Snowfall and Secrets (The Omega Mu Alpha Brothers Book 1) (3 page)

Three weeks later, she was eight days late and took a test. The next day she applied for any job that was out of state. Now she was six weeks pregnant and in the coldest place on earth.

L
ukas stripped Dio of her winter gear and kicked off his own boots. He was beat. Tonight had taken so much longer than expected. Not that he minded having Tess pressed into his back for the ride across the lake. As a matter of fact, he was glad he took the snowmobile.

She had the most beautiful expressive brown eyes, and her smile almost knocked him over. Her body, curvy in all the right places, fit against him perfectly. He’d have to keep his distance from her, or she’d be the end of him. He sighed and hung up his coat.

Before he could rest though, he needed to pack Stacey’s things. It bothered him to know that those boxes were out. He was glad he had some gear for Tess, but now that part of his life needed to be boxed up and shoved back into place. Out of his sight so he could try to put it out of his mind.

“Come on, girl,” he called for Dio, but she was already at the top of the stairs waiting for him.

In the spare bedroom, he closed each box and put it back into its spot. Dio watched from the door, her head down.

He was about to leave when he paused by a row of smaller boxes. The boys’ things. Lukas stood there and fought the wave of sadness and shame that threatened to overcome him. It was several minutes before he could move again, and when he finally was able to leave and shut the door behind him, he was as sweaty as if it were summer outside.

After a hot shower, Lukas lay in bed, half asleep when his phone rang.

“Yeah,” he answered, hoping it was Tess needing something. He wanted the distraction.

“Did my new teacher of the year arrive safe and sound?” It was Doc.

“Safe, sound, and completely unprepared.” Lukas chuckled at the memory of her rolling on the floor trying to get her jeans on over her tights. “You’re lucky she didn’t board the next plane back to Florida.”

“I warned her.” Disappointment was thick in Doc’s voice.

“If you’ve never been that cold, you don’t get it. But don’t worry, she seems determined to stick it out. I gave her some of Stacey’s old winter gear until she can get her own.”

Beside him, Dio stretched and yawned. She took up more of the bed than Lukas did. He patted her belly and got a happy snuffle out of her.

“Thank you, Lukas. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Literally. She’d have frozen to death if I hadn’t given her my snow pants and a blanket.”

Doc groaned.

“That bad, eh? Well, we will do our best to treat her right and show her sunshine is overrated.” Doc’s optimism never failed. “I thank you, and the happy kids of my third-fourth grade class thank you.”

“Yeah, sure,” Lukas mumbled and hung up. He hated to think about happy kids. He’d never been good with kids, even his own. He loved them, but he’d been a terrible father. Now his boys were gone.

He scratched Dio’s belly again. She thumped her leg.

Another reason he needed to stay away from Tess—his dog was the only one who could truly put up with him. Especially after Stacey left. He didn’t need to get his heart broken, and at the same time, he didn’t want to be responsible for any broken hearts when Tess found out how much of a jackass he truly was.

T
he school was nothing like anything Tess had ever seen in Miami. Again, the research she’d done didn’t prepare her for the brick building housing nearly ninety students and twenty teachers, from K-12.

Dr. Jorgenson met her at the front doors, and he beamed at her when he shook her hand. He arranged for the teachers to have a small breakfast ready for her in the teacher’s lounge. Doc assigned the first-second grade teacher, Mrs. Chambers, to show her around and be her mentor. Their rooms were next to each other.

By her lunch period, Tess was exhausted from the enthusiastic, well-meaning woman popping into her class every ten minutes to check on her. Thankfully they had opposite planning periods.

Tess sat in a chair in the deserted teacher’s lounge and rubbed the back of her neck. She should have flown in a day early. Or taken a job in California. At least she’d be better dressed. She snorted. Not that any of her bikinis would fit when she was eight months pregnant.

“Is Sara wearing you out?” A man Tess hadn’t met before strolled into the lounge, his arms full of reference books. He was exactly the type of guy Tess would go for in Florida. Young, not extremely good looking, but not bad looking either. They were typically the kind she could count on to not be total jerks.

“Sara? Mrs. Chambers?” She sat up straighter. He hadn’t been at the breakfast.

“Yeah, most of us are on a first name basis.” He dropped his load of books on the couch and held out his hand to her. “I’m Chris Whitters. I teach language arts for the high schoolers.”

“Tess Mackenzie.” She shook his hand. Thankfully, he wasn’t anywhere near as tall or handsome as Lukas. If every man she encountered on this frozen island looked like her new landlord, she needed to leave, immediately.

Tess reached down into her bag and pulled out her lunch. There hadn’t been time this morning to get much together, so she grabbed a bottle of water, an apple, and some crackers.

“Sorry, I missed your breakfast this morning.” He kicked a chair close to Tess and dropped down into it. There was something eager in the way he smiled and leaned across the table. It made Tess uncomfortable.

She laughed, trying to dispel the strange tension she felt around this guy. “I never had such a warm welcome.”

She took a drink of water, just to give her hands something to do.

