Chapter 102 Callum

Chapter 102 Callum
Chapter 102: Callum 

Ivy

Five Years Later( 2 Years Since Graduation)

I groaned for what felt like the millionth time that day. Teaching four-year-olds was not a job for the weak. 

My head throbbed stubbornly. My lower back ached from bending over tiny chairs. And I needed an unreasonable amount of self-control to keep twenty small hurricanes from turning the classroom into a literal war zone.

“Ethan.” I pointed at the little boy currently clutching someone else’s notebook like it was his. “Give Liam’s notebook back to him. That’s not nice.”

Ethan made a face, pouted, and folded his arms. “Miss Ivy, Liam took mine first—”

I silenced him with a small finger wiggle. “What’s the magic word?”

The rest of the class leaned forward, delighted. They loved this part.

Ethan turned to Liam, shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry.” He slid the notebook across the table. “You can have it back.”

I looked at Liam and smiled. “Liam? Do you have something to say to Ethan?”

“Sorry, Ethan,” he mumbled, cheeks pink.

I opened my mouth to praise them both when a knock sounded at the classroom door. Alvin stood there in the doorway, a smile already in place.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “Principal Skye would like to see you in his office.”

I tried not to smile too obviously as I turned back to the children.

“Okay, class. Miss Ivy is going to step out for a teeny tiny minute. When I get back, lessons will begin. For now, be good. No fighting.”

“Yes, Miss Ivy,” they chorused.

I followed Alvin into the hallway, keeping my head down. A blush crept up my neck when I realized he had taken a route that definitely did not lead to the principal’s office.

“Mr. Alvin,” I said under my breath, “this isn’t the way to the office, is it?”

“No. It’s not.”

He stopped in front of an empty storage room, opened the door, and pulled me inside. My back hit the metal lockers. 

Before I could even laugh, his mouth was on mine—hungry, impatient, like he had been thinking about this all morning. His hands cupped my face. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back, smiling against his lips.

“Mr. Alvin,” I whispered, “isn’t this against the rules?”

He kissed down the side of my neck. “Who’s going to know? It’s not a crime to miss my girlfriend.”

“What if we get caught?”

He squeezed my breast through my blouse with one hand while the other fished a condom from his pocket. I bit back another smile.

He never forgot my one rule: No condom, no sex.

Alvin and I had met on my first day here, a year and a half ago. The attraction had been instant—at least on his side. He was good-looking in a bland but popular way. Female teachers still watched him a little too long in the staff room. 

In some ways he reminded me of the old Andy. Charming. Confident. Used to being wanted.

But he was not as handsome as Leo. He didn’t come close.

He had asked me to be his girlfriend after three months of cute dates. I had said yes because I wanted to move on. I wanted to prove I could want someone else. 

Poppy had drummed it into my head that the fastest way to forget a man was to get under a new one. But it had not been that simple.

My body had refused, at first. For months I could not get out of my own head. Foreplay did nothing. My pussy stayed dry and distant no matter how patient he was. No matter what he did. 

Eventually things had progressed anyway. I had wanted to try. I had wanted to be normal.

Sex with Alvin was… fine. Not bad. Not exceptional either. I didn’t have much to compare it to, except the one person I was trying not to compare it to. 

That comparison was unkind. 

Leo left me full, perfectly stretched and satisfied. 

Alvin left me reaching for the toys in the drawer beside my bed more often than I wanted to admit. I never told him. I didn’t want to hurt him.

Whenever I touched myself afterward, it was never Alvin I imagined. It was Leo’s hands. Leo’s mouth. The way he had known exactly how to take me.

If we did this here, I would spend the rest of the afternoon restless and unfinished. I didn’t have anything with me to take the edge off.

“Focus, Ivy,” Alvin murmured against my throat. “What’s on your mind?”

I straightened and bit my lip. “Nothing. Nothing.”

He glanced at his watch, clearly tempted to keep going anyway. “Do you still want to do this?”

I nodded and kissed him again, slower this time. His hands slid under my blouse. I was just starting to lose myself in the heat of it—just starting to think maybe this time my body would cooperate—when the hallway speaker crackled to life above the door.

“Miss Lennon to the principal’s office, please. Miss Lennon to the principal’s office.”

We froze.

Then Alvin dropped his forehead against mine and laughed, low and helpless. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Talk about bad timing.”

I laughed too, a little breathless, tugging my blouse back into place. “Worst timing in the history of timing.”

He kissed me once more, disappointed. “Rain check?”

“Tonight,” I said. “My apartment. After I survive whatever Principal Skye wants.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

I smoothed my hair, checked my reflection in the dark glass of a cabinet door, and slipped back into the hallway like nothing had happened. My lips still tingled. My pulse was still too fast. 

I told myself it was from Alvin. It was, right? 

