A Simple Request 3/8
Pairing: Joel Miller × Reader
Summary: After returning to Jackson, Joel and Ellie finally meet their neighbor, a young woman who teaches at the schoolhouse. While the two settle in, Tommy asks her for a favor - that she look after Joel and Ellie from time to time, when he can't. She's happy to help of course, and may find its a better fit than either could've hoped.
Part 3/8 (probably)
Word Count: 5.6k
A/N: it may have taken two years y’all, but she is RESURRECTED! This chapter has been in the works on and off since summer 2023, and I apologize sincerely to anyone who’s interested and waiting. I’m a very different person and writer now, I think, so it may feel a little different. Evolved, i hope. I apologize for the clunky introduction of a Reader’s nickname in this one - but i couldn’t do weird appositives to talk around it anymore, lol.
I hope it’s enjoyable everyone! The rest of the story is planned out, and i hope to keep moving and share it as the summer progresses. Big love to everyone who asked about it - it definitely fueled me to return to a version of the universe I never thought i would.
WARNING: hints at past abuse the reader experienced, largely from childhood. will dive deeper into more detail and explore her experiences later on.
also it’s gonna be pretty slow burn y’all sry. freshly-arrived-in-Jackson joel feels like he’d take forever to get there w anyone to me 🫠
On Sunday morning she sat with a book by her window in a reading nook she’d worked to put together not long after she arrived in Jackson. She was lucky to have collected quite a few editions on her own patrols around the area, and luckier still to have an active lending community in town that traded any and all reading material they could get their hands on. Any stories they could find were incredibly important to her work, teaching and keeping the town’s kids not only literate, but hopeful.
Normally she’d be out by this point in the day— checking on her garden or inquiring where she could be of help in town — but the sky was clouded and gray, promising at least a drizzle within the hour, and it seemed to be keeping most of the town indoors. The usual buzz of children playing outside and others walking in the late spring warmth was silent, as everyone took shelter from the impending storm. She was shocked, then, to hear a knock at her door, jolting her from the story in her grip, just as the drizzle broke outside.
She opened the door to no one, but found her large baking dish at her feet as she stepped out to look for her visitor. As the door swung fully back, she spotted Joel, already crossing into his own yard, with his back to her. He tugged his canvas jacket tighter around his shoulders, shoving his hands in his pockets as the rain picked up. She watched briefly as he climbed the stairs to his own porch, but grabbed the dish and shut her door before he turned his head.
From her window, she watched as he opened his door and looked back toward her porch, seeming to notice the absence of a huge ceramic baking dish, and stared for a moment, before heading inside.
She looked down to the freshly scrubbed dish in her hand and saw a little piece of paper, folded in half, and opened it. Scrawled on the slip in tight capital letters was a note:
THANK YOU. WE APPRECIATE IT. - J.M.
It wasn’t necessary, of course, but she wasn’t surprised. The note was short, but polite, all the way down to the initials, and she found it charming. She already knew Tommy was from Texas originally, and she’d heard Joel’s accent peeking through the few times she’d heard him speak. With that southern gentility in him, he probably couldn’t help but leave a thank-you note, despite his penchant for brevity.
She started sifting through her recipe rolodex once again, deciding what to make for them next.
She’d seen the pair outside together a few times that week. She found she enjoyed listening to the two talk when she could hear them, either in the yard or on their porch. Much of what she heard tended to be Ellie talking about her discoveries from the day as she’d begun exploring the town, and Joel quietly nodding along. He’d react here and there with small remarks, light huffs, or every once in a while— what she very quickly found to be her favorite— a loud belly laugh that made the young girl grin from ear to ear. They made incredibly comfortable background noise as she tended her garden, pretending her attention wasn’t drawn their way with each of his loud chuckles and her accompanying bright smile.
One night she’d left for a walk around dusk, and in walking past she found Ellie and Joel sitting on their porch, seemingly after dinner. Ellie was perched on the porch steps with a little drawing pad on her knee and charcoal in her hand, while Joel sat in a chair behind her with a drink in his, watching her as she sketched. Though their neighbor kept walking, she watched as a small smile rose onto Joel’s face as he stared down at Ellie. A warmth swelled in her chest as she saw him watching her, looking as if all was as right in his world as could be. From her decreasing distance she could see something swimming in his eyes as he looked down at Ellie, who seemed to have no knowledge of his gaze. His expression seemed happy in a way that overwhelmed him, and his eyes filled with a perplexing mix of joy, sorrow, and longing that she struggled for a moment to place. As she came closer, Ellie’s attention was drawn and she lifted up her little hand with the charcoal grasped in it to wave at her neighbor, who waved back at the two. Once Joel was startled toward reality, his face flitted back into the harder, neutral frame she’d seen on their conversational occasions. She could tell it took him a second to regroup, but she didn’t think he’d seen her watching. He raised a still hand in a silent wave, and gave an almost imperceptible nod, while their neighbor smiled at the two, and made her way into her yard.
