LITMIR.BIZ

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      She wasn’t sure how she made it through the day, but when the bell sounded at three o’clock, Ashley nearly wept with relief.

      It took a few more minutes, of course, to ensure all the kids had their agendas and the assortment of documents that always went home on the first day. But the halls eventually emptied and quiet descended, and Ashley sank back into her chair.

      “One day down, only one hundred and eighty-something to go.”

      Ashley looked up, startled to see her sister in the doorway. Megan rarely ever came to the school to see Ashley, and the fact that she’d done so now indicated that she had something on her mind.

      “One hundred and eighty-six,” Ashley told her. “But what dragged you out of the lab in the middle of the day?”

      Megan practically floated into the room. She wasn’t usually the floating type, but she was obviously excited about something so Ashley tried to muster some enthusiasm for her.

      “I had an appointment this side of town.” Megan came further into the room, some of the sparkle in her eyes fading as she looked more closely at her sister. “But let’s talk about what’s going on with you first.”

      Ashley shook her head. She couldn’t talk about it. She didn’t know what to say, how to explain.

      “Come on, Ash. You love the first day of school. I thought you’d be ready to go out and celebrate the beginning of a new year with a great big chocolate fudge brownie sundae at Walton’s.”

      “Let’s just say that the day didn’t go exactly as planned.”

      “I don’t understand.”

      She sighed and pushed her class list across the desk. Megan picked up the page, frowning. Then her eyes widened.

      “Madeline Carrington-Turcotte?”

      Ashley nodded. “Cam’s daughter.”

      “Oh, Ash.”

      “She’s beautiful,” she said softly. “And very sweet and shy. She doesn’t say much, but she watches and she listens, her big green eyes taking everything in.”

      “Of all the classrooms in all the schools in all the world, she walks into yours.”

      Ashley managed to smile at the deliberate misquotation. “I just … I didn’t know how to react. I was completely unprepared. I had no idea that he had a child, never mind one I would end up teaching.”

      “But he lives down the street,” Megan reminded her. “You never saw her?”

      She shook her head. “He only moved in on the weekend. I saw the truck, saw furniture being unloaded, but I didn’t pay attention to anything else.” And she was regretting that now.

      “Chocolate fudge brownie sundae?” Meg prompted gently.

      Ashley managed to smile. “That sounds like the perfect way to end a crappy day.”

      One of the reasons Cam had moved back to Pinehurst was to be able to spend more time with both his parents and his daughter. Another added benefit was that his parents were not just willing but happy to provide after-school care for Maddie on the days that he couldn’t get away from the office in time to pick her up. But he refused to let her first day of school be one of those days, and when she came racing across the grass and into his arms, he was more certain than ever that this move was the best thing for both of them.

      He felt a slight twinge when he recalled the shock—and the pain—he’d seen in Ashley’s eyes when she saw him with Madeline that morning, and he realized the first-grade teacher might not agree. But he refused to worry about that while he walked home, hand in hand with his daughter, listening to her animated conversation the whole way.

      He remembered her kindergarten teacher expressing concern that Maddie was too quiet in class, silent and withdrawn. But Cam knew it wasn’t a character flaw, just her personality. She’d always been shy with strangers, but at home and with her family, she was quite the little chatterbox.

      “Do you want a snack?” he asked.

      “Ice cream,” she said hopefully, hopping onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar.

      “We don’t have any.”

      She pouted. “You promised to get ice cream.”

      “I know I did, but I forgot.”

      His admission of guilt didn’t appease her and though Cam knew the dangers of being over-indulgent, he figured the first day at a new school warranted an exception to the rules.

      “So why don’t you go wash up and we’ll go to Walton’s?”

      “Who’s Walton?”

      He smiled. “Walton isn’t a who but a where, and it’s where we go to get the very best ice cream in all of Pinehurst, New York.”

      “Really?” Her eyes were almost as wide as her smile.

      “Really.”

      She hopped off of her stool and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thanks, Daddy. You’re the best.”

      Twenty minutes later, he handed a strawberry sundae to Maddie before accepting his double scoop of butter pecan from the teenager behind the counter and turned to look for a vacant table. A quick glance around the room revealed that there weren’t any.

      “There’s my teacher, Daddy.”

      Maddie’s words registered at the exact moment his gaze landed on Ashley, seated with her sister at a table for four on the other side of the room.

      “Her name’s Miss Ashley,” his daughter reminded him.

      Cam nodded.

      “She’s very pretty,” Maddie said. “And she smiles a lot and she doesn’t yell. Not even when the skinny boy with the curly hair forgot to ask to go to the bathroom and went pee right in his pants.”

      His lips curved. “Not even then?”

      Maddie shook her head solemnly.

      “So maybe first grade won’t be so bad, huh?”

      “Maybe,” she allowed. “But it’s really too soon to tell.”

      He was smiling at her comment as he guided her toward Ashley and Megan’s table.

      “Looks like someone else decided to celebrate the first day of school with ice cream,” Ashley noted, her attention and smile focused on Madeline.

      “It seemed appropriate,” Cam said.

      “We thought the same thing,” Megan said, when Ashley failed to respond to his comment.

      “But there don’t seem to be any vacant tables,” he pointed out. “So we were hoping you wouldn’t object to us joining you.”

      “Of course not,” Megan said, though she cast a worried glance across the table.

      Ashley still didn’t say anything to him, but she slid across the bench she was sitting on to make room for his daughter. Maddie smiled shyly at her and carefully set her dish on the table before climbing up beside her teacher.

      “Thanks,” Cam said, taking the seat beside Megan. “I don’t remember it ever being so busy in here.”

      “A lot changes in twelve years,” Ashley told him.

      He met her gaze across the table and felt the zing of sparks that weren’t entirely attributable to her obvious annoyance with him.

      “And some things,” he countered, “never do.”

      Ashley ate her chocolate fudge brownie sundae so fast she was surprised she didn’t get brain freeze. But from the moment she’d looked up and spotted Cam in line at the counter, she’d wanted only to get out of Walton’s as quickly as possible.

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