Jason nodded. “I know.” He felt like dog crap on the sidewalk about how unprofessional he’d been. He tightened his mouth.

“And I can tell you that you’re a good man. You’ve got a good, solid background—your parents brought you up right. Yeah, you’re young.”

“I’m twenty-nine.” Not a kid. Not like Remi’s younger brother wanting her to bail him out of missing an exam. Jason was old enough to be taking responsibility for his own mistakes, just like he’d urged Remi to make her brother do.

Dan waved a hand. “From where I’m at, you’re young. But you’re right. You’re a grown man and you need to figure this out. You need to do the right thing.”

“I don’t know what the right thing is. The right thing for me is different than the right thing for Brianne. And for our child. And for Remi.” He rubbed the ache in his chest. “I don’t want to be selfish, but…I just don’t know.”

“Go,” Dan said. “We’re done with our practice. You’ve got the rest of today and tomorrow to figure this out. Go do what you need to do, but I expect you here tomorrow night for the game, a hundred percent ready to play.”

Jason nodded and stood. He felt like a teenager in trouble for staying out past curfew, except this was a way worse infraction than that. He left Dan’s office, trying to keep his head up. He got what Dan was telling him. They paid him big bucks to play hockey, not to mope around with his head up his ass, pouting because things weren’t going his way.

Yeah. He had to deal with this. He still didn’t know exactly what he was going to do, but one thing he knew—he had to tell Remi.

Chapter Fifteen

Usually Remi loved having kids visit her after class. Some of her current students stayed and some of her former students, now in grade seven or eight, often came after school to hang out in her classroom, sometimes helping her mark spelling tests or clean up, good kids who she enjoyed talking to and laughing with.

But today she had to get out of there, like now.

“Sorry, everyone,” she said, packing her briefcase. “I have to leave early today.”

Well, it wasn’t early, but it was early for her since she usually stayed late.

“Aw, Ms Buchanan. Not already.”

She smiled at them. “Go home. Go play video games and eat junk food or something. Go bug your parents.”

They all laughed, knowing she was kidding. Slowly they started to make a move to leave, but not fast enough for her. She tapped a foot and resisted the urge to get up and drag them out.

Then a big shadow appeared in the door of the class room and the kids all yipped. “Hey! Jase!”

Her heart stopped. Then thudded fast and hard, making her dizzy.

God, he looked rough. Dark beard shaded his jaw and tension drew down the corners of his mouth. He clearly hadn’t shaved since she’d last seen him. His tousled hair stuck up in all directions and he wore the most faded, ripped and ragged pair of jeans she’d ever seen, along with his expensive lamb-soft leather jacket. Most impressive of all was the black eye.

His eyes met hers, but he gave the kids smiles and talked to them for a minute.

“What? It’s not Wednesday?” he asked. “You mean I’m here on the wrong day?”

“Stars for Reading is over!” they told him.

“Oh no!”

They all laughed. His eyes met Remi’s across the room.

Thank god it was over. Dropping his pants in a restaurant and getting himself arrested wasn’t exactly being a good role model for the kids. They would have kicked him out if the program was still going.

“Hey, I need to talk to Ms Buchanan, so scram.” He grinned at them, a strained grin, but they listened to him better than they’d listened to her, which made her want to pout briefly, and in only seconds the classroom was empty and she and Jason were alone. They looked at each other. She had a hard time getting air into her lungs.

“You’re probably pissed off at me,” he finally said.

She debated how to play this. Like a mother whose child has disappeared while shopping, found safely moments later—should she be furious at the disappearance? Or happy and relieved he was okay? Emotions churned inside her.

“Should I be pissed off?” she asked, trying to hold his gaze, but he let his eyes drop.

“Yeah. You should.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a big, stupid jerk.”

She felt a fist squeezing her heart.

“No, you’re not.”

He moved toward her and put his hands on her waist and she let her briefcase drop to the floor. Then he bent his head and kissed her. Much as she wanted to kiss him back and never, ever stop, she couldn’t just pretend nothing had happened. She put her palm on his chest and pushed.

“What’s going on, Jase?”

He lifted his head and gazed down at her, his mouth a straight line of grimness, eyes dark.

“Nothing.”

She shoved harder at him and he took a step back. “Bullshit. Something’s obviously wrong.”

“I should have called you on Saturday,” he said, pushing his hands into his pockets and elevating his shoulders like a little boy. “I’m sorry.”

“That’s it? You’re sorry?”

“Yeah.”

She stared at him. That wasn’t good enough for her. How could he think it was?

“Wanna get some dinner?” he asked.

She felt her eyebrows descend and put her fingers to her temples. “Dinner?”

“Sure. Something quick.” He moved toward her again and traced his fingers down the side of her neck and over her collarbone in the opening of her blouse. She shivered. “And then we can go back to your place and I’ll make it up to you that I didn’t call on Saturday.”

She lowered her chin and looked up at him through her lashes. He was going to do this—act like nothing big had happened.

Jennifer appeared in the door of the classroom with some papers in her hands. She stopped short upon seeing Jason. “Oh, hi Jason. I didn’t know you were here.”

He shot her his most charming grin, made especially bad-boy sexy by the shiner, and she smiled in return. Remi wanted to roll her eyes, but didn’t. “Just came to talk to Remi.”

She eyed them. “Well, I can talk to you about this tomorrow, Remi.”

“Okay. Thanks. We’re just leaving.”

This was not the place to be discussing Jason’s problems, whatever they may be, so she grabbed her coat and purse and briefcase and they walked out of the school together.

“Let’s just go to my place,” she suggested. “If you’re hungry, I’ll make you something, but I don’t want to be having this conversation in a restaurant.”

He frowned. Good. Just so he knew they were having a conversation.

He followed her home and once the door had closed behind them, he reached for her again. His mouth was warm and delicious on hers, then he kissed his way over her cheek and jaw and the side of her neck, sending shivery delight over her body. It was so hard to resist his potent sexual charm, but she grabbed hold of his big biceps and tried to push him away.

“Stop, Jase.”

He muttered something against her neck and didn’t move. “You’re so sweet, Remi,” he murmured. “God, I missed you. I had to see you. Even…”

Even what? She ached for more of him, longed to arch against him and throw her arms around his neck. She almost did. Then she used some of the moves she hadn’t used for a while and slid out of his grip with a fast bend of her knees, then grabbed his arm and twisted it up behind his back sharply.

“Jesus Christ!”

She gave his arm a hard wrench, not to hurt him, just to remind him that just because he was big didn’t mean she couldn’t protect herself from him. Then she let him go and stepped away, putting space between them.

“Do not think you can just show up and get me all hot and bothered and I’ll just forget about whatever is going on,” she said, her jaw so tight it hurt. “Don’t think you can use sex to distract me from everything else.” Whoa. She was speaking up, standing up for herself. It was hard, but she knew it was important, important to their relationship and important for her own self-respect.