Free Confessions in the Dark by Jeanette Grey

voice rising. Because he was excited about reducing fractions.
    “Oh!” Max threw his hands in the air. “Why don’t they just teach it that way in the first place?” With that, he stole his pencil right back and bent his head to the page in front of him.
    Letting out a breath, Serena sagged into the couch. Without really meaning to, she’d found herself on high alert, all ready to step in and intervene. She hadn’t needed to, though. Cole had been entirely in control. He’d been amazing, was what he’d been.
    As if he could feel her gaze on him, the wonder with which she beheld him, he turned his head, keen eyes focusing on hers. When he grinned, it just about took her breath away.
    It could’ve been seconds or minutes or years that passed like that, their gazes locked across the entire breadth of her apartment. The moment held until Max lifted his head from his work and turned the page around. “Like that?”
    Cole startled, maybe as lost as she had been. In an exaggerated movement, he widened his eyes and gave his head a little shake. He refocused on Max, studying his paper for half a second before nodding. “Yes. Brilliant.”
    Serena’s pulse fluttered as she returned her own gaze to her lap and the pile of essays there. The weight of Cole’s stare was burned into her, a warmth swimming through her veins, making it hard to think about anything beyond it. But somehow she managed.
    Still, when her phone chirped an hour later, the air in the place carried a near-physical charge. A humming static that had her fumbling with the buttons. She stared at the screen in confusion, surprised to see so much time had passed.
    “Max.” Her voice came out rasping and rough, and she coughed into her hand as if the state of her lungs had anything to do with it. “Your grandma’s on her way. Time to get cleaned up.”
    She rose from her seat as he finished one last problem and beamed with pride at Cole’s approval of his solution. Cole held out a hand for him to shake. “Well done, sir.”
    Of course Max ate that up. He accepted the handshake and bowed to boot. If Cole wasn’t careful, the kid would be asking to be knighted by the time they got to the end of the prep book. Leaning against the fridge, Serena shooed him to go wash his hands.
    Cole sat back, one eyebrow raised as he directed his gaze at her.
    She waited until Max was out of sight. “You were really good with him. I think he learned more in the last hour than he has in the last year.”
    “He’s a bright boy.”
    “You’re a good teacher.”
    He laughed, shaking his head, but there was something freer to him than there usually was. “Tell that to my linear algebra students.”
    At the mention of his old career, the first hint of a shadow returned to his eyes.
    She shrugged, shifting her weight. Treading with care. “I bet they learned a lot from you, whether or not they liked the class.”
    “Doubtful. Teaching was fine. I enjoyed it. But I didn’t have the temperament for it. The patience.” He fiddled with Max’s discarded pencil, twirling it absently between his fingers. “Research was more my speed. You could publish a paper and teach the world about what you were doing without that pesky interacting-with-people thing.”
    Serena frowned. She appreciated his recognition that teaching required a certain amount of skill, but he’d shown plenty of patience this afternoon. “Well. Your temperament just now seemed fine.”
    “Lucky you caught me on a good day, then,” he said.
    Before she could push him any further, Max returned, and the next few minutes were a flurry of chaos as he struggled to cram the contents of his schoolbag that had apparently exploded all over her apartment back in. Her mom wasn’t stopping in that day, so Serena watched for her car out the window. When she pulled up, Serena paced him through their usual goodbye, made him thank Cole again, and sent him on his way.
    As the door closed behind him, she sank down into the