Give Me a Reason (Redemption Hills 1)

No doubt, she’d been dying to ask me the details the entire workday, but we hadn’t had a second to ourselves. The first day of school was always chaos.

Parents late. Children crying and confused, while others refused to listen to the rules and tested just how far they could push it. Lunches were forgotten and little hearts were broken because some of them had been left for the first time.

I’d poured all my love and energy into each of them, showing them that this was a safe place. A place where they were going to learn and grow and have a blast while doing it.

It was what mattered.

Instilling hope and knowledge into the children who were offered into my care.

It was my greatest joy, the greatest gift.

My heart tremored with the thought of losing it. For this place to just be…shut down. Gone.

Tessa and I taught at a private Christian academy in Redemption Hills. A school my father owned. We had a wait list a mile long since we had a reputation of offering the best private education in the area. No, the tuition wasn’t exactly cheap, but we barely ran a profit since my daddy poured most of it back into the community.

I was proud to share in it. I helped out in every area that I could, but none of us were exactly raking in the dough.

We’d always made it work.

Dread wrapped around my ribs and squeezed tight.

Stretched thin was one thing. On the verge of losing it all was another.

The real possibility of it was what had sent me crawling into Absolution last night, even though I had doubted my meager efforts would really make that much of a difference.

But God, that stack of cash sitting in my purse was whispering that maybe I could pull it off. Earn enough to get us by until my daddy figured out what he was going to do.

How to recoup.

How to restore.

How to rebuild both his finances and his spirit.

Tessa nudged me out of the reverie. “Um, hello, Eden? You actually worked, right? I’ve been dying for the details.”

“Yep. I started last night.” I fought the flutter that buzzed in my chest. Every thought filled with the memory of the sharp angles of his face. As if they’d somehow cut in and taken hold.

Impossible.

Maybe it was a cruel side effect of sleep deprivation, the fact I couldn’t take my mind off the man.

I didn’t believe in insta-love or even insta-infatuation or…I guessed I had to admit I’d even given up on the belief of attraction. In the possibility that I could feel it.

I’d come to believe my devastated heart no longer beat quite right.

Tessa’s brow rose around her ice-blue eyes, and the freckles that matched her hair danced when she curled her nose. “And it left you looking like this? That sounds…brutal.”

Air blew from between my lips. “I didn’t get home until two-thirty, and then I was too wired to sleep. This is all your fault, you know,” I ribbed.

Anything to take the attention off me.

She gasped, all feigned offense. “And how is that?”

“You’re the one who suggested I apply there when you saw the ad, saying it was where I could make the quickest money in Redemption.”

You know, without having to take off my clothes, but the second I’d stepped inside that bar, I’d started to question that. Which was why I’d suggested…

Heat flamed my cheeks at the memory. At the way I’d tossed out dancing like it would be my own lure. Like it would sway him or make him change his mind.

Ridiculous.

Except…it had, hadn’t it? It was what had made him stop and sit back down. Now I was wondering if I was a fool for being thankful he had.

Disbelief filled Tessa’s expression. “Um…I was joking. I never thought you’d have the balls to do it.”

“I’m pretty sure balls don’t have a thing to do with it. It’s called desperation.”

“Nah. I think it’s called my BFF is a badass.”

“Or stupid,” I tossed back.

She shrugged. “Only time will tell.”

I swatted at her upper arm. “I hate you.”

“You can’t hate your favorite person in the entire world. Your bosom buddy. Your number one homie. Your ride or die.” She sang them, getting louder with each one.

I was giggling by the time she got to the last.

“Fine, fine, I don’t hate you. But close.” I pinched my fingers close.

She grinned. “So, give me the goods. Is it wild in there? Did you make any money? Get hit on? I mean, you definitely got hit on, right? Tell me you got a few numbers. It’s about time my girl got herself some action.”

I almost smacked her again, only to stop when a little boy who’d been coloring by himself at a small table came racing our way—basically saving my life because…Tessa.

He waved a piece of paper over his head while his backpack that was three sizes too big for him bounced on his tiny shoulders. “Miss Murphy, Miss Murphy, look it what I made for you!”