Page 94 of Troublemaker: The Big Picture Edition

“You know that if I see you I won’t be able to keep my hands off you.”

“Yeah. I do. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

“I don’t know what else to do. Besides not see you. Or hear your voice. Or text with you, because you’re such a sexy texter.”

“I can tame my sexy textiness.”

She barks out an adorable, snot-filled laugh. “I don’t think you can.”

“Shit. Ryder isn’t going to like this.”

“I’m not going to change the way I am with him in class. I will be very conscious of how I treat him.”

“It’s not that. He really wanted us to be together. You know that.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” There’s a long pause, and then she says, “I should hang up now. Or else I never will… Okay?”

“No, it’s not okay. But yeah.”

“Please don’t be mad at me. I mean, I understand if you are.”

“I’ll see you at the end of the semester, Miss Stiles. I’ll still love you in June.”

I hear her crying again, and I do her a favor and hang up.

Fuck.

“Fuck.” I kick the metal trash bin that’s by my desk. It’s almost satisfying, for a second, when it hits the bookshelf with a loud clang. It’s almost satisfying, for a second, when I pick up the three-hole-punch and throw it down on the carpet.

But when I hear “Dad?” outside the door, I feel like shit.

“Hey. It’s okay. I just kicked something. Be right out.”

Fuck.

When I go back to the kitchen, Ryder’s sitting at the table, waiting for me. He looks like he’s expecting a monster to walk in. I probably shouldn’t have let him watch myThat’s So Wizard!episodes. They weren’t scary, but maybe you’re never old enough to see your dad as a werewolf. Even a Disney Channel werewolf.

“Hi,” I say. “What kind of pizza should we order?”

“Don’t we have to wait for Miss Stiles?”

“She can’t come over, actually.” I take a seat next to him, scrubbing my face.

“Does she not want pizza again? We can have something else.”

“It’s not that, buddy…”

He looks at me, blinking, waiting for an explanation.

I blame myself for this. I pushed too hard. We should have tried to hide this from Ryder. But I don’t like keeping a secret from my son. Especially when it’s something that I know would make him so happy. And I didn’t want to tell him to keep this a secret because that’s too much pressure to put on a little kid.

“You know how Miss Stiles has been coming over and hanging out with us since winter break?”

“Yeah. It’s fun. She needs to have more fun.”

“I agree. But the thing is, teachers aren’t really supposed to have fun with the parents of their students after school.”

“Huh? Why not?”