in your class,” he told Hailey.
“I see!” She smiled broadly at her new pupil. “Nice to meet you, Simon! Maybe you can show me the way to school, then. Ms. Laudin told me it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to walk there.”
The boy stared at her. “I live on the other side of school. Way over there!” He pointed east. “I ride the schoolbus.”
“Simon lives with his mother and stepdad,” Jordan explained. “But he spends a lot of his time over here with me.”
Hailey decided to feel less embarrassed about the stun gun incident. “I see.”
“Miss Laudin is a really cool teacher. She’s prettier than you, too. And she’s a Miss, not a Mrs.”
The small pout in the child’s face and the petulant tone had some alarm bells ringing. If the children adored their regular teacher, she might be in for some rough times. It might take a while for them to accept her.
But, well, that was part of the package. Part of the challenge.
“Simon!” Jordan put his hand on his son’s shoulder, gently shaking him. “You know very well that was a rude thing to say. Apologize to Mrs. Rutherford.”
“Sorry,” the boy said, with that unique expression children wore when they were not sorry at all.
“I know you didn’t mean to hurt my feelings,” she said to the child. “Apology accepted.”
The child grunted and ran away again. Hailey dug into her pocket for the rusty key. “Well, I suppose I’ll go inside and explore my new home.”
“Of course. Will your husband be joining you soon?” Jordan asked.
This was the drawback of spur-of-the-moment decisions. She didn’t have a story yet. “No. He’s…ah…he’s away. We won’t be seeing each other again until Christmas.”
Jordan nodded. “That’s rough. He’s away on a job?”
“Yes.”
“What sort of a job takes him away so much?”
Questions, questions—and a considerable lack of answers on her part. She peered at him, trying not to notice how well that sweater fit. Could she say it was none of his business?
No. That would be way too rude for the new elementary schoolteacher in such a small town. He was a helpful neighbor, a friend of Jane’s. Not good for her image in the neighborhood.
What sort of occupation took husbands away from their wives for months on end? A flash of inspiration struck, and not a moment too soon, judging from the puzzled look dawning on Jordan’s face as he waited for an answer. “He works on an oil rig.”
“Oil rig? Is that a fact?”
“Yes.” Jordan seemed to be waiting for an elaboration, so she elaborated. “You see, he’s far away. Siberia. So he can’t come home very often.”
Jordan raised both eyebrows. “He’s in Siberia?”
She started praying Siberia had oil rigs. That would teach her to do her homework in good time. “Yes. Siberia. Oil rig.”
“Fascinating. I know very little about oil rigs. What kind of work does Mr. Rutherford do?”
Hailey desperately worked at conjuring up a quick image of her fictional husband. Oil rig guy, so her preferred look—a suit and a tie, polished shoes and neatly combed hair—probably wouldn’t work. “He’s an engineer,” she said, hubby’s occupation coming to her in a second spark of inspiration. “He maintains their machinery and such.” Not bad! She smiled, proud of herself. Excellent save. A vague answer, yet detailed enough not to arouse suspicion. She could do this. Yup. She could lie like a pro.
She could lie like a man.
“I see. Well—the house should be okay. If there is a problem, you can talk to me—or call the landlord if it’s something serious.”
“Serious? Like what?”
Jordan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just reciting Jane’s message. She left some basic stuff in the fridge. And there are some frozen meals in the freezer.”
“That’s great. Very nice of her.”
He nodded. “Jane is a nice person. She told me she’d left plenty of notes around to explain everything—but if you have a problem, my number is on the speed dial.” He pushed himself away from the fence and grinned at her. He had a killer grin, though of course she wasn’t noticing such things either. “But in fact, yelling out the window works just as fine,” he added as he turned away. “Take care!”
Jane had this guy on speed dial?
And Simon adored Jane.
Hmm. This was interesting.
“Thanks!” She waved at the little boy hanging on the fence between their houses. “I’ll be seeing you in school, Simon!”
The boy frowned, but reluctantly waved back. Hailey grinned, looking forward to seeing the little guy in her class. It was natural for a child to miss a teacher he’d liked, but she’d win him over eventually.
Nowhere—she’d named the house in honor of her parents’ complaints about their daughter taking a position out in “nowhere”—was bigger and more elaborate than she had expected; larger than it looked from the outside too. Certainly a lot of room for one person. Jane had left everything very neat and clean—although some surfaces bore a distinct tinge of yellow from all the explanatory sticky notes.
The house seemed sturdy and well-built, and once she had the furnace going, it would no doubt be toasty no matter how cold it got out there. Of course, houses would need to be sturdy to withstand the weather up here in winter.
It was quiet, too, as she’d noticed while waiting outside. Six houses lined the cul-de-sac, each with a large yard. When the children had vanished inside their houses for dinner, it was so quiet she constantly heard the rush of her own blood in her ears. That would go away after a while, of course. She’d get used to the silence, just as she’d before been used to the constant whine of traffic, the pollution in the air and never seeing a clear sky. Then when she got back, she’d have to get acclimatized to L.A. again. It wouldn’t be a problem. Homo sapiens was a resilient species. He—she—could get used to anything.
Just like she was getting used to being a single woman not seeking a man. It had been going great. It was going great. She wasn’t even looking at men any differently than she looked at the sky or the trees, or that big bag of M&M’s on the counter. She wasn’t even noticing sexy silver eyes or killer grins or cute—
Nope. She ripped the candy bag open and poured the colorful contents into a glass bowl. She wasn’t noticing such things at all.
She grabbed a handful of candy and walked toward the back door. The backyard was huge. It vanished into a forest behind the house. She opened the door and stepped out on the porch, taking a deep breath of the fresh, clean air. What would it be like in winter, with a thick blanket of snow on the ground suffocating the branches on the
