Inferno

~3~ Sneaky

Ellie's POV

I drive the kids to school, and once we get into the parking lot, Luke and Sasha walk away from us quickly. Emma is the only one not embarrassed to be seen with her mom.

"You have any tests today, Emma Kate?" I ask, giving her a side hug as we walk inside the building.

"Yeah, Luke and I have a Geometry test first period." She says, smiling gently.

"You ready for it?" I ask, grinning as I hold the door open for her.

"Well, I am, I can't say the same about Luke."

"Yeah, he got his math knowledge from his momma. You're lucky you got your daddy's good math brain."

"Have a good day, mom" she says, waving at me as she heads to her class.

"You too, love" I say heading to my office.

I get to my office and I get it opened up for the day. As soon as I get in the school principal, Principal Lance Mills, comes into my office. Thank heavens Monroe retired years ago. I hated that man when Liam went here.

"Morning Ellie" he says, smiling as he grabs the student log from my desk.

"Morning. I could have brought that to you. I just got here" I say, trying to hide my discomfort. This man has a huge crush on me. Taylor is unhappy about it. I wasn't even going to tell him, but Sasha let it slip.

One night we were eating dinner when she told him. "Mom is apparently interesting" she says, as she takes a bite of broccoli.

"What?" Taylor asks, surprised.

"Principal Mills is in love with her" she says with an evil little smirk.

"Sasha Jane Preston" I snap

"He's what?" Taylor asks, tightening his eyes.

"Oh yeah. It seems like every time I walk past her office, he's in there."

"One more word, young lady, and you and I are going to have an issue." I say, glaring daggers at her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asks, staring hard at me, now.

"Taylor, there isn't anything to tell. He stops in sometimes to get things that he needs from me." I say, taking a bite of my chicken. I hate fish. It's Taylor's absolute favorite. So, on nights that I cook fish, I make myself something different.

"Hmmm" he says, taking another bite of his salmon.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just don't like it" he says, staring at me hard.

"Tay, you of all people should know that you can't do anything about these things." I say, rolling my eyes. That was definitely a low blow.

"What does that mean?" Luke asks, joining in on
the conversation. The kids, besides Liam, have no idea that we broke up before Sasha was born because he cheated on me.

"You have never once thrown that in my face. I can't believe you just said that" he says, his tone getting darker.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. I was just trying to prove a point."

"Point taken" he says darkly as he takes another bite.

He never talked about it again. He hasn't spoken of it since. I know he still thinks about it. I'm dreading the day one of the kids gets into trouble and he has to come down here.

My day goes by pretty quickly. I had several kids come in with upset stomachs. Apparently the meatloaf the kitchen served tasted a little funny.

I can hear Lucas goofing off in the hall. I don't go out and say hi, I know that would embarrass him to no end.