Once and Again: Petal, Georgia, Book 1 (2 page)

She did and he tried to pretend she was just another parent. And failed.

Her scent teased the air between them. Sultry and sexy. Like her voice. Full-on velvet, a throaty sort of purr that had always sent his brain, and other parts of his body, into overdrive. Still did.

Focus.
“He’s got a twenty percent in my class. He’s here, at best, two days a week. Hasn’t turned in an assignment in about six weeks. Even before that his work was sloppy and erratic.”

Her shoulders slumped just a little, but he had to hand it to her, she straightened quickly enough. She took some notes, her little black glasses perched on her nose. Her nails were glossy red. The same red he’d be willing to bet she had on her toes.

She broke into his musings with a sigh. “So give me your honest opinion. Is this salvageable? Can he make this up or not?”

“He has to come to class, Lily. His absenteeism is the biggest problem. If he’s not here when I cover the material, how can he learn it? He’s just not here. The assignments he does finish tell me he gets what he’s here for, though it’s nearly impossible to give him full credit because I can’t read the work. His writing is atrocious. He can do better.”

“He’ll be here. Every. Day.”

Nathan didn’t express his doubt in the statement. She seemed pretty driven to make it true, but trying to get a fifteen-year-old boy to do what he didn’t want to do was a lot harder than she probably thought.

“Gonna take more than a phone call from another city to get that done.” Why he poked at her he didn’t know. But the flash in her gaze thrilled him.

She narrowed her eyes at him and sniffed as if he wasn’t worth slapping. “Really? Oh gee, my plan has been foiled already.” She sent him a raised brow and he barely held back a laugh. “I moved back to Petal. I’m living with my mother and Chris. I’m bringing him to school in the morning and picking him up in the afternoons.
I’m here
for the long haul. I want Chris to succeed, and
I’m here
to see how I can do that with the help of his teachers.”

Oh. Well then. This was something he’d have to do very carefully, but if she was back, he’d have the chance to make things up to her. Maybe they could see what dating would be like as adults instead of kids in college. Not if she had someone though. Her ring finger was bare, which was a good sign.

“Must have sucked to move away from your life in Macon.” The moment he finished speaking he wished he could have sounded a little more natural and a little less forced casual.

Lily tapped her pen and neatly avoided his statement. Did he think she would just pretend nothing had ever happened between them? She was prepared to do that, but only if she never actually had contact with him. Which given her current circumstance would prove difficult.

This was the first time she’d spoken to him since that night. Nausea roiled through her belly as she remembered walking into the living room at a party he’d been at and found him kissing another woman.

Remembering that and the way she’d felt afterward was enough to get rid of that damned tingle he gave her and a reminder that he was a tool.

While she gave him her best look of total disdain, she noted he’d grown even more handsome than he’d been before. Not just handsome, but that sort of gorgeous a southern girl like herself was absolutely helpless against. Hell, any woman anywhere.

Nathan Murphy was all southern honey. He had that slow, sexy delivery. His voice had the right amount of smoke, always the hint of a smile. That sound that’d been, and most likely still was, a magnet to underpants all across Georgia. He moved that way too, took his time to look around. Always late but he was so charming he got away with it.

A cruel twist of fate that he’d turned out so well. It was small of her, but she’d wished him a potbelly and male pattern baldness a few times. And here he was looking mighty fine. She hadn’t had sex or even a boyfriend in about a year. He caught her at an already weak moment, and no matter how many lectures she’d given herself in the hallway outside, it
did
matter that she’d loved him once. It mattered that he’d walked away from it and never appeared to even care.

Still, mmm, that thick head of hair looked soft. She knew what it felt like against the skin of her inner thighs, in her hands as she sat behind him in his big old bathtub and washed it. Caramel. It was the color of burnt sugar, and it matched the well-defined beard and mustache he had now. His shoulders were still powerful as the muscles showed against his shirt when he turned to grab something out of his top drawer.

He kept talking like she wasn’t imagining him naked. “He’s pretty far gone. But here are some extra-credit assignments. I want all four of them done and I want quality work. I won’t be doing him any favors if I let him slide.”

