Bayview Heights Trilogy (38 page)

“Too bad they ended up on the same
committee.”

“It was no accident.” Seth shrugged. “I
arranged it. They’re both on the Safety Task Force, too.”

“Why would you do that?

“Because they need to learn to work with each
other. I’m going to help them do it.”

Lacey’s gaze narrowed on him. “I saw other
kids volunteer for this group. Another administrator picked
them.”

“I, um, talked to Carolyn beforehand and told
her my plan.”

“Are you always so sneaky?”

“When it’s good for Bayview Heights, I am.”
He smiled at her. “After all, I got
you
on both
committees.” The shadows in her eyes deepened. “What is it?”

“What is what?”

Bracing his forearms on the table, he leaned
over. “You’re upset. You were when you came in.”

“No, I’m all right.”

“Tell me.”

She seemed to think about that a minute,
biting off her raisin-colored lipstick. Finally, she said, “My
grandfather came to the office just before I left. It was the first
time since…it was hard for him to be there, that’s all. It was hard
for me to see it.”

Seth felt the familiar sense of guilt curl
through him. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t say anything.

“And then you had to leave for this
meeting?”

She nodded, her frown telling him the rest of
the story.

Slowly, Seth got up and moved to the end of
the table. He sat down very close, but didn’t dare touch her.
“Philip wasn’t happy about your working on this committee, was
he?”

“No.”

Seth plowed a hand through his hair. “Look,
Lacey,” he said, and her eyes widened. At his use of her name? “I
didn’t think this through very well. I shouldn’t have coerced you
into helping with the day care. It was inconsiderate of me. I’ll
get someone else to supervise with me.”

“No!”

“No?”

“Well, no. I gave my word.”

“I’ll let you out of it.”

She smiled sadly, and Seth’s gut clenched.
“Actually. I want to do it. The paper should cover this, anyway,
and--”

“And?”

“I want to go to the day care. I want to do
something for them.”

“Why?”

“I like kids.” Her chin lifted. “Something
wrong with that?”

Seth shook his head. “You don’t have any kids
of your own, do you?”

“No?”

He surprised himself by asking, “You ever
been married’?”

“No.”

“Come close?”

This time there was shock on her face. Before
she could answer, the door burst open and the group scheduled to
use the room at four o’clock hustled in. The relief in Lacey’s eyes
was telling.

“Looks like our time’s up.” She stood and
shrugged into her coat. Seth stayed where he was. He watched her
fuss with her things. She said a quick goodbye and hurry to the
door.

When she reached it, he called out, “Lacey?”
She turned back. “See you tonight at seven.”

“Okay.” And she was gone.

After a moment, Seth got up, said hello to
the members of the other group and left the room. Deep in thought,
he headed back to his office.

If there was anything that would gum up the
works right now, it was falling for Lacey Cartwright. It was bad
enough that she looked so appealing in her pink sweater, her cheeks
glowing from the cold, her hair wild around her shoulders. He felt
the same response zap through him as that day at the gym when he’d
held her foot. Forcibly, he squelched his reaction. It certainly
wouldn’t help their situation, he repeated to himself as he walked
down the halls.

Still, the picture of her in fragile pink,
her eyes clouded with hurt, stayed with him for a long time.

o0o

LACEY ENTERED the principal’s office at six
forty-five that evening. Not having asked where the task force
meeting would be held, she’d come a little early, hoping to catch
Seth. She’d had plenty of time anyway; after the Good Deeds Project
meeting, Lacey hadn’t gone home to her grandfather’s house on Bay
Road. Instead, she’d called and told him she’d be eating out. She’d
had a solitary dinner at Pepper’s Diner because she wasn’t ready to
face Philip.

As she pulled open the outer-office door, she
was grateful to hear voices coming from within. Crossing to the
doorway, she stopped cold. A shapely brunette in tight jeans and an
even tighter sweater leaned over Taylor’s desk. Her giggle was
sexy, if you were into Marilyn Monroe types.

Apparently, Taylor was. He was staring up at
the woman with an appreciative male look on his face. For some
reason, it bothered Lacey.

“You really didn’t have to do this,
Monica.”