As she climbed the steps to her porch, she recognized the expression she’d seen on Joel’s face before he’d had the chance to once again raise the guise, and rebuild the wall that protects his little pocket of peace. It was perplexing in part because it was so familiar; a mix of guilt, contentment, despair, and a sliver of hope. It was a look she’d seen in the face of most everyone in Jackson, including her own, and it looked an awful lot like grief.
It wasn’t until Thursday that Ellie showed up in her garden again. They talked briefly about the flowers, and Ellie chatted about the exciting things she’d discovered while exploring the town, mentioning particular fascination with the stables and the greenhouse.
“Well we’ll have to make sure we spend plenty of time there when you start school,” her neighbor said excitedly, grinning at Ellie’s excitement.
“Oh! That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m starting tomorrow! I finally convinced Joel to let me go ahead.” she exclaimed.
She took note of Ellie’s phrasing there, and was certainly curious. She giggled as she responded to the girl’s news, “On a Friday? I’ll be glad to see you of course, but why not just wait til the weekend’s over?”
“Well I tried to start earlier this week! But Joel wants me to take it slow first. Said I need some time to get settled before I take on school every day,” she explained.
Her neighbor nodded in response, “he’s got a point. You guys have barely been here a couple of weeks. Could probably both use some time to get acclimated to the town.”
“Oh trust me, I’m as acclimated as I can get for now. I’ve wandered all over the damn town like three times already! I’m BORED! And it’s not like Joel’s been ‘acclimating’ either. He’s already done two patrols and like three construction shifts this week!” the girl replied in exasperation.
“Jeez. He probably needs a break already. Could stand to take his own advice,” she responds, eyes wide at the girl’s admission, but chuckling at her air quotes.
The news about Joel’s schedule didn’t come as a surprise. She’d seen him leaving pretty early a few mornings this week, and saw him once in town on a building site with Tommy. She’d stopped briefly to chat when Tommy called her over, but she wasn’t surprised to get little more than a nod and minimal polite greeting from Joel. It wasn’t odd though— she and Tommy filled the air with their usual chatter while Joel watched and listened with interest. He’d seemed curious to find out how close this friendship was between his brother and neighbor. Clearly they were “bring dinner by for the expectant parents” friends, but Joel was happy to find their rapport was amiable and humorous. Seeing them speak together had set Joel a bit more at ease in her presence. Tommy may be excitable, but he’s usually a fairly good judge of character. He found himself a tad more inclined to trust her, maybe even enough to leave Ellie in her care each day.
“He’s off tomorrow, finally. He said he wanted to take me on my first day, see what’s ‘going on over there’ before I get started. I told him I’d be with you, but he still wants to see the place himself,” she replied.
“He’s definitely not the first. Most of the kids’ grown-ups want to see what kinda stuff you guys are learning when you get there. I understand it,” she told Ellie, who nodded in response.
The two spoke for a while longer about what Ellie would like to do when she got there, but all she could think about was the impending morning conference with Joel. She was the one who’d be showing him the schoolhouse and explaining what their curriculum was like when he got there, she just hoped he’d be open to it and responsive. She was confident in her setup, and in her ability to meet every student’s needs of course, she just hoped Joel would be forthright with his questions, and wouldn’t clam up on her. She loved the time she’d spent with Ellie so far, and was excited for more time to come, but she found herself intrigued by Joel, wanting to know more about him. She could see how much he cared about Ellie, and admired the relationship he seemed to be developing with a child who she’d learned pretty quickly wasn’t his own. He seemed less wary of her than he had been the week prior, but she’d still hardly spoken to the man, choosing instead to take it slow, not wanting to spook him. She’d made a promise to Tommy, sure, but she felt drawn to him herself. From their few meetings and overheard conversations in the garden, she knew there was a deep sincerity and compassion inside Joel, even a warmth somewhere beneath that quilled exterior. She longed to earn his trust, and decided tomorrow morning would be an important step in doing so.
