could go home and nap." Home. She couldn't believe she'd said that. That mansion in the country, home? No way.
Selene wrapped her fingers in her glossy long braids and yanked. "Listen to you! You'll be going to garden parties and PTA meetings and doing lunch with the mayor's mother." She stopped and thought about that. "Maybe that won't be half bad..."
"Get your head right down off that cloud now," Maya warned. "I don't do parties and lunches. My place is here with these kids, and don't you forget it. This school is my dream. We're going to go full time, sell our concept to banks and factories in a few years, take it nationwide after that. Kids deserve love and attention and can learn a damned sight more than teachers have time to teach in school, and I intend to see they have every opportunity. If I have to marry Axell Holm to get it, then I'll marry him."
Selene collapsed in the desk chair and stared at her shrewdly. "You're not marrying him to keep this school. I can keep this school together. This is my vision too, and I'm not about to let those kids down. Maybe if I'd had a teacher like you, I'd have stayed in school." She narrowed her eyes. "You're marrying him because of Alexa, and Matty, and probably Constance. You've got shit for brains, girl."
"Well, no one ever said I was the brightest bulb in the chandelier." Maya tucked the blanket more firmly around Alexa's feet. "Old Man Pfeiffer stopped by the shop this morning. He said he knew my grandmother and Cleo. Do you know anything about that?"
"Why the hell would I know what the old goat knows? Everyone says he went crazy as a coot after his wife died." She frowned at her own thoughts. "If old Mayor Arnold knew what a good deal we got on this lease, he'd have the heirs claiming Pfeiffer insane. The mayor sure is pretty, but he's got more devious brains than I do."
Maya worried at a loose strand of her hair. "Mr. Pfeiffer said something about his nephew on the transportation board being part of our road problem out here."
Selene jotted a note. "I'll look into it. I didn't know there was a Pfeiffer on the board, but it could be his wife's side."
Satisfied she wouldn't get any more from Selene, Maya lifted the infant seat and headed for the door. She could hear the shouts of the children enjoying story time in the schoolroom. The substitute teacher was working out just fine. Maybe they could hire her full time for the summer session.
She felt guilty leaving Constance and Matty in the substitute's hands, but despite her brave words, she did need the rest. And she probably ought to stop by a grocery store. She couldn't feed the kids bean soup every night as if they were living on food stamps.
Or maybe she could. She still didn't have any money.
Maya bounced her forehead off the steering wheel as she cursed her helplessness. She was driving a damned BMW, living in a mansion, and she still didn't have enough money in her pocket to buy beans.
* * *
Axell entered the house through the garage door carrying plastic sacks of groceries, and almost smiled at the sonorous chanting of monks blaring through his expensive sound system. No one had played the damned stereo in months, maybe years. He wasn't even certain he remembered how it worked. Leave it to Maya to figure it out.
His smile slipped as he entered the empty kitchen. He didn't expect supper on the table. Maya had called with the grocery list so he knew she didn't have anything to prepare. He'd just expected the kids or the cat or something to be in here to greet him.
All right, so he wasn't the center of anyone's universe. Leaving the groceries on the table, he wandered into the family room, but they hadn't even turned the lights on. If Maya wasn't in the kitchen or family room, was she still in bed? He'd never seen her so much as glance in any other room of the house.
With a shiver of trepidation, Axell turned down the hall in the direction of Maya's bedroom. Maybe the kids were playing in their rooms. He didn't think Matty had slept in the one he'd been assigned yet, but his toys were beginning to gather in there. The blare of the speakers prevented Axell from hearing the direction of