Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom

by Magda Alexander

  “Thanks, Lane. I realize we are going to the prom, but double dating is just a little too high school for me.”

  Ouch.

  Lane stopped short in the doorway.

  His rational mind argued it would be counterproductive to turn around and engage-to let Liskey know exactly who Miss DuVal’s phantom boyfriend was. His rational mind insisted no good could come from that. But the asshole high schooler who had been pushed around enough wasn’t listening to any rational arguments. The prideful running back and his chained-up libido wanted nothing more than to piss all over his territory.

  He turned. “She’s not playing hard to get,” he told Liskey. “Vivi has a boyfriend. So, you can take her to the prom to increase your popularity among the students because I’m sure the two of you will look good together and I know for a fact Vivi is a hell of a dancer. But in the end, you’ll make a move, she’ll shut you down, and you’ll be lying in bed that night thinking about all the kids getting some while you’re not. And that’s when you’ll start to wish that you were the one still in high school.”

  He turned, left the classroom, and headed down the hall texting Tinley.

  “Just threw a Hail Mary pass.”

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Vivi held her breath.

  She watched Phil Liskey stare after Lane, a puzzled look on his face. Was he figuring it out? Why Lane was so defensive? Was this going to turn into the nightmare she’d killed herself trying to avoid?

  Finally, Phil turned to her, dumbfounded. He raised his arms in quandary and then let them fall against his sides. “The damn kid aced my geometry class his freshman year. What could he possibly have against me?” he said, completely clueless.

  Vivi gifted him with her biggest, brightest, the-weight-of-the-world-is-off-my-shoulders smile. “Probably just teenage hormones.” She shrugged.

  “Vivi, I’m sorry if I put you on the spot today.”

  “You did put me on the spot, but it was fun. And the kids loved it.”

  “You and I have a lot of laughs in the faculty lounge,” he said. “I thought it’d be cute. Get in the prom spirit.”

  “It was perfect, Phil. It truly was. My goodness, those roses are beautiful. And who wouldn’t want to go to prom with Prince Charming? But, Phil, I do have a boyfriend. Which I’ve mentioned. Several times. So, as much as I truly appreciate your prom invitation, under the circumstances, if you’d like to find another date, I will certainly understand.”

  “No,” Phil said, a little bit defeated. “I’d like to take you, Vivi, if you’re still willing to go. Besides, now that I know you’re a helluva dancer, I’d relish the opportunity to sweep you off your feet.”

  “All right,” she said. “You’re on.”

  Lane was waiting for her in her driveway.

  “What are you doing out here?” she said.

  “Waiting for you. Look, I’ve got Piper Beaumont ready to swoop in with whatever we need. I thought about calling Principal Levendusky but figured I didn’t want to jump the gun. What happened with Liskey?”

  Vivi started laughing. “He hasn’t a clue. About us. After you left, he sort of stood there in shock, wondering why you were attacking him after he gave you an A in his geometry class.”

  “Oh,” Lane sighed, relief cascading throughout his body. “I thought I had blown it. Oh, thank God. Viv, I’m sorry. I just…”

  “I know what you just,” she said. “He stepped on your toes-hard-and you reacted like you do. How I love that you do,” she said. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You stood up for yourself, you claimed me as yours, and you didn’t let him walk all over you-or us.”

  “Is that what I did?” He grinned.

  “That’s how I saw it,” she said, grinning back.

  And that was the picture-Vivi’s arms looped around Lane’s neck-that showed up all over social media that night, compliments of Bitchin’ Bros.

  Chapter Thirty

  “Vivi. Wear your hair up, burn the clothes you had on yesterday, and get rid of those shoes.”

  “Why?” she asked, her voice groggy with sleep. “Lane? What time is it?”

  “I don’t know. Just turn on your laptop. Or put me on speaker and look at your phone. There’s a picture of us everywhere. Only…I don’t think anyone knows it’s us. Yet.”

  “What do you mean? Oh shit!”

  “That’s what I mean.”

  Vivi studied the photo that had been forwarded over a dozen times on Instagram. “Who took this?”

  “I don’t know. But they didn’t put our names on the photo. I can’t figure out if they are toying with us or just don’t know who we are. I almost feel like we’re going to get a blackmail letter asking for money.”

  “You aren’t kidding. It’s clearly us.”

