Chapter Text
Anthony had been nervous the entire day, ever since dropping his son off at his new school for his first day of reception, and he still was as he stood outside his car, waiting to pick Ned up from school, his stomach tied in knots.
His son was the most important thing in the world to him and had been so since the moment he was born. Anthony had dated Ned's mother for a little more than three months, and they had ended things for over a month when she reached out to inform him she was pregnant. Once all the necessary tests had been done, they agreed to co-parent the tiny life they had accidentally created. It had been a rather easy agreement to reach. Anthony had always liked kids, and he wanted to be a parent, as did his ex. Besides, their breakup had been a clean one, with no bad blood between them, the two of them agreeing to part amicably when it became rather clear they were not really compatible romantically, and she didn't seem to be after anything other than a father to her child.
The entire pregnancy had been quite simple. He attended doctors' appointments, read parenting books, set up a nursery, and helped his mother organise a baby shower since his ex had no immediate family to do it for her.
It was all running pretty smoothly.
Everything had been perfectly fine until around three weeks before the baby's estimated due date. One moment, he had been lying on his sofa, resting after a long day of work, and the next, he was speeding to the hospital after receiving a call from the A&E. His ex had felt sick quite randomly at work and had to be rushed to the hospital. By the time they got her there, it had been necessary to perform an emergency C-section. He might want to hurry.
The baby had been born, a perfectly healthy little boy and was doing quite well. The same could not be said about the mother.
She had already been dead by the time he got to the hospital.
And so, it had only been the two of them almost from the moment little Edmund had taken his first breath four years before. Well, the two of them and the huge gaggle of Bridgertons, either related by blood or marriage, surrounding them at every step, every milestone, every runny nose or scraped knee. It was amazing, having such a supportive, present family in the raising of his son, but it also explained why the four-year-old could be described at times as a little coddled and clingy .
Ned had been to nursery once or twice a week, on the off chance that nobody between his granny and his aunties and uncles could watch him for the day. He was a healthy, happy boy, developing well for his age, according to his paediatrician, and he was getting all the stimulation necessary from his gigantic family. But that had been during Nursery.
With Edmund having just turned four in late July, it was time for him to start his formal education. Pushing it back would only delay him and make it more difficult for him to settle when the time to start primary school did in fact come. It didn't matter that the little boy had cried copiously since the moment he started getting dressed for his first day of class, nor that he clung to Anthony's neck, his cheeks wet and his face red, his cries sounding breathless as they stood by the school gates.
Alright, saying it did not matter was a massive lie. Anthony had come very, very close to turning back around and heading home, Reception be damned, so many times that morning, it was a miracle they had actually reached the school.
It would be alright, Anthony told himself time and again, his heart twisting painfully as he watched his son cry in the backseat. It was all just separation anxiety. They had dealt with it when the little boy had started Nursery. Sure, it had been mostly half-days a couple of times a week, but still, he had come to enjoy it when he went. It was a great primary school, both Greg and Hyacinth had attended it and loved it.
So, perhaps, it was a little understandable why Anthony was just about to cast his accounts with nerves as he leaned against his car, waiting for the children to be relinquished to their parents.
During his time waiting, he'd made a decision. If Ned told him he hated it, that his day had been absolutely awful and he didn't enjoy himself at all at any moment, Anthony wouldn't force him, damn adaptation period and all. They'd try again next year when he'd be older and perhaps a little more mature to handle the whole day on his own.
It didn't take long for the bell to ring and the children to start pouring out into the school playground, pointing at their parents to the security officer at the door before rushing to meet them in excited fits of giggles.
" Papa! " Edmund cried out, his little tiger rucksack rattling on his back as he ran as fast as his little feet would carry him towards his father's waiting arms.
"There's my little man!" Anthony picked him up, wrapping him in the tightest of hugs, Ned's arms squeezing back just as tight. "I missed you today."
"I missed you, too." The little boy pushed the locks of his tousled hair from his eyes as he smiled brightly at his dad.
"Did you have a good day, buddy?"
"Papa, it was the bestest day !" Anthony had to admit he'd been caught a little by surprise at his son's excited exclamation, Ned's arms flaring around him as he moved to strap into his car seat. He'd been so preoccupied with Ned not enjoying himself and suffering throughout the day that he barely let himself consider the possibility that the boy might actually have a good day.
"Really?"
" Really ! It was so fun, like very much! Like this much very much!" Anthony chuckled as Edmund opened his arms wide to demonstrate just how much he'd enjoyed himself, smacking his father in the face in the process. "Opsy, sorry ."
"That's okay." He kissed Ned's head before closing the door and climbing into the driver's seat. "But if you had such an amazing day, I want to hear every detail about it."
"I made a lot of new friends and we did a bunch of cool stuff! We went to the playground, and we read a book and made a drawing, we built a block spaceship, and I only cried because I missed you twice!" He lifted three of his fingers before thinking better of it and lowering one of them. “ Twice !”
"Twice?" Anthony looked at his son over the rear-view mirror, but the four-year-old didn't seem bothered about the whole situation, apparently unaware or unbothered that the normal number of times a person ought to cry during the day was zero.
"Lettie, that's one of my new friends," He explained, his little black shoes swinging happily up and down from his seat. "She cried all day long because she missed her mummy and daddy. I only cried twice , and Miss Katie, she's my teacher and she's the bestest teacher in the world, she said I could make a cool drawing of you and me to give to you so I wouldn't miss you so much! It's in my bag!"
