Excuse Me, Miss Mills?

Chapter Five

When Emma had come to my office with me, I hadn't planned on offering her help to publish her essay. I'd planned to give her the essay back, give her feedback, tell her the original essay she'd written was good, and then send her on her way. Instead of following that easy four step process I'd muddled it up somewhere and signed the two of us up for weekly meetings for the next month.

I cursed myself a few times. What was I thinking? I didn't want her hanging around me. I was already confused enough about her.

No.

No, I wasn't confused about her.

To be confused about someone there has to be conflict. There has to be one right way and one wrong way wrapped up in one muddled way. For there to be confusion about Emma, I would have to see her as both my student and as a person I was attracted to enough to orgasm while thinking about her, and I certainly was not going to see her as the latter.

I was still confused though.

I gathered my things and headed home, hoping that a weekend away from the school would clear my head. Robin and Roland would be good company for that. We always had good weekends.

When I got home the two were embroiled in a fierce battle for the living room. They were each armed with marshmallow guns and they'd built two forts. Roland was in the bigger fort made of carefully balanced couch cushions and a blanket that had clearly been built by Robin, and Robin was in the smaller one that was simply a sheet draped over an end table near the couch—something told me they'd gotten done with building and Roland had convinced his father to switch.

"Regina!" Roland cried happily. "Daddy and me are fighting a war!"

"A war?" I asked, feigning shock. "That's so scary!"

"Not when you're winning like me!" he said confidently. He shot a mini marshmallow from his gun at his father. It bounced off of Robin's shoulder and the man dramatically threw himself to the side, clutching his shoulder. "Direct hit! Come on Regina, hide in my castle! You can be my queen and I'll protect you!"

"She's my queen, Roland!" Robin protested with a little pout.

"Not anymore daddy," Roland said seriously. "She's my queen and you can't have her back."

"I find it ironic my class is reading about Troy at the moment," Robin said dryly, a small smile forming. He looked at me. "I suppose this makes you Helen. I'm not surprised—your beauty could rival that of a goddess."

He grinned widely as I balked and blushed at his compliment.

"You sure know how to lay it on thick," I said. "But if I'm Helen, then I'll be with Paris over here." I climbed into Roland's fort with him and he looked absolutely delighted by my decision.

"We don't have another marshmallow gun," Roland said, "but if you want you can throw marshmallows at daddy."

He picked up a few marshmallows that had been fired over at him by his father and handed them to me.

"No eating them," he said seriously. "They're ammo. We gotta get daddy."

I happily joined Roland in attacking his father for a while. This was exactly the kind of thing I'd been hoping for when I'd gotten home. I'd needed a distraction, something ridiculous but fun to keep my mind occupied with something other than the blonde student I'd signed myself up to help.

The three of us had a good time together, Robin and I doting on Roland and playing whatever game his heart desired. He had us playing this marshmallow fight, pirates, astronauts, tic tac toe, and we spent some time coloring. By the time dinner was over Roland was exhausted. We turned on a movie for him but he didn't even make it through the first twenty minutes before he was asleep in my lap.