Starstruck

Chapter Fourteen

She blinked. "Me? I’m a boring kindergarten teacher. I’ve never done anything exciting in my life."

Before tonight, anyway, she corrected to herself.

"Climbing over my gates doesn’t count?"

She smiled. "Well, there was that. And the time I drove my dad’s pickup over the mayor’s mailbox."

His laugh did funny things to her insides. "I’m serious," he said. "It must be wonderful to have roots in a nice town like Macon. When I was looking at property to purchase, I knew the moment I stepped into town that this was what I wanted for Kendyl."

"You didn’t? Have roots, I mean?"

He was quiet for a long moment, leaning against the railing of the deck with the stars spilling across the sky behind him. "No. I grew up living out of suitcases and cheap hotels and sometimes even the backseat of my mom’s old Pontiac. She was a wanderer who didn’t like to stay in one place very long. When I was twelve, I begged her to stay here in Macon and let me go to one school for Junior high and high school."

She heard the old pain in his voice and her heart ached with sympathy.

"I’m so sorry," she murmured, leaning against the railing beside him. "But I’m glad you had Kasi. I’ve taught children with no one at all to call their own."

"You’re right. I was lucky, though I didn’t think so at the time. Kasi tried. But by age twelve I had been basically on my own for a long time and didn’t want much help from her. I equated caring with smothering. I took off when I was seventeen and headed for Nashville. I worked odd jobs for awhile and ended up doing some publishing work as a favor to a friend and before I knew it, I was on tour with such acts and Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw and so on."

She remembered the bones of his story from those early days when she used to scour People and Us Weekly looking for information about him, in the days before the Internet would have put all those details at her fingertips. But, of course, she couldn’t tell him that.

"What about you?" he asked. "What led you to teaching?"

"It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I love children. I always have." She smiled. "I was the world’s best babysitter because I could have done it all day for free just for the fun of it and everyone knew it. There is something so magical about early childhood, the innocence and the wonder and the sheer delight of it. I love watching them grow and start to test life. Setting them on a path to discover the world of possibilities waiting for them."

Her voice trailed off and she flushed. "I’m sorry. I’m rambling again."

"Not at all. I could listen to you all night."

Her gaze flashed to his and the heat in the midnight depths sent those nerves twirling through her insides again. She swallowed hard and had time only to wonder if this could possibly be real, when his mouth captured hers.