“Well, since you wouldn’t come for dinner, I
brought dinner to you.” She scowled prettily. “You work too hard,
Seth. I’ll bet you haven’t left here since you arrived at what, six
this morning?”

“Six-thirty,” he said absently as he scooped
up the foil containers on his desk and stashed them in the paper
bag. When he turned to throw away the trash, he caught sight of
Lacey.

“Oh, hi, Lacey.” Taylor’s skin was almost as
light as her own, and he blushed just as easily as she did.

“I’m sorry to interrupt.”
God, had that
come out bitchy?
Carefully modulating her tone, she said, “I
wasn’t sure this was the right place, where the meeting was.” Damn,
she was stammering. Well, she was embarrassed to have walked in on
Taylor’s assignation!

Seth smiled warmly at her. “This is the right
place. The conference room is all set up. You can go in through
here.” She glanced at the door on the other side of his office. The
closed door. “I think most people have already arrived.” He gave
his attention to the brunette who’d finally straightened. She was
tall and even more voluptuous standing upright. “This is Monica
Matthews. Monica’s got a son who’s a senior here and she runs the
beauty shop in town.”

“You’re showing your age, Seth. It’s called a
hair salon.” Monica’s sultry gaze focused on Lacey. “And you
are?”

“Lacey Cartwright,” Seth answered for
her.

“I’m the—” Lacey began.

Frost quickly replaced the warm sensuality in
the other woman’s eyes. “I know who you are. I read the
Herald
.” Monica looked at Seth questioningly.

Lacey’s spine stiffened in reflex.

“Let’s all go inside.” Seth ignored the
woman’s implied question. “We’ll make formal introductions
there.”

Lacey hesitated. How many others on the
committee were going to resent her being here? Damn, she was tired
of fighting everybody. In L.A., she’d stepped on some toes as any
hard-hitting reporter would. But she hadn’t felt this kind of
personal animosity from anyone. An overwhelming sense of loneliness
accompanied her as she followed Taylor and his lady friend into the
conference room.

Nine people gathered around the table. “I see
you found your places,” Seth remarked as he picked up a name tag
and attached it to his lapel. “I took the liberty of arranging the
seating plan. I separated teachers, students, community members and
so on. Since we’ll be sharing in small groups, I thought the
diversity was important.”

Monica found her designated place at the end
of the table, next to a somber Mitch Lansing. When Lacey caught
Mitch’s eye, he nodded to her.

Seth said to Lacey, who was rooted to the
doorway, “Lacey, your seat’s here.”

Right next to him. Drawing in a deep breath,
she moved to her chair. He pulled it out for her, and after she sat
down, so did he. Woodsy cologne wafted over to her. Had he applied
it for Monica Matthews?

Taylor scanned the room. “Good. Everyone’s
here. First, thanks for agreeing to be on the committee. Each of
you was selected for the differing viewpoints you bring to the
group. Before we get to the agenda, I think we should introduce
ourselves and state our relation to this building—why we’re here,
in other words.” His smile was warm. “Let’s be informal. I’ll
start. I’m Seth Taylor, which all of you know. And I help run this
place.” Chuckles went around the room. “Nick, you go next.”

Lacey breathed a sigh of relief. She’d be
last. Nick Leonardi introduced himself. Next to him, Zoe Caufield
told who she was, and that she taught At- Risk kids. Mitch and
Monica were after her.

The scowling, balding man next to Mitch spoke
up. “I’m Jerry Bosco. I teach biology. I’m here as a building
representative—the union put me on this committee.”

Lacey was stunned to realize she hadn’t
recognized the man who’d testified against Kevin. Instead of
looking eight years older, he’d aged at least two decades. And he
seemed just as surly and unhappy as he’d been when she was a
student here.

“Don Hopkins,” another man said. “I own the
hardware store and have two kids in elementary school.”

The introductions continued—another scowling
man, Leonard Small, a friend of her grandfather’s, was a board
member and the one who had given Lacey the statistics on student
violence. Alex Ransom, the junior class vice principal, was also
there.

