Parker swallowed hard, placed a hand over Erin’s.

“I should have run away then. But I didn’t.”

“God, Erin . . . I’m so sorry.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t think I should have told you any of that.”

Parker tried to smile. “I won’t tell anyone,” she promised. “If you need someone to talk to . . .”

Erin shook her head. “I’ve said too much already.”

Yeah, Parker could tell Erin was regretting her admission.

“Three! Two! One!”

They both looked at the TV the moment the ball in Times Square signaled the new year.

Parker picked up her glass and handed Erin hers with a forced smile. “To a fresh new start for both of us.”

Erin sighed. “I can drink to that.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Parker started the new year in the principal’s office being scolded.

“I’m officially putting you on notice.” Janice’s humorless face held no compassion. “I’ve given this a lot of thought over the holiday break and feel I need to draw the line. Because mornings have routinely been difficult for you in your current situation, I’ve put you on lunch through afternoon pickup.”

Parker tried not to take her reprimand personally. “I understand.”

“I hope so. I’m not without compassion, Parker, I’m not. But we need to be able to count on you—”

“I understand,” she interrupted.

“Good.”

She stood, shook off the nerves the meeting created inside her, and left the office. Parker smiled at the office staff that looked away when she made eye contact.

Great, I’ve pissed off everyone.

Since she wasn’t officially on the clock, Parker went to the empty break room and found a newspaper. She dug out the coupons and sat down at one of the tables. Her cell phone buzzed.

How did it go? It was a text from Colin.

I still have a job . . . Barely.

Hang in there. We should be done here in about a week.

Take your time. I feel better knowing you guys are there. When Parker hit send, she found it hard to believe that was actually how she felt. If Colin, Fabio, Glynn, Russ, Ray . . . so many names ran through her head. If any of them saw a problem, they would pounce on it. Arguably they didn’t walk up to the house, but Erin was around most days and she had Colin’s number to report any concerns.

You’ve come a long way, Annie. He ended his text with a winking smiley face wearing a cowboy hat.

That’s Miss Oakley to you, cowboy.

The man made her smile. In fact, the man made her do a lot of things.

The water had receded enough that Colin’s crew was back in the wash replacing broken boards and reinforcing the metal that held them together. Foundation rocks were being replaced, and dirt was being compacted along the sides of the wash again to keep it from being undermined in the next storm. Other than the never-ending job of digging out mounds of mud that was being piled up everywhere, there was nothing Parker could do to help.

Austin only had a five-and-a-half-hour day at school that started at seven in the morning. Now that the Christmas tree lot was behind him, he was putting in applications at different places throughout town. He liked the money. Mallory’s schedule was virtually unchanged. Monday and Wednesday classes ten to two, and Tuesday and Thursday’s from one to four. When she wasn’t in school, she was waiting tables or studying.

Parker had marked up a calendar with their schedules on it to try and determine when they were all going to be home at the same time.

It wasn’t often. And would be even less so when Austin got a job.

Still, they were determined to have at least one or two meals a week as a family. Something about spending time with the Hudsons over the holidays had shown them that was important.

Parker finished with the coupons and wrote up her list with the grocery store mailer at her side. She had managed to cut their food bill by 30 percent since her initial conversation with Nora. Parker was pretty proud of that.

Five minutes before the bell rang, she made her way to the auditorium that doubled as the lunchroom. When the kids started running in, Parker pasted on her smile and accepted hugs from the students that missed her.

She liked her job. The students, anyway. Yeah, once in a while she’d have to referee mean kids, but the little ones were always such a joy. Parker kept her eye on the positive and realized this was the last year she’d be with these kids. The summer would be dedicated to finding a new norm. A schedule of her own she could count on that would actually get her somewhere in her life.

“Miss Parker, can you help me open this?”

“Of course. Juice boxes are my specialty.”

Colin loved having Parker over to his place. It was selfish of him to not want to share her, but he didn’t care.

She was on her way over, so he’d jumped in the shower the moment he walked through the door.

Enough time had elapsed from his soaking wet desert trip over New Year’s to now that he could bring up their trip to Cabo without clueing her in that Mallory had said anything.

Colin rinsed the shampoo out of his hair and turned off the water. He grabbed a towel after stepping out of the shower and rubbed it over his head. He stopped moving and listened through the open door to his bathroom.

Noise from his kitchen wafted up the stairs. “Parker?” he called.

“It’s me. I let myself in.”

He smiled as he pulled the towel over his hips and tied it in place. He was half tempted to walk into his kitchen like he was and see if he could entice her into some predinner exercise. It had been over a week since he’d gotten her alone and relaxed enough to get naked. Seven days too long. The only time he’d managed to spend the night with her had been Christmas Eve, and that had been a fluke. Neither one of them had the energy to do more than snuggle.

But he liked that, too.

In fact, it was the one part of their relationship they were both missing out on.

He hoped tonight would change that. It was Friday. The forecast didn’t call for rain until Monday. He was hoping to convince her to spend the night.

Colin wanted to wake up with her. Make love to her when she was half-asleep and dreamy in the morning. He looked down, told his body to relax, and shifted his thoughts.

He quickly dressed and started down the stairs. He heard Parker laughing. At first he thought she was on the phone, then he heard another voice.

“Good thing I didn’t come down here naked,” Colin said as he walked in the kitchen.

“Yeah, nobody wants to see that.” Matt stood at the island, a beer in his hand.

Parker raised her hand. “I do.”

Colin pushed Matt aside. “Go away,” he teased.

Matt laughed but didn’t leave.

Parker met him halfway and lifted her lips to his. He kissed her briefly and smiled.

“Matt says Friday night is happy hour around here.”

Colin grabbed a beer and joined his brother. “Yes, but normally he lets me know first.”

“I texted. You didn’t answer.” Matt looked at Parker. “He’s bad about returning his texts.”

“I never have that problem.”

“That’s because you’re a girl,” Matt teased.