LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter Three

      “You asked him to hit the sheets?” Melody let out a hoot of laughter. “Who are you and what have you done with my friend Erin?”

      Erin kept her palms pressed tight against her cheeks, willing her face to stop burning. “Oh my gosh,” she repeated for the tenth time since she’d climbed in Melody’s minivan and told her friend how she’d left things with David. “I’m nobody. I’m delusional. He’s going to think I’m crazy. Maybe I am crazy.”

      “You’re not crazy.” Melody reached out and gently pulled Erin’s hands away from her face. “But did you ever think of asking him out on a date?”

      “Clearly I wasn’t thinking at all.” Erin shook her head. “And of course I didn’t ask him for a date. David McCay would never go out with someone like me.”

      “Bargaining for sex seemed like a better idea?”

      Erin groaned. “Oh my gosh.”

      “Why wouldn’t he go out with you? You’re cute. You’re nice. You have decent teeth.”

      “Decent teeth? My best friend thinks one of my top three selling points is decent teeth? This is even worse than I thought.”

      Melody laughed softly. “Suzie and I saw the way he looked at you at the bar last night. It was kind of hot.”

      “The way he looks at a parking meter is hot. That’s David. He’s not for me. We both know he’s not for me.”

      Her friend didn’t deny it, and Erin wasn’t sure whether to feel justified or hurt by the silent validation.

      “Then why make your little request?”

      Erin thought about how she’d felt with David watching her across the small apartment. The way she’d seemed to come alive when he’d placed his hand on the small of her back. The longing for something more in her life.

      “He asked me what I wanted and my mouth formed the words before my brain could catch up. He is what I want. Not forever. Not for real. But the chance to be with him...”

      Melody sighed. “Can you imagine?”

      For Erin, fantasizing about David was akin to fangirling over a comic book superhero played by some hot Australian actor on the big screen—larger than life. He was so handsome he took her breath away, but was a whole galaxy out of her league.

      He’d probably even look darn good in tights. Erin giggled at the thought, and the fact that she had asked him for an affair. What had she been thinking?

      “I want to be seen,” she said softly. “I’m tired of being invisible.”

      “We see you,” Melody answered. “The kids see you.”

      “They 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

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