Authors: Janie Mason
Al’s head dropped, he closed his eyes and was silent for long seconds.
“That’s not necessary.”
He looked back up, weariness clouding his gaze.
“You’ve reorganized what had become chaos since Annie left.
I admit, I’m opposed to mixing working relationships with romantic liaisons, but since you’re both single, I’ll stay out of it.”
Then a spark of the confident man she worked for returned to his eyes.
“As long as your behavior at school is above reproach and neither one of you quits.
You’re both assets to the school.”
Gigi’s
stomach unclenched, and she exhaled the breath she’d unknowingly been holding.
“I’m grateful to hear you say that, but I’m also confused.
You gave Sean the impression that to be a couple, we’d have to fight a major battle.”
Sean had been willing to face that unpleasant prospect since the beginning.
She dropped her gaze.
“I was the one hesitant to challenge authority.”
Al patted her shoulder and then dug his hands into his pockets.
“Last year’s scandal was a P.R. nightmare, but this is an entirely different situation.
There’s no school board policy prohibiting relationships between two unmarried staff members.”
His eyes took on a faraway look.
“My preferences are formed from long years of experience.”
No longer worried about being fired,
Gigi’s
thoughts shifted to the larger problem.
How would she ever make this up to Sean?
Wounded and furious, would he give her a chance to explain?
Thinking back on all she’d learned about the man, she was hopeful that once he’d had time to cool off, he would listen.
She also hoped he’d forgive.
“So, we’re in agreement?” Al prompted. “There’ll be no letters of resignation?”
He gave her a weak but sincere smile.
“Agreed.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to find Sean.”
“Just a minute.
There’s something else I need from you.
It’s the real reason I’m here.”
Al glanced up the wooden stairway.
“You know Annie.”
It was more statement than question.
“Of course you do.”
Hurt shadowed his eyes and made her reach out to touch his arm.
“Obviously, we were neighbors.
Are
neighbors.”
“Where is she?”
His voice was a whisper, and
Gigi
saw the desperation weighing on his slumped shoulders.
This big, hard-edged man, this Rock of Gibraltar, seemed close to shattering.
She could see his chiseled pride battling with raw human need.
Annie had left contact information in case of emergency, but she’d asked
Gigi
not to tell anyone where she’d gone.
The poor woman had left looking almost as miserable as Al.
Should she disregard her neighbor’s request and tell him where he could find her?
The need to comfort her boss, combined with the suspicions she’d formed about Annie and Al, loosened her lips.
“She went to her brother’s cabin in the Hocking Hills.
She said she needed time away to think about her future.”
Something she suspected was hope brought a flicker of life to his eyes.
“Do you have a phone number or address?
I’ve left about a hundred messages on her cell, but she won’t return my calls.”
Then his eyes rounded as if he realized he’d shared too much.
“She told me there’s no phone at the cabin.
She also said she’d be checking her voice mails daily in case I called, but I got the feeling she didn’t want to speak with anyone.”
Al grimaced and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.
She hurriedly added, “But I have the address.”
His spine straightened and a spark flashed in his eyes.
Telling him had been the right thing to do.
Anyone with a heart could tell he had feelings for Annie.
Al’s hardened hands engulfed one of hers.
“
Gigi
, I know she told you not to give it to me but I need that address.”
He stared into her eyes.
“I just need to talk to her.
That’s all.”
She smiled and stacked her other hand on his, squeezing encouragingly.
“Promise you won’t give up on her?
You’ll fight for her no matter how pig-headed she acts?”
“
Wha
—?”
Al looked genuinely shocked.
Or maybe he just wasn’t used to people knowing his vulnerabilities.
“Sean didn’t give up on me.
Don’t you give up on Annie.”
She gave his arm a friendly tug.
“Now, let’s get upstairs so I can get you that address.
Then I need to find Sean.”
Sean ran his hands through his hair, his elbow resting on a stack of ungraded quizzes.
Although the two-hour drive had cooled his temper, the speeding ticket he’d received on I-71 was the icing on this shit-cake of a day.
Luckily, the few teachers whose cars he’d seen parked outside the school hadn’t bothered him.
Hard rain pounded outside the window and on the building’s flat roof, mirroring his stormy mood.
The echo of an exterior door opening and closing bounced down the tiled hall.
He prayed someone was leaving and not arriving.
He picked up his red pen and resumed grading.
But ten minutes later, he gave up and shoved the stack into his bag.