She’s early to work on Friday morning. It’s not nerves about the conversation’s content that are driving her — she’s confident in what she does and has given this spiel about the learner-driven structure of their school to new parents plenty of times — but the murmur of disquiet that runs beneath their conversations. She can feel his wariness to trust in sharp, jagged motions through her veins each time they talk, and it unsettles her.
So much of why she does the work that she does and her identity at large has been shaped by a need to feel trustworthy, to feel needed, by other people. She’s made strides on her own the last few years — the security of Jackson not only allowed for it, but forced it. This community doesn’t allow for spiraling in isolation, by the simple requirement of responsibility and reliance on one another. She’s healed enough to view herself in a much more optimistic light; someone not only reliable, but who can trust herself to rely on others. It takes work, especially with new folks arriving at different states of comfort in a community, but she’s trying. Really.
The way Joel looked at her that first day, though, rang familiar in a way she’d been able to avoid for a while. Even now, a few conversations in, she felt bare when he looked at her, like he could see past her growth. Like he knew something she didn’t about her, or at least, that she’d long since tried to bury. Pieces of it feel so much like what she’d grown up with it’s difficult to look him in the eye sometimes — to see the suspicion etched in his face and not absorb it, turn it inward. Dinner was a step, a direct attempt both to welcome her neighbors and quiet her mind — the two had been to hell and back from what Tommy had let slip. Joel’s wariness of new people wasn’t about her character, or a fundamental flaw she couldn’t shake, but about his own safety or more aptly, the safety of his family.
But there’s another flicker layered beneath it all, something she hasn’t been able to pinpoint during their brief exchanges thus far, and it needles at her. This isn’t one of contempt or mistrust, but something more akin to the warmth she’s seen him show Ellie. It’s buried deep, no doubt, but it pulls at her core just a little, with a taut cord of curiosity. She’s spent enough of her adult life trying to parse the differences between her adept intuition and her learned hypervigilance that she ought to be a pro by now, but this spool of intrigue is muddied at the source by confusion, duty, and feelings she can’t quite name.
This wretched knot of moving parts roils in her head as she treks toward the schoolhouse in barely-broken daylight, and she fixates on the moon sitting firmly in the cool morning gray, refusing for just a little longer to surrender its position. She’s grateful for its perseverance, feeling inspired to do the same — remind herself who she is, what she does, and hold firm when the sun’s heavy presence threatens to shake her through no fault of its own. She’ll be ready. It’s closer to 9:30 when Ellie strolls into the classroom with Joel in tow, striding much more slowly and gently than his daughter. The relief on his face is evident when he finds Ellie’s enthusiasm hasn’t led her to interrupt any whole-class instruction, but that they’ve entered a large room with kids of varying ages reading, working, and talking in small groups or with a few other adults who seem to be facilitating. They find their neighbor with a group of little ones doing a brief recap of reading strategies for another young teacher when she turns to greet them. Though his face remains steely, Joel tries to keep his stomach from flip-flopping when she flashes them her bright smile, motioning them over to the group she’s with and introducing the kiddos and other teacher, who’s hardly more than a teenager herself.
“Joel, Ellie, this is Stella. She’s been teaching here for a little over a year now. She was my student first, but even with everything she tried outside the schoolhouse, she wanted to stick around. It’s been insanely helpful to have her to help teach the little ones to read while I manage all the age groups, actually.” The younger teacher moves her attention to Ellie briefly to offer reassurance about getting started.
“You’re gonna love it here. There’s so much to explore, and Sunny’s the absolute best at helping people find something they like and pairing them with the right mentors. I was just too much of a velcro kid to go to anyone else,” she says, shooting their neighbor a playful grin, who laughs in return.
“I may not have been able to peel you away from me, but you were reading everything we had and helping the littles anyway. I still think you were plotting to stick around all along,” said their neighbor, with a humorously suspicious eyebrow cocked and a tone overflowing with love. It was abundantly clear to Joel from the way the two interacted that they had a bond that mirrored his and Tommy’s — an annoying little sibling she’d had a hand in raising, no doubt. Ellie looked puzzled, though, and Joel wasn’t quite sure why.
“Sunny? Is that…?,” Ellie pointed curiously to their neighbor, and Stella belted out a laugh before their neighbor groaned in mock frustration.
“Oh lord. Stella, you can tell them this since it’s your fault, I’ll deal with the readers,” she said through laughter, running a hand down her face. Ellie looked back at Joel, who looked at her, but gave no indication of any questions he may have.