Did she ask for that? Good gracious. But, he was in charge and her brother had messed up so it was time to suck it up and deal. She nodded, taking the papers and reading them over. “All right. He’ll do them.”

“I know things have been hard since…”

No. Not there and not with him. “He always was a crappy father. Chris can’t let our father hurt him any more than he already has. It’s not going to bring him back if Chris has to take summer classes or fail tenth grade. I’m not here to make excuses for him. He knows he’s been slacking and he knows I aim to make him stop.”

He paused, licking his lips before he spoke again and little tingles spread out from all her best places. “Your momma’s okay with this?”

“I know she’s been a problem.” Which had been such a lovely thing when she’d lived far enough away, not to be drawn into her mother’s passive aggressive ways of getting attention. The drinking only made it worse. “Which is why I have the guardianship. She’s been too lenient to try to make up for our father leaving. Chris knows how to work her and get what he wants. But I’m not her.”

Thank God. If she had been, maybe Lily never would have had the nerve to box up Nathan’s stuff and leave it on his doorstep along with a check to cover his half of the security deposit on the apartment they’d rented together. It wasn’t the way he’d kissed Alison. Her
cousin
Alison. Lily knew her cousin had been throwing herself at Nathan in the time he and Lily had been taking some space from one another. It was, the way he’d made her feel when he never bothered to try to talk to her about it.

Gah! Enough. Back to Chris and the situation with her mother.

It wasn’t that Pamela didn’t care about her children. It was that she often found it best to get attention by letting Nancy show up and complain and criticize while Lily tried to ignore it. That way drama swirled all around and their mother got to be part of it without being a target.

As their mother never did a thing to stop it, Lily had learned over her life that the best way to deal with her sister was not to let her ruffle feathers. Lily just pretended Nancy wasn’t standing there carping about something she was far too lazy to have done herself.

The only balancing act would be to keep their mother from getting drawn into it for entertainment. The last thing Lily wanted to do was mother her own darned parent, but it appeared to be what was needed. Because it was Chris who mattered right then. Not Nathan Murphy looking all handsome and smoking hot or anyone else. Lily knew she was the only one in Chris’s life who could make a difference, and she meant to do it. Whether he liked it or not.

Nathan looked back to the papers on his desk and then to her again. “He’s also missing assignments. I want them all completed and turned in. You can go online to see exactly what he’s missing. The school has a link on the website. I have a mini-site too with all assignments and directions available. If you have any questions, just ask.”

She wrote more down. Having all the stuff available online would help her a lot because she knew she couldn’t trust Chris to keep her updated.

“All right, thank you. He’ll get it done.”

He hesitated. “Lil…Lily, some of the kids he’s hanging out with aren’t going to give you any help in getting Chris turned around.”

He told her a few names and she thanked him, standing and tucking her things in her bag. She needed to go. Be away from Nathan who made such an attractive target for her attentions right then. Like that can of Pringles, he had to be resisted because he was bad for her.

She needed to keep him squarely in the authority-figure camp. He was her brother’s teacher. She was resourceful and intelligent, she could overrule her ovaries and get the job done. Pull up her big-girl panties and all those sayings. Forever and ever, amen.

She withheld her sigh at the discovery that in his presence her ovaries had the wheel and they were
not
letting go.

“Would it be all right if I checked in with you every few days to make sure he’s doing what he should be?”

He stood and moved toward her so she scooted toward the door. “Yes, of course.” He handed her a card. “My email and numbers are there. I check email each morning, at noon and then at four or so. If I can count on you and we can work together, we might be able to get Chris to his junior year.”

“Thank you. I mean that.”

“Why don’t we catch up over pie and coffee later?”

“No thank you, I’m busy.” She was very proud of the way she’d managed to sound as if she didn’t care at all.

“We used to be friends, remember?” He stepped closer and made her dizzy.

“I’m
friends
with your sister. I have enough friends.”

