Page 147 of Secrets in the Deep

Great. He could look forward to eight weeks of that.

He was running the sessions for eleventh and twelfth graders and would be here twice a week.

It would be fine. He’d fought some of the worst forms of humans in the world—he could handle a few teenagers. Plus, this was important. In the small town of Deep River, kids needed to know hownotto get lost in the forest. Or what to do if theydidbecome lost, including basic first aid. All of it was important.

He passed a couple of boys at a locker. They were standing close to each other, talking in hushed voices. It was only when one of them looked up that Zac realized he recognized the boy.

The kid from the bar.

The boy’s jaw locked, and yeah, Zac felt some fucking rage too.

He shouldn’t have been in that bar, and he sure as hell shouldn’t have put his hands on Noraafterhitting on her. He was old enough to know better.

Zac was just nearing the office door that read “Mr. Sawyer” when the one next door opened.

Before even seeing her face, before he’d gotten achance, that familiar vanilla hit him.

Her lips curved into a wide smile, and she shuffled the box in her hand to her hip. “Well, hey there, Pierce.”

His lips twitched at Nora last-naming him. “Hey.”

“I wondered when I’d see you today.”

“When?”

“Well, it’s a small school. We’ll run into each other a lot.”

Great.

She leaned forward, the vanilla scent intensifying, her breath brushing over his face as she whispered, “Careful in that office. I was in there the other day and it smelled like gym socks and cheap male deodorant.”

Eyes up, Pierce. Eyes fucking up.

He forced himself to look at her eyes…and not her full lips, which were far too close to his own. “Thanks for the warning.”

Her attention shifted down the hall, and even though he didn’t follow her gaze, he knew she was looking at the boys.

She raised her voice as she called out, “Hey, you both need to get to class.”

At the sound of a scoff, Zac looked at them too.

“We will,” one of them yelled back with a smirk.

Little jerks.

“And this is why I’m a schoolcounselorand not a teacher,” she whispered.

“Does the school know what happened at Trap?”

She looked back at him. “I told them when I got the job. Unfortunately, the principal here doesn’t quite have the same level of investment as I’ve seen elsewhere. He said it wasn’t on school grounds, so it was up to Dusty to handle.”

The fuck? “You tell him the kid shoved you?”

“Yep.”

Was that normal?

The kids finally started moving. The one who’d shoved her yelled out, “See you later, Doc.”