Her Secret, His Child. Tara Quinn Taylor

funded college education and is gaining nothing more than what he knew before he came here—football.”

      With a few choice words, Coach Lippert wrenched open the door, then slammed it behind him.

      Kyle picked up his glasses and carefully positioned them across the bridge of his nose, glad no one could see how his hands were trembling.

      

      NERVOUS, JAMIE knocked on the door of Ashley’s classroom early Monday morning. The kids were all in another room for story time, and Miss Peters had suggested this might be a good moment for her and Jamie to talk.

      “Come in, Ms. Archer.” A warm smile on her face, Miss Peters ushered Jamie over to the art center. “Hope you don’t mind sitting on a table,” she said, perching on the corner of one herself. “The chairs are all a bit small in here.”

      Attempting a grin, Jamie sat. Even at table level, her knees were hugging her chest.

      “Ashley told me about Nathan,” she said in a rush, determined to meet the situation head-on. “And I’m really sorry she’s so rigid in her expectations. But I’ll work with her.”

      “So you know she slapped him?” The compassion on Miss Peters’s face was the only thing that kept Jamie from sliding right off her seat.

      “Slapped him?” she squeaked out. “You mean as in hitting another little child?”

      Jamie’s heart caught in her throat as Miss Peters nodded.

      “Is he hurt?”

      “Not really,” the preschool teacher said. “She hit him hard enough to leave red fingerprints on his face, but they were gone by lunchtime.”

      “I can’t believe it!” Jamie felt light-headed, confused. Scared. “I’ve never hit Ashley in her life.”

      “I wasn’t sure...”

      Eyes open wide, Jamie stared at the other woman. “Never!” After the way she’d grown up, Jamie could hardly bear to speak harshly to her daughter, let alone spank her. Had never needed to. “Ashley’s been a model child,” she added. “Loving. Almost too good.”

      “I must say I was quite surprised.”

      “What’d you do to her?”

      “Put her in time-out down in the office to begin with. That’s procedure.”