The phone ringing on her nightstand startled her. Rarely did anyone call her house phone and she leaned over Elec to check the caller ID.
“Oh, no, it’s the school calling,” Tamara said, instantly worried. Stretching, she grabbed the phone and said, “Hello?”
“Hi, Mrs. Briggs, this is Judith Anderson, the secretary at Westwood Elementary. Your son missed the bus this afternoon.”
Tamara expelled the breath she’d been holding. No one was bleeding. “Oh, okay, thank you. Do you know if his sister made the bus?”
“Well, she’s not here in the office, so I’m sure she got in her line and got on the bus like she normally would. Pete went down to get his art project and missed the bus.”
“Okay.” Tamara chewed her nail and sat up straighter, pulling a pillow in front of her. It was a little disconcerting to talk to the school secretary naked. “I guess I’ll have to wait until Hunter gets home off the bus. She’ll panic if I’m not here, and I can’t leave the house unlocked either.”
“I can stay here,” Elec said.
“Can you have a neighbor get Hunter off the bus?” Judith asked. “Everyone leaves here in the next twenty minutes.”
“Let me see if I can arrange something and I’ll call you right back,” she said, hanging up and turning back to Elec. “Ugh. Why is nothing ever easy?”
“I can do whatever you need me to do,” Elec said, already sitting up and reaching for his jeans on the floor. “I can stay here or I can go get Pete.”
She hadn’t intended to impose on him like that, but he was being nice enough to offer and she wasn’t sure what else to do. None of her immediate neighbors were home at that time in the afternoon, and if she called her mother-in-law, it would be iffy if she could get to the house before Hunter got off the bus.
“Thanks, I really appreciate it. Maybe it would be better if you went and picked up Petey. I think it might freak Hunter out a little if she gets home and I’m not here but you are. And I’ll just call the school back and tell them you’re picking up Petey, and that way I can tell him, too, so he won’t be upset.”
“Sounds good.” Elec pulled on his T-shirt as he sat on the edge on the bed. “Just tell me where the school is.”
After throwing her own clothes on, Tamara called the school back and explained the plan to the secretary and asked to speak to Pete.
“Hello?”
Her son always sounded so adorably young on the phone. It made her smile. “I hear you missed the bus.”
“I’m sorry, it was an accident. Are you mad at me?”
“No, I’m not mad at you, I just have to stay here to get Hunter off the bus. She’s too little to stay by herself and she’ll be scared if she comes home to an empty house. So Elec is coming to pick you up. You remember Elec Monroe, right?”
“Duh, Mom, of course I do. Why is he picking me up?”
“Because he happened to stop by right when I got the phone call from Mrs. Anderson so he offered to make my life easier and pick you up.” “Happened to stop by” was a bit inaccurate, but that was all she was willing to offer up at the moment.
“Oh. Cool. Okay. Is he going to stay and play? I want to show him my new video game.”
“You can certainly ask him.”
“Okay. Bye, Mom.” Petey hung up.
Thank God kids were too narcissistic to give anyone else’s relationships much thought. She raised an eyebrow at Elec. “He’s cool with it.”
Elec laughed. “So what is he going to ask me?”
“If you want to stay and play video games.”
“That’s up to you. Do you mind if I stay?”
She should, but she didn’t. “No, I don’t mind.” In fact, she liked the idea of her son having some guy time. She liked the idea of Elec lingering in her house.
“Good.” He gave her a kiss, the kind that made her toes curl, the kind that made her feel feminine and beautiful and loved.
Not that he loved her.
God, he would croak if he knew that had even popped into her head.
“See you in a few minutes. The school is right down the road. Just go out of the neighborhood, turn right on the main road, and once you pass through the stoplight, it’s Westwood Elementary on the left-hand side.”
“The school is that close yet it takes them thirty minutes to get home on the bus?” Elec made a face. “It makes me carsick just thinking about it.”
Tamara laughed. “You’re a race car driver! You don’t get carsick.”
“I just might if I had to ride that yellow bus for half an hour.” Elec pulled his shoes on and stood up. “Be back in ten. Five if I open up my engine and see what it can do.”
“Very funny. Make Petey sit in the back. He’ll angle for the front, but I’m sure you have an air bag and it’s not safe for him to sit there. And make him buckle his seat belt, which he should do automatically because I’ve never let him ride without one.”
“Okay and okay. I’ve got it covered.”
“Okay, and thank you. I really do appreciate this.” It was hard not to worry, but she forced herself to relax. She just wasn’t used to having help, and she wasn’t used to not being the one who had to handle everything. It felt strange. Nice, but a little unnerving.
“I’m happy to,” Elec said.
Tamara believed him. She should be feeling guilty that this was further involving Elec in her children’s lives, but it was just a ride, and she needed help.
It was fortuitous that he was there to help her.
Almost like it was meant to be.
CHAPTER THIRTEE
ELEC drove up the road, seriously glad that Tamara had allowed him to help. He knew that wasn’t easy for her, giving up control, and it showed that she trusted him implicitly. Which made him all sorts of giddy.
He was definitely falling fast and hard, and while he wanted to be involved in all facets of her life, he didn’t want to push her. But this opportunity had fallen into his lap and he intended to use it to spend more time with her and her kids.
It was odd walking into an elementary school for the first time in fifteen years, bringing back memories of disgusting cafeteria food, pulling pigtails, and sweating his way through timed math tests. He had only been an average student, and he had been quiet. No chicks had been digging on him in the fourth grade, and he remembered a particularly painful crush on a girl named Katie Sweeney who had dark brown hair and dimples. It had gotten around that he had the grade school hots for her, and she had walked up to him and informed him, in front of a whole crowd of his buddies, that she’d rather eat dead worms covered in snot than kiss him.