“A few years ago, after she first got here, one of the little ones drew a picture of the sun and gave it to her. She acted so excited about it, like you do when a little kid gives you a bunch of scribbles, and taped it up behind her desk. In less than a week, she had about fifteen scribbly little sunshine drawings taped up behind her desk, my own included. The little kids got so excited when she loved their drawings they just kept making them, and my friends and I thought it was so funny we joined in. From the back of the room she looked like she had a circle of bright yellow around her at her desk like actual sunshine. Took weeks for the little ones to finally move on to drawing something new. But we stuck with calling her Sunny because it was funny and cute and the little ones loved it. Most all the kids call her that now,” said Stella, before leaning over to stage-whisper near Ellie, “she pretends not to like it because it’s a compliment, but I think she secretly loves it.” Ellie giggled in response to this, before nodding along with Stella. Their neighbor turned to rejoin the group and shift back into tour guide mode.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough secret-spilling for the newcomers. Back to your reading circle, Twinkles,” she says, playfully shoving Stella back to her lesson. “I swear she manages to get every new kid on board with that ridiculous name. I tried to give her Twinkles for ‘stella’ my ‘little star,’ but the kids never caught on,” she says, exasperated.
“Oh, she got me. That story’s frickin’ adorable,” Ellie said, smiling at their neighbor who just shook her head in response.
“I’m not surprised. C’mon, we got plenty more to see,” said their neighbor, who Ellie decided then and there to never call anything other than “Sunny” for her own amusement.
Sunny shows them around the little building, mostly consisting of the large, open classroom, and another room housing a hodge-podge of cobbled-together supplies for any number of subjects or pursuits. Joel’s taking everything in with a well-concealed mix of admiration and amusement as Ellie bounces excitedly from pile to pile, asking so many questions they stumble over one another, but the teacher takes them in stride, responding to each one with not only patience, but joy over the girl’s enthusiasm. There are a couple of times Joel nearly asks Ellie to slow down for courtesy’s sake, but when he sees Sunny holding her own with Ellie’s pace, he realizes this is nothing new for her. Moreover, he sees she’s invigorated by the child’s eagerness to drink in every ounce of information, to satiate her starved curiosity. Their neighbor — or Sunny, as he suppose he’ll be calling her with Ellie now — is different here, he thinks, while playing her assigned role in this community of intention. While she hasn’t seemed particularly on edge during other conversations, there’s an ease to her in this place — a quiet confidence she carries that winds around him like vines, warming his chest and taming the apprehension he’s carried with him since they first arrived in Jackson.
Once he’s caught up with the pair, they’re led on a tour of familiar spaces in the town center, only this time they’re focusing far less on taking in the sheer volume of community spaces and initiatives and more on how the town’s children and teenagers play a role in each of the various fields. Listening to Sunny describe the educational nature of each stop is enthralling, and Ellie is wide-eyed and drawn away by new opportunities everywhere they go. Joel, however, is rapt by her knowledge and the manner with which she interacts in each place. Viewing Jackson through her lens of opportunity and intrigue is unlike anything he’s ever experienced, even before the world came crashing down some twenty years’ past.
Her passion for the work they do is palpable, as are her connections to each of the people they come across. It’s abundantly clear to Joel that setting up these programs for Jackson’s kids was both grueling and a labor of love — there’s no other way to reconcile the bright smiles she gives and receives from the stables and the community garden to the resident tailor and makeshift power plant. He’d known every person in Jackson fulfilled specific roles to keep the place running — what he hadn’t realized was just how much time so many people dedicated to sharing their knowledge and craft with the youth of their community. Joel was nearly more speechless than usual watching her flit around, eyes shining for so many people as she briefly checked in on the students she had in each of these spots. They quickly discovered that Stella was more successful than they’d realized, as nearly everyone in town related to the students and school programs called her Sunny in line with the children in their charge. Joel mused internally that the nickname was in actuality all-too-fitting. The warmth she exuded was infectious, and he could no longer deny the truth — he was catching it.
Amid her check-ins and kind conversations with others, Sunny’s focus remained schooled on he and Ellie, while she explained to them both the structure of instruction, practice, and apprenticing they do for older students more than they engage in formal schooling. As they round their way back to the main school building, she tells them that most of what they do is interest-driven and allows kids at all ages to explore different paths and learn about a wide variety of fields that pique their interest. More traditional schooling happens until around kids’ tween years or when they hit double-digits, then they do a combination of more hands-on work, skills check-ins for reading and writing, as well as some creative and gentle stuff like art and book club reading.
