Busted by Cher Carson

they settled
into a comfortable routine.
    Cole brought her a take-out coffee from Mavis’s diner and
they sat and talked while Cassidy erased the chalk board, collected papers, and
sharpened pencils. She was such a sweet little girl, definitely Charlene’s
favorite student, though she would never admit it to anyone.
    “So, what are your plans for the holidays?” Cole asked,
settling into the plastic chair. It was one of three larger chairs in the room,
but his large frame seemed to make all of the furniture look small.
    “Um, Paul’s family is coming to town. He asked me to have
dinner with them.”
    She and Paul had been seeing each other since the field
trip. She enjoyed spending time with him, but she feared she might be using him
as a buffer so people wouldn’t speculate about the nature of her relationship
with Cole. She and Cole were friends. Admitting it to herself took a long time,
but she liked the single father. He was kind and generous, sweet and funny. But
she knew he had a mean streak too. She saw it when a drunk man bumped into him
at one of the high school football games, spilling a soft drink down the front
of his shirt.
    “Why?” he asked, leaning forward so Cassidy, who was at the
back of the room tending to fish in the small aquarium, wouldn’t hear them.
“You know you’re wastin’ your time with him.”
    They had this conversation too many times over the past
several months. He kept telling her that Paul was all wrong for her, while she
kept trying to convince him and herself that they were perfect for each other.
“That’s for me to decide.”
    Cole sighed, tipping his cowboy hat back on his head. “You
know you’re just leadin’ him on.”
    “That’s not true,” she said, feeling the familiar twinge of
guilt that often accompanied Cole’s accusations. “I enjoy spending time with
him. No one, including you, knows where it might lead.”
    Cole turned around to make sure his daughter was occupied
when he asked, “Are you sleepin’ with him yet?”
    He’d asked before, but she never gave him the satisfaction
of knowing that she told Paul she wasn’t ready to take their relationship to
the next level. She knew she couldn’t go on this way much longer. They’d been
seeing each other for eleven weeks. The man had been more than patient. Before
long, she’d either have to let him go or sleep with him. Neither was an idea
she felt ready to contemplate.
    Sleeping with him would undoubtedly leave her feeling
miserable because she had no doubt that Paul could never give her what she craved,
but letting him go meant she’d be forced to confront her feelings for Cole, and
that terrified her even more. She told herself she liked and respected Cole,
but she knew it was more than that. Without even trying, he excited and aroused
her. Just remembering the way he’d made her feel the night he took her to his
house reminded her that it was possible to feel that way in a man’s
arms.
    If only she could give in to the temptation and experience
it one more time. But she couldn’t. Cole’s reputation in the bedroom was
legendary in their small town, and if people so much as suspected they were
sleeping together, she’d never be able to show her face again. People would
know what she’d allowed him to do to her, and if she stayed with him, they’d
know she liked it.
    That wasn’t an option for a small-town second-grade teacher
whose reputation was supposed to be beyond reproach. The conservative soccer
moms on the P.T.A. would scream for the principal to fire her. Her co-workers
would whisper about her in the staff room, kids would snicker in the halls, her
family and friends would berate her… No, it wasn’t worth turning her life
upside down, no matter how sexy he looked in that Stetson.
    “I’m waitin’ for an answer.”
    “Well, you’re not going to get one. I told you before. It’s none
of your business.”
    “If you meet his family, he’s gonna think you two have a
future