Mission For Love (Love By Design 6)

“Hello David. I’m Kiara. I live in town at an undisclosed location.”

He snorted and muttered, “Hello, faculty directory.”

“Alright, stalker. I’m extremely close with my family. I enjoy working out daily and coffee is okay.”

He clutched his chest. “I’m wounded, and hurt by that. But I’m learning so much about you.”

I leaned in, “I value my privacy. I’m in my third year of teaching and up for tenure. I take my job seriously and I don’t date. My girls have a shot at the regional championship and nothing is going to distract me from getting them there.”

He hummed frowning. “Noted.”

“I am sorry. Maybe after the winter quarter before spring sports start up again.” It was a weak offer and we both knew it, of course David had no issues calling me out on it.

“I know I might be rusty in the actual dating department,” He air quoted, “but do guys typically hang around for months like that?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t had one yet take the challenge.”

We both eyed each other up when he spoke again. “Well, boot camp almost killed me, so I don’t see how this will be different.”

His voice sounded resigned and encouraging him under false pretenses had not been my plan at all.

“You say that like this is happening, and it’s not.”

He shrugged. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I asked.

“I’ll keep pretending to not be a creepy IT dude who has access to all your information at my fingertips respecting that pearl clutching privacy you demand, and you can pretend that this isn’t happening.”

David Easton was out of his mind or he’d been hit too hard with a football as a kid, but either way, I found his persistence endearing. I somehow knew he wasn’t going to look up my personal information because if what he said was true about his IT skills then it didn’t matter anyway. I felt safe with him on Saturday after crazy sex and that hadn’t change today on the field, or now at dinner.

“Okay.” I drawled unsure of how we got to this place in the conversation when the waitress came over with two milk shakes. One vanilla and one chocolate.

David smirked. “I didn’t want to presume anything, but nobody says no to a milkshake unless their looney tunes.”

He made a fair point.

11

David

It was called a tactical retreat. Kiara had drawn the battle lines in the sand and I was merely responding to the limits she gave me. I spent the next two weeks at school with one eye on my computer monitor and the other on the football team. We played several games winning most of them and continued to practice with the girls running the track.

It was torture.

And as fall deepened with the turning of the leaves, so did the weather and the need for sweatshirts, pants, and scarves covering her body as well as mine. I couldn’t really flex my gym muscles unless I was demonstrating a play and by that time the girls had wrapped up their practice and were long gone.

Coach Calloway was slated to return from his administrative leave and I had been asked to stay on as assistant coach. It was a pretty sweet deal delegating less responsibility so I could shift that one eye of mine in Kiara’s general direction when possible. It was amazing to work in the same building and not run into her once in a single day. I was beginning to think that she arranged to not be in my crosshairs. We both were on the schedule to monitor lunch, but never the same period. We both headed out to the fields for practice after school, but never the same place, and the two fleeting glances I had gotten of her, she wasn’t even facing me.

Kiara knew how to avoid dating like a pro, and my itch to scan the faculty directory even casually was making me nuts. It’s not like she’d ever know because I wouldn’t do anything with the information, but still. It was about building that trust and respect between us.

What I felt for her was deeper and elemental, no matter how fleeting the time we spent together that night. I needed her when I swore I didn’t need anyone. Vulnerable wasn’t a place I thought I had within me after the military had pushed it so far down inside of me that when I did feel it, it became this ugly unacceptable thing that charged forth uncontrolled. I still had my anger issues, but for the most part those were in check, and since it wasn’t firework season, I didn’t have my PTSD to knock me down.

Since we won last night’s football game by a huge margin, the boys got out of Saturday morning practice. I heard from a little bird who happened to work in the library that Kiara was running the 5k event that my brother organized with the pub as a major sponsor. The Easton Pub Crawl was a big event in town and Andy provided the craft beer at the finish line along with a catered lunch for the runners. To say I was excited to catch a glimpse of her was an understatement.

I was also excited that the bakery up the street was providing apple spice doughnuts and cookies. I made sure to pop over and say hello so the owner Carmen would save me some. I wasn’t running the event this year so I could enjoy being a spectator for a change. Some of the football players and the cross country runners were participating and we had a healthy student competition going as well.

“Hey, bro I need a favor.” I turned grimacing to find Andy moving timing equipment and a runners mat from the back of a van.