Baby Experts 02 Read Free Page B

was available whenever he might need her and she loved kids. Almost everyone in town knew her and they’d all given her good references. So he shouldn’t worry when he was away from Sean. But he’d been caring for the little boy day and night, all by himself, since the beginning of March. It was hard to let go.
    “No, don’t keep him up,” he directed her. “He’ll just get cranky. If he wakes up later, I’ll read him a story and then put him down again. I should be home by nine…ten at the latest. The parent meeting will probably last about a half hour, and then there will be questions and answers afterward.”
    He knew Tessa was going to be at the meeting, too. At least this time he’d be prepared to see her. This time he was ready.
    That’s what he told himself.
    Until he walked into the principal’s office and saw her. She was standing at the counter where visitors signed in and out, where students made their needs and wants known. She was wearing a raspberry-colored suit with a cream blouse and looked like ten million bucks.
    She must have heard him come in because she turned, and their gazes collided. “Vince,” she said in acknowledgment, her soft voice running up his spine like a sensual finger. “I thought you might send one of your officers to take care of this.”
    Maybe she was hoping he’d send one of his officers to speak. Then she wouldn’t have to see him. “I thought tonight was too important to skip. I don’t think parents realize exactly what dangers crop up around the prom and the summer holidays. They need to know what to do to talk to their kids and protect them.”
    Tessa gave him a long, studying assessment. “I agree. The principal said you were going to talk first. Do you have a prepared presentation?”
    He grinned at her. “Nope. I’m going to wing it.” Then he shrugged. “I’ve done this before about a thousand times. It’s all in my head.”
    She lifted her zippered portfolio. “It’s all in my notes.”
    He laughed. That was Tessa, always organized and prepared. He took a few steps closer to her and his laugh faded. “Are you going to cover alcohol and drugs?”
    She didn’t step back, just nodded.
    Her blond brows were so delicately shaped. Her fringe of lashes was darker than her hair. Her blue eyes had always been guileless. He could smell vanilla and strawberries again, and he saw the pulse at her neck beating.
    “Are you nervous about this?” he asked.
    “The presentation? Or giving the presentation with you?”
    “Either. Both.”
    “I’m not seventeen anymore. I don’t get nervous as easily.”
    The bravado was new, as was her confidence level. But so much was the same.
    He gently placed a finger on the pulse point of her neck and could feel exactly how fast her heart was beating. “You’re nervous about something, ” he insisted.
    She could have slapped his hand away, which was sort of what he expected. She definitely could have backed away. But she just stood there, gazing into his eyes, and he realized that was worse than shutting him out.
    Because he saw the pain he’d caused Tessa…and now he knew she’d never forgive him.

Chapter Two
    “I see the two of you have met,” said Joe Mercer, the principal of Sagebrush High School, to Tessa and Vince as he exited his private office.
    Tessa didn’t speak. She still felt breathless and disconcerted from Vince’s touch.
    “We went to school here together,” Vince filled in when the silence grew awkward.
    Joe, a handsome man in his midforties and prematurely gray, asked Tessa, “Is the school the same as you remembered it?”
    Walking into Sagebrush High brought back too many memories as far as she was concerned. Although she’d convinced her father to let her attend the public high school, she’d felt alone and very much the outsider here—until Vince had dropped into her life. “It’s the same. Though the halls have a new coat of paint and the auditorium was added on since