they’d been dating for twenty years in a way.
But he still felt like they’d missed out on so much.
“Nope,” he said, curling his fingers into the edge of his desk. “We didn’t go to prom together.”
Aubrey’s eyes went wide. “Did you go to bonfires together?”
Fletcher nodded. “We did do that.” There had been lots of bonfires. “And we went to parties and barbecues and ball games. Our families are really good friends, so we did a lot together. We went swimming and boating and fishing and camping.”
Aubrey nodded, as if relieved. “My mom and dad went to lots of bonfires together.”
“Did you kiss her at the bonfires?” Samuel asked, his tone and grin teasing.
The other kids giggled. Even Sophia.
“My mom and dad kissed lots at bonfires,” Aubrey told Samuel. She giggled. “They still do.”
Everyone laughed.
“My mom and dad kiss all the time,” Travis told them with an eye roll. “In the kitchen. In the living room. On the porch. In the—”
“Okay,” Fletcher interrupted.
“Mine do too,” Katie agreed. “My sister tells them to get a room. But they have a whole house!”
Everyone thought that was hilarious.
Fletcher shook his head. He was losing control. But he loved when his kids were open and happy and talked lovingly about their families.
Then he looked over at Sophia.
Dammit. She looked sad again.
Her father had just passed away. There wasn’t any spontaneous mom and dad kissing going on at her house anymore.
“Okay, okay,” Fletcher said, redirecting the conversation. He really needed to remember that not all of the kids came from the same types of families. Not all had moms and dads. Some of them, like Emma, had never had a dad around.
Still, Emma was grinning about all the kissing talk.
He sighed. Being the fun teacher wasn’t as easy as he’d imagined in college. Because being the fun teacher…still meant being a teacher. Interacting with, helping, supporting, and guiding kids.
“I thought we were talking about me,” he said, giving the class a grin and grasping for his laid-back fun persona.
“Yeah, did you kiss your wife all the time?” Samuel asked.
“We…didn’t kiss in high school at all,” he told them. “We were just friends.”
They gasped, clearly horrified.
“But…you kiss now right?” Katie asked. She seemed desperate for a yes answer.
And, thank God, he could give her one. “Of course.”
But dammit, he couldn’t shake the little voice at the back of his head that kept saying you’ve missed so much. You put your hand in her panties for the first time just this morning and you’re MARRIED. You don’t know what kind of foreplay she likes, or what position is her favorite, or what kind of vibrator she uses…and you’re MARRIED.
He didn’t care if they had known each other for twenty years. They were jumping way ahead on the game board here.
“Can she come visit our class?” Samuel asked, breaking into Fletcher’s thoughts.
Which was great, because thinking about Jordan and her vibrator—or was it vibrators, plural?—while sitting in front of his class of eight-year-olds was not appropriate.
“You know what? She probably can,” Fletcher said. “She’s going to be working down at the petting zoo.”
He was shocked to see Sophia straighten slightly in her seat. She was still watching him and now she seemed even more interested.
“Who all has been down to the petting zoo?”
All hands in the room went up, including Sophia’s.
Over the summer, Fletcher had sent out an email to all of his past students as well as the ones coming into his class this fall, inviting them to a movie party that Charlie had thrown at the petting zoo. All the kids got dressed up in their pajamas and came to watch the movie with the goats. Who had also been wearing pajamas. Several of his students had attended. But not Sophia. Her father had been on hospice by then.
“That’s great, I’m glad you’ve been down there. There are some really interesting animals to learn more about.”
“I went to Dr. Foster’s class,” Cameron bragged. “I got my certification.”
Griffin had started a handling clinic out at the veterinary hospital. The goal was to have kids learn how to interact with and handle some of the smaller animals like the rabbits and hedgehogs before moving on to learn how to properly interact with the larger animals. He offered a certificate printed on fancy paper that the kids could bring to the petting zoo for special interactive events.
It was a fantastic idea really. It gave the kids experience and respect for the animals before they got up close and personal,