As soon as they entered Chris’ office, Melanie shut the door. Linda was already gone, which was good. Esther didn’t need or want any more rumors or drama about her getting out. Taking deep, steadying breaths so she wouldn’t have an all-out panic attack in front of them, she tried to save that for later.

  “So.” Chris clapped her hands together, the sound loud and reverberating in Esther’s ears so it was nearly the only thing she could focus on. “I have a few things to confess to the two of you.”

  “What did he do?” Esther muttered.

  Chris raised a dark eyebrow at her, somewhat surprised. “I told you that I’d been getting messages from him about you since I hired you.”

  Esther nodded, worry filling her because she hadn’t told Melanie about that yet. There hadn’t been time, and it hadn’t seemed like a pressing issue. Now it was an entirely different problem. “Is he doing it again?”

  “He hasn’t stopped, if that’s what you’re asking. But he has started in more fully on Melanie and sending emails about her. Not to the extent he has done to you.” Chris crossed her arms and leaned back against her desk in the small conference area of the room. “But today he paid me a visit—scheduled, mind you—because he’s concerned about Anthony. And I won’t lie, he has been my first and main concern since the two of you started whatever it is you were doing.”

  “Dating,” Melanie supplied. “We’re dating.”

  “Yes, well, since before that.” Chris eyed Melanie sharply. “Don’t think I didn’t wait to start planning for this until Esther told me it was official. I started when I first saw the signs, when you first admitted your crush. I wasn’t sure you could remain objective with him.”

  “I can,” Melanie argued, but Chris held up her hand to stop any more objections.

  “You can’t. And don’t be so stupid to think you can, but here’s the thing, unless you start treating him poorly because of a break up, I don’t expect you’ll do anything to his detriment. Which was my point with Skip.”

  Esther raised her chin, not sure she wanted to look into Chris’ eyes, but she had to know. She hadn’t been part of that conversation, and the information flying between them all was overwhelming. She struggled to just keep up.

  “So when he was here, I wasn’t surprised he was upset. I expected him to be upset. Any good parent would be, but he didn’t really seem upset about Anthony.”

  Esther frowned. “He was upset about me.”

  “Yes.” Chris gave her a solid look before flicking her gaze to Melanie. “Which I also anticipated, because what neither of you know is that I do pay attention, and I’ve seen the reports about Skip Johnson not only on social media and in the news but in the gossip that schools are best known for. And since I finally talked to Andry, I have a full rundown of the gossip.”

  “Gossip?” Melanie interjected.

  “You really have to go to other schools more often, Mel. Skip is known as someone who preys on teachers, dates them, ditches them. Normally not too much of an issue, except when it turns into something like it has with Esther.”

  “Issue,” Esther muttered, the word sticking out in her mind like a sore thumb. She nodded to herself but didn’t add to the conversation.

  “So I have been compiling records of the harassment between him and Esther, not just from when you have been here at Irving, but from your previous schools as well.”

  Esther flicked her gaze immediately to Chris, surprise shooting through her. “You what?”

  “In case you wanted to file a formal complaint against him.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “You said you would think about it.”

  “And I have. I can’t do that. I can’t let him hurt Anthony.” Esther looked wildly from Chris to Melanie. “I won’t do it.”

  “Won’t is a more accurate word to use than can’t,” Chris pushed. “And again, I wish you would. It would give me more of a leg to stand on when I kick him out of my office again.”

  “Again?” Esther's heart thumped wildly.

  Melanie stepped in this time. “Chris swiftly ended the conversation earlier today.”

  Esther’s jaw dropped. What had been happening behind closed doors that she didn’t know about? Chris had defended her. Melanie had defended her. They both had her best interests in mind from what she was hearing, but she still wasn’t sure that she could trust herself to believe it. Maybe with Melanie, but that came with a slew of other complications that Esther didn’t know if she was willing to risk just to face Skip’s wrath.

  “You two need to be careful in this situation, and I strongly suggest you contact a union rep and maybe even your custody lawyer, Esther, because I can see this getting ugly before it gets better. Even if you don’t file a complaint.”

  Her heart was racing. She wasn’t even sure she was fully hearing everything Chris was telling her, but she did hear the caution and the worry in the tone. She did hear, for the first time since finding out she was pregnant and leaving Skip, that she wasn’t alone.

  She wasn’t alone.

  Dragging in a breath of fresh, cool air, Esther looked from Chris to Melanie, seeing them in a completely different light than she had before. It was true. Not only did she have Melanie, but Melanie came with reinforcements. Irving came with admin who cared about their teachers, not only their students and making parents happy, and that was something she’d never experienced before. That was something she didn’t want to give up.

  “So what now?” Esther asked. “What do we do now?”

  “Now, we are very careful,” Chris answered. “I’ll do extra checks to make sure Melanie isn’t treating Anthony any different. The two of you keep your distance in this school and out in public until Anthony is done with kindergarten, and try not to rile Skip up if you can. And Esther?”

  She tilted her chin up in question.

