Out in the Country by Kate Hewitt Read Free Book Online

graders,” Molly echoed, feeling faint. Fourteen year olds. “With a knife?”
    “Yup.”
    “Was anyone hurt?”
    “One of the girls got the knife in her shoulder. A fair sized cut, I’d say, but she’ll live.”
    Molly shook her head slowly. “Doesn’t it faze you at all?”
    “No,” Luke replied bluntly, “not anymore. But it still annoys me that I won’t be able to assign homework for a week.”
    “Why not?”
    He shook his head in sorrowful disbelief. “Oh, newbie, you have a lot to learn, don’t you? No books or backpacks are allowed in the building. There’s a security clearance at the door.”
    “For a week?”
    “Or so.” For a moment his insouciance dropped and he took pity on her. “I never took you out for that drink I offered on your first day. How about tonight? My treat.”
    Molly swallowed, her gaze sliding away towards the pair of police officers organising the line of students through the school doors. She felt as if the wind had been knocked from her, as if she’d fallen flat on her back. When she’s agreed to work at Cooper, she’d pictured indifferent students, challenging classrooms situations, but this? Knives? Danger?
    No homework allowed?
    She turned back to look at Luke, and saw with a start that the harsh lines of his face had softened with what looked suspiciously like compassion. “All right,” she said. “That would be nice.”
    “Good.” He dropped a friendly arm around her shoulders. “Now let’s get past security.”
    It was an endless day, and her students paid less attention than usual, distracted as they were by the rumours and speculation flying over Friday’s knife fight. By the time Luke came into her classroom at half past three, Molly felt completely drained.
    “You look beat,” he said and she smiled ruefully.
    “I feel beat. I had no idea this was going to be so hard.” She hadn’t meant to admit so much, and especially not to someone like Luke, cynical and just a bit condescending, but she couldn’t help it. She felt like she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
    “No one does,” Luke replied. “You get injected with idealism from all your training, and then you’re met with this. No one prepares you. No one tells you.”
    “You did,” Molly said wryly, and he gave her a quick grin.
    “But you didn’t believe me, did you?”
    “I’m starting too,” she said with a slightly sour laugh, and he shook his head.
    “Don’t become jaded too quickly, newbie. I wouldn’t like you as much then.”
    His words shouldn’t have affected her, Molly acknowledged guiltily as they walked a few blocks to a nearby wine bar. Yet she was uncomfortably aware that somehow their acquaintance had started to turn into a flirtation, or as good as, and she wasn’t sure how to stop it. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
    Besides, perhaps she was overreacting. They were colleagues, friends, and a drink after work hardly counted as a date... did it?
    She thought of Jason, her boyfriend of three years, in graduate school in New Hampshire, and her guilt increased. He’d forgotten to ring on her first day, sending her an e-mail over the weekend instead. Molly had tried to be understanding, but she was honest enough to admit she was both hurt and cross. With her mother so busy with these new plans for an inn in Vermont, Molly hardly wanted to burden her with her own paltry problems.
    And then of course there was the matter of the inn itself, and the expectations her mother seemed poised to settle on her. Would you like to float this old boat?
    Well, no, she wouldn’t. She was having enough trouble keeping her job and her spirits above sea level.
    “Penny for your thoughts,” Luke said as he sat across from her under a table so small their knees touched. “You look a million miles away.”
    Molly shrugged. “I’m so tired I’m not even sure I have a thought... or a coherent one, at least.”
    “Don’t take it all so much to heart, Molly,” Luke said quietly,