money was starting to come in from the alumni group. But Grace knew any small mistake could set Malcolm off.
More disconcerting, her file folder with the story had shown back up on her desk. Where had it been? Had it been there the entire time?
She glanced at the pages and knew she should probably shred the thing before someone definitely saw it. The office shredder was in Bruce’s cubicle and she’d tried a couple of times to use it but someone always walked by.
There was a brief knock on her door before it opened and Adam filled the doorway.
She shoved the folder under the blotter on her desk. She flushed a little and hated that. She wanted to come off as more sophisticated than she was, but no matter how hard she tried she was always going to be a small-town girl.
“Good afternoon, Grace. Do you have a minute?” Adam asked.
Quickly she closed the Internet window on her computer where she’d been reading an article about Adam that had been in Entrepreneur magazine last fall.
“Sure,” she said.
He closed the door behind him. He wore a pair of dark dress pants and a blue shirt that really brought out his eyes.
“Please leave the door open.”
“What?”
“Sue-Ellen thinks I’m spending too much time with you behind closed doors. You know she goes straight to Malcolm with her concerns, so I really don’t want to give her any more fodder.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and made no move to open the door. She didn’t want to force the issue. Worrying about a closed door seemed kind of silly to her, but she was willing to do whatever was needed to keep the school open.
“Is that why you’ve been too busy to have dinner with me the last two weeks?” he asked.
“No. I have a life. I wasn’t just sitting alone in my house waiting for you to start asking me out.” She hoped he’d never know how many nights she’d spent sitting alone in her house thinking of him. Fantasizing about what it would be like to be in his arms. Her dreams had now become fevered remembrances of his mouth on her body. Her hands on him. She squirmed a little in her chair just at the thought of the intimacies they’d shared.
“Too bad for me,” he said with a self-deprecating grin that made her smile back at him.
“What did you want to discuss?” she asked, knowing if she didn’t change the subject she was going to do something she’d regret, like tell him to lock the door then seduce him on her desk.
“The gym needs a new floor. And that’s not in your budget,” he said, leaning back against the still-closed door.
“What do you suggest we do?” she asked. The school needed a lot of repairs. The tuitions that they’d had to refund after the scandal broke had left them in a sticky place.
“Coach Jarrett and the boys’ team suggested a charity basketball game to raise money. We’d use the outdoor courts for play.”
That was a great idea, but she wondered how many games they’d have to play to earn enough money to resurface the floor. “Okay. But I don’t think we’re going to raise enough with just our team. Attendance at the games hasn’t been that high.”
“I’m going to contact a few of the musicians on my label and get them to come and play.”
“I approve that idea. When were you thinking of having the event?”
“The weekend prior to spring break. I think that will give us some high-profile press coverage and we can maximize it to bring our enrollment numbers up.”
“Sounds good. I have some local media contacts we can use. And Barbara Langdon would be a great parent to coordinate this. She’s super-organized. Do you want me to set that up?”
“Yes. I’ve given Bruce all the information on the artists I think will participate.”
She made a few notes on her computer calendar. Adam came farther into her office, leaning one hip on the side of her desk right next to her.
“Now that we’ve got school business out of the way….”
She pushed her chair away from the desk to put more space between them. “Yes?”
“I’ve got tickets to the Stars. Want to join me?” he asked.
She wanted to say yes. She’d never been to a professional sports game. Ever. And the Dallas Stars were a really good hockey team. She knew they were going for the Stanley Cup.
But more than any interest in sports, she wanted to spend time with Adam. To feed the obsession that had grown in the weeks when they’d been dealing with each other only for the school’s business. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. What will the board think?”
“I don’t care.”
“That’s easy for you to say. If the school closes down, you still have a job.”
“Do you think I’m that callous?”
“No,” she said. “But I do think you’re used to everyone doing what you want them to.”
“What are you afraid of?”
“Why do I have to be afraid? Malcolm is just looking for an excuse to get the board to fire me.”
“Going to a hockey game with me isn’t going to affect your job.”
He had a point. She knew it. But she was starting to care for him and she was afraid if they got any closer that she was never going to recover when he moved on. And he would move on, because there wasn’t anything to hold him here in Plano. She wasn’t the kind of woman that made a man stop roaming around. Much as she wanted to be.
“Okay,” she said, realizing that she was running from herself again. She had to stop running away if she really wanted to find herself.
Adam was surprised by how challenging he found the work at Tremmel-Bowen. The school was one of those connections to his parents that he’d distanced himself from. They’d been very involved in the running of the school and, at twenty-five, when he’d learned the truth about himself, he’d been angry. Carrying on his family’s traditions hadn’t seemed important.
But without intending to, Grace was giving him a chance to see the pride that his father must have felt in the school. Talking to the students and seeing the campus, he felt a connection to the Bowens that he’d lost when he’d heard a few sentences uttered from a distant relative. A relative who had made the loving family he’d always taken for granted a big lie.
It was why he was a stickler about the truth.
Tonight he promised himself that he would bring up the subject of Grace’s erotic story. He’d find a way to make her tell him about it and then admit he’d read it.
He knew they’d both retreated after the intimacy they’d shared on his pool deck. And he’d come to some strange conclusions about himself and Grace. No matter
