Read Online Playing by Heart by Anne Mateer - Free Book Online

open. She passed in front of me, a stiff smileon her face, the smell of lilacs and autumn air lingering after she’d entered the building.
    Giles and I both stared through the small square of glass in the door. She looked back, hesitated, then walked toward the office, her skirt swaying.
    Giles whistled, long and low. “She’s a looker, for sure.”
    I nodded. What was she doing here? Elation and fear spun in my gut as I remembered Mrs. Wyatt’s mention of the open position. “New music teacher?”
    â€œMaybe.” Giles slid a look at me. I didn’t like what his grin implied. “Wonder if she’s as eager for a husband as Miss Delancey was.”
    My jaw clenched as I followed my friend down the stairs and toward the café. Female teachers of a certain age generally had more on their minds than conveying information to their students. Would Lula be the same?
    We took our usual table in the café, the one we claimed when we didn’t have to supervise the students during the noon meal. In our fourth year of teaching together, these men and I had become friends. I could count on them. But as I took my seat, I realized the conversation was about her. About Lula.
    â€œDo you think she might be Miss Delancey’s—or should I say, Mrs. Clifton’s—replacement?” Carl Whitson, the manual training teacher, asked.
    I shrugged, looked around for our waitress. “Principal Gray mentioned he might have a candidate applying, but that was a while ago.”
    Giles’ eyebrows danced up and down. “Maybe this one will let you do the pursuing.”
    I snorted, unfolded my napkin, and laid it across my lap. “I’m not pursuing anyone. You know that.”
    â€œMaybe Carl will get a chance with her, then.”
    Carl rolled his eyes while the others exchanged amused grins.
    Leland smoothed thinning gray hair over his ears. “If I didn’t have this band on my hand, I might pursue her myself.”
    Laughter all around. Harold Leland, Latin teacher, was sixty, if he was a day. Married for forty years. Father to six. Grandfather to . . . several.
    Our waitress arrived at the table, diffusing the talk of music teachers and matrimony. The conversation turned as we waited for our food.
    â€œGuess they’re still at it near Ypres,” Carl said.
    â€œLots of artillery fire at Verdun, too.” Joe DeMarco, football coach and history teacher.
    â€œAnd looks like they finally have good weather instead of all that rain,” Leland put in.
    Each man contributed something to the talk of the war. Except Giles. He sat silent. Stared at his plate. Out the window. Into the opposite corner of the room.
    His gaze stuck there. I twisted in my chair. A table of soldiers. I jerked back around. Surely Giles wasn’t considering . . .
    I snuffed out the thought. Giles had other things to think of right now. Like the upcoming basketball season. And his unspoken infatuation with the doe-eyed domestic science teacher.
    But what if he hadn’t been given a choice?
    Like Clay.

9
    L ULA
    I mumbled thanks to the two men who held open the door into the high school—a round-faced man with a wide smile and a receding hairline, and Mr. Vaughn from church. His handsome face drew my attention, but I forced my eyes back to the hallway before me.
    I’d spent the past eight years avoiding romantic entanglements. I wouldn’t let his finely chiseled features trip me up now. Besides, I’d only be here a few months. Just until I got Jewel back on her feet.
    I lifted my chin and lengthened my stride. Then I slowed. Stopped. Drew in a deep breath. Was I really about to offer to be a music teacher? If only this were a math problem to solve. An equation that needed the right numbers in the right places. I bit my lip, smoothed my skirt, switched my handbag from my left hand to my right. And then the answer fell into place with the ease of a