finalized, and her mother had told her Gavin had signed and returned the divorce papers already.
Suddenly feeling awkward, Grace was relieved to see Kat walking up to them. She waved. “Kat!”
Kat smiled, returning the wave. Today she wore a blue dress with boots, her lipstick a shade of fuchsia that only she could pull off.
But Grace’s attention was snagged when she saw Gavin stiffen as Kat approached. Kat didn’t look at him, either, but instead focused her attention on Emma.
“Hey Emma,” she said, “how’s your spring break going?”
Emma shifted on her feet. “Okay,” she murmured at her feet.
“You want to go get some funnel cake with me? I know I can’t eat an entire one myself.”
Emma nodded. Gavin seemed intent on not looking at Kat, which Grace found rather amusing.
Seeing that Jaime had finished his presentation, Grace said to no one in particular, “I’ll let you guys go get that funnel cake.”
“Bye, Grace,” Kat said as Grace walked away.
Jaime was cleaning up his station, but when she approached, he stopped and embraced her. He kissed her lightly, and she smiled.
“What was that for?” She looked up at him.
“Because I wanted to. Besides, you look so pretty today. And if I’m lucky, maybe we’ll get some time alone so I can show just how pretty I think you are.”
She blushed and laughed. “You’re ridiculous.” But instead of pulling away, she twined her arms around his neck and murmured, “Do you think you have time right now?”
His eyes gleamed. Before she could protest, he picked her up as she shrieked with laughter, taking her away to show her exactly what he’d meant.
Kat knew about a lot of things: she knew computers, she knew video games, she knew French, she knew how to fix a flat tire. She knew her Periodic Table, she knew how to diagram a sentence. She collected information like a bird, using it to build her mental nest, although the nest was never finished. You could never stop learning, never stop discovering.
But as she stood next to Gavin Danvers—grim, taciturn, tall, dark and handsome Gavin Danvers—she had no wealth of knowledge to understand why he affected her so much. He wasn’t even touching her, but simply having him stand next to her was enough to put her on alert, like an electrical buzzing through her veins. She gripped her bag tighter, like it could keep her from disintegrating into a pile of mush at his feet.
“Here you go.” The man across the counter handed her a huge plate of funnel cake covered in powdered sugar.
Gavin paid for the cake, and then ushered Emma over to an open spot on the field, where people were having pseudo-picnics. Kat wished she hadn’t worn a dress, but she squatted down in the grass as best she could without flashing anyone.
Gavin seemed to notice her awkwardness, but as per usual, he said nothing. A man of very few words, really. She had no idea if he thought of her as just Emma’s teacher or as a woman or if he even knew her name. When she’d first met him back in December, he’d looked at her like he’d wanted to know her name. But ever since, he’d barely spoken two words to her.
Emma sat between them, devouring the funnel cake. The young girl was one of her brightest students, but she was also painfully shy and had yet to make any friends her age. Kat felt for her: she’d been that way as a young girl. It wasn't until she’d reached adulthood that she’d begun to come out of her shell, although sometimes the shyness would return without warning.
Like now. Kat felt stupidly, obnoxiously shy around Gavin. She couldn’t look at him, and she couldn’t say anything beyond, “this is good” in reference to the funnel cake. And Gavin wasn’t chatty, either, so they all sat there, silently eating the funnel cake like their lives depended on it.
But before long the cake disappeared, and Emma, restless and bored, jumped up to go collect flowers some yards away. Gavin told her not to wander too far, and he kept a careful eye on her as she gathered blue bachelor buttons and black-eyed Susans.
Kat was never like this around men. Men were easy. You smiled at them, you talked to them, you asked them questions about themselves. They in turn flirted with you, maybe touched you a little, and if things went well, you’d get a kiss and maybe a night’s worth of fun. Kat