A Mate's Bite

12

“Sweetheart?”

She met his gaze. There was that worried look on him again. “Yes?”

“You know I’m with you all the way in this, right?”

Was he? She’d seen her mother give her father three children only to have to beg him to spend time with her and them. Then she saw it again with every man in her mother’s life. It got so bad her mother would buy them whatever they wanted to see if they’d show her the love they promised, but it was useless. Men were good at saying what women wanted to hear. She’d rather see it in actions. As it was, Nate had spent too little time with her for her to know how much he was willing to take on.

“We’ll see,” she answered. It frustrated her how he expected her to just take his word for it like they had any type of history. As far as she was concerned all Nate had done was flirt with her and give her great orgasms. Other than that she had very little to go on.

“You,” he cupped her cheek with one hand before bringing it down to rest on her belly, “and he or she, are my priorities. Don’t doubt it for a second.”

She had a hard time swallowing past the knot in her throat. He’d said that with certainty. And the look on his face—committed, was exactly one of the things she’d hoped for. Then why was she having so many doubts? Because she’d always seen the opposite in her family. Years of living among lies tended to have that effect. Men promised her mother the world and never delivered.

“I need to go to work.”

“Good morning, Karla.”

She turned to the sound of her name. Charles Cooper, her co-worker and physical education teacher stood by the coffee machine in the teacher’s lounge. He was the newest teacher at her school and seemed like a nice guy. She strolled inside and put her bag on one of the chairs by the door. Charlie smiled wide, showing off the gap between his two front teeth. He flicked a non-existent speck of dust off his sweat shirt. She focused on the lines of his sweat suit. It appeared to be pressed. Who the heck pressed sweats? If it were up to her, she’d buy wrinkle-free everything to never have to iron. Thank God for dry cleaners.

“Good morning, Charlie.” She grinned and grabbed the cup of coffee he held out to her. She shouldn’t drink coffee. Nate had casually mentioned it wasn’t good for pregnant women as she walked out the door. She was pretty sure he was the reason behind her missing coffee.

The young teacher had made several attempts at asking her out, but she’d never been attracted to him like that. Besides, she couldn’t fathom being with any other man that wasn’t Nate Wolfe.

“Do you have any plans for vacation?” He asked, leaning into the round table in the center of the room.

The last thing she’d thought of was vacation. If she was lucky, she’d get some much needed rest and probably figure out how to turn her guest room into a nursery. “I think I’m going to stay home.”

She glanced down at the coffee he’d given her, but thinking of Nate’s words made her desire for it to suddenly disappear. What she really wanted was to take a nap.

“Well, if you’re interested,” he threw his empty cup in the trash bin, “I have a friend who owns a condo down in Miami. He’s going to be overseas for the summer and offered to let me use it. If you wanted…”

“I’m sorry, Charlie. We’ve already had this conversation. I really like you, as a friend.” She tried to be gentle in letting him down again. He wasn’t a bad guy, just not the guy for her.

“That’s fine. Take your time to think about it. Anyway, there’s also a Broadway show coming to the Blue Creek area in a few days. I know you and Jordan have spoken of wanting to see one, and if you’d like, I can get the three of us tickets.”

“Let me discuss it with Jordan and see what she thinks,” she mumbled, not wanting to reject the poor guy two times in a row.

She took some steps forward, dumped the coffee in the sink, and marched toward the trash bin to get rid of the empty cup. In a flash of movement, her foot stepped in a slick spot on the floor. The coffee cup went flying, and her body hurled toward the ground.

Charlie rushed forward, enveloping her in his arms before she had a chance to fall on her ass. “I got you!”

She clung to him, waiting for her heartbeat to slow down and the shaking that made her knees weak to subside.

“Thank you.” She cleared her throat and tried to pull away from the awkward hug. “Thanks for not letting me fall.”

Charlie’s gaze locked on her lips. “Karla, I—”

“Good morning,” Ellie and Jordan called from the entrance.

Karla jerked out of his hold as if she’d been bitten by a snake. “Thanks again, Charlie.”

He nodded. “We can chat another time.”

She rushed out of the teachers’ lounge. Jordan and Ellie grinned.

“Hm…what did we miss?” Jordan asked, waggling her brows.

“I almost fell on my face, and he caught me.”

“Looked to me like he was about to make a move on you,” Ellie joked. “I’ll have to make sure my brother steps up his game so the PE teacher doesn’t steal his woman.”

Karla rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay.”

“Charlie likes Karla,” Jordan taunted and made kissy faces.

“Yeah, well, he’s better off liking someone else,” she grumbled.

Ellie laughed and hugged Karla to her side. “Relax, hon. He’ll get the picture soon enough. Besides, he’s not a bad guy, just young.”

“And in love with Ms. Alves,” Jordan whispered.

“Shh!” Heat crowded Karla’s cheeks. Thank goodness they arrived way before any of the other teachers or she’d never live down the embarrassment.