tried not to look at her, but it was impossible. Even his children were acting as if they’d known her their entire lives.
He knew he should be happy. A teacher who could make his children light up like that should be commended. But there was something about her that worried him.
Because there was no going back from this. If she left, then...it wasn’t even worth thinking about.
All he could do was get to know her and make sure he did everything within his power to convince her to stay.
He cleared his throat and passed her the first sausage, which she covered with lashings of ketchup.
If only he could stop staring at the way her mouth had a permanent uptilt, the way her eyes lit up every time she spoke or listened to his children or the way her ponytail fell over her shoulder and brushed so close to her breasts that he was struggling to avert his eyes. Because none of those things were going to help him.
Just because he hadn’t been around a beautiful woman for longer than he could remember didn’t give him any excuse to look at her that way. Besides, he was sworn off women...for life.
“So what do I need to know about Bellaroo?”
Harrison blinked and looked at Poppy, her head tipped slightly to the side as she looked up at him.
“What do you want to know?”
* * *
Poppy wrapped Alex’s sausage in bread before doing her own and joining them on the grass. It was parched and yellowed and in definite need of some TLC, but she didn’t mind sitting on it. Besides, it was either that or the concrete, so she didn’t really have a choice.
“So what’s happened to this place? I mean, is it just that too many families moved away from here, or is there something else going on that I don’t know about?” she asked Harrison.
He was chewing, and she watched the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, the strong, chiseled angle of his jaw as he swallowed.
She needed to stop staring. For a girl who’d moved here to get away from men, she sure wasn’t behaving like it.
“Are you asking me if the town is haunted? Or if some gruesome crime happened here and made all the residents flee?”
Harrison’s tone was serious, but there was a playful glint to his eyes that made her glare at him mockingly.
“Well, I can tell you right now that I searched the place online for hours but couldn’t come up with anything juicy,” she teased in return. “So if it’s been hidden that well, I guess I can’t expect you to spill your guts straight off the bat.”
Now it was Harrison laughing, and she couldn’t help but smile back at him. His face changed when he was happy—became less brooding and more open. He was handsome, she couldn’t deny, but when he grinned he was...pretty darn gorgeous. Even if she did hate to admit that about a man right now.
“Honest truth?”
Poppy nodded, following his gaze and watching his children as they whispered to each other, leaning over and looking at something in the long grass.
Harrison drew his knees up higher and fixed his gaze in the distance. “It’s hard to bring fresh blood into rural towns these days, and most of the young people that leave here don’t come back. Same with all small towns.” He glanced at her, plucking at a blade of grass. “I’ve stayed because I don’t want to walk away from the land that’s been in my family for generations. It means something to know the history of a place, to walk the same path as your father and your grandfather before him. This town means a lot to me, and it means a lot to every other family living here, too.”
Poppy nodded. “Everyone I’ve met so far seems so passionate about Bellaroo,” she told him earnestly. “And I really do believe that if you fight hard enough, then this town will still be here by the time you’re a grandfather.”
He shrugged. “I wish I was as positive as you are, but honestly?” Harrison sighed. “I never should have spoken to you the way I did earlier, because if you don’t stick around, then there’s no chance we’ll be able to keep our school open. And that’ll mean the end of our town, period.” He blew out a big breath. “Being sole-charge teacher to a bunch of five-to eleven-year-olds isn’t for the fainthearted, but if you do stay? There won’t be a person in Bellaroo who won’t love you.”
Now it was Poppy sighing. Because she didn’t need all this pressure, the feeling that everything was weighing on her shoulders.
Before she’d moved here, she’d taken responsibility for everything, had tried to fix things that were beyond being repaired. And now here she was all over again, in a make-or-break situation, when all she wanted to do was settle in to a gentler pace of life and try to figure out what her own future held.
“Sorry, I’ve probably said way too much.”
Poppy smiled at Harrison’s apology. “It’s okay. I appreciate you being honest with me.”
The kids ran over and interrupted. “Can we go back and finish the room?”
“Of course.” Poppy stood up and offered Harrison a hand, clasping his palm within her fingers. She hardly had to take any of his weight, because he was more than capable of pushing up to his feet without assistance. But the touch of his skin against hers, the brightness of his gaze when he locked eyes with her, made her feel weak, started shivers shaking down her spine.
“How about I join you in the classroom after I’ve tidied up here?”
Poppy retrieved her hand and looked away, not liking how he was watching her or how she was feeling. “Sure thing. Come on, kids.”
She placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder and walked with them the short distance to her new classroom.
Their dad was gruff and charming at the same time, and it wasn’t something she wanted to be thinking about. Not at all.
She was here to teach and to find herself. To forget her past as best she could and create a new life for herself. Alone.
Which meant not thinking about the handsome rancher about to join her in her classroom.
* * *
“Wow.”
Poppy looked down, paper stars between her teeth as she stood on a chair and stuck the last of them to the wall. There was already a row strung from the ceiling, but she was determined to cover some old stains on the wall to complete the effect she was trying to create.
“Your children are like little worker bees,” she mumbled, trying to talk without losing one of the stars.
“Little worker bees who’ve started to fade,” he replied.
Poppy glanced back in his direction and saw that he’d scooped Alex up into his arms. The young boy wasn’t even pretending he was too big to be cuddled, and had his head happily pressed to his father’s chest as he watched her.
“It’s getting pretty late. Why don’t you head home? I’ll be fine here.” She wobbled
