Free Spring Secrets: Pine Point, Book 3 by Allie Boniface Page A

sweater with fraying sleeves and the same pair of jeans she’d worn the day before. She splashed water on her face, tied her hair into a ponytail, and grabbed her makeup bag on the way out the door. Outside, an inch of newly fallen snow covered her car. Of course. Sienna stood in the middle of the sidewalk, not sure whether to cry or rage or just turn around and go back to bed.
    “Hey, Sienna.”
    She looked over her shoulder to see Ella Ericksen coming down the stairs behind her. Ella had a designer bag slung over one shoulder and a lumpy paper bag in the crook of the other arm. Despite the early hour, she looked impeccable and fully awake. Even back in high school, she’d bounce into classes with limitless energy and smiles for all the guys surrounding her. She was the last person Sienna wanted to see in her own sorry state right then.
    “Hey.” Sienna stared mournfully at her car and then began wiping the windshield with one mittened hand.
    “Don’t you have a snow brush?” Ella opened the back of her sturdy-looking SUV, parked as usual behind Sienna’s car.
    “Ah, no.”
    “Here.” With two quick sweeps of a long brush, Ella had cleared Sienna’s windshield. She walked around the car, clearing the rest of it without getting any snow on her long red jacket or in her perfectly coiffed hair. Then she handed the brush to Sienna. “Take it. I have another one upstairs.”
    “Really? You’re sure?”
    “Of course.” Ella tossed her hair and beamed. “That’s what neighbors are for.”
    Sienna stood there as the beauty queen climbed into her SUV, beeped the horn twice, and drove away. Neighbors . She supposed they were.
    Sienna dashed into the school twenty minutes later. Loni, the double-chinned monitor, sat at Sienna’s desk. She’d called the office, and Jenny had reassured her that the children would be taken care of, but by the time she reached her classroom, sweat drenched Sienna’s back. Please let everything be calm and peaceful. Surely the twins wouldn’t be awake enough to have started their tantrums. Caleb would be bent over his work, and Silas was probably rocking happily in his chair.
    “Thank goodness you’re here.” Loni got up. “They’ve been about ready to throw tantrums, all of them.”
    “Really? I’m sorry.” Sienna surveyed the room. Billy and Bailey sat red-faced in the corner by the new bookshelf. Silas was rocking, but in a manner so jerky and agitated, she was afraid he’d pitch forward out of the chair and knock himself silly. Caleb wasn’t sitting in his usual chair, but instead stood in the corner under the window, blinking too fast. And Dawn was nowhere to be seen.
    “Where’s Dawn?”
    “In the closet, last time I saw her.” She gave a little nod to the corner as she walked out. “Good luck.”
    Sienna sank to the ground. Her legs gave out, and she simply folded into a pretzel on the rug. I’m in over my head. For a long few minutes, she sat there, unmoving and unspeaking. How did people do this year after year? She remembered why she’d left teaching. It was too damn hard. That, and too damn heartbreaking. She pressed her fingertips to her temples and told herself to breathe. This isn’t forever. This is temporary. You can do this. And if she couldn’t, what was the worst that would happen? They’d find someone else to teach the class, and she’d return to UNC and find another small town to study.
    She took another few breaths. Finally, she pushed herself to a stand and walked over to Caleb. She didn’t touch him. She didn’t try to look at him. Instead, she pointed at the bookshelf and spoke over his left shoulder.
    “Caleb, please pick out two books. Then you can sit at the table and read them to yourself, and we’ll talk about them in thirty minutes.”
    His gaze shifted, and for a second—maybe a half second—his eyes met hers. Then he nodded and walked to the bookshelf.
    Silas stopped rocking. He looked at her with tears in his eyes, and