to lose my scholarship. Then I would’ve had less time and money to offer Cierra than I’d had.
An alarm went off. I looked around, but it was coming from Jaycee’s end.
“Gotta rinse, Dad. See ya tomorrow?”
“Are you coming to the store?” She used to love Arcadia. But in the last year, she’d shunned all things in the geekdom.
“I’ll probably just have them drop me off at home.” She palpated her face, squinting into the screen. I’d lost her to the face mask.
“Call me when you get home. Love you, kiddo.”
She disconnected and I tossed my phone to the table.
“How much did you hear?” I joked.
Natalia’s cheeks had lost their post-orgasm flush. I wanted to put it back, but she was in Ms. Shaw mode. “I can’t argue. I am a feminist principal with something to prove.”
I chuckled and dropped my head back. “Couldn’t she have picked someone besides Frederick Wentworth’s son?”
“It would’ve made life easier for both of us.” Natalia sat forward on the couch. I hated to see her leave. My real concern was whether she’d want to see me again. “And no, he didn’t get out of detention. You and his dad have a history?”
“Remember that scholarship? I showed up sophomore year, and what should have been his year to shine was not. He rode the plank as a senior while I played.” We’d titled that year.
“That’s too bad.”
Something about her tone was off. I’d heard it before, from other students and their parents. “Too bad that he wasn’t a better player than me, or too bad I got the scholarship that made it an issue in the first place?”
She pursed her lips, then rose. “I should go.”
“Natalia…” Should I apologize? As if judgment throughout high school hadn’t been enough, I was still getting it from the principal. Only she was my date.
Natalia straightened her clothing and crossed to the bar, where she’d left her shoes before we’d eaten on the couch. She shoved her feet into them and grabbed her tote.
“Are you going to talk to me? What’s going on?” I couldn’t escape the feeling that if she left with only a goodbye, I’d never see her other personalities beyond Ms. Shaw.
“Jaycee’s call was a reminder of why I shouldn’t be dating parents.” She pushed her hair off her face and finally looked at me. “This really can’t happen again.”
“I want it to.”
Her gaze jerked away. “Me, too. But it can’t. I’ve worked too hard to get where I am and to get taken seriously as the founder’s— Well, my career and the school’s future is riding on my efforts. I can’t wipe them all out when someone sees me with you.”
Natalia skirted around the bar to cruise through the kitchen. She paused at the picture on the fridge. Hadn’t she seen it before? It was a colored pencil sketch of Pegasus that Jaycee had drawn in blues and purples with a silver overlay. Her work was all over the house.
“The artist is Jaycee,” I explained. “We joke that the house is her gallery. I used to rotate them, she worked so fast, but in the last year…” It was the same story with her behavior. I’d been saying “in the last year” a lot.
“It’s stunning.” Natalia continued to the back door. “I just can’t risk my work at the school.”
“I understand. But at the same time, I don’t envision the Ms. Shaw I met being a woman who’s pushed around by the other parents and their ignorant opinions.”
Natalia’s shoulders stiffened. Her step faltered before she was back on track and beelining out the door. “Good night, Chris.”
“Have a fun practice tomorrow.”
Climbing into her car, she paused and looked up at me.
“The poster,” I explained. “You have roller derby practice Sunday afternoons.”
Only the corner of her mouth lifted, but the crease between her eyebrows didn’t promise another date. She got into her car and I hit the button to raise the door. She drove away, leaving our time on the couch behind us both.
I had to see her again.
What would it take to find myself in the principal’s office once more?
Chapter 6
Natalia
Could someone get more professionally belligerent? As Frederick Wentworth droned on about his various contributions to the programs at Preston Academy, I let my mind drift. What was it like to work for him? Did his wife get her way or was he a tyrant at home, too? They had to have Dresden as a young couple, but I was sure Frederick finished his schooling while