Read Online Love Lessons by Margaret Daley - Free Book Online Page B

out from his footsteps. Any second he was sure he would drop into the cold water.
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    The next afternoon as the other five children arrived for their math lesson, Jana, carrying her new dog, ran to the door and opened it for each one. “I just got her this morning. Her name is Sugar. Alexa and I decided she has dachshund, bulldog, beagle and maybe some bloodhound in her.”
    Alexa stood back and greeted the students, having met them all the week before. Randy who was eleven arrived first, his hair redder than Jana’s. Haley quickly followed right behind him, entering on his heels. Haley and Jana were both ten, but Jana didn’t say much to the other girl. Afterthe first two, Dylan, the oldest at twelve, came with his best friend, Brent. The last to arrive at the house was eleven-year-old Ashley, who Jana gravitated toward and sat next to during the lessons, conducted in the classroom by Ian.
    Jana passed Sugar to Ashley. “Isn’t she cute?”
    Her friend cuddled the small dog. “I love her,” while all the other kids said the appropriate words, but their wary looks indicated they thought the animal was a drowned hairless rat that they preferred not to touch.
    With Sugar in her arms, Jana started back to the classroom where everyone had headed. Alexa stepped into her path. “I’ll take Sugar while you’re doing your math lesson.”
    â€œAh, Alexa, she’ll help me learn better.”
    â€œJust how is she gonna do that?”
    Jana rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and contemplated that question for a good twenty seconds. “She calms me when I hold her. You know how anxious I get with math.”
    â€œOh, I see. Do you think your father will approve?”
    â€œYes—” the child’s gaze dropped to the floor “—no. He’ll make me put her in her crate and I don’t like to see her in jail.”
    â€œJail?” Alexa laughed. “I guess the crate can seem like that, but your dad thought it was a good idea. A lot of people use them.”
    â€œHey, Jana, the class is waiting.” Ian approached them in the foyer. “We’re going to tackle subtracting fractions today.”
    â€œOh, goodie.” The corners of the child’s mouth drooped, and she hugged Sugar to her even closer.
    Ian peered at Alexa with a frustrated look, as though to say, “See what I’m dealing with concerning math?”
    â€œI’ll take Sugar for a walk while you work on math,” Alexa said, aware the whole time that Ian stared at her. The warmth from his look sent a zing down her spine.
    â€œFine.” Jana gently plopped Sugar into Alexa’s arms and stalked off toward the classroom.
    â€œThanks. I’m beginning to think this pet idea isn’t a good thing. Since she brought Sugar home, the dog has been attached to my daughter. How did you get any work done earlier?”
    â€œWe did activities that didn’t require the use of both her arms.” Alexa chuckled. “I have to admit, it was getting hard to think of things to do. Hey, if you’re doing fractions, you might try having them measure different objects. Maybe first have them estimate how long the objects might be, then total them all up. After that, you can have them find the differences between the objects.” Right before the kids showed up, she’d seen on the dry eraser board the ten math problems, involving a few addition ones and the rest subtraction. Dry was the optimum word here.
    â€œI shouldn’t start with the board problems?”
    â€œHands-on at the beginning can help them learn the concept faster, then use the problems on the board to review.”
    Ian kneaded the back of his neck. “What objects?”
    â€œAny—books, desks, a windowsill. They don’t even have to be in the classroom.”
    A smile slowly graced Ian’s mouth, and he stepped closer. “Thanks. I’ll try it. Maybe it will