Beth Murphy was one of her best girlfriends. Growing up, Beth had practically lived at her house every summer, and given the situation the Murphy kids had at home, neither of her parents had ever complained to see Beth sleeping over.

But then Lily had gone to college and ended up with Nathan. It had been like a fairy tale at first. He was the handsome boy from back home. Older. Sophisticated. And really hot. Plus he taught her plenty of sex-type stuff that unfortunately she’d never found a man good enough to replicate. She’d considered him The One. It was fabulous until it all fell to pieces.

She and Beth had remained good friends, but they’d grown apart a little, especially after the breakup and then when she’d moved to Macon. As friends went, Lily considered herself to be very fortunate to have one in Beth, and it was one of the things she considered best about moving back to Petal.

Now for the thing she dreaded most about moving back to Petal. She sighed as she hiked her bag up to her shoulder.

“Thanks for the help.” She opened the door and nudged him aside to get past. He was solid and warm and still smelled really good. And she was totally sure he’d meant to brush against her the way he had. Man he was sneaky.

She’d once loved him more than anything or anyone in the world. Times change.

So close to her just then he caught sight of the flutter of her pulse at the hollow of her throat and the scent of her perfume wafted over. He imagined her body heating for him, the way his was for her. Her lips parted just a breath and he caught his own but drew her into his lungs and the shock of it echoed through his gut.

Ensnared, he drew another deep breath and barely managed to keep from burying his face in her hair. “You still wear frangipani?” He couldn’t help but smile. He loved the earthy scent she wore. He wanted to ask if she still put it behind her knees and in the hollow of her throat. But the look on her face told him that would be a bad idea.

But he was hungry for her. A hunger he hadn’t admitted to himself in a really long time. But there she stood, close enough to touch and he couldn’t.

And he had no one to blame but himself.

Chapter Two

Lily walked out to her car after six meetings with six teachers. A whole rasher of begging and apologizing and a lot of promises had been given. The principal liked Chris and believed in him, which was a huge help.

But the state was already giving them the evil eye about all the absences, and Lily had to sign an official warning saying that if he continued to cut class, he’d be expelled and have to be home schooled and they’d have to deal with child-protective services too.

That was the last thing any of them needed. The general store on Main should carry some of the organizational supplies she’d need for his room. A trip to Atlanta or one of the bigger towns closer in would be necessary to get the rest. Or she could order off the internet.

Seeing the Honey Bear, she pulled in and parked. Once she’d grabbed some carbs, she decided to hit the bookstore to see if they carried any of the books Nathan had listed for his extra-credit assignments.

They did and they had some calendar stuff she needed as well.

“Hi there. Wow! You look fabulous.”

Lily turned to see the freaking fashion model behind the counter holding a toddler with pale blonde hair and big green eyes to complement her wicked grin. That was new. Not babies, but the woman wasn’t someone she recognized.

“Um, thanks.”

Glamazon smiled, looking even prettier. “I’m Cassie and this is Meg, my niece.” A greedy little hand plopped a big plastic horse on the counter and soon, another set of big green eyes and a mop of dark brown hair showed themselves. She laughed. “Not a daycare, I promise. That’s Ward, my son. Sorry, my sister-in-law ran to grab some lunch. You new around here?”

“No, actually. I grew up in Petal. I’m Lily Travis. Just moved back. This week in fact. Is Penny around?”

“She sold the store to me a few years back. She’s married now, with two kids. Lives in Atlanta. Lily? You and Beth Murphy are friends, right? Your mom is Pamela Travis?” The brief look that flashed across Cassie’s features told Lily the entire town knew about her father.

“I’ve known Beth since first grade. I’ve liked her since third.” Lily laughed. “And yep, Pamela is my mother. You’re not from around here. I’d remember that hair.”

Cassie laughed, and the little girl she held laughed and clapped as well.

“Thank you. Not originally. I didn’t plan to end up here. But a few minutes after I drove into town, I was rear-ended by the woman who turned out to be my future mother-in-law. I was a goner when I saw all eleven feet of handsome gorgeous that was her son. Oh and look, it’s my sister-in-law. Well, more than one of them.”