paired them with a button-down shirt and jacket, and he was wearing thick rimmed glasses that were just the right combination of studious and nerdy.
Oh boy, her stomach swooped as she stood there staring at him. She’d just about convinced herself she’d inadvertently wandered into some kind of alternative reality, one where Killian and Kelley had neglected to tell her they were triplets instead of twins and that there was in fact another Ryan brother, when he looked up, his eyes locked with hers, and his face broke into a wide and genuine smile.
He excused himself from the students and the parents. Funnily enough the moms looked more disappointed at his departure than the students as he jogged over to her.
‘Ava!’ he greeted as he stopped in front of her, ‘I’ve been thinking about you for days.’
He drank in the sight of her like he was dying of thirst and she was an ice-cold beer. Like before, she didn’t have a stitch of make up on and her thick inky black hair was piled up on top of her head in a messy knot, leaving a few errant strands curling against the damp skin of her neck in the heat. Unable to help himself his eyes peeled scandalously down her body. She was wearing the tiniest denim shorts revealing long toned legs, with skin the color of honey, which ended in her trademark red sneakers.
‘Hey,’ Ava’s brow rose, ‘I’m up here.’
‘Well, there’s not an inch of you that’s not perfect is there?’ he muttered almost to himself.
‘There’s no such thing as perfect,’ she scowled.
‘Stunning then,’ his green eyes met hers as he smiled.
‘What are you doing here Kelley?’ she asked in confusion. ‘I thought you worked in a bar?’
‘That?’ What? No,’ he shook his head, ‘I just help out at the bar sometimes. This is where I work.’
He indicated the school behind him.
‘You’re a teacher?’ she tilted her head slightly as she studied him.
‘I am,’ he grinned. ‘Got the scars to prove it… I teach 7th grade English. Nothing like trying to wrangle a bunch of cocky twelve to thirteen years olds into enjoying the literary classics.’
‘Literary classics huh?’
‘That’s right,’ he replied with a slow nod. ‘I do feel Captain Underpants was sadly underrated for its literary genius, but my kids are beyond that now. Our most recent read was Watership Down. At first, they didn’t want to read a book about a bunch of… and this is a direct quote… ‘dumb rabbits’, but I had them all crying into their textbooks by the end of the semester.’
‘So, you traumatized a bunch of twelve-year olds?’
‘Oh, totally scarred them for life,’ he nodded, ‘but their lives will be so much richer for it.’
‘Uh-huh,’ she couldn’t help but smile. He had the whole nerdy professor thing going on, hot nerdy professor, and god damn if he wasn’t pushing buttons, she wasn’t even aware she had.
‘I thought school was out for summer?’
‘It is, but we teach summer school and a whole bunch of extra credit classes.’
‘Oh,’ she scuffled the toe of her shoe absently against the ground.
‘Anyway,’ he smiled again, ‘I’m glad I ran into you. I’ve been wanting to see you for the last couple of days, but it’s been crazy. I’ve been covering some of the other summer classes as well as my own for the faculty staff on vacation, and I was trying to cover shifts at the bar.’
‘Bye Mr Ryan!’ a chorus of kids called out.
Kelley lifted his hand and waved.
‘Well I…uh…oomph,’ whatever she was going to say was lost as she was jerked sharply to the side. Bailey had collapsed to the sidewalk with a mournful whine, rolling over and tangling her heavy body in the offending leash, almost yanking Ava’s shoulder from her socket, as she chewed at the blue woven cord.
‘She doesn’t like her leash,’ Ava rolled her eyes as Bailey gave another plaintive whine. ‘Quit being such a drama queen; you know why you have to wear it… jeez…’ Ava sighed. ‘What?’ she shrugged her shoulders when she caught Kelley watching her with a smile.
‘Nothing,’ he shook his head, ‘I love that you talk to her like she’s a human.’
‘Yeah well,’ Ava frowned as Bailey continued to gnaw at the leash, ‘she likes to pretend she’s stupid, but she understands plenty.’
‘So…’ Kelley grinned, ‘classes are done for the day, you’re here, I’m here. Some might call that fortuitous.’
‘And some might call it a coincidence.’
‘Come on Ava,’ he reached out and tugged a loose strand of