  “Please decide if you want to file a harassment complaint. Both Melanie and I and Linda and even Andry are here if you do. Please.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Esther pressed her lips together, the thought she wasn’t alone still ringing through her ears. If there was anything she took out of that day, it would be that.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Melanie wore her best dress. Esther had helped her pick it out the night before, but she really wished she had been able to see Esther that morning. Her nerves were a pile in her stomach. This wasn’t something she did. Protesting wasn’t something she normally did, but this was beyond anything she had ever done.

  Melanie Przybyla wasn’t someone who would get in front of the crowd and make a scene, but that’s exactly what she was doing that day. Chris had given her the day off, graciously, because when she’d gotten the phone call that she was being asked to go to the State Senate and give a passionate speech opposing this new bill, she almost declined.

  Add in the conversation with Skip the day before, and she had been regretting the decision even more. They were one of the first bills being presented, so the Senate had only been in session for one day. She wasn’t even sure what to expect when she walked in there. She’d been given a quick rundown of what would happen and how, but she wasn’t sure she understood it.

  Her house was too quiet too. It made her even more on edge. She had wished Esther had been able to stay the night, but with the confrontation with Skip, and Esther having Anthony that week, they hadn’t wanted to risk it. Which made her even more nervous. She was fighting for Esther, and she was committed to that, but at the same time she wondered if it would all be worth it if in the end they didn’t wind up together.

  Not that she was doing it only to end up with Esther. Cursing herself and her train of thought, Melanie checked herself in the mirror again. She’d dressed plainly but nicely, wanting to make sure the State Senate was paying attention to what she said rather than what she looked like.

  Melanie grabbed her keys and stepped out the front door, surprised to find Esther standing in front of her SUV with Anthony next to her. Esther’s gaze dropped from her face to her toes and back up again, an appreciative look crossing her features before she stepped forward. Melanie instinctively pulled her jacket tighter around her against the cold and against the heat in Esther’s look.

  “You’re looking good. I told you that would be the perfect outfit for this.”

  “You did,” Melanie murmured as she stepped in closer, not leaning in for the kiss she really wanted to take. It was right when kids would start going to school, so they’d be walking and parents would be driving and since they lived in the neighborhood in which they taught, she held at least a foot away.

  Anthony ran up to her and wrapped his arms around her hips in a tight hug. “Melanie, I got you this.”

  Kneeling, Melanie took the small bracelet that he offered her. It was clearly something he had made—the yarn was green and brown and yellow all wrapped together messily. “Oh, thank you, bud.”

  “I made it. It’s for good luck.”

  “I’ll make sure to keep it on me.” She slipped it over her wrist and gave him another quick hug before standing up, somewhat uncomfortable in the low heels she had chosen to wear that day. She wasn’t sure she could walk up and down many stairs without falling over in them. “I’m so nervous.”

  “You’ll be fantastic. I know you will.”

  “Thanks.” Melanie sucked in a deep breath. “I guess I should go.”

  “Don’t want to be late.” Esther moved in and pressed her lips to Melanie’s cheek, closer to the corner of her mouth than was certainly appropriate for two friends, but when she pulled back, Melanie was glad she had taken the risk.

  “Thank you. Really.”

  “Anytime.” Esther stepped back toward her car and shooed Anthony inside. As they drove toward Irving, Melanie took a different road and headed for the capitol.

  Just like at the protest, the building loomed over her. She met up with a senator’s aide and was led through the motions of going inside and finding her place. The wait for her turn to speak was agonizing. As she was called up to the microphone to speak, Melanie trembled.

  Then she thought of Esther.

  Of Anthony.

  Of the reasons she was doing this.

  Clearing her throat, Melanie started. “You don’t know who I am, but I’m a kindergarten teacher. People either think I have the easiest job in the world or it’s a job they would never want, but I can tell you that it takes a special kind of teacher to want to teach the youngest in the school.”

  That earned her a very light chuckle, which served to urge her on.

  “I came here today because I was asked to, because I have been teaching for twenty years now, and while I might be far from the beginning of my career in education, some of my friends aren’t. And this bill would be an undue hardship on them and their careers.”

  Melanie shifted the papers around in front of her nervously, her hands still shaking as she tried to find her place in the prepared speech, the one she had spent hours writing and rewriting, trying to get all of her points across.

  “We are contracted for thirty-nine weeks of the year. What that means is for the other thirteen weeks of the year we are unpaid. If this bill were to pass, we would have to use the time we are unpaid in order to fulfill it. This isn’t just about not being paid or being paid more, it’s about placing restrictions on us as teachers and how we can best teach.”

  She was finally finding her stride, the nerves leaving her rapidly as she continued.

  “We have degrees in teaching. We want to do this, to be here, to teach, to educate, to be surrounded by young minds and help them to get those ah-ha moments. That’s why we do what we do. Not for the pay, not for the time off, but for the kids. We can’t teach to the best of our abilities, to the best of what the kids need, if we’re worried about coming up with lesson plans that we can’t deviate from for the entire year.”

