Art teacher Stone Larrabee dreads parent/teacher conferences. One following Christmas break becomes especially awkward, when a man with whom he shared a hot anonymous hookup and a nasty argument afterward walks in. Edison Watts.<br><br>The moment they’re reunited, sexual sparks reignite. Too many conflicts force Stone to decree there can never be anything between them but the one night, though, even as fate keeps throwing them together throughout the school year, and developing feelings become hard to ignore.<br><br>Some problems are easily solved while others, including the reason for Edison’s initial attraction to Stone and the chip on Edison’s shoulder bigger than the high school’s football field, prove more difficult. Stone can teach, but he decides must also be willing to learn and grow. When Edison promises to do the same, can they find a way to make one and one equal two?

Substitute Teacher

“Well, we’re not there yet. On the other hand, we’re not getting any younger. I’ve been unfaithful to my husband many, many times.”


Stone cringed, only inwardly, he hoped.


“Okay. That sounded funnier in my head,” Lee admitted. “My sense of humor pales in comparison to Ed’s. Many of my so-called qualities do.”


“You don’t have to sell me on Edison. It was slow going, but sometime between November and March, seeing him with the dogs, maybe, I found myself starting to fall for him.”


“Witnessing him love and nurture another living thing…Yeah, it’s pretty amazing.”


“It is. Too bad.” Stone bit off about a third of his triangular crust, then went over to a bucket of water to clean up a brush someone had abandoned when the pizza came.


Chapter 22