Mr. Raredin

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or person, living or dead, is coincidental. Copyright © 2023 Shana Vanterpool. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced whatsoever in any manner, including electronically or mechanical, photocopying, or by an information and retrieval system, without written permission from the Author/Publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Happy reading! CONTENTS Copyright About Quote Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Epilogue About the Author ABOUT MR. RAREDIN Lace My mom cared about three things. And neither one of them were me. It’s the way things were in my life. I didn’t blame her most of the time. I didn’t like myself much either. I could blame my mindset on my teenage hormones, but I was almost eighteen and being a teenager was no longer an excuse. With my lawful age, also came legal consequences. Mom didn’t have to legally care about me anymore, and her boyfriend didn’t have to hold himself back. Their abuse became too much. Even for me. Crushing on my gym teacher started off harmless. I couldn’t help myself. He was the only thing that didn’t hurt in my life. But mistakes were made. Desires were unquenchable. Pain became too much. And all I wanted was him. Loving him was against the rules, but I never cared much for rules… not the way I cared about him. Mr. Raredin I wasn’t supposed to be in Sage Willow. I was supposed to be an athlete, married, and undamaged. Instead, I was a gym teacher at Sage Willow High School, divorced, with a tear in my mcl. My injury ruined my career, my marriage, and my life. I expected depression. I anticipated failure. I even wanted the nothing eventually. What I didn’t expect was Lace Ryan. Falling in love with my student was never my intention. I never saw her coming. But once I did, I’d do anything to save her from her life. Including sacrificing my own. Mr. Raredin is a passionate, intense, and touching student-teacher romance. There are exceptions to almost every rule, and this love story is proof that just because it’s off-limits doesn’t mean it isn’t worth fighting for. “I was sure there were monsters everywhere. But the trees were never one of them…” CHAPTER ONE Lace The cold seeped into my bones. My warm breath misted out in thick clouds in front of me. Winter wasn’t supposed to arrive for another two months, but no one told the weather. Mom hadn’t been able to take me shopping for school yet even though school officially started today. Not that she’d know anything about my life at all. She’d have to care to know. Patricia Ryan cared about three things in life. Drugs, alcohol, and her longtime boyfriend, Body. There was no room left on her small piece of torn paper to include my name. I liked to think my name used to be number one. 1. Lace Ryan, the best daughter in the whole wide world. But that was before the smell of cigarettes replaced baking cookies, and any hugs I got were exchanged for insults. My mother loved insults. Harsh ones, tame ones, bitter ones—it didn’t matter as long as she hurt me. I wasn’t sure why my mom hated me so much. I hadn’t done anything that wrong. But I suspected it was why I hated myself. It made sense. Sighing, I looked around the parking lot. Sage Willow High School needed a paint job. I wasn’t sure who thought it was a good idea to paint the brick white, but it hadn’t aged well. Behind the school were towering trees; the forest went on for miles. I wasn’t a fan. Never had been. I mostly stuck to the inner city. All the trees made it hard to breathe. I know, it made no sense, but trying to breathe in a forest made me realize how alone I felt. The last time I’d been in one during a field trip, I’d passed out from hyperventilating. I’d been thinking that I could die right here, and no one would know. They’d never find me. My mother would never look for me. I’d go missing for weeks—maybe even months—without anyone giving a shit. The thoughts had sent me into a tailspin. And when I woke up four hours later in the dark forest by myself because my teacher hadn’t bothered to come looking for me, my suspicions had been confirmed. Even more so when I came home and my mother hadn’t even so much as called. I’d taken a shower and went to bed. I had nightmares about the forests for months afterward. A shudder raced down my spine, and I figured it was probably best I go into the school before the trees start laughing at me. I crossed the parking lot with my eyes on them, daring them to smirk at me. Maybe it was crazy to silently argue with the forest, but I’d done crazier things. Like hope. A horn blared, tearing through my quiet battle. I turned my head just in time to see a gray, mid-sized SUV slam on its breaks mere inches from me. I gasped, staring at the person through the windshield. His mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. He had his hands in the air, waving them around wildly