Authors: Jeannie Watt
“How do you know?”
“The call has lasted too long. And he laughed a second ago.”
Layla put her head down on her knees and closed her eyes. She felt just like a rabbit, holding very, very still and hoping the hawk didn’t see her.
“He’s leaving.”
Layla raised her head slightly, and sure enough, she could hear the guy walking away, no longer talking. She let out a sigh that seemed to come from the depth of her soul.
“What is it about you and trouble?” she asked.
“
Me
and trouble?” He started out from under the counter, then froze when the door opened and the lights came on. Layla nearly jumped out of her skin as Justin pressed himself back against her, pushing her into the corner, the cold cinder blocks sending a chill through her.
For the first time ever Layla was glad she had very little storage space in her room and thus a mishmash of cartons and bins under the counters. If she and Justin held very still, then maybe… Her heart was beating so hard it seemed as if the guy should surely be able to hear it.
She could feel Justin’s breath on her temple, warm and steady, as if this kind of stuff was old hat for him, which it no doubt was. Layla herself wasn’t breathing. She was too afraid.
“Yeah, that’s right, baby,” the janitor said in a low, purring voice as he pushed his trash can into the room, the wheels squeaking. “I’m going to run my tongue all the way up there.”
A nasty feeling rolled over Layla.
The janitor laughed, a low intimate sound, then picked up a wastepaper basket—one that had been empty the last time Layla was in the room—and emptied it, banging it against the side of the larger container. “Yeah, you got a point. Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this on my first day of work, but who’s gonna catch me?”
Justin nudged Layla, but she ignored him, and the guy laughed again.
“Yeah? You gonna do
that?
”
Layla squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could close her ears, as well. Please don’t say what
that
is....
The bin settled on the floor with a clatter, and then he picked up the second one, next to her former desk, and repeated the action. Melinda, or someone, had been busy in her room.
Maybe the guy was just going to empty the trash and go. He laughed again. “No choice? Oh, I think I have choices. Like where I’m going to start. I know where I’m going to end.” He shook out his broom and started making passes around the room as he told the person he was talking to exactly how he was going to get there.
It was the logical place to end, but Layla had never heard it expressed in such graphic terms before. She pressed her face into Justin’s arm. Dear heavens.
And Justin, from the way his shoulders shook every now and then, seemed to be laughing.
The broom came within inches of them and Layla drew back as far as she was able, making herself as tiny as possible. Not that the guy would have noticed even if the broom had hit them.
“Oh, stop. You’re killing me.” He pushed the debris out the door into the hall. “Baby, that is not physically possible…oh, you’ll show me?” He started wheeling the squeaky trash can out the door. “I can’t, I’ve just started shift.”
Oh, happy day. How long would it take him to clean the rooms in this hallway? Since he’d barely touched this classroom, Layla had hopes of maybe half an hour—unless he got too carried away with his phone conversation.
The lights went out and the door clicked shut.
Layla let out a long, shuddering breath, her body going limp. She’d never in her life been in a situation like this. Had never come close to breaking the law, other than running the occasional yellow light.
It was rather…exhilarating. Especially since they hadn’t gotten caught. Maybe she was beginning to understand why people engaged in extreme sports. Or why Justin and her brothers were forever doing stupid stuff with skateboards, bikes, ramps and parachutes.
But she and Justin weren’t out of this yet.
“Wow, I didn’t know you were allowed to talk like that in a school,” he whispered as he settled his back against the wall and stretched his legs out.
“He’s newly hired. Perhaps he’s not familiar with the rules.” Layla assumed a similar position, staring across the darkened room to the bulletin board on the opposite wall. She’d spent a long time on that board, creating a map of the ancient world to tie in with the
Iliad.
She certainly hoped Melinda enjoyed it.
“But he shouldn’t be here tonight,” Layla moaned. “He should be working days.”
“Well, sweetheart, he isn’t.” Justin put an arm around her, and instead of freezing up, as she would have mere days ago, she leaned her head against his shoulder and accepted his comfort. And when he dropped a light kiss on her hair, she actually smiled.
Maybe she had a knack for crime.
LAYLA WAS NOT FREAKING OUT. Justin had fully expected her to leap out from under the counter and surrender to the dirty-mouthed janitor, and maybe she would have, had the guy been talking about something different.
Justin glanced sideways without moving his head. Gone was the woman he’d thought was in shock before she’d asked him to kiss her. In her place was one Justin didn’t believe he’d ever met before. Well, maybe briefly in the parking lot when she’d slugged Robert.
She was scared, which showed a measure of good sense, but she was also calm. Not jittery or fretting or behaving the way he would have predicted she would under these circumstances, had anyone posed a hypothetical question.
Suppose Layla Taylor got caught breaking into a school…
There was something wrong with this picture.
After a good twenty minutes of staring into space, Justin got out from under the counter and crept across the room. He couldn’t see jack out the small slit of a window, so he cautiously eased the door open a crack. Nothing to the south. He took a breath, pushed the door open a bit farther and stuck his head out. Clear to the north.
He motioned with his hand for Layla to join him, and she did, carrying one of the heavy boxes, taking small steps because of the weight.
He grimaced at her. “It’s going to be kind of hard to run with one of those.”
“I came for my stuff. If I have to I’ll drop it.” He didn’t say anything, but he could see a mutinous expression forming on her face.