"That's amazing, buddy!" Anthony smiled softly at his son. "I'll take it to my office so I don't miss you so much when you're in class. And maybe I can make you a drawing for you to take to school so you won’t miss me that much either."
"That's what Miss Katie said!" Ned grinned at him brightly, clearly amazed that his father had reached the same conclusion as his teacher. "I can't wait to go back tomorrow! Miss Katie said she's going to show us a photo of her dog tomorrow and, and she said we'll have playground time every day and that we're going to learn how to write alllllll the letters and the numbers too so we can write all the words and read all the books and she said there’ll be a day of the week we can come in costumes and oh, oh! On Friday, I can bring a toy or something cool to show to my friends!"
Well, at least Anthony would not have to worry about Edmund not wanting to go to school anymore.
Maybe he should thank that Miss Katie for it.
For the following two weeks, about two-thirds of all his son talked about somehow had something to do with Miss Katie, who, by that point, was just about Ned's second favourite person in the world. Anthony was worried that his position as the first might not be as secure as a parent would like it to be.
It was Miss Katie this, Miss Katie that, Miss Katie had a very cool dog who was chubby and orange and short, Miss Katie read a book about a dragon and a sandcastle and she makes the bestest dragon voices in the world (which he resented a little because his son had always been fond of his dragon voice the most), Miss Katie is very pretty just like a princess, Miss Katie can draw very well, Miss Katie makes up cool songs for us to do things, Miss Katie helped me with my shoes today, Miss Katie, Miss Katie, Miss Katie ...
By the time the Parents-Teacher conference rolled around, Anthony was desperately curious to meet this Miss Katie woman, who was beginning to sound like a bloody superhero. Hell, if Edmund told him she had X-ray vision or could fly, Anthony might actually believe him, because apparently, there wasn't a thing that Miss Katie couldn't do.
He had been expecting to find the real-life version of Miss Honey from Matilda waiting for the parents.
What Anthony had not been expecting was to find Kathani Sharma greeting parents at the door to his son's classroom.
As in, his ex-girlfriend and former love of his life (or perhaps not so former, since she had not really vacated the position in the years since their breakup), Kathani Sharma.
At the door of his son’s Reception room.
Greeting parents.
At his son’s classroom.
Where Ned’s teacher should be.
Fuck .
"There are some biscuits, along with tea and coffee in the back, and you can pick any desk with a red folder on it. We'll start in just a few minutes." She directed the couple she had been talking to inside the classroom before turning to Anthony with a bright smile. "Hey, welcome to our... Anthony?! "
" Kate ."
"What are you doing here?!" She looked rather shocked at seeing him, her lips parted in surprise.
God, the past eight years had been good to her. She looked just as breathtakingly beautiful as she did when they were stupid teenagers in Secondary, with the same lustrous black curls and big brown eyes that had been his undoing at school.
"I'm here for the conference with the infamous Miss Katie," He couldn't help but smile at her. "Who, I'm assuming, is you ?"
It made sense that the woman who had so easily charmed his four-year-old son would be the same woman who'd charmed the brains out of his fifteen-year-old self so many years before. Of course, the only woman he'd ever seen himself having a future with, the one he still regretted letting slip right through his fingers, would end up being his four-year-old's most beloved and admired school teacher.
That was just his luck.
"You're..." She blinked a him a couple of times. "You're Ned's dad!"
"Edmund Bridgerton, yeah."
" That's why he looks so familiar," Kate chuckled. "God, I should have clocked that!"
"The name is a bit of a giveaway, I'd say." He laughed a little, running his fingers through his hair, ignoring the pounding of his heart in his chest. It was a little ridiculous how Kate Sharma still managed to throw him off-balance with nothing but a smile, even after years without any contact.
"I've got twenty-two four-year-olds whom I call out solely by their first name. I've stopped paying too much attention to last names in the roster in my second year of teaching. Unless there are two kids with the same name." She told him with a playful roll of her eyes. "You know, now I feel so stupid for not seeing this because he looks just like Greggy did at that age."
"Oh yeah," Anthony laughed, shoving his hands in his pockets, if only to have something to do with his fidgety fingers. "He's even completely obsessed with you, just like Greg was." Kate snorted with a shake of her head, the smell of her perfume hitting him squarely in the chest. Christ, she still had that same lily scent that used to drive him mad. "I was dying to meet whoever this Miss Katie was, who was just about all Ned talked about since classes began. It does make a lot of sense now."
" Shut up. " She muttered with a little laugh, her cheeks darkening. God, it still felt wonderful to make her giggle and blush like that. "He is such a sweetheart."
"I like to think so," Anthony nodded in mock seriousness. "But I was told I might be a little biased."
"Two things can be true at the same time." Kate scrunched her nose adorably at him before checking her watch. "I have to start the meeting now. You can choose a desk. Is there anyone else coming? Because I can wait another..."
"That's fine." He waved her offer away. "It's just me."
"Oh. Right . Of course." Kate pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, shifting on her feet. "You can..." She cleared her throat. "Any desk with the red folder is free."
And then she turned, marching towards the front of the room as conversation died down, leaving him staring rather dumbfounded at her from his place at the door.
Anthony knew he was supposed to have been paying close attention to whatever it was Kate was saying in front of the classroom, her colourfully decorated PowerPoint shining behind her. He should be taking notes and asking questions about his son's routine and learning process. He should have been listening to all the important information pertaining to his son’s well-being and school policies.
Instead, all he could do was watch her speak, unable to shake away the feeling that he was in big, big trouble, even if he wasn't sure he minded it all that much.