“Oh hell yeah! I’m gonna try all kinds of stuff, man. What kinda books do you guys read in book club?” Ellie exclaims, clearly eager to get involved in learning as much as she can.
“They’re usually picked by member vote - why don’t you go check out what we’ve got on the shelves? That’s most of what we have in shareable numbers,” Sunny replies, gesturing to the few shelves of books in one corner of the main classroom. Both of the adults accompanying her are grinning ear to ear, excited by her enthusiasm. They share a brief look when she turns her attention, and it’s obvious they both know something imperative: this girl has been starved for learning for far too long, especially for a girl so naturally curious. They both also know that, even before their arduous cross-country trek, Ellie’s previous schooling experience was no doubt far more traumatizing than nurturing or educational.
As Ellie moves to occupy herself perusing the shelves in question, Sunny leads Joel to one of the larger desks in the room and gestures for him to sit down across from her. He surprises himself when he’s a bit perturbed to be moving from walking by her side to being separated from her by two and a half feet of solid wood, but any disturbance washes away when she locks eyes with him and smiles again. Where she’s previously been a bit bashful beneath his gaze, he finds the confidence of the space and her role once again lend her a more assured air as she speaks again.
“I know it can be kind of a lot to take in, but I wanted to make sure Ellie got to see as many of her options for herself as possible. Do you have any questions at all?,” she asks, and Joel hopes he doesn’t look too overwhelmed. He’s far more impressed than overwhelmed anyway, and the level of comfort he has in leaving Ellie each day in her hands has grown exponentially over the course of this visit.
“How’d you manage to get so many people on board with this? Sure seems like somebody in every place has a kid they’re showing the tricks of their trade. It’s impressive.” he says. The speed with which she confidently responds indicates this isn’t the first time she’s been asked this particular question.
“It’s kinda hard to reconcile with the state of the world, I know. But you’d be surprised just how much people are not only willing, but eager, to give to each other in a community like this one. No one is obligated to take on an apprentice, but once people get comfortable, they start to consider the longevity of the work they do. People have actually approached me to offer a new program more than once, whether to have an additional set of hands, or just to make sure someone else can do it right when they’re not around,” she shrugged.
“That makes sense,” Joel responds, before she continues.
“Our version of education is all about balance, anyway, so communication and relationships are just as important as hard skills. Traditional schooling doesn’t have much of a place in this world, but curiosity is still, I think, one of the most innate aspects of our humanity. Nurturing it with trade skills, communication skills, and with gentler activities like art and reading are all good for the soul, I think. I try not to remind the kids of this, but the world outside the walls is harsh enough, that doesn’t mean their inner worlds have to be.” she says thoughtfully, explaining to Joel with more sincerity than he’s seen in a long, long time, where her passion comes from.
He’s struck a little when she says this like she hasn’t just bared her soul to him, and he doesn’t really know how to respond. What he feels right now looking at her is nothing short of awe — she’s younger than him, but definitely old enough to have seen the world pre-outbreak, and watch it all mangled into something far different than what he assumes it was like in her childhood. She looks past him at the others in the classroom while he attempts to gather his thoughts, hoping he doesn’t look as slackjawed as he feels in the face of her genuine response.
“That’s nice. I’m real glad Ellie has options like this. Lord knows she ain’t had a chance to learn like she deserves wandering around with me for the last year,” he says, with a glint of self-deprecation that doesn’t erode the reality in his words. He doesn’t have to explain that their trek here was survival-based, that’s a near-universal experience in Jackson. Her hand gives an almost imperceptible twitch on the desk, but he sees it, wondering if there’s any chance it was for him. He had to be mindful of himself on their walk to keep from brushing against her more than a couple of times, worried he’d accidentally cross a line he held tight but tentative.
He doubted she’d even chance reaching for him, though, given the harsher ways he’d spoken to her thus far — which he was beginning to reflect upon rather regrettably. But outside while they walked, and here, listening to her speak about the people of this community and what she hoped to give to these kids, he found himself uncomfortable with his own desire to reach out and receive the casual, friendly touch he’d seen her give to so many others today. He could hardly recall what that kind of simple affection felt like, beyond the bounds of his brother and his kid. She pushes back good-naturedly anyway, not unfamiliar with this form of self-effacement from the other survivors in town.