“Fine.” He crossed over to the counter and hefted the other box, then came back to where she stood, wondering what in the hell she had in these containers. They must weigh about fifty pounds each.
“Okay, let’s make a waddle for it.”
She laughed. A soft, almost roguish sound. Layla was definitely getting into this.
He opened the door and then quietly closed it after Layla had struggled out with her box. She led the way to the junction of the four hallways, under a domed skylight, and stopped. Justin eased past her and leaned out to check the perpendicular hallways in both directions. The janitor’s trash can was parked next to one of the far doors, but Justin couldn’t hear anything. He kind of hated to think about what might be happening.
Layla came up beside him and he gestured to the exit with his head. They both started toward the door as fast as their awkward loads would allow. If his arms were straining, hers had to be shaking. And he did not want to have to tell her that if she dropped her box and scattered the contents, they were not going to pick them up. They were getting the hell out of Dodge.
Justin had just opened the outside door when they heard a loud “Hey” from behind them.
“Just getting a few things I forgot to take home,” Layla called as she hurried through the door. “Good night!”
They should have parked closer, but Justin hadn’t wanted his license plate on camera. Right now he was almost past caring.
They actually were waddling by the time they reached the car. Justin had taken his keys out before he’d grabbed his box so he was able to pop the locks. He braced the box against the rear quarter panel and opened the back door, dumping his load and then taking Layla’s and jamming it on top.
She was practically in her seat by the time he’d opened his door. He started the car and backed away, hoping she was right about the cameras.
When he pulled out onto the street, Layla laughed. “Thank you, thank you,” she said.
“For the boxes or the adventure?”
“Both.” Her eyes were sparkling when he glanced over at her. “I’ve never, ever experienced anything like that.”
“I’m so surprised.”
Her eyes were wide when she said, “I’ll bet you’ve done stuff like this before.”
“More times than you can imagine.” Although this was probably the first time he’d risked arrest as an adult.
Layla laughed again. “I hope Melinda goes crazy trying to find this stuff.”
“Do you think she wants it that badly?”
“All the kids wanted to be in my class so they could participate.”
“Well, that’s an endorsement.”
“And in a year or two, she could have pretended she’d developed the material.” Layla smiled with an air of satisfaction. “Which is why I’m going to self-publish it. Lots of teachers sell their thematic units. Why not me?”
“Great idea.” Justin glanced in his rearview mirror, a habit from his teen days. Only tonight he probably wasn’t going to have to pull into a driveway and duck down.
“Let’s go get coffee.”
“Isn’t the adrenaline rush sufficient?” he asked drily.
“I don’t want coffee for the caffeine. I just thought perhaps a celebratory drink was in order.”
“Coffee schmoffee. Let’s go get a real drink.”
She didn’t answer immediately, and Justin suddenly recalled how they’d hooked up again after all these years. “A beer? No martinis?”
She laughed with a touch of self-consciousness. “A beer sounds good.”
He pulled into an off-the-beaten-track pub in a strip mall on Moana Street, and they settled side by side at the bar. Layla was not much of a beer drinker, and it occurred to Justin that she might not be much of a drinker at all. She’d been a teetotaler in high school when the rest of them had been getting blazed at parties.
He noticed her studying their reflection in the mirror behind the bar, and couldn’t resist putting his fingers into a V and raising rabbit ears behind her head.
She laughed and slapped at his hand, turning to him to say, “You haven’t changed much, have you?”
“No. At this very minute I’m wondering where you keep your bras and where the nearest ROTC flagpole is.”
“Definitely one of the stellar memories of my teen years.”
“No one knew it was your bra.”
“I knew.” She put a light hand on his knee, startling him. “Why were you such a jerk to me?”
“Maybe I had a crush on you and that was the only way to express it.”
“Really,” she said flatly, disbelievingly.
He shrugged. “Or maybe you were a handy target. The studious older sister.”
“A bit more believable.”
She studied him for a moment, a quizzical look on her face, and with a half smile, Justin reached out to run the tips of his fingers along the smooth skin of her jawline. She shivered and then her eyes widened slightly, as if the reaction had surprised her.
Lovely Layla. Who’d turned out to be a lot more fun than he’d ever thought possible.
Her beer was still half-full when he finished his, and she pushed it aside as he reached for his wallet. “Done?”
“Done and getting tired. Crime is exhausting.”
“Hey—you own that stuff.”
“Right.” She didn’t smile, but he could see the amusement in her eyes.
It was a quiet drive back to his condo and her car, but not an uncomfortable silence. More of a companionable one. Neither spoke as he pulled into his parking spot and then helped transfer the two boxes. When they finished, Layla smiled up at him with a serene, almost sleepy expression.
“It’s crazy. I’ve lost my job and I’m not obsessing.”
“I have that effect on women.”
She ran her palms up his arms. “I guess you do. The obsessing will come, of course.”
“In the early-morning hours, no doubt.”
“Is that when
you
obsess?” Layla asked facetiously, as if making a huge discovery. “That’s when
I
obsess!” He laughed and she added, “I’ll bet I do a lot more of that than you do.”
She might be surprised. He leaned down and gave her one last kiss, their lips clinging for a brief second as he made a wish—that they could explore this unexpected physical connection between them more fully. “It was great breaking into the school with you.”