Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON 237
Untangling a few of the sentences with no commas
to help took him a minute, but finally he sat back. He
tried to think, despite feeling as if he’d been slammed
by a recoil.
Back in November, along with a generous reimbursement
check from the school district, he’d gotten a
series of dutifully written thank-you notes from the
students, each mailed separately. Fiona hadn’t gathered
them up to send them together, but it was pretty obvious
she’d expected each and every one of them to write
him. Even Amy had thanked him prettily.
Tabitha had been a nice girl, but he didn’t remember
making any kind of personal connection with her.
Still—maybe she was just being friendly. Wanting him
to recognize her if she showed up with her parents.
Or maybe not. Maybe she was trying to tell him
something. Burying that something in enough chatter
so as not to be obvious.
The something could only be her news about Ms.
Mac, her teacher.
She was dating? It was only March! How long ago
had she and this Scammell started? The week after she
got back, having written John off?
Anger, his familiar companion, stirred. Maybe she’d set
Tabitha up to e-mail him, to taunt him. You blew it, buddy.
After a minute, he replied, telling Tabitha that of
course he remembered her, it was nice to hear from her,
and he hoped he’d see her and her family.
Then he moved on to the second e-mail from an unfamiliar
address, and was a whole lot less surprised to
see that it was from Dieter.