fantasized about being the filling in that sexy twin sandwich a time or two. She was human.
Bristol swallowed hard, forced herself not to look at Kaden. She had to get this conversation back on track.
Taking a deep breath, she cleared her throat. “If you do agree … well, like I said, it’s for a really good cause.” Smiling, she turned toward her desk, keeping her eyes down as she reached for a Post-it note. “And I’m sure there’s one lucky lady out there who’ll be thrilled to go on a date with the two of you.”
She jotted down a message to call Bianca.
When she straightened, her eyes shot to Kaden’s face. That was when she noticed he’d moved toward her. He took another step closer and Bristol fought the urge to step back. He smiled and she forced herself to look him in the eye rather than let her gaze drift down to his sensuous mouth.
“Sweetheart, there’s only one lady we’d be interested in.”
“Who’s that?” She couldn’t help it if her voice came out in a strangled whisper.
Kaden didn’t respond, but his wicked smirk told her everything she needed to know.
Before she had to come up with an excuse as to why that would never happen, he broke eye contact and whistled for his brother. Bristol remembered where she was, shaking off the lust that had infused her blood. She managed a smile as Kaden made his way to the front doors.
“So is that a yes?” she blurted.
“I’ll think about it,” he said softly. “Get back to you.”
She was so busy watching Kaden that she didn’t prepare for the big, hard body that slipped past her, purposely brushing up against her. She told herself Keegan did it because she was standing in the path to the door, but the look he shot back at her said she was so very wrong.
Keegan tipped his hat and winked. “Thanks for lettin’ me hang, darlin’.”
“Anytime.” The word came out breathless, that very brief moment when the heat of his body had pressed against her back having made her head spin.
Heat flashed inside her as the two men headed for the door.
And when Kaden grinned back at her over his shoulder, she rolled her eyes, remembering her pledge to herself.
No way was she going to get caught up in that mess. No way, no how.
“Miss Bristol! Jessica threw a block at me!”
She jerked her attention back to the task at hand and turned toward the kids just as one of her teachers was making her way over to address the situation.
Bristol took a deep breath, added a smile, then forced her feet to move.
By the time nap time rolled around, Bristol was exhausted.
Jennifer, one of her afternoon teachers, had called in sick, so they’d all been juggling to distribute the kids without overburdening anyone in the process. When they were at full capacity, it was a tight squeeze, but she always managed to make do. Of course, it required her to get into the thick of things and help out, putting aside her daily duties.
Bristol knew she should probably hire one more teacher since this seemed to be a recurring problem, but she’d been putting it off. She employed four full-time teachers and two part-timers in order to maintain a low student-teacher ratio. Plus Renee, their full-time cook/nurse/bus driver.
During the school year, it wasn’t too bad since a good portion of her students were in elementary school. Summers usually required her to flip the two part-time teachers to full so they could manage. But it was never enough when she had one or more teachers calling in.
Truth was, she’d been hoping for the reprieve the holidays would bring. A lot of her full-time kids were known to take two weeks off around Christmas, the parents keeping them home for whatever reason. She’d been hoping to keep her overhead low until the new year. If she had any hopes of fixing up her house, she had to save some money, and that started with managing her business wisely.
As she sat at her desk in the front office, writing up an incident report for the bruise caused by Jessica’s flying block, her cell phone rang. She glanced at the screen, grinned, then answered the call. “Hey, girlie. I was meanin’ to call you.”
“I just bet you were,” Bianca Stewart, the town’s beloved mayor and Bristol’s best girlfriend, said with a chuckle. “Everyone’s first order of business is to call the mayor. Did you have a complaint,