Branded: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

“What do you have planned for date number two?”
“Is that your way of saying you want to do this again?” Please say yes. Please say yes. I try to play it cool on the outside, even though I’m clearly way too excited on the inside.
“Well, I did agree to five dates because some guy was awfully pushy.”
I lean forward and place my hand on her car by her head, and her breathing accelerates just enough to be noticeable.
“Sawyer, I don’t want you to agree to a second date because of a deal we made in jest. I want you to say yes because you want to. I’d never make you go out with me if you truly didn’t want to.”
“I want to. I had a nice time, and you’re a nice man who makes me feel comfortable. That’s hard to come by these days.”
“It’s a shame, isn’t it? Men treating women like anything other than the goddesses they are?”
A slow smile spreads over her face. I can see the slightest hint of her white teeth behind her lips. The contrast of the dark lipstick color against her skin is beautiful, and she has this beauty mark just under the left side of her mouth, and a slight scar in her eyebrow that raises skyward when she catches me gawking.
“Are you checking me out?”
“To be fair, I’ve been checking you out all night.”
Her cheeks flush red and she looks down at her feet then back up at me. “Thank you for tonight. Really.”
“It’s my pleasure. I promised Grams I would take her out tomorrow since I’m not on shift until the day after, but I’d really like to see you again soon.”
“I’d like that too.”
“I’ll call you?”
“You better.”
In any other circumstance, I’d lean forward, push her hair from her face, and place a kiss to her lips, but I promised her that she’s different; this is different, so instead, I take her hand in mine and bring it toward my mouth.
“Thank you for spending time with me, Sawyer. I can’t wait to see you again.” I place a gentle kiss to the top of her hand.

Chapter 7
Sawyer
“Listen, I know everyone is excited because we get to miss most of this period today for the career fair, however, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay attention now.”
I take my seat at the small podium that is placed just beside my Smart Board at the front of my classroom and my class continues to talk amongst themselves.
Fine.
I connect my laptop to the Smart Board via Bluetooth and begin to play a very loud, very obnoxious sound from Dumb and Dumber repeatedly, all the while staring at my class until they all turn their attention to me.
“We can do this all day long, so you can give me the fifteen minutes I have you to allow me to teach you something, or we can be assigned extra reading for tonight. The choice is yours.”
“Sorry, Ms. Westbrook,” they say in a unison that almost sounds rehearsed.
“Thank you.  Now, please turn to where we left off in Gatsby last class.”
My cell phone is perched on my podium so I can see the screen, in case someone calls or texts, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t waiting on bated breath for Isaac to reach out.
It’s only been two days since our date, and I know he’s on shift today, but that doesn’t change the fact I haven’t stopped thinking about him.
To say I was surprised by how much of a gentleman he was is an understatement. He gives off the aura of arrogance that I normally associate with less than chivalrous tendencies, but he’s a conundrum.
I’m sitting silently, reading along as one of my students reads a passage aloud from the book when I see movement in my peripheral that pulls my attention.
Liv is waving at me to come out to the hall through the glass window beside the door.
“Keeping reading aloud. Just go down the rows. A page each. I’ll be right back.”
I slip from my chair and out into the hall.
“Oh my God, I stood over here forever trying to get your attention,” Liv whisper-yells to me.
“I was doing that thing you should be doing. Teaching.”
She waves me off then keeps talking, “I was just coming back from the career fair.”
She stops talking and smiles at me like I’m supposed to be able to read her mind.
“Is that it?”
“He’s here.”
“Who’s here?”
“Don’t play dumb. Isaac. He’s here. He’s with some broody, very large, alpha male looking god. There are two of them. Two hot firefighters in our gymnasium, right now, one of whom wants to douse your vagina fire.”
“Liv!” I cover her mouth with my hand, “You can’t say that here, and eww, that sounds like I have something gross going on. Rephrase that. Less grossness, less crudeness.” I drop my hand. “Try again.”
She takes a breath then explodes into a whisper-shout yet again, “The hot as sin firefighter, who clearly wants to spend time with you, and possibly let you handle his water hose is here.”
“Jesus Christ.”
The instant typical female feelings fire through my brain.
Do I look okay?
Is there lipstick on my teeth?
What do I say to him?
Do I even talk to him?
Is this outfit okay? What about my boobs, do they look good?
As if she can read my mind, my best friend places her hands on my shoulders and settles my mind. “You look great. Your hair is perfect and the high-waisted jeans were a good call. You’ve got this Van Halen thing going on.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re making all of us ‘Hot for Teacher.’” She fans herself.
I shake my head and laugh. “Are you sure?”
My hair is twisted up into a bun with a pencil through the middle, holding it in place. I had arrived to school this morning with it down, but quickly regretted that choice, piling it high less than an hour into my day.
“He makes you nervous, doesn’t he?” She nudges my shoulder.
“God, Liv,