be dismissed, Gabriel rose. When she handed him the list of pencils, crayons, glue sticks, tissues, change of clothes and more that was the standard request of kindergarten parents, he blanched. “They’ll each need all these?”
“Yes,” she replied. This was always the ticklish part. “But if, for any reason, you can’t provide the supplies, I do have a discretionary fund….”
“I’ll see they have what they need by Monday.” His expression hard, he looked her in the eye. “Don’t do me any favors. Don’t offer any charity.”
She was stung by the vehemence of his words.
As he turned to leave, it was as if he’d thrown a switch, shutting her out completely. In retreat, the set of his broad shoulders was stiff. The light touch of his hands on his sons’ heads was gentle, but nothing else about Gabriel Brant was soft or yielding. Nothing that indicated the return to Hennings was the least bit pleasant for him.
What had life dealt her childhood friend to harden him so?
CHAPTER TWO
AFTER GABRIEL LEFT with his boys, Olivia didn’t have time to puzzle over his prickly behavior before Kelly poked her head around the door frame.
“So did you like the early Christmas present I sent you?” the perpetually cheery clerk asked.
“I haven’t had a minute to eat it,” she replied, indicating the cupcake Kelly had sent to the classroom earlier. Olivia deliberately misunderstood the question.
“Not that, silly! Gabriel Brant.” The clerk entered the room with a mischievous grin. “He didn’t want the twins split up. I could have put them in Megan’s class. She has the same number of students as you. But she’s married.”
Matchmakers. Hennings was full of them. “Are you forgetting the odds are fairly high Mr. Brant is married, too?”
“Oh, no,” Kelly countered. “On the registration form he left the space for the twins’ mother blank. I’m assuming he’s unattached.”
“That’s a pretty dangerous assumption.”
It wasn’t that Olivia wasn’t looking for love. Her aunt Lydia, the town librarian for many years, had raised her on a diet of fairy tales and adventure stories. Princesses in towers and princes on stallions. And happily ever after. They were the same tales she shared with her kindergarteners. Only now she occasionally changed the endings to have the princess do the saving.
“And you seem to forget,” she added, “he’s the parent of my two newest students. There must be a clause in my contract prohibiting a teacher from entering into a relationship with a parent.”
“No. You can’t date an administrator. And you can’t engage in public lewdness. Otherwise, what you do in private is pretty much your own business.”
Olivia slipped her arm around Kelly’s shoulders. “I’ll cut you some slack because this is your first year in the system. But FYI, the written rules and the unwritten rules can be poles apart.” She didn’t want to sound like a prude, but ten years’ experience had taught her that teachers were still considered the most public of public servants. And single teachers? Their extracurricular activities were always scrutinized. “Besides, you’re kind of jumping the gun, aren’t you? Married or not, the guy just walked through the door.”
Kelly shrugged. “The early bird, and all that. Hey, maybe he’s separated. Maybe he needs a soft shoulder to lean on.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
None of Kelly’s musings answered the question of Gabriel Brant’s marital status. He did have two sons. At some point there must have been, or else there still was, a significant other in the picture. Quite frankly, Aunt Lydia’s lovely fairy-tale fantasies—and fantasies they were—made it hard to settle for anything less than magic. Olivia did know one thing with certainty, however. There was no fairy dust on affairs with married men.
“Well, what are you going to do?” Kelly pressed.
“What I’m going to do,” she replied, “is catch a late lunch, then come back and straighten up this classroom. Want to join me for a bowl of chili at the diner?”
“I’d love to, but Don’s parents are driving in tonight. If I don’t get home and run a vacuum cleaner and a dust cloth around the house before then, his mother will drop not-so-subtle hints all weekend about my housekeeping skills. As if her only child and heir apparent shouldn’t share the responsibility.”
“As if you had nothing better to do with your time. Just how many are you having for dinner tomorrow?”
“Eleven. So one more wouldn’t cause any more stress. You know you can change your mind and join us.”
“Thanks.” Olivia was tempted. “But the Meals on Wheels volunteers count on us holiday subs.” And the elderly they served counted on a smiling face and a little company on a day when they knew others would be inundated with friends and family. Olivia understood the feeling. “And the diner’s doing the turkey dinners this year. At the end of my shift, I get take-home. Marmaduke will see that I don’t go hungry.”
“If you say so. But you can always stop by for dessert.”
“I might do that. Just to run a white glove over your dusted surfaces.”
“Don’t encourage my mother-in-law.”
When Kelly left, Olivia put on her coat, scarf and gloves. She couldn’t find her hat, and she wondered whether one of her students had worn it home. Finally giving up the search, she headed for the diner, not a block from the school. The biting air made her wrap her scarf more tightly around her neck. Although the temperatures had been right for the season, there was still no sign of snow. A big disappointment, in Olivia’s mind. What were the holidays without snow? The skeletal tree limbs arching overhead appeared downright spooky, as if Halloween still lurked. The branches needed at least a light dusting to flip the calendar to the appropriate page. This is the famous New York snow belt, she silently reminded the leaden sky. So produce!
She pushed through the diner’s doorway into the crowded and steamy interior. “Olivia!” several people called out as she made her way to an empty stool at the counter. Ignatz, the ancient cook, winked at her from his side of the pass-through.
“The usual?” Maggie, one of two midday waitresses, asked from behind the counter, her Christmas bell earrings tinkling cheerily.
“Yes, please.” Although, suddenly, Olivia wanted something unusual. It was such a strange and overwhelming sensation. A craving. An itch. A nameless longing. For something she’d never experienced before. She couldn’t even tell if what she wanted was food or something bigger. Some adventure right out of a genie’s lamp.
But what she got was chili and a large glass of milk.
“Thanks, Maggie.” The odd feeling lingered as familiar voices around Olivia hummed in conversation.
“Who knows what your usual will taste like come Monday,” Maggie said. “Ignatz’s last shift is Saturday.”
“That reminds me, I have a little retirement present for him. I’ll bring it by Saturday afternoon. So