It was almost dusk and he hadn’t eaten since that bowl of
Wheaties
at eight o’clock this morning.
“Sean.”
Surprised, he looked up to see Al standing in the open doorway.
His blue pullover jacket was drenched from the rain, and his tone had lost the hard edge Sean had grown to expect.
Had Al been looking for him?
Had he not believed that Sean’s being with
Gigi
was innocent?
Was he about to lay into him?
Familiar with the man’s short temper, and off-kilter himself, Sean squeezed the chair’s armrests.
Be cool.
“Yes?”
“I’m going out of town.
If you need anything, I’m only available for
extreme
emergencies.
You’ve got my cell number, right?”
Al shifted his briefcase from one hand to the other and his knees flexed as if he was forcing himself not to bolt.
Sean frowned.
Al was oozing energy, but unlike the past few weeks, he seemed . . . what?
Enthusiastic?
And obviously in a big hurry.
“Yeah, I’ve got it.
Is everything okay?”
Concern had dampened Sean’s volatility.
He’d expected Al to blast him about being at
Gigi’s
apartment, but the man acted like the encounter hadn’t happened.
“Just some personal business I need to take care of.”
He pointed a finger at Sean.
“By the way, you should know
Gigi
tried to resign today.”
Sean sucked in a breath.
“What?”
“Seems she decided you were more important than her position here.”
Sean was about to beg Al not to accept her resignation, but the man cut him off with a wave of his hand.
“I told her I didn’t care.
I need her here too badly to let that get in the way.”
“But—”
“No time to get into all that right now; I’ve got to go.
Just thought I’d let you know.
Oh, and by the way, I’m proud of you, son.”
He gave Sean the first fully genuine smile since Sean had started at Newtown.
“You didn’t force her hand this afternoon when I showed up.
You put what you
thought
was her decision above your own desires.
I have a lot of respect for a man who does that.”
Sean almost swallowed his tongue.
It was the first complimentary thing the man had said in weeks, and Sean was speechless.
“I’ve got to go.
Go find your lady and straighten this mess out.”
Al turned and jogged down the hall toward the door.
Flipping off the overhead lights, Sean left only steps behind Al.
Chapter Seventeen
“She’s not at her place.
Have you heard from her yet?”
Thunder rumbled outside as Sean slowly made his way down the stairs of
Gigi’s
apartment building.
He’d talked to Heidi twice already, but she hadn’t spoken with
Gigi
.
Heidi had tried
Gigi’s
cell phone but the ringing he’d heard through the door told him she’d left it inside her apartment.
“I talked to her brother.
He hasn’t heard from her, and her folks are in the Caribbean on a cruise.
I’m starting to get worried.”
A streak of lightening and its accompanying crack wiped out her next sentence.
“Shit,” she said on the rebound.
“The rain is
really
coming down out there.
If anything has happened to her, Sean, I’m going to run over you with
Rafe’s
tow truck, back up, and do it again.”
The threat was unnecessary.
He’d already been kicking himself for running away, for not sticking by
Gigi’s
side when Al had shown up.
“Nothing bad has happened.
I’m sure she’s fine.
I’ll find her.”
He hoped he sounded more certain than he felt.
He’d paused inside the exterior door and continued to stare out at the pounding rain.
Did
Gigi
need help?
Was her car wrecked in a ditch somewhere?
Heidi’s voice sliced through his fearful imaginings.
“Would she have gone to your place?”
He hadn’t considered that.
“I don’t know, but I’ll check it out.”
He disconnected and ran through the downpour to his car, glad to have a destination in mind.
Short minutes later, relief filled him as he spotted her car in front of his house.
The worst of the storm was over, but the steady rain made seeing into the car difficult.
He pulled into the driveway and parked, in too much of a hurry to pull back to the garage.
He ran to her car and peered through the rain-sheeted windshield.
Empty.
Scanning the yard, he saw no sign of her.
Maybe she’d gotten inside the house.
His shoulders soaking wet, he ran up the front porch steps.
The motion-activated light switched on.
He scanned the porch.
There she was, curled up on the wooden porch swing.
The tension that had him strung tight eased.
He crossed the porch to squat in front of the swing and swipe the water from his face.
A feeling of déjà
vu
coursed through him as he remembered his dream from days ago.
The emotions raised in him had been powerful.
Overwhelming.
He’d paced the floorboards, unable to relax and go back to sleep.