In the Groove by Pamela Britton

bar?" she asked. "Does a race-car driver really need a bar?"
    "It's not a bar bar, it's just a place to eat. You know, sit down on a bar stool and eat your breakfast like you did this morning."
    But she'd spun away from him, her low, "Weee," as she turned her chair bringing an instant smile to his face.
    Wasted. No doubt.
    "But this," she said, leaning forward and stroking the dash. "This is nice. Nicer than the county bus I used to drive, that's for sure." She stroked the leather dash, leaning forward and inhaling the scent. "Smells like new cow—"
    "New cow?"
    "And look," she said, ignoring his question and sitting up too sharply so she had to clutch at the dash. "Something I finally recognize." She turned back to him with a wide smile. "Windshield wipers."
    But Lance was suddenly struck dumb, didn't even really notice when she switched seats.
    Damn, what a smile.
    "Will they work?" she asked over her shoulder.
    Would what work?
    She fiddled with something. The wipers, one sliding along the right side square of glass, the other sliding along the left, both emitted loud criiiiicks in protest. The dry glass caught their edges before they swished back to their original spot, upright, alongside the dividing pane in the middle of the bus.
    She laughed, her head bobbing side to side as she began to sing, "The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish. Swish, swish, swish. Swish, swish, swish."
    And he couldn't help it. He started to laugh.
    She peered up at him. "Maybe I could take it for a spin and do wheels next."
    "Maybe not," he said.
    "Ah, come on. It'd be fun."
    "And I think you've been hanging out with kindergartners too long. Plus, you're not driving anywhere. Not today."
    And all at once she looked sad.
    "But you can drive it soon," he quickly amended, because jeez, he couldn't believe how much he wanted that smile to return.
    "It's not that," she said quietly, turning off the wipers which had been swishing in the background. "It's that I'll never watch my kids get on a bus again."
    Surprise held him quiet a moment. "Your kids? You have kids?"
    She sat sideways on the driver's chair, her arms resting on the back of the seat, her chin resting on her arms. "My class," she clarified.
    And why did that fill him with relief? It wasn't because he'd been afraid for a moment that she'd been married, was it?
    Was it?
    "I used to bake them cookies every Friday. It was a game," she said, her head tipping sideways, Lance thinking she looked adorable with her curly hair falling over her arms. "We used to make a game out of it. They had to learn to spell the animal's name before they could eat the cookie. You should have seen the trouble they had with the hippopotamus cookies."
    "You really liked teaching, didn't you?"
    "I didn't like it," she said. "I loved it."
    "Why don't you do it again?"
    "I'm going to," she said. "Just as soon as I find someone who'll hire me with a big gaping hole on my employment record."
    "A hole?"
    "Yeah," she said. "I can't exactly put down my last job on my resume. They'll want a reference and I'm not going to get that. Not after what I did."
    "C'mon. It's not as if you endangered a child's life."
    "Yeah, but that wasn't the only reason I got fired."
    "It wasn't?"
    "No. I also got fired for ripping the toupee off the principal's head."
    "You what?"
    "Only he wasn't just the principal to me. He was my boyfriend."
    "You dated a man with a toupee?"
    She sat up. "I didn't know it was a toupee," she said, her eyes wide and, yup, glassy. "I mean, I suspected it might be, but that's not exactly something you ask a guy on a first date. Nor a second. And then I realized he was really nice and I didn't care that he wore a piece of fur on his head. Shows you what I know," she mumbled. "Never trust a man who wears fur, especially when it's not his own."
    She looked up at him with such complete seriousness he began to laugh yet again. When she started to stand, he rushed toward her. "I'll try to remember that," he said