After dropping them off, Miles made his way back to the school, looking forward to seeing Jonah. No doubt the boy would want to hear all about what just happened, though Miles first wanted to find out how things had gone that day.
And despite himself, he couldn’t suppress a pleasant thrill at the thought of seeing Sarah Andrews again.
“Daddy!” Jonah screamed, running toward Miles. Miles lowered himself into position to catch his son just as he jumped. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Sarah had followed him out in a more sedate fashion. Jonah pulled back to look at him.
“Did you arrest anyone today?”
Miles grinned and shook his head. “Not so far, but I’m not finished yet. How’d it go in school today?”
“Good. Miss Andrews gave me some cookies.”
“She did?” he asked, trying to watch her approach without being too obvious.
“Oreos. The good ones—Double Stuf.”
“Oh, well, you can’t ask for more than that,” he said. “But how’d the tutoring go?”
Jonah furrowed his brow. “The what?”
“Miss Andrews helping you with your schoolwork.”
“It was fun—we played games.”
“Games?”
“I’ll explain later,” Sarah said, stepping up, “but we got off to a good start.”
At the sound of her voice, Miles turned to face her and again felt pleasant surprise. She was wearing a long skirt and a blouse again, nothing fancy, but when she smiled, Miles felt the same strange fluttering he’d experienced when he’d first met her. It struck him that he hadn’t fully appreciated how pretty she was the last time. Yes, he’d recognized the fact that she was attractive, and the same features immediately jumped out at him—the corn-silk hair, the delicately boned face, eyes the color of turquoise— but today she looked softer somehow, her expression warm and almost familiar.
Miles lowered Jonah to the ground.
“Jonah, would you go wait by the car while I talk to Miss Andrews for a couple minutes?”
“Okay,” he said easily. Then, surprising Miles, Jonah stepped over and hugged Sarah—who returned the squeeze with a hug of her own—before he scrambled off.
Once Jonah was gone, Miles looked at her curiously. “You two seemed to have hit it off.”
“We had a good time today.”
“Sounds like it. If I’d known you were eating cookies and playing games, I wouldn’t have been so worried about him.”
“Hey... whatever works,” she said. “But before you worry too much, I want you to know the game involved reading. Flash cards.”
“I figured there was more to the story. How’d he do?”
“Good. He has a long way to go, but good.” She paused. “He’s a great kid—he really is. I know I’ve said that before, but I don’t want you to forget that because of what’s going on here. And it’s obvious that he worships you.”
“Thank you,” he said simply, meaning it.
“You’re welcome.” When she smiled again, Miles turned away, hoping she didn’t realize what he’d been thinking earlier and at the same time hoping she did.
“Hey, thanks for the fan, by the way,” she went on after a pause, referring to the industrial-size fan he’d dropped off at her classroom earlier that morning.
“No problem,” he murmured, torn between wanting to stay and talk to her and wanting to escape the sudden wave of nervousness that seemed to come from nowhere.
For a moment neither of them said anything. The awkward silence stretched out until Miles finally shuffled his feet and muttered, “Well... I guess I’d better get Jonah home.”
“Okay.”
“We’ve got some stuff to do.”
“Okay,” she said again.
“Is there anything else that I should know?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“Okay, then.” He paused, pushing his hands into his pocket. “I guess I’d better get Jonah home.”
She nodded seriously. “You said that already.”
“I did?”
“Yeah.”
Sarah tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. For a reason she couldn’t quite explain, she found his good-bye adorable, almost charming. He was different from the men she had known in Baltimore, the ones who shopped at Brooks Brothers and never seemed to find themselves at a loss for words. In the months following her divorce, they’d begun to seem almost interchangeable, like cardboard cutouts of the perfect man.
“Well, okay, then,” Miles said, oblivious to everything except his need to depart. “Thanks again.” And with that, he backed away in the direction of his car, calling for Jonah as he went.
His last image was of Sarah standing out in the school yard, waving at the retreating car with a faintly bemused smile on her face.
In the coming weeks, Miles began to look forward to seeing Sarah after