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“Good night, Mrs. Michaels, and please make it Seth,” he added.

“Then Seth it is, and I’m Suzanna,” she replied with another one of her beautiful smiles. Moments later he watched her taillights disappear into the darkness of the night.

He went back into the house and headed to Sammy’s room. Sammy was in bed with his tablet and playing a game. Seth sat on the edge of the bed, and Sammy set the tablet aside. “How did you like having special work time with your teacher tonight?” Seth asked.

“I liked it a lot,” Sammy replied, his eyes shining brightly. “I like her a lot. Don’t you like her, Dad?”

“She seems very nice,” Seth said.

“And pretty. Don’t you think she’s really pretty?” Sammy pressed.

Seth laughed. “I think she’s fine looking. Now you have about a half an hour more to play on your tablet, and then it’s time for you to go to sleep.” He leaned over and kissed Sammy on the cheek. “Good night, buddy. I love you.”

Sammy smiled at him. “’Night and I love you more.”

“That’s absolutely impossible,” Seth replied as he stood. “I’ll holler when it’s time for you to put your tablet away.”

“Okay,” Sammy replied as he picked up his tablet once again.

Seth went back into the kitchen, where he put the two coffee cups into the dishwasher as his head filled with visions of the woman who had just left his house.

Since his ex-wife, Rachel, had walked out on him almost two years ago, no other woman had tempted him. However, there was no question that something about Suzanna Michaels definitely tempted him.

Not that he intended to act on it. Even if she was interested in him, he wouldn’t act on it. She would remain Sammy’s teacher and nothing more, although he had a feeling the tutoring evenings with her were going to be a bit challenging.

Anything for Sammy, he reminded himself as he firmly shoved thoughts of the very attractive Mrs. Michaels out of his mind.

Chapter 2

“Thank God Halloween has passed and now all we have to deal with is the little monsters in our classrooms,” Arlan Barlow said.

“Now the kids will start thinking about Christmas, and they’ll soon all be bouncing off the walls,” Ray Stedman added.

“As if they don’t bounce off the walls already,” Boone said with a snort.

Suzanna laughed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you three didn’t like your job as teachers.”

There were a handful of teachers having their lunch break in the teachers’ lounge. Some ate lunch here while others drove home to eat or ran through one of the hamburger drive-throughs in town.

Suzanna usually got a tray from the cafeteria and ate the same lunch the students did. Today was Taco Tuesday, and so she had two beef tacos, a side salad and applesauce.

“I hear you’re spending a lot of time with Seth Daniels,” Ray said, his dark eyes looking at her intently. Ray was another man who had asked her out a number of times in the past. Needless to say, they were invitations she’d declined.

Suzanna laughed once again. “I’m spending a lot of time with Seth’s son. I’ve been tutoring him two nights a week for the past two weeks.”

“How’s that going?” Vanessa Jones asked. Vanessa was one of Suzanna’s closest friends, but the two hadn’t touched base with each other lately other than on their lunch breaks. Vanessa had a new boyfriend who was taking up all her free time in the evenings.

“It’s going surprisingly well. Sammy is a very bright, sweet child who wants to please, but we’re still working on controlling his emotions in the classroom,” Suzanna replied.

“I’ll tell you one thing, I’d take a Sammy over a Holly Dayton any day of the week. That girl is already a little snot who thinks she’s better than anyone else,” Arlan said. While Holly was in Suzanna’s classroom, Arlan, as the physical education teacher, had Holly for an hour every other day.

“During parent-teacher meetings, I told her mother that Holly was having some social issues that needed to be addressed,” Suzanna said.

“Social issues.” Ray laughed and shook his head. “That’s a nice way of saying your daughter is a mean-spirited bully who thinks her stuff doesn’t stink.”

“Have you met her mother?” Arlan asked. “I’ll tell you, in this case the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” Arlan took a bite of the ham sandwich he’d brought from home, and then continued, “In fact I heard a rumor that they moved here from Plain Point because Eva didn’t like the way the teacher there treated her precious Holly.” Plain Point was another small town near Millsville.

“I knew they were new to the area. But actually, I found Eva Dayton to be pleasant enough at my meeting with her, although certainly no mother wants to hear that their daughter is a bully,” Suzanna said. “She did get more than a bit defensive by the end of the meeting.”