“Eh, you sound like half the people I talk to before they end up taking a student on anyway. I’ll bet she learned an awful lot more than you give yourself credit for teaching her,” she says, smiling. Joel blushed lightly under her gaze, clearly unwilling to accept the compliment, but more unwilling to stop engaging with her. The difference he felt between his previous interactions with her and his conversations today was dumbfounding, and he couldn’t put his finger on the exact nature of the shift. He knew it had something to do with the venue, for sure, and the level of comfort she felt in what was no doubt her element. While professionalism had long since gone the way of the comforts and trappings of modern life, she wielded a confidence in her sense of belonging here that he wished he’d seen sooner. He gives her the closest thing he can muster to a smile amid the thoughts swirling about her, the town, the people, the social expectation that undoubtedly would come with it, and the pieces of himself sitting on offense he couldn’t yet let go, even in this room of children, art supplies, and books shelved by genre.
“Maybe you’re right. I hope so. Be nice to think I was doing more than draggin’ her along and keepin’ her alive,” is all he can muster in response.
“Regardless, that’s more than enough. Look at her over there,” she says, smiling and gesturing to Ellie who’s sat cross-legged on the ground with a few short stacks of books surrounding her in a nest. “I don’t think we have to worry for a minute about learning loss or getting her comfortable with the cognitive load of education again, that’s for sure. I’m confident she’ll do great here,” she concludes, looking at Joel reassuringly.
“How’d you manage to get all this together? To know so much? You don’t seem nearly old enough to have been a teacher before all this,” he said, relatively delicately despite the comment’s blunt content. She chuckles to herself before replying kindly.
“No, I was an education student though. I was at a school where I was interning on outbreak day, actually,” she says, with a hint of sorrow and fear. Joel’s chest twinges at the look on her face, imagining what that environment must have been like on that fateful day. He nearly opens his mouth to respond, the need to provide some bumbling semblance of comfort prodding inside him, but she cuts him off before he gets the chance. “But that’s not important. What matters is that I wasn’t ready to stop learning, and kinda spent my years library-hopping, seeing what info I could still scavenge in case the world ever found its way back again. When I got to Jackson, they were still getting established, and were in pretty dire need for a way to keep the few kids around occupied while getting the town built up. So I threw together the bits and pieces I could remember with a few books and gave it a go. I know that having a school structure in place like we do now is a privilege. What I like most is that it kind of incites that natural curiosity in kids that so many kids I knew were missing back in a regular school environment. And these kids are incredible, all so ready to learn anything you put in front of them. I know how lucky I am to get to be a part of their lives.” Her tone is wistful and modest as she finishes, and once again, admiration soars in Joel’s chest, and he wants to reach for her, simultaneously bringing her back down to earth and lifting her from her overzealous grounding.
“It’s a real good thing you got here. You should be proud of it. She’s always been a girl of more words than myself, but I’m sure Ellie’ll be talking new circles around me soon, ‘specially with that little stack she’s got in front of her. I’m looking forward to it,” Joel said, shooting her an actual small smile this time. She grins back at him before they hear Ellie hollering excitedly about the art supplies as she joins the littler kids and a couple of other teenagers drawing at a few tables in one corner of the room.
“Hey, Sunny! Got a second?,” another young teacher draws her attention from Ellie to the group of 8-10 year olds she’s instructing, and Joel rises so she can focus on her work once again. “Please, go on. I’ve taken enough of your time,” he says, nodding in the direction of the reading circle before heading over to bid Ellie goodbye. He gives the distracted girl a little shoulder squeeze and plants a kiss to the top of her head before turning to leave. She hardly gives him the time of day but he doesn’t mind, overjoyed that she’s comfortably chatting and drawing with other kids so quickly. As he makes his way toward the door, he hears his name called and turns to find Sunny jogging up behind him, a book in her outstretched hand.
“Here’s a copy of one of the ones from Ellie’s stack. Don’t have to be a man of many words to enjoy them on the page. Maybe instead of her just talking circles, you can enjoy it together.” she says, eyes wide and hopeful. Joel looks at her open expression and the hand literally reaching out to him and has to wrestle against his desire to soften beneath the warmth of her thoughtful nature.
“Thank you. I’ll take good care of it,” he says, accepting the book.
“I know you will. Besides, grown souls need tending just as much. This is one of the ways I know best. For myself, at least.” She smiles briefly at him and he nods in acknowledgement before turning away as her attention is pulled once more to the students in her care.