Angel of Mine (34 page)

Rene danced across the luminous room wearing his favorite cream-colored dress. Snug on top and flowing from the waist down, the silk that covered her tantalized and called out to him. Long auburn hair cascaded over her shoulder, enticing him to touch her one last time.

Caleb approached his beautiful bride and took her into his loving arms before dipping her slender body backwards. Seeking the warm comfort of her lips, he covered her mouth with his own, only to feel cold rigid skin. Jerking away, he looked at her face and found lifeless eyes staring back. Anguish overtook him, penetrating his heart.

Caleb bolted up in his king sized bed. His lungs sought relief with the morning air. All these years later, he still felt the gut wrenching hospital scent lingering in them. Blinking rapidly, he focused on his surroundings. Just enough light filtered into the bedroom through the heavy drapery hanging from sturdy metal curtain rods. Relief spilled over him once he recognized where he was. “Oh man. It was just a nightmare.” The impact of the actual event haunted his dreams many nights. His wife was dead, and he remained here, alone, to care for their daughter. Was it ever going to get easier? They say time heals all wounds, but with the heartache he’d experienced in the last four years, Caleb wasn’t so sure about that. Although he was in a much better place, the gaping dark hole in his heart still left him in agony.

Following a low grunt, Caleb ran strong fingers through his thick messy black hair. He rubbed his palms over soulful coffee brown eyes and the overnight scruff on his face. Doing his best to shake the disturbing visions he’d just roused from, he stood and stretched his back. He reminded himself that today was a new day, a special one. His baby girl, Madison, was starting kindergarten, and he had to keep himself together for her sake. She hadn’t talked about anything else all week.

Grabbing a shirt and pulling it over his head before exiting his bedroom, Caleb made his way down the dark wooden floored hallway into the pink princess room. He fixed his eyes on the small wooden chair next to the linen covered window, and spotted the ‘first day of school’ outfit Madison had picked out. Tiny jean capris laid spread out under a light pink top with daisies embroidered on the sleeves. She’d also placed her matching pink Mary Jane shoes under the chair. Rene would have loved this sight. Pushing that thought far from his mind, Caleb tiptoed to the twin bed and sat down on the fluffy comforter that covered his sleeping angel. He moved strands of her ash brown hair away from her face, and leaned over to place gentle butterfly kisses on her baby soft cheek. She loved when he did that and let out a giggle.

“You faker, you were awake the whole time.” He tickled her ribs.

“Yes Daddy but I don’t want you to be sad. You had not given me my butterfly kiss yet, so I stayed here until you did.” A silly little girl smile appeared on her rose bud lips.

“Let’s get ready for your special day, my big kindergartener.” He stood, and then turned around so she could climb onto his broad back just as she did every morning. She jumped onto her daddy’s back with her nightgown scrunched up around her knees. This allowed her to wrap both legs around his waist while her arms hung onto his neck and shoulders. Madison made her first request of the day. “Can I have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast today?”

“Of course you can.” He carried her on his tired back down the stairs with the ever-present pain in his chest. He thought anything for my sweet girl. His life revolved around taking care of her, and he planned to fulfill every reasonable wish she would ever have.

Abby Sullivan stretched in her cozy bed after turning off the Maroon 5 song that played on her cell phone alarm. Using the back of her hands, she rubbed her eyes and grinned. Today marked one of her favorite events of the year, the first day of school. She sat up, stepped onto the cold morning floor, and then slid into her fuzzy cherry colored slippers. With hair sticking in all directions, she shuffled to the bathroom to take a shower. While stepping under the water, she breathed a sigh of relief, feeling lucky to be able to get ready for this day at all. Abby was filled with gratitude that she’d survived all of the school budget cuts. Many of her teacher friends worked for traditional public schools, and some received those dreadful pink slips just before summer break. Charter schools were all the rage in California, and although she was initially skeptical about working for a school that was part of a new fad, she couldn’t be more grateful now for her decision to accept a job at one. Her growing school was flourishing with students and was hiring teachers, rather than laying them off.

Since August in Santa Barbara was still an unusually warm month, Abby wore her dusty rose light cotton button down tunic and black leggings paired with ballet flats. Her outfit was comfy but also modest enough to avoid any embarrassing views from her young students. She grabbed her purse, keys and cell phone before heading out the door of her Spanish-style bungalow. The local tomcat rubbed his fur all over her dark covered legs when she stopped to lock the door. She tried to brush most of the long white hair off, and then walked down the brick pathway toward her forest green VW Jetta. She smiled as she inhaled the perfume from all of the flower blossoms that filled her front yard.

The first destination of the morning was to her favorite coffee spot. No, not the one that sold the fancy coffees for four bucks a cup. She preferred her coffee from the local convenience store. They didn’t mind when she poured just as much vanilla coffee creamer in her travel mug as she did coffee. Abby was a simple girl and didn’t need frou-frou coffee.

Relieved the train through town didn’t delay her, Abby drove the three miles from her coffee stop to school. After claiming her spot in the staff parking lot, she walked into the school and felt butterflies in her belly. With quick steps, she headed straight to the teachers’ lounge, grabbing a couple of papers from her mailbox. Many of her coworkers hung around talking about their summer, but she couldn’t wait to get to the classroom she’d decorated the week before.

Abby sat down at her desk and started to reflect. Had she truly only been teaching for three years? It felt as if she were created to do this. Growing up with a single mom who also taught should have clued her in that it wasn’t the most lucrative career choice, but she was passionate about teaching kids. Like most teachers, she didn’t do it to receive a whopping paycheck.