The walk to the office felt longer than usual. I rehearsed a polite smile. Principal Skye only called teachers in when a parent was involved, or when something needed handling quietly. I knocked once and opened the door.

Two people sat across from his desk with their backs to me. A man in a dark shirt. A small boy beside him, legs swinging just short of the floor.

“You wanted to see me, Principal Skye?” I said, keeping my voice professional.

He stood, smiling. “Miss Lennon. Thank you for coming so quickly. Please, come in.”

I stepped forward, still only seeing the backs of their heads. The man’s hair was dark, silky and reached his nape. The child’s was many shades lighter, neatly cut.

“This is Mr. Teague,” Principal Skye said, “and his son, Callum. They’re new to the area. Callum will be joining our four-year-old program part-time, and Mr. Teague is looking for a tutor to help him settle in.”

The name hit me like cold water.

Teague. As in… my Leopold Teague? 

My tongue went dry. My feet stopped working. For a second I couldn’t hear anything except the sudden roar of blood in my ears.

Then the man stood and turned sideways to face me.

Leo. It was him. Goodness!

He was five years older. Bigger. Broader through the shoulders. The same black eyes. A tattoo I didn’t remember was now on his arm. And the most noticeable change was the beard. Leo had grown a full beard now. 

I sized him up. God, he was fucking huge. 

He looked at me with a face so carefully blank it might as well have been a wall. He looked at me like he didn't recognize nor remember me. 

Principal Skye kept talking, unaware that the floor had dropped out from under me.

“Miss Lennon is one of our best with the younger children. Patient. Consistent. I thought she’d be an excellent match for Callum.”

Leo extended his hand. “Miss Lennon,” he said. “I'm Leopold Teague. Callum's father.” 

My name in his mouth, formal and distant, nearly made me choke on a sob. But I pushed it down.

I forced my arm to lift. His palm met mine. Warm. Familiar. Gone too fast. “Mr. Teague,” I heard myself say. “Nice to meet you.” 

Callum peered up at me with wide, curious eyes. And my breath nearly stopped. He looked nothing like Leo. But everything like Andy. 

He literally had Andy’s entire face. And that did more than confuse me. Could he be… Andy’s? If he was, then was Leo raising his enemy’s kid? Why did he say he was Callum's father? 

The boy had Andy’s mouth. Something of Maddie in the shape of his face. But everything else was Andy. He offered a small, shy wave.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Hi, Callum.” My voice sounded almost normal. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Principal Skye beamed, pleased with himself. “If you’re willing, Miss Lennon, the arrangement would be after school, two or three days a week—”

“Five.” Leo said, eyes never leaving me. “Five days a week. She can take the weekend off.” He said. 

His gaze left goosebumps on my skin. It was as if he was peeling off every layer of clothing on my body. 

Principal Skye clapped his hands. “Very well. If that is okay with you Miss Ivy, then you and Mr. Teague can discuss the rest of the details.”

Leo watched me the entire time the principal spoke. Not hungry. Not angry. Just assessing, like I was a stranger he had been told to evaluate.

I should have said no. I should have invented a conflict, a second job, a life too full to take on one more child. Instead I heard myself agree, because Callum was looking at me like I was already safe, and because walking away from Leo a second time felt impossible while he was standing three feet away breathing the same air as me. 

“Of course,” I said. “I can do that.”

Principal Skye clapped his hands together once. “Wonderful. I’ll leave you two to exchange information now. But I'll be back shortly. Miss Lennon, you can return to your class when you’re done here.”

He stepped out to speak with his secretary, leaving the three of us in the sudden quiet of the office.

Leo slipped a phone from his pocket and unlocked it without looking away from me for long.

“Your number,” he said. Still the same controlled voice he had used when he told me to leave his hospital room and never come back.

I recited it. He typed it in. He recited his and I did the same. Callum swung his legs and stared at the framed certificates on the wall.

“I’ll message you a time,” Leo said. “If that works.”

“It works.”

He nodded once. Then he rested a hand on his son’s shoulder. It was fatherly in a way that made my chest ache. 

“Say thank you, Callum.”

“Thank you, Miss Ivy,” the boy said, then corrected himself with a tiny frown. “Miss Lennon.”

“Miss Ivy is fine,” I told him.

Something flickered across Leo’s face. Gone before I could name it. “We’ll let you get back to your class,” he said.

I stepped aside so they could pass. Leo’s arm brushed mine. The scent of him hit me so hard I had to lock my knees.

When the door closed behind them, I stood alone in the office and pressed my fingers to my mouth to silence the sob. 

Alvin was waiting for a rain check tonight.

Leo Teague was back in my life with my nephew who called me Miss Ivy. Worse, he treated me like a stranger. Like he didn't know me. 

Like I hadn't carried a part of him and experienced the painful loss alone.