line of sight. Don’t get any ideas.
The professor was at the front of the class already, plugging in her laptop and checking the projector. She was of medium height and wore a long skirt with a long tunic over it and a long, diaphanous scarf draped over that. She looked like a floating rectangle, but her smile was genuine as she took everyone in.
“Good evening!” she said in a carrying voice. Thea noted the teacher’s tone and figured she’d better learn how to do that. Then again, she was hella good at yelling at her boys. That’d probably do it.
“Welcome to the next year of your life,” the woman continued with a sardonic smile. “I’m Jeannie Havilland. Our main focus in this degree is to get you to becometeachers—better teachers than anyone getting their certificate right out of college.” She smiled at them. The bearded man next to Thea seemed to be bridling a little. “That’s not to say that you haven’t been excellent teachers, those of you who did just that. But you’re here because you want to be better—possibly to move into supervisory positions.”
Pat the Plumber relaxed. Okay, so that was his career track. But what had brought the rest of them here?
The class was more than three hours long, so they took a break halfway through. The crack of chairbacks against tables accompanied groans as everyone stretched cramped legs and hands.
“Thank God,” Zahra said. “I gotta pee so bad I can’t even look at a water fountain.”
“What do you want to teach?” she asked Thea and Chloe as they came back from the bathroom. The men were coming back to the table too, the twins and Pat the Plumber in some intense discussion that paused them on the way.
“High school English,” Thea answered. “I also minored in film studies, so I’d like to find a school that offers that.”
“Where did you get your bachelor’s?”
“Right here.” Thea smiled. “The ink’s still drying on my diploma.”
“Really?” Zahra looked impressed. “With two kids?”
“Becauseoftwo kids. Because I’d be in the funny farm if I’d sat around waiting one minute longer for my ex to come back.”
She stopped. They were all looking at her, even Beardy McPlumber, whose gaze pinned her to her seat worse than any of them. Thea cleared her throat and tucked a nonexistent piece of hair behind her ear. “Uh. TMI. Sorry.” She really had to get out and talk to adults more.
“That’s okay.” Zahra gripped her hand briefly. “You go, girl.” Then, in a gesture that made Thea love her even more, she took the spotlight off her by saying, “Chloe? What do you want to teach?”
“Special needs,” Chloe said. “The neuro-spicies? My wife’s nephew is autistic and it’s tough to watch him negotiate the world. Then these poor kids with ADHD who can’t sit still, and then they take away recess so they’re even itchier…”
Professor Havilland joined them. “That’s great that you’re focusing on special needs kids,” she said. “Though you’re all going to have to know your psychology class back and front. The jury’s still out on mainstreaming versus giving the kids room to study their own way—”
They talked for a little while longer. Thea and Zahra showed each other pictures of their kids, and Beardy and the twins finished their argument and sat down. Beardy pulled out an apple; the twins sucked on what looked like iced coffee.
Beardy ate that apple as if it had done him a personal injustice. She’d never seen someone devour a piece of fruit so fast. Four bites, tops.
He caught her staring.Those eyes, though.
Well, since he wasn’t looking at her for any other reason than that she was looking at him, Thea felt brave enough to say, “Hungry?” and pulled out another protein bar.
He looked at it, at her, and then took it. He had broad hands and heavy forearms. Not that she was noticing. “Thanks,” he grunted.