Her Secret, His Child: A Little Secret by Tara Quinn (rosie project .txt) 📕

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

It's all he knows. And that's what bugs you, isn't it?" There was a sneer on Coach Lippert's face as he headed for the door. "You're so caught up in your fairy tales you can't stand it that someone else doesn't love your imaginary people as much as you do."

Steepling his fingers across his chest, Kyle half smiled. "I can't stand it that a poor boy has an opportunity to get a fully funded college education and is gaining nothing more than what he knew before he came here—football."

With a few choice words, Coach Lippert wrenched open the door, then slammed it behind him.

Kyle picked up his glasses and carefully positioned them across the bridge of his nose, glad no one could see how his hands were trembling.

Nervous, Jamie knocked on the door of Ashley's classroom early Monday morning. The kids were all in another room for story time, and Miss Peters had suggested this might be a good moment for her and Jamie to talk.

"Come in, Ms. Archer." A warm smile on her face, Miss Peters ushered Jamie over to the art center. "Hope you don't mind sitting on a table," she said, perching on the corner of one herself. "The chairs are all a bit small in here."

Attempting a grin, Jamie sat. Even at table level, her knees were hugging her chest.

"Ashley told me about Nathan," she said in a rush, determined to meet the situation head-on.

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"And I'm really sorry she's so rigid in her expectations. But I'll work with her."

"So you know she slapped him?" The compassion on Miss Peters's face was the only thing that kept Jamie from sliding right off her seat.

"Slapped him?" she squeaked out. "You mean as in hitting another little child?"

Jamie's heart caught in her throat as Miss Peters nodded.

"Is he hurt?"

"Not really," the preschool teacher said. "She hit him hard enough to leave red fingerprints on his face, but they were gone by lunchtime."

"I can't believe it!" Jamie felt light-headed, confused. Scared. "I've never hit Ashley in her life."

"I wasn't sure…"

Eyes open wide, Jamie stared at the other woman. "Never!" After the way she'd grown up, Jamie could hardly bear to speak harshly to her daughter, let alone spank her. Had never needed to. "Ashley's been a model child," she added. "Loving. Almost too good."

"I must say I was quite surprised."

"What'd you do to her?"

"Put her in time-out down in the office to begin with. That's procedure."

Jamie hated to think of her daughter sitting all alone in that dreaded corner. Could just picture Ashley's forlorn little face, her feet dangling above the ground as she swung them in her chair.

But she hated even more the thought that her daughter had struck another person.

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

"Why'd she hit him?" she asked softly. Perplexed.

"Probably because he deserved it."

Miss Peters's dry reply surprised Jamie. She looked at the other woman with new respect. ' 'What did he do?"

"Nathan's not the most likable kid at the best of times," Miss Peters said. "Having met his mother, I think he comes by it naturally."

"But that doesn't give Ashley any reason to hit him."

"Of course not," the teacher agreed. "Ordinarily she just ignores him when he gets mouthy, but yesterday he was teasing her about her father."

"Her…father?"

Miss Peters nodded. "He wouldn't believe that Ashley's father was a war hero who died in battle."

Not that again.

"Apparently, the more Ashley insisted he was, the more outrageous Nathan got, until he was suggesting some pretty terrible things about Ashley's dad." The teacher went on to repeat just what those things had been.

Livid, burning up on behalf of her innocent little girl, Jamie had to take a deep breath before she spoke. ' 'How would a four-year-old kid even know to say something like that?"

The teacher shrugged. "I can only assume he learned it at home. Most likely on television, or some conversation he overheard." She paused, looking at Jamie apologetically. "When I questioned

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him about it, it was clear he had no real understanding of what he'd said."

"And Ashley?" Jamie asked, feeling the tears start deep inside. "How much do you think she understood?"

Why hadn't her daughter shared any of this with her?

Laying a hand on Jamie's, tangled together in her lap, Miss Peters squeezed gently. "Don't worry," she said. "I don't think she was aware of much more than the derision. That and the fact that he wouldn't believe her in the first place."

' 'This father thing must really be getting huge in her mind for her to have exploded like that," Jamie murmured, thinking out loud.

Miss Peters stood, then moved behind her desk. "You know how kids are…"

Not really, she didn't. "What do we do now?"

"My suggestion is to get everything out in the open so Ashley doesn't have to keep defending herself."

The teacher's words brought panic, sheer and terrible.

"Give Ashley her legitimacy instead of forcing her to fight for it…"

Jamie barely heard. The air in the room was warm, foggy, closing in on her.

"So I'd suggest, assuming it wouldn't be too painful for you, that the two of you put together some kind of presentation, you know with history, pictures—''

"What?"

HER SECRET, HIS CHILD

"For show and tell," Miss Peters said as though she'd just explained. Which she probably had. "We can turn it into a history lesson." She paused. Smiled. Seemed satisfied that her plan had been met with the approval she'd expected.

"Did you lose him in an overseas military action?" The teacher's eyes were brimming with compassion.

Trapped, Jamie shook her head. She had no idea what to say. What to do. How to control the panic.

But instead of raising Miss Peters's suspicions, Jamie's lack of response seemed only to confirm what the teacher already believed. That Jamie had lost her husband tragically, and that the wounds were still raw.

As Jamie left, still with no resolution, she couldn't help imagining how the conversation would have gone if she'd confessed the truth. That she'd never been married in her life. That her