see Ms. MacDonald. For a school year. Then we have kindergarten graduation and they move on. They grow up. They aren’t mine.” She took another breath. “It’s the same reason I’m working with Olivia Travers at the community center on the Crimson Kidzone project.”
“You’re comparing starting an after-school program for at-risk kids to sleeping with the town hottie?”
“Yes.” Erin shook her head. “No. I mean, not when you put it like that. But Kidzone will belong to me. I can make a lasting difference in this community.”
“You do that already. That’s what being a good teacher is all about. Elaina loves you.”
“She’s a great kid, but you know that already.” Melody’s daughter, Elaina, was in Erin’s class this year and was the same mix of sweet and spunky as her mother.
“Takes after her dad,” Melody said with a wink. Melody had two young kids and a husband who worked long hours as one of Cole Bennett’s deputies to provide for his family.
She pulled to a stop at the curb in front of Erin’s apartment building. Erin had lived in her apartment in the converted redbrick Victorian since she’d moved back to Crimson after college. All of her furniture was hand-me-downs from her mother. She had white walls and a shower that never got hot enough and it was all...adequate.
“I want to do more, Mel. I want to be more. Average has always been enough for me, but sometimes I want more than an ordinary life.”
“David McCay sure isn’t average.”
Erin smiled. “It was a stupid request, and I’ll have to apologize. Or maybe he’ll pretend it never happened and save us both a lot of embarrassment.”
“Is that what you want?”
“It’s what I should want. I didn’t help him last night because I expected anything in return. Rhett’s a special kid, but it’s clear his life hasn’t been easy. He definitely has some behavioral issues, but we were making progress in class. He was responding to me. I don’t want him to slip through the cracks.”
“Don’t take it back, Erin. How many women like us get a chance with someone who looks like that?”
“Says the woman with a ridiculously handsome husband.”
“I love Grant to distraction, but we’re already a boring married couple. Let me live vicariously through you and your little adventure. I vaguely remember what it was like to be single and playing the field.”
“You and Grant started dating when we were juniors in high school.”
Melody rolled her eyes. “I said vaguely.”
“I need to shower and get ready.” Erin opened the car door, the morning breeze tickling the hair that had come loose from the ponytail she wore almost every day. “It’s going to be a long one. I’m meeting Olivia at the community center after school to finalize the details on the outreach program.”
Melody leaned over the console as Erin hopped out of the car. “At least reassure me that this business with your hottie brewer has nothing to do with the jerk ex-boyfriend.”
“Nothing at all,” Erin confirmed, and shut the door behind her, never revealing that the fingers of her other hand were tightly crossed behind her back.
* * *
Erin parked around the corner from the Crimson Community Center later that afternoon and kept her head down as she moved along the bustling sidewalk. Growing up, Crimson had been nothing more than a sleepy mountain town, always in the shadow of nearby Aspen, which felt to Erin like the more glamorous and showy older sister.
But in recent years, Crimson had come into its own, attracting new residents and an influx of visitors who appreciated the town’s laid-back vibe and the myriad outdoor fun available in the mountains surrounding it.
Now the town was busy most weekends, even though the summer crowds had dispersed and they had a good two months before ski season kicked off.
She’d managed to avoid David at both drop-off and pickup today, although she’d pulled Rhett aside during reading groups after she’d watched the boy purposely knock a bin of markers to the floor, then blame the mess on Elaina Cross, who sat next to him. At first he’d refused to speak or even make eye contact when she’d brought him into the hallway. Eventually he blinked away tears and told her his mommy was going away to a place that would make her better and he had to stay with his uncle David.
Wrapping Rhett in a tight hug, Erin had reassured him that both his mother and his uncle loved him. She’d cautiously brought up the previous night and they’d talked a little about his fears and how important it was for him to feel safe.
While she couldn’t avoid David forever, a little distance might work to Erin’s advantage. A fierce war was raging between her brain, which wanted the whole embarrassing situation to disappear, and the rest of her body, which was singing the “Hallelujah” chorus at the mere thought that David might agree to her outrageous request.
Erin had been with one and a half men in her lifetime. Well, two men to be exact, but she only counted the first as a half because he’d gotten so drunk during their date that he’d fallen asleep kissing her. Talk about a blow to the ego, and her ego hadn’t been much of a force in the first place. But the jerk ex-boyfriend Melody had referred to was the final nail in Erin’s confidence coffin.
She and Greg Dellinger had dated for six months, and their relationship was fine. Fine. That should have been her clue to run away as fast as she could. She’d watched enough rom-coms to know that falling in love was supposed to be better than fine.
It had been Greg who’d broken up with her, blissfully explaining that he’d fallen in love with a woman who was beautiful, sexy and exciting. Tacitly implying that Erin was none of those things. Not a big shock, but it stung.
Maybe she owed Greg a thank-you, though, because it had been while reevaluating her life—halfway through a carton of Chunky Monkey—that Erin decided she wanted more.
Deserved more.
Changing up her love life was a daunting project, so she’d started her be-more-than-ordinary makeover by contacting Olivia Travers. Ever since she was a girl, Erin had wanted to be a teacher—to help kids learn but also give them a chance to discover all their potential and coax it out.
The same way she’d wished for someone in her life to notice her. With Crimson’s ever-expanding population and changing demographics, she was afraid that the neediest kids in the community were getting overlooked. Lost in the shuffle or with families that didn’t want the stigma of coming forward for assistance.
Olivia, who’d founded the community center two years ago, had the best of intentions but funding was often difficult to come by for free programming. Erin had outlined her plan for Crimson Kidzone, scheduled a meeting and pitched her idea, offering to volunteer her time to start the program and also work on grant writing to gain additional support.
Her friends at school had encouraged her, while her mom wondered why she’d want to spend more time with children than she already had to for her job. Maureen MacDonald was a quiet, keep-to-herself type of woman. She loved Erin and had done her best after Erin’s father died of a sudden
