Spring Secrets - Allie Boniface Page 0,48
kissed her good night.
Really????? Max wrote back.
“Really,” Sienna said aloud. She turned her phone to silent and set it aside. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to leave. It hadn’t been his scene at all; she’d gathered as much the moment they walked into the ballroom. And his conversation with Doc Halloran had obviously triggered some bad memories.
But that dance...
He’d felt it, hadn't he? There’d been some kind of chemistry, something more than simple body heat radiating between them. She’d watched the look in his eyes change from discomfort to pleasure. She’d felt the palm of his hand resting against the small of her back, pressing her close when he didn’t have to.
We aren’t just friends. But she wasn’t sure how to get over the bridge from friends to something more. She yawned and turned off the light just as her phone lit up with a new message. She picked it up and squinted in the dark.
Thanx for going tonite, Dash wrote. Sorry it ended early. I’ll make it up to u.
Her heart sang all the way to dreamland.
“SHOW ME,” DASH SAID when they met in the training studio on Tuesday afternoon.
“Show you what?” For a crazy minute, Sienna thought he was asking her to flash him. Maybe this is how we cross that bridge... Her imagination took a wicked turn.
“What you’ve learned,” he said, and her thoughts straightened out again. “What you’ll do if someone comes up from behind and grabs you. We’ve had eight training sessions. I’d like to think I’ve taught you something useful. So, show me your moves.”
“Oh. Okay.” She flipped through all the self-defense tactics he’d shown her over the last few weeks. “Which one?”
“All of them.” He grinned. “Let’s consider this a review for your final exam.”
“What? No one told me there’d be an exam.”
He winked. “Ah, come on. You’re a good student. The best, from what I’ve heard. You should like exams.” His tone was playful, his mood upbeat.
“I do always ace my finals,” she said with a grin. “So if there’s going to be one, I guess I better start studying...”
THAT FRIDAY AFTERNOON, he went to the school again.
“It’s Mr. Springer!” Caleb announced when he knocked on the classroom door.
“I didn’t know you’d be stopping by,” Sienna said. She got a cute look on her face Dash was starting to recognize, a smile and a blush that he loved.
“Thought I’d surprise you.”
The smile widened. The blush deepened. He was about to say something else when one of the twins tugged on his pants leg. “Will you read to us?”
Dash swallowed. “Ah...”
“Please?”
“Like I can resist,” he said in a low voice to Sienna, and she smiled.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?”
You have no idea.
Dash made his way to the rocker, and the boy dropped a stack of books into his lap. “Here. We picked these out.”
“Three?”
“They’re short,” Sienna said. “If that helps.” She sank into the chair at her desk and propped her chin on one hand.
Not short enough, he wanted to answer. A sweat broke out across his forehead. They’re just kids, he reminded himself. They won’t know if you screw up or skip a page. But he still wanted to do it right. And Sienna was watching. He opened the cover of the first book.
“Sally Goes to the Store,” he began. Well, as long as Sally wasn’t shopping for avocados or paprikash, he could make it through this one. He took his time, trying to make sure he held the book so the kids could see the pictures. About halfway through the story, Sally tried to sneak a carton of ice cream into her mother’s shopping cart. The boys burst out laughing. Dash looked up, surprised.
“Look what she’s doing!” crowed one of the twins. He kicked his feet and laughed. His brother joined in. Silas clapped and laughed louder than both of them. Even Caleb smiled. Only Dawn remained silent in her beanbag on the other side of the room.
The tension in his neck released, and Dash finished the story. The kids clapped, and before he knew it, one of the twins was leaning on his leg and pushing another book into his hands. “Read this one next.”
“Billy, please be polite.” Sienna said from her desk. “I don’t think Mr. Springer wants you sitting on his lap.”
“It’s okay.” Sometime in the last twenty minutes, his anxiety had dissolved. “So this one next, buddy?”
The boy nodded.
Before Dash had realized it, he’d finished all three books, and almost forty minutes had passed. Sienna stood. “Let’s