After memorizing all of her students’ names over the last couple of weeks, Abby couldn’t wait to match faces to them. Noticing the time, she grabbed the kids’ nametags she’d prepared for the first week, and then headed to the gate to greet her new students and their families. She recognized some of the parents and other family members from the community she fondly grew up in, including her own mom’s friends, Grace and Robert Westbrook. They both wore cheerful smiles when she made eye contact. Abby’s mother had told her about the loss of their only daughter. Abby felt her throat tighten as she looked into the round eyes of the sweetest looking girl who stood beside them. She knew this precious face. She’d seen Grace and Robert’s granddaughter a couple of times at her mom’s house when she’d visited. The couple walked hand in hand around the mass of tear-filled families who had a hard time letting their little ones start kindergarten. Grace grabbed Abby for a quick squeeze and introduced her to the angelic child.

“Hi Miss Abby, this is our granddaughter, Madison. She will have the honor of being in your class this year.” Grace proudly proclaimed, smiling from ear to ear.

Abby promptly squatted down on the balls of her feet so that she was at Madison’s eye level and took her hand in greeting. “It’s very nice to meet you, Madison. The honor is actually mine. I can’t wait to learn all about you.” She placed the nametag around Madison’s neck.

The happy little girl handed Abby a flower and offered a big toothy grin. “Nice to meet you too, Miss Abby.” It had taken her a little time to get used to the growing trend of younger students calling teachers by their first names. When her mother taught, pupils always called their schoolteachers by their last names out of respect.

Madison looked up and motioned to someone standing by her side. “This is my daddy. He likes to play in the ocean, watch hockey and give butterfly kisses.”

Abby hadn’t noticed anyone else standing with them. She gazed up just beside Madison and saw him. Losing her balance, she fell flat on her bottom. This daddy who liked to give butterfly kisses leaned down to offer her help. “Are you okay?” He didn’t hide the concern on his face. The most gorgeous man she had ever laid eyes on was standing right above her. In addition to his looks, something about his presence immediately drew her in. How had she not noticed him before? His prominent brows shadowed his eyes from the sun, making it difficult to determine the color of his deep-set eyes. It took her a moment to realize that she was sitting on the asphalt at school, ogling this little girl’s daddy. Madison let out a childish giggle.

Embarrassed, she stood up on shaky legs, dusting off her thinly covered behind with both hands causing the nametags she still held to swing back and forth. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just clumsy.” The laugh she offered was unmistakably forced. She looked directly at his grey shirt that displayed a hockey team’s logo on his chest then raked her eyes back up to his face.

With a chuckle, he extended his large hand to shake hers. The skin on his hand was smooth and non-callused. This man did not do manual labor. “It’s very nice to meet you, Miss Abby. I’m Caleb.” Unable to pry her eyes off him, she turned fifty shades of red after hearing his deep voice say her name. He was probably used to women staring at him though. How could he not be?

Flustered, she managed to mumble, “It’s nice to meet you as well.” Feeling heat travel up her neck and face, Abby turned to give out nametags while greeting other kids and their parents. She successfully avoided his gaze and hid her embarrassment.

Abby shyly glanced back at Caleb every so often. She caught his eye once, and then swiftly turned to see the tall blonde Zuckerman twins, Blaine and Tiffany. Dread filled her entire body. Their youngest brother, Peter, had been her boyfriend in high school. Her heart nervously pounded as she searched the crowd to see if he was there too. As unsettling as it was, she was not surprised to see them at all. When Abby received her class roster, she spotted their last name and hoped against hope that it was not a child of one of the Zuckerman’s that she’d known all too well so long ago. It looked like luck was not on her side with this situation. After surveying the crowd, she established Peter was nowhere to be found. Abby breathed a sigh of relief before making eye contact with Blaine. He lifted the corner of his mouth then looked down at the little blonde boy beside him.

Blaine was as handsome as ever with his surfer-styled sandy blond hair and beaming blue eyes. He was a couple of years older than Abby and had been the star of their high school’s Lacrosse team. Back then, every girl wanted him, and he had a reputation of not being too picky. Rumor was that he made sure to spread his love around. Blaine always seemed to accept her and Peter’s relationship, but his twin sister and their parents turned their noses up at Abby. They didn’t think she was good enough for their precious Peter. Little did they know what a jerk he actually turned out to be. Scrunching her eyebrows, she wondered why both Blaine and Tiffany were there to drop off one child. As long as the younger Zuckerman brother was absent, she honestly couldn’t care less about the answer to that question.

Abby caught Caleb’s eye one more time. He gave her a look of worry, which meant that her emotions were showing on her face. Time to shake it off; life went on, and you just had to deal with awkward situations like this with dignity. Taking a deep breath, she put on a smiling face, and then announced that the families could come into the classroom for a brief orientation and Q&A time while the kids were being supervised on the playground. Not surprising, the Zuckerman boy Justin was released to the playground as the adults walked away from the gate toward the parking lot. Abby was not disappointed in the least that she would not get the stare down from them while answering questions in front of all of the other parents. Now that his relatives were no longer hovering over him, she would give Justin his nametag when they came in from playing.

Abby’s co-teacher, Melissa, got her attention on the way into the classroom and asked about her interaction with that drop dead gorgeous dad.

Abby blushed again, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Mentally shaking her head, Abby thought what is wrong with me today.