Spring Secrets: Pine Point, Book 3 Read Online Free Page A

and the numbers until they were burned into his mind’s eye. The memory of Edie mocked him all these years later, and his stomach clenched. He’d thought she’d had a hard life too, when they’d first met. He thought that was the reason fate had brought them together, so they could ease each other’s hurt and build a life together. He’d realized only too late that Edie was more interested in setting him up and stealing every last dime to ease her own hurt and build her life with someone else.
    Mike tightened his hand into a fist. You put that tattoo there for a reason. Don’t let a woman mess up your head again . With that, he stepped under the spray and let the hot water ease the tension from his muscles and drive all thoughts of Sienna from his mind.

Chapter Four
    “Who is that?” A thin boy with brown hair pointed at Sienna, his dark brows drawn together in concern. “Mrs. James, that is not our substitute teacher. Nor is it Mrs. Foster.” His words, prim and proper, sounded funny coming from the lips of an eight-year-old.
    “You’re right, Caleb, this is someone brand new.” Jenny James, the principal of Pine Point Elementary School, smiled at the boy. She and Sienna stood in the doorway of Room Eighteen. Jenny dropped her voice. “I didn’t tell the class they might have a new teacher until I was sure you’d take the job. They were with a substitute last week.” She gestured across the room. “Loni is one of our floating aides. She’s available first thing in the morning and then after lunch, if you need an extra pair of hands.”
    Sienna nodded and looked around the classroom. Two wide-eyed boys with chubby cheeks sat on the rug while Loni, a matronly woman with a double chin, read them a book. Another boy, with the telltale upward eye slant of Down syndrome, rocked in a chair near the window. The only girl in the room, her hair pulled into two tight braids, walked a careful circle around the rug. Heel touched toe in careful, mincing steps, and her fingers tapped together in a rhythmic cadence. She kept her eyes on the floor.
    “Dawn has OCD, anxiety, and selective mutism,” the principal said as the girl walked by. “Billy and Bailey are twins and both developmentally delayed.” She nodded at the aide, who continued to read. “Eight years old but at kindergarten levels for reading.” She pointed at the boy standing in the middle of the room. “Caleb is on the autistic spectrum, as far as we can tell. Asperger’s, I suspect, but his parents refuse to have him formally tested.”
    “At all?”
    “At all.” Finally, Jenny walked to the child in the chair and patted his head. “And Silas is the lover boy of the class.” As if on cue, he jumped from the chair and ran to Sienna. He wrapped his arms around her legs and grinned up at her. Sienna grinned back and tried not to lose her balance.
    Jenny clapped her hands together three times. “Room Eighteen, all eyes on me, please. This is Miss Cruz.” Jenny waited until they gathered around her in a haphazard semi-circle. “She’s going to be your teacher for the rest of the year.”
    All the boys stared. Dawn continued to circle the room. “The whole year?” one of the twins asked.
    “Yes. The whole year.” Jenny patted Silas on the head. He turned and looked at Sienna with a wide grin.
    “She’s pretty,” he said.
    “Yes, she is,” Jenny answered. She brushed her hands on the blue skirt of her business suit. The James family was one of the few old-money families in Pine Point. Most of them had ended up in law or real estate or business, and Sienna wondered what had brought Jenny, the baby of the family, to education instead.
    Jenny motioned at the teacher’s desk in the corner. “There are lesson plans in the top drawer, but of course you’ll want to design your own once you get a feel for the class. The children’s Individualized Education Plans are all in that file cabinet in the corner, top drawer, locked up.” She