  “Well, it’s clearly us to us. It’s blurry. You can’t see our faces. No one is suggesting it’s us. Some people think that it’s me, so I’m going to be getting a haircut first thing this morning. But no one has suggested it’s you, yet. They just know it’s not the blonde I asked to prom. So it’s becoming a big fucking mystery that everyone is trying to solve.”

  “Okay, well…today is Saturday. Let’s hope by Monday there’s some new juicy piece of gossip to distract everybody from this. In the meantime, I’ll send it on to Piper and you text it to Tinley so she has a head’s up.”

  “All right, okay, I just, you know, needed to inform you.”

  “Yeah. Thanks.” She stared at the photo. “Lane, whoever took the picture had to know who we were. They had to be watching us.”

  “I think so, too. How well do you know your neighbors?”

  “Pretty well. Most of them are old. I can’t imagine them posting pictures to the Internet. Or claiming to be Bitchin’ Bros. That’s a Wilson thing, right? Not a Henderson thing.”

  “I thought it was a Wilson High thing.

  “Me too.”

  “Okay. Well, so far it’s a non-issue.”

  “Except you’re cutting your hair. I love your hair.”

  “It’ll grow back. Go back to sleep, S.B. I’ve got this.” Lane hung up.

  Vivi stared at the ceiling for a long time, alternating thoughts between what she’d want to do if she could no longer be a teacher and what her gorgeous boyfriend with that fabulous shaggy hair would look like with a buzz cut. Finally, she felt stupid for feeling sadder about the buzz cut, so she turned over and went back to sleep.

  Her phone pinged. A text came in.

  “I’m not cutting my hair. Don’t get rid of your clothes. Tinley will be over to get them this morning. She and Lam have an idea. You won’t see me this weekend, so spend your time figuring out how to get yourself employed in Indiana. ASAP.”

  “You are sooooo bossy,” she texted back. “Really glad you aren’t cutting your hair.”

  He sent a smiley face.

  Vivi handed over her clothes to Tinley, who told her nothing except to watch Instagram. She was doing that already, reading every comment that came across her cheerleaders’ feeds. It seemed that the picture wasn’t gaining momentum. Of course, it was early on a Saturday morning. Who knew what would happen when all the high schoolers rolled out of bed.

  Vivi spent time finalizing the exams for her algebra and calculus class. Her Advanced Placement Calculus class had to take the specialized AP exam, so she didn’t have to worry about that. Her statistics exam was in limbo. It felt unwieldy. It seemed to her the exam should be smarter if it wanted to test the abilities of her students. Smarter, not harder. Just arranged better, or differently, orHer phone pinged.

  Instagram showed a replica photo of the one of her and Lane. Only in this picture, the girl had long blond hair. It was as close to the original as one could make it, and Vivi guessed that Tinley had dressed in her clothes and posed with Lane. Which was an interesting comeback, she supposed.

  It wasn’t long before another replica picture showed up. Same pose, same clothes, totally different girl and
boy. Unless there were some fancy Photoshop antics going on, because the girl had long brunette hair and looked a whole lot like Vivi from the back, especially in the same dress, but the guy had curly hair. If Vivi were to guess, she would guess it was her cousin, Lolly, and Lolly’s boyfriend, Brooks, standing in for her and Lane this time.

  Great move.

  Pictures streamed in the rest of the day. Most of the girls were blond-Tinley’s friends-and with Lane, from what she could tell. All were wearing her clothes and her shoes. By Sunday, all sorts of couples were getting in on the act. Vivi could tell Lane and Tinley weren’t posing them because Vivi’s clothes were no longer being used.

  Late Sunday, a photo with a new twist showed up on social media. Lam, in his very visible football jersey, was posing in place of Vivi, hands around Lane’s neck, almost completely obscuring him from view. You could see a little of Lane’s hair and a little of Lane’s jersey as well. Even without much else, it was very obviously Lam and Lane-BFFs-in a hilarious parody of all the pictures that had come before. Lam had even lifted one foot off the ground, as if the two of them were kissing. Most of the comments made about the photo were clever and funny. A few, Vivi worried, would offend Lam.

  When she addressed that with Lane Sunday night during a Skype session, Lane told her it had all been Lam’s idea. That he was prepared to come out if he had to, just to get things spinning in a different direction-away from Vivi and Lane.

  Now that was pure loyalty. Vivi had a lot of great friends