Darcy McCormick told her name quickly, as did
the school psychologist Barbara Sherman, and the guidance
counselor, Linc McKenna. Lacey had spoken to Linc when he’d called
her about setting up some kind of internship at the paper for
students interested in journalism. By the time the introductions
came round to Lacey, she was in a state of high anxiety. What would
she say about why she was here? Could she take their animosity?

She cleared her throat. “I’m Lacey
Cartwright. I run the
Herald
. I’m here at my own request
to see how you handle problems at the high school.”

Mumbling around the room made her shift in
her seat. Seth reached over and squeezed her arm. “Actually, I
encouraged Lacey to be on this committee and another one—the Good
Deeds Project.” Well, that was almost true. “I think it’s a fine
idea to have her see how we deal with problems in the building. I’d
like you all to welcome her.”

There was dead silence. Monica Matthews broke
it. “It’s no secret that Ms. Cartwright’s written a lot of negative
things about this school.”

“Lacey please,” Seth said. “Let’s use first
names. We need to be informal and friendly.”

“
Lacey
, then,” Monica said. “I
wonder if she’s going to get in the way of our progress. Will we
feel comfortable airing our real concerns? Will we be afraid to say
what we think because of what she’ll print?”

Bosco leaned forward. “Or maybe that’s why
you asked her, Mr. Taylor. So we’d whitewash this whole thing.”

Seth stared hard at Bosco, then glanced
around the table. “What do the rest of you think?”

Zoe Caufield spoke up. “I’m not afraid to say
what I think with Lacey here. We know we have a problem with
fighting. So does she. I think it’ll help us understand each other
better if we talk about the issue openly.”

Seth looked to the kids. “Nick, Darcy, what
do you think?”

Nick said, “It’s cool. I’ll say what I
think.”

“Me, too.” Darcy carefully averted her gaze
from Nick.

Mitch Lansing sat back in his chair. “We’re
all adults here—” he smiled warmly at Nick, then Darcy “—or young
adults. I think we can be honest about the issue.” He focused in on
Lacey and she had to force herself not to squirm. “Lacey says
she’ll give the high school the coverage it deserves. I’m confident
that we deserve good press for the humanitarian things we do, as
well as for how we tackle problems.”

Seth’s gaze swept everyone at the table
“Anyone else?”

Silence.

“All right, then. Before we get started
tonight, I’d like to reiterate what I told all of you in the memo I
sent out about our general timeline. My goal is to meet every
Monday night from now until Christmas, and by the twenty-second of
December to have a plan to implement. Anyone have a comment about
that time frame?”

When no one did, he said, “Good. Let’s get to
it. Put your name tags on.” He stood and pulled up a screen that
had been covering a blackboard. There was an agenda written on it.
“The first thing I’d like to do tonight is brainstorm reasons why
there is violence at the high school. Then I’d like to form
subcommittees to focus on the areas we’re going to investigate. For
purposes of this exercise, let’s not include the anti-drug efforts
we implemented last year. Those should remain a separate area.” He
checked his watch. “And let’s see if we can be out of here by nine
o’clock.

“In front of you, you’ll find a sheet of
paper asking two questions. First, why is there a problem with
fighting in this building? Second, what do
you
think
should or can be done about it? Write down anything that occurs to
you. You should know that I’m going to ask you to share what you
write.”

Lacey watched Seth steamroll through the
directions. She’d never seen anything like it. Most committees
she’d observed got off to such a slow start, she usually wanted to
scream. But he’d plunged right in. The room was quiet while
everyone focused on writing down their thoughts, giving her time to
digest what had happened earlier.

He’d defended her. He’d reached over and
squeezed her arm because he knew she was nervous. After she’d
bulldozed her way onto this committee, he’d made it sound as if he
supported her participation in it.

Surreptitiously, she watched him out of the
corner of her eye. She’d never noticed he was left-handed. A shock
of dark blond hair fell over his creased forehead. He’d loosened
his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. His neck was
corded with muscles and he swallowed hard a couple of times as he
wrote. The gesture made Lacey realize the vulnerable position he
was in. It must be hard to admit you had problems in a place you’d
obviously devoted your whole life to. Steering herself away from
that line of thinking, she took in a deep breath and turned to the
task at hand.