Heart of Fire- ON HOLD

VII

Chapter Seven

The next couple of days pass without incident. It generally follows the same routine everyday: Cade trying to make conversation and be friends with me, and me keeping my walls up and barely being any more civil towards him than I have to. During the day we'd keep the doors to our rooms open, free to go between the two rooms as we please, and the second Emma is ready for bed I'd kick them out and lock the door.

But he's not making it easy for me to keep pushing him out, being all effortlessly good looking and being so damn great with Emma. Not to mention that even Tyler is working his way into my heart, despite never speaking a word.

During one of the earlier days, Emma and I were sitting at a table in the furniture section, a couple of lanterns surrounding us to illuminate the space. I had gathered a bunch of school supplies and spelling books, and like we usually do at home, I was teaching Emma how to read and write.

She's almost 5, the age when she would've been starting kindergarden if we weren't in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. I had decided that I don't want her to be illiterate or not know basic math problem solving skills.

I might never need to teach her about how to calculate the hypotenuse of a triangle or why tan is sin over cos, but she should be able to figure out how many pineapples John ate if he started with 39 and has 7 left.

You know, math that can be used in everyday situations.

She's already a smart girl, so she's been picking up on it pretty quickly. She's still young, so we're still doing the basics like learning the alphabet and recognizing letters and their sounds.

During our lesson, I didn't take my attention off of Emma, but I was aware of Tyler's presence. He was kind of lurking in the shadows near our table, hesitating, as if he wanted to join us but wasn't sure if he was allowed.

Honestly, I think the kid is kind of scared of me.

After waiting 5 minutes to see if he would make up his mind, I turn around to look at him. He freezes when he sees that I've noticed him, his eyes going wide as if I caught him stealing my favorite gun.

"Have you been spying on us, Tyler?"

If it's possible, his light blue eyes widen even more, and he takes a step back while holding his hands up, shaking his head violently from side to side.

Poor kid, he's definitely scared of me. I normally like when people are scared of me, but not children. Especially not a sweetheart like Tyler.

"Would you like to join us?" I ask.

I wonder if Cade has been teaching him any type of basic reading or writing skills. He must have been around Emma's age when the Explosion happened, so he's probably never been inside a classroom before.

He looks around, unsure, as if waiting for Cade to appear and tell him what to do. I can tell he wants to join us despite him not saying it; just because he can't talk doesn't mean he doesn't want to learn to read and write.

"Come and sit with us," I decide for him, and he hesitantly walks over to the table in slides in beside me.

"Do you know how to read?" Emma asks him, to which he shakes his head no.

"No one taught you how to read or write?" I ask, which again, the answer is no.

So I began teaching him. Every day we'd carve out a time when the three of us would sit down, and I'd teach them both at the same level how to read and write. Sometimes Cade would join us, but I started strategically scheduling our lessons around the same time he would do his 3-4 hour long workout.