A Wicked Kiss by M. S. Parker Page A

with all of my students behaving surprisingly well. It was still nice enough to go outside for recess and at the end of the day, since we had a little extra time, I took them out again. The smell of autumn was in the air and the sun was just warm enough. It was an absolutely beautiful day, the kind that made everything else seem brighter just because of it.
    And still, I felt restless, eager to get home even though I knew Jasper was at work. I wanted to be there, with him. I loved my job and my students, but if I’d had a choice, I would’ve been curled up on the couch with Jasper, talking about the mundane things we’d done or had to do. I missed him the way I’d missed Allen when we’d been apart the years I’d been in college and he’d been up here.
    The realization frightened me, but I didn’t want it to be any other way. I wanted to want to be with him. I didn’t want to be one of those people who dreaded going home, who would rather work late hours than spend time with their significant other.
    By the time the end of the school day arrived, I was antsy, almost wishing I would’ve driven so I could leave as soon as the kids did. I knew it was a good thing, though, that I’d come with Gina and had to wait until she’d finished putting away all of her art supplies and cleaned up the bits of mess the students had missed. Jasper would be at work for another hour and a half so all I’d be doing is trading pacing here to pacing at home. At least here, my pacing also including straightening random things until my entire classroom looked as neat as it had the very first day of school.
    On the drive home, Gina kept the conversation going with questions about what had been happening for the past two weeks since we’d barely seen each other. Some of her questions were about Jasper and me, but others prompted me to tell her about the mysterious letters and phone calls, as well as Aime and Jenny. Gina wholeheartedly agreed with Jasper that Allen would’ve told me about a daughter if he’d known and she was even skeptical that Jenny was even his. I agreed, but I couldn’t get rid of the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Aime wasn’t going to just go away.
    When I got home, I changed out of my work clothes and into a comfortable pair of jeans and a worn flannel shirt. The best thing about my relationship with Jasper having developed the way it did was that I never really had to worry about him seeing me dressed down. He’d already seen me sick, sun-burned, grieving, and dressed in everything from my wedding dress to pajamas. I could wear what I wanted and know that he’d most likely seen me in it before.
    I finished grading papers in less than an hour and then headed into the kitchen to start something for dinner. I’d gone out last week to pick up a few things that I knew Jasper liked and I was thinking about making lamp chops when someone knocked on the door. I quickly wiped off my hands and headed out, wondering if it was Mitchell coming back to apologize.
    It wasn’t. Instead, it was a middle-aged, weaselly-looking man with a sparse mustache and even sparser hair.
    “Shae Lockwood?”
    I nodded, keeping my foot braced on the back of the door in case I had to slam it shut. He didn’t look dangerous, but if he’d been the guy who’d started the fire and he was here to do more damage, he wasn’t going to get inside without a fight.
    He held out two envelopes. When I took them, he gave me a slight nod. “You’ve been served.”
    My jaw dropped as I watched him leave without any additional explanation. Served? As in legal papers?
    My first thought was the Lockwoods, but when I tore open the more official-looking envelope, I saw that wasn’t the case.
    Aime Vargas was suing me in place of Allen for back child support and a portion of his estate.
    I went back into the house and sat down on the couch. This couldn’t be happening. I held up the other envelope. It didn’t have anything written on it