Spring Secrets - Allie Boniface Page 0,15

tear streaks and a black handprint on her shirt, but she didn’t care. Touch and contact could make such a difference in times like these.

Touch and contact.

Like the way Dash had touched her.

Okay, I need to stop thinking about him right now. But that was easier said than done.

Dawn began to pace in a circle around the room, following the pattern of the rug and then the tiles of the floor when the rug ended. She didn’t speak. She didn’t look at anyone else. She pinched her fingers together in a rhythm that matched her footsteps. She’d been better the last few days, but obviously Billy’s tantrum had set her off. Anything out of the ordinary seemed to. Sienna looked at her watch. Thirty more minutes before Caleb would inform her they had to go to lunch.

She couldn’t wait that long.

We’ll go outside. Get some fresh air. She could certainly use some, to cool off the memories of Dash’s mouth on hers. She pressed the backs of both hands to her cheeks. “Who wants to go outside?”

“Me!”

“Me too!”

They tumbled over each other in their excitement, even Caleb, who fretted for less than a minute that it wasn’t recess time. So she helped them into their coats and marched them out to the playground. In minutes, their tension and frustration eased. Sienna folded her arms against the cold as the twins chased each other around the swings. Caleb crouched next to the snow gauge, walking back to her every so often to report his measurements. Silas was content to stand near the bottom of the slide and clap as the other children came down.

The only student she couldn’t keep track of was Dawn. She scanned the playground every few minutes, but three times out of four, Dawn’s blonde braids would be gone, and Sienna had to ask one of the playground monitors. “Have you seen her? Red plaid coat, blonde hair?”

The first time, Sienna found her standing behind a tree, pressing her fingers against the bark and counting the marks it made on her skin. The second time, she wandered over to the older kids’ side of the playground to watch a snowball fight. Just before they came back inside, she walked around the corner of the school, where Sienna found her staring up at the fringe of icicles hanging from the roof.

“Honey, you can’t just walk away like that,” she said for the third time. “It’s not safe. I need to know where you are.” Honestly, she’d prefer if Dawn just walked in circles around the playground. At least Sienna wouldn’t lose her. She took Dawn’s mittened hand, but the girl pulled away and ran ahead of her into the building.

Finally lunchtime arrived, and Sienna walked them down to the cafeteria and then found her way to the faculty room. In her former school, the teacher faculty room had always featured some kind of food, either pastries dropped off by appreciative parents or leftover snacks from a fundraiser. She hoped the same held true for Whispering Pines Elementary. All she’d had for breakfast was a granola bar and a large cup of coffee from Zeb’s.

“I’m thinking about trying one of those dating sites,” Sienna heard as she walked inside.

“Really? I don’t know if—”

As soon as they saw Sienna, the women stopped talking. One brunette, the other blonde, same shaggy bob hairstyle, same smoky makeup. A little older than Sienna, if she guessed right. They sat next to each other on a sagging plaid couch, left leg crossed over the right, and looked like the Bobbsey Twins on Botox.

“Hi,” Sienna said, more to fill the awkward silence than because the women looked interested in talking to her. “I’m Sienna Cruz. I’m filling in for Lucy Foster while she’s out on maternity leave.”

The brunette gave a wide smile. “Oh, right! Hi! I’m Polly. This is Harmony. Second grade—” she pointed to herself— “and third grade. Welcome. Are you settling in okay? Finding everything?”

“I think so.” Thankfully, some bagels and cream cheese sat on a table next to a full coffee pot. “Little bit of a rough morning, but I think we’re under control now.”

“I think the weather’s getting to everyone,” Polly said. She nibbled at a croissant. “My kids were off the wall this morning too.”

Harmony recrossed her legs. “I think I’ve seen you around. Outside of school, I mean. Are you from the town?”

“I grew up here,” Sienna said as she poured a tall cup of coffee. “Did we maybe go