  She continued on, repeating some of what she had said during the protest, embellishing more about her own children’s lives, the interventions they had needed in order to succeed but how they were discovered throughout the course of the year. By the end of her speech, Melanie was full of confidence, her voice strong. She looked at each person in the room, and she told them exactly what she thought of the bill, that it would make it so difficult for teachers that they wouldn’t continue with their careers and new teachers would leave before they even had a chance to succeed.

  Some of the senators stood up and clapped for her while others gave her the evil eye. That she had expected, but still, it hurt. As she left the Senate floor, relief overwhelmed her. It was done and over with, and there wasn’t much more she could do in the meantime.

  As soon as she reached the hallway, his voice hit her. “How could you oppose this?”

  Every hair on the back of Melanie’s neck stood up straight. She turned to see Skip standing not ten feet away from her. She wished she still had the confidence that she’d had at the end of her speech, but instead she was struck dumb as she stared at Skip.

  “Do you realize what this will do to Esther?”

  “Do you?” she countered, finding that fire again. He wasn’t going to try to defend Esther or do something for her only one day after trying to destroy her. “She’s a new teacher. Do you think she has time to come up with a year of lesson plans before the summer ends? Do you think she can find a job during the summer and still work the full-time job she’s not getting paid for? Do you even know how late she stays up at night after Anthony goes to bed to finish out her work for her students? She is one of the most dedicated teachers I have ever met, and believe me, I’ve met a lot of them. She’s who you should be fighting for. Not against.”

  “Don’t you dare tell me what I don’t know about Esther.”

  “Why?” Melanie took a step toward the front of the Capitol, ready to leave the building and Skip completely. “Because it points to the fact that you don’t know her at all? Or is it a reminder of all she’s accomplished without you?”

  When he didn’t immediately respond, Melanie gave him a sharp nod.

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Without another word, she twisted on her toes and left the building. If this was going to be her fate for the next twelve years while she was with Esther and while Anthony was a minor, then she would deal with it, but when she was done, she would be done.

  Esther had waited all day for Melanie to tell her how it had gone. She’d heard snippets here and there from other teachers, but she hadn’t heard from Melanie. Though the rumors going around said everything had gone well. Esther had just finished putting Anthony to bed and grabbed her phone to sit on the couch and call Melanie when there was a gentle knock on the door.

  She grinned before she even stood up to answer it. Pulling the door open to Melanie, in far more comfortable clothes than she’d worn that morning, leaning against the door frame. Esther opened the door wider to let Melanie in. “I was just about to call you. How did it go?”

  “The speech went fine. However, I ran into Skip directly after it.”

  Esther’s heart fell. They couldn’t escape him. From their interrupted first official date, which had altered the entire mood of it, to today. Frowning, Esther locked the door before she grabbed hold of Melanie’s hand and squeezed tightly. “What did he say?”

  “More of the same, essentially. But he also doesn’t understand why I would be fighting this bill.”

  “He does,” Esther murmured. “He just can’t admit it or potentially ruin his image, which would ruin his reelection.”

  Melanie nodded in agreement and tugged Esther in closer so their lips touched. “You know, I really don’t want to think about Skip tonight.”

  “You don’t?”

  Shaking her head, Melanie leaned in and stood close to Esther. She hovered. Esther tilted her chin up, knowing exactly what Melanie was wanting. Her entire body was on fire in an instant, ready for whatever Melanie was needing. “I brought a bag.”

  “An overnight bag?” Esther asked.

  Melanie raised an eyebrow. “I hope that wasn’t presumptuous of me.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Car.”

  “You drove here?”

  “I came straight from meeting with the group that’s organizing the protests. They wanted to know how it went today.” Melanie leaned in and touched their lips together again. “But right now what I want is a distraction from all of that.”

  “A distraction?” Esther’s heart fluttered, and she pushed into Melanie lightly.

  “Yes.” Melanie pressed a kiss to Esther’s cheek, then right in front of her ear. Melanie’s fingers skimmed down Esther’s arm, then back up, before sliding down her front, over the curve of her breast to rest at her waist.

  “I think I can be a distraction for tonight.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Esther was surprised that she wanted it for more than just that one night. She wanted to be Melanie’s distraction as often as Melanie wanted her. Her stomach tightened but immediately relaxed. The thought didn’t scare her.

  Over the past seven months, she had come to like this woman, maybe even love her. But Melanie hadn’t been like any other partner Esther had been with, and she continued to prove that. Even as Esther had fought against it in the beginning, she had stopped at some point. She wasn’t sure she could put her finger on when, but she had stopped resisting and let Melanie into her inner circle.

  Melanie’s lips at her neck distracted her, and Esther let out a gentle moan, tilting her head to the side to give Melanie better access. Reaching down, she folded their hands together. “Go get your bag, and meet me in the bedroom.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes.” Esther turned and captured Melanie’s lips in a deep kiss, pouring everything about that moment into it. When they broke apart, Melanie stepped toward the front door, and Esther moved toward her small bedroom. Her heart fluttered, but it wasn’t panic that settled inside her, it was something else, something she wasn’t sure she should name just yet.