Free Vicious Love (Barrington Heights #1) by M. W. McFarland Page A

brown eyes. I couldn’t remember where I’d seen her before, but for some odd reason, I recognized her. Before I could sidetrack myself with even more useless pondering, I took attendance, trying to pay maximum attention to the girl in the middle.
    “Crystal Ashburn?” I asked, starting off attendance.
    A young girl, blond, raised her hand from the back of the class. “Yeah, I’m here,” she said, almost mumbling.
    “Tiffany Bakers?” Once again, I scanned the room, trying to make it look like I wasn’t watching the brunette in the middle of the class.
    A hand rose in the front. “Present,” she said. Quite a bubbly girl.
    “Jacob Butler?” A male’s name, obviously not the girl in the middle.
    “I go by Jake, but I’m here,” he said without raising his hand.
    I marked down his nickname and kept going. “Okay, is Audrey Dozier here?”
    This time, the girl from the middle’s hand went up. Audrey Dozier, a French last name like mine. That could be a conversation starter for later.
    “I’m here,” she spoke.
    I completed the rest of the attendance sheet and marked down everyone’s nicknames, if they had any, and who was absent. Such was the way of being a teacher. After all of that was settled, I went through my papers and set up my routine for this class. Nothing special, the normal first-day stuff, but this time, I wanted to make sure to get everyone involved in the ‘get to know each other’ conversation about economics. Primarily to figure out who this Audrey Dozier was and where I remembered her from.
    “Good morning, everyone, I’m Miss Beaumont, your economics teacher. As you might have noticed, I’m a new teacher here. However, I taught for two years in New York City at a private school, so I do have experience. Any questions?” The first hand shot up quickly—Audrey’s. I smiled and asked her, “Okay, what’s your question and restate your name.”
    “Audrey Dozier, and my question is this: What is your take on the current division between the upper and lower classes?”
    Wow, I had been looking for questions about myself, not about our nation’s economic situation.
    “Well, Audrey, I was actually hoping to answer any question you guys had about me, but since I didn’t specify, I guess I’ll answer your question. Our nation’s current class gap is due to many factors. However, I believe people are overhyping the situation we are in. I’ll actually be touching up on this issue during the school year, so I’ll have to save my full answer until then.” I smiled at her, and she smiled back. First impressions were always tricky. But Audrey seemed like a very bright and intelligent young woman. I looked forward to having her in class.
    “Okay, thank you, Miss Beaumont.”
    “It’s my job.”
    The class laughed, and I continued answering some question. One question came from a young man in the back.
    “You say your name is Miss Beaumont, but you’re wearing a ring. Does that mean that you’re engaged, married and still going by ‘miss,’ or do you just like the size of the rock?” He laughed at this.
    Great. We have a class clown, I thought to myself.
    “I’m currently engaged, and we don’t have a set date.”
    The girls in the class all looked at my ring with jealousy. It was a large diamond—a very large diamond. And it was only an engagement ring. The guys, unlike the girls, seemed to be looking at something else of mine altogether.
    “You never said your name though,” I spoke through the laughs.
    “Oh, yeah. My bad. I’m Devin Wade. The pleasure is all mine.” Devin also seemed familiar, but not as familiar as Audrey.
    “Oh shut up, you dolt.”
    I whizzed my head around to see who had come to my defense, and to my surprise, it was Audrey.
    “Don’t try to be funny. It doesn’t suit you,” she added.
    I was too hesitant to say anything. Well, that and I wanted to see what would happen.
    “Oh yeah? What does suit me then?” Devin was setting himself up