Read Online Unfinished Business by Karyn Langhorne - Free Book Online

corrections. Angry as she made him, Mark couldn’t resist watching her hips sway in those jeans as shemarched away from him. He could just imagine them in a nice skirt, maybe a pair of sassy high heels…
    Get a grip on yourself , a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Bitsi reminded him. She might be gorgeous, but she’s the most annoying woman on the planet.
    â€œSettle down, young people,” Erica told them in a voice that walked a narrow line between sternness and encouragement. She turned back to him. “Are you going to be all right here?” she asked coolly. “Do you need anything? A glass of water, maybe? So you can take that pill you’ve been fingering for the past half hour?”
    Crap. How the hell did she know about that?
    But all he said was, “Saw that, huh?” pulling on the deepest and most disarming of his Southern accents to let her know she wasn’t bothering him in the slightest. He opened his palm to show her the white pill. “I enjoyed the school tour, but there are a lot of stairs, your principal’s a bit long-winded and my leg’s not what it once was. Hate to take these things, though.” He tapped the side of his head. “Dulls the brain.”
    â€œReally? Is the entire Republican party taking them?” Before he could reply, she fixed those big eyes at him and shook her head. “All you had to do was say you were hurting and Principal Mayes would have cut the tour short. But you’d rather tough it out. War heroes aren’t like the rest of us, I guess.”
    Mark frowned, his feelings of attraction evaporating. Everything was either an insult or an argument with this woman—absolutely everything. He opened his mouth, but she was already directing her class like he didn’t exist.
    â€œAnthony!” she called, summoning a cute little boy with cocoa-colored skin and huge black eyes. He wore a stained white uniform shirt and pair of darkblue pants that looked like they’d seen better days, but his eyes were bright with intelligence.
    â€œYo?”
    Mark recognized the voice as the loud kid who’d been asking questions about his cane.
    â€œAnthony!” Erica repeated as though the kid hadn’t responded and Mark heard the authority in her voice. The kid must have heard it, too, because when he spoke again, his voice was cordial and polite.
    â€œYes, ma’am?”
    â€œTake one of the plastic cups from the bottom drawer of my desk and go down to the water fountain. Our guest would like a glass of water.”
    â€œYes, ma’am.” Anthony shot Mark a glance before moving toward his teacher’s desk to find the cup and do as he was told. In a flash, he was at Mark’s side, nursing a cup that would have overflowed if so much as another drop of liquid were added to its content. As it was, it slopped over Mark’s hand as he took it from the boy.
    â€œThank you, Anthony,” he said, smiling into the boy’s inquisitive black eyes.
    To his surprise, the child executed a nearly perfect military salute and then turned on his heel and marched to his seat as though he’d been living at boot camp for the past several months.
    â€œMorning journals, please,” Erica commanded, taking her place at the front of the room. Almost immediately, black composition books were produced from desks and backpacks. “All right, young people,” Erica continued, “let’s not let our having a guest disrupt our regular routine. Please clear your desks for the daily language worksheet. Keisha and Shawna, you’re classroom helpers this week, so please pass these out.” She handed two little girls in dark blue jumpers a sheaf of papers.
    A sea of hands rose almost immediately.
    â€œMiz Johnson, can I sharpen my pencil?”
    â€œMe, too!”
    â€œI don’t have a pencil. Can I borrow one?”
    Erica’s mouth folded into a grim line.
    â€œI