Holly went over and kissed Nathan on the cheek. She didn’t want to do more in front of her students, but Nathan blushed like she’d frenched him.
“Thank you,” she told him.
“Did I ever tell you my favorite teacher was in second grade?” he asked her. She shook her head and he leaned in close. “I like you better, though.”
She chuckled and grinned. “You get me cheese pizza?”
Nathan reached around and held out a box. He popped open the lid to reveal a beautiful cheese pizza. Her mouth watered.
“I have plates at a table.” He looked over behind him and shrugged. “Well, I had plates. It looks like some fifth graders swiped them.”
He chuckled and they found an open space to sit down. The room was full of cheerful kids. Everyone was excited about the free pizza. Nathan had even ordered a couple gluten free pies and some without dairy to include the kids on diet restrictions.
Holly picked a slice up out of the box and ate it without a plate. Nathan grinned and copied her. They sat on long benches that were made for children rather than adults.
“Ms. Jones, can we sit with you?” Molly North asked her. A girl and a boy stood behind her, all of them holding plates full of pizza and looking hopeful.
“Of course you can,” Holly said. “Come sit with us. I’d like you to meet my friend, Nathan. He’s the one who brought the pizza today.”
“You brought all this pizza?” Jake Bennet asked, his dark eyes going wide. “That musta cost, like, a million dollars.”
“It wasn’t a million dollars,” Nathan told the boy. “But, what if it was? What if I got enough pizza to fill this entire cafeteria?”
“We’d have to swim in it,” Natasha Aldovi replied. She took a big bite of her pizza and looked thoughtful. “Would a life jacket work in pizza?”
“Probably not,” Nathan answered. “But it might work in Jello. Maybe we could fill the cafeteria with jello.”
The three kids giggled and they started calling out foods that they could fill the cafeteria with, each one becoming more outrageous than the last. Nathan was right there with them, coming up with ridiculous ideas and spurring them on.
In essence, Holly was sitting with four second graders. She loved it.
“Chocolate chips,” Nathan told the girl sitting next to him as he munched on a piece of pizza. “Then we could make cookie ships.”
“I like to make chocolate chip cookies for Santa,” Natasha answered. “Do you like chocolate chip cookies?”
“I do,” Nathan said, nodding his head.
Natasha’s eyes narrowed and she looked him over. “Are you secretly Santa?”
Nathan’s eyes went wide and he choked a little on his pizza. “No, I am most definitely not Santa. Why would you think that?”
“Because you like chocolate chip cookies and you brought us all a present. And you brought Ms. Jones a present too,” Natasha explained. “I gotta make sure of these things.”
Nathan tapped on his chest, still recovering from inhaling pizza. “That’s a good thing to do.”
Holly couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
Soon the pizza was gone and the kids headed out to the playground. Holly helped the kids pick up their plates and empty boxes, getting them into the trash cans.
“I’m on playground duty today,” she told him. “You’re welcome to stay if you want.”
Holly bit her lower lip, hoping that he would. She didn’t want him to leave. Ever. Having him at school was combining two of her favorite things together and she found she was enjoying it immensely.
“Mr. Nathan, sir,” Jake said, appearing out of nowhere and tugging on Nathan’s shirt. “Will you come play with us?”
“You know what? I haven’t been on a playground in ages,” he said to Jake. “I think I need to change that.”
Nathan flashed Holly a grin. Jake’s small hand wrapped around Nathan’s and the boy pulled him out of the cafeteria and out onto the playground. Holly followed, chuc