Sam Campbell needed to escape, escape from her life, her messy divorce, and all the pitying looks. Looks she couldn't ignore when everyone in town had known her and Cam, had known her shame and failure. So, she took the first job she could get, teac...
Friday afternoon rolled around and Sam was picking up her classroom. The chaos of the school week always left the room needing a little attention at the end but she was taking more time than usual. She busied herself with organizing materials for the next week, tossing broken pencils that had been carelessly discarded on the floor, and wiping down the tops of the desks. For once, she was in no hurry to run out the door, knowing she was facing a long weekend alone once again.
She'd effectively avoided everyone from the group since her shocking admission Tuesday night, mostly by not answering her phone any time that it rang. She knew her sister would be frantic if she'd been the one calling, but she couldn't risk it. She didn't need even more pity from more people again. And honestly, she could barely admit to herself what a fool she'd been. How could she tell Kim that she'd let some jerk treat her like shit all over again? She couldn't, not her strong, wise-ass sister who would never allow a man's lies to get her into bed.
Sam wanted nothing more than to go back in time and keep her big mouth shut. In the heat of the moment, it felt good to call him out on his bullshit. He deserved every single ounce of her anger and then some for treating her the way he had. She wasn't some tissue to be used and discarded in the trash. But once she'd gotten back to her house, riding her bike through the haze of angry tears that coated her eyes, she'd been horrified and ashamed at her public declaration.
How would she ever look any of them in the eye again now that they knew she'd allowed Eddie to use her like that? That she'd been dumb enough to believe the pretty words that had come out of that pretty mouth. She should have known better. Of course he didn't mean anything that he'd said. He'd told her exactly what she wanted to hear and she'd fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. He'd known she would be vulnerable to his charms after what Cam and Cassie had done and used it to his advantage. Once again, Sam had chosen to ignore the evidence in front of her in favor of what she wanted to believe instead. She'd wanted to believe he wanted her, truly wanted her, but all he wanted was to find out what she was like in the sack.
She looked up from the desk she had been scrubbing when there was a soft knock on the door to find Gareth standing there, a sheepish smile on his face, one hand tucked into the pocket of his jeans, as he gave her a small wave. Sam straightened up, wondering what would have brought him to the school on a Friday afternoon. And why would he still assume she was here? Her thoughts took her nowhere good, hoping nothing had happened between Lance and Charlie after school.
"Hey," he said, taking a hesitant step into the classroom, a gritted smile on his face, "I hope you don't mind me just dropping by like this."
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"No, of course not. Is everything okay?" Her eyes moved over to the clock that hung to the left of the door. "School let out half an hour ago. Charlie made it home okay, right?"
"Yeah. He's fine. He's over on the playground with a couple of his friends and asked if he could play for a while before we headed home. It's such a nice day so I figured why not and..." Gareth told her, stuffing both hands into his pockets now, rocking back and forth on his heels. "I uh...well, it worked for me because I was actually standing out there waiting for you to come out so I could talk to you but you never did. I wondered if I missed you. So, I figured I'd pop in and check."