“Yeah, Doc has been crowing about you coming, but he didn’t say you’d be so hot.”

She took another big gulp, unsure of what to say. Her jerk-o-meter was wrong.

“Where are you from?” he asked. His gaze left hers and wandered down her body.

Enough of that, she’d run into plenty of idiots like this in Miami. She slammed her water bottle onto the table and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Florida,” she snapped.

“And feisty.” He grinned. Her message to stop leering had been received, but he didn’t seem the type who followed orders. He reached over and laid his hand on her knee. “I like feisty. We don’t get much of that around here with the casserole-baking mom types who stay on the island in the winter.”

“I better get back to my class.” Tess threw her untouched apple into her bag and stood, knocking his hand off. The nerve of this guy rattled her.

“Oh hey, don’t get mad.” Chris stood. “I want us to be friends.”

“I’m not friends with neanderthals.”

She sidestepped him and left. His laughter echoed in her head long after the door closed and she made it down the hall to her room. The kids were still at lunch, so she had a few minutes.

She slumped on the side of her desk. Her hands gripped the edge, and she fought back tears. Great. What if she made a mistake coming here? Mackinac was supposed to be an escape for her. Guys were supposed to be better here. Or at least not pay so much attention to her.

She’d worried so much over what to wear this morning. After Lukas’s horrible reaction to her wardrobe, she didn’t want the other teachers to think she didn’t have a clue. She opted for a blue woolen dress and leggings and was relieved when she didn’t look out of place.

In spite of trying to focus on something else, the tears came anyway.

“Knock, knock.” Mrs. Chambers pushed into her room. “The kids will be…oh.”

“Is lunch almost over?” Tess shook her head, trying her best to get ahold of herself.

Mrs. Chambers rushed over and folded her in a hug. The woman couldn’t have been ten years older than Tess, but she was one of those natural teachers who had a mother hen instinct.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just feel so out of place. I’m sorry. I was in the teacher’s lounge, and there was this guy.”

Mrs. Chambers snorted.

“Say no more. That was Chris.” She produced a tissue out of the cuff of her sleeve and wiped Tess’s cheek. “Pay him no mind. He’s a jerk to everyone. That’s why we didn’t invite him to breakfast.”

“He wasn’t invited?” Tess made a strangled sound somewhere between coughing and laughing.

“No, he most certainly wasn’t.” Mrs. Chambers tucked her tissue away. “We know he’s not got the most sparkling personality. But he knows his Shakespeare, he stays in the winter, and he’s never gotten out of line with a student. Reserves that for his colleagues.”

“I know plenty others like him,” said Tess with a weak smile.

“Good, then you’ll know to steer clear of him.” Mrs. Chambers returned her smile. “And yes, lunch is almost over. The kids will be back shortly.”

Tess jumped up. She could at least put some lipstick on and not let the kids know she had a horrible lunch break.

“Mrs. Chambers?” Tess called before the other teacher slipped out. “May I call you Sara?”

“Well, of course. I wondered why you weren’t. We are anything but formal around here.”

Just like that, Tess made her first Michigan girlfriend, and Sara was nothing like any of the girls she ran with in Miami.

L
ukas had gotten up early to make sure Tess caught her winter taxi. She wore a pair of those ridiculous tights again. At least she thought to wear a pair of sensible boots he’d given her and the down coat. If that girl made it through winter with all of her bits and pieces, it would be a miracle. And her bits and pieces were too lovely to lose.

He’d shaken off his lustful thoughts with a chuckle and took the snowmobile to his fudge shop. Estelle had already opened and was prepping the copper pot when he walked in.

“You are a lifesaver, Estelle,” he said with a peck on the old woman’s cheek. For someone in her sixties, she braved these brutal winters again and again. “When are you going to be a snowbird with your kids in Georgia?”

One of these days, she was going to leave him. Most people left the island during the winter. His parents did.

She laughed and swatted at him with a towel.

“Don’t you worry about me, now. I’m tougher than the wind,” she said, and he never doubted it. “Did your friends get in?”

“Oh yeah.” Lukas’s cheeks burned. “I should have told you. I’m taking on a renter for Doc. So not a romantic getaway.”

Estelle cackled. “The boy blushes. Didn’t know you had it in you. It must be a girl. A pretty one.”

Lukas laughed. “You are a mess, woman.”

“So, spill. Who is she?” Estelle worked on the fudge while he printed off the new orders. Estelle hated printing the orders because she didn’t understand the Internet. She knew his family fudge recipe better than he did, so she helped in the winter, but he had to come in most days to print off the orders so she knew what to make. She chopped up butter and weighed out the sugar.

“She’s Doc’s new teacher,” he said. “And off limits.”

“Off limits cause Doc said so or because of your own lame rules.” Estelle chuckled at herself.

Lukas sighed.

“Both,” he said as he started printing address labels. Doc hadn’t said anything about staying away from Tess. However, if Lukas ran her off, Doc would be after him with a snow shovel. It was better all-around if he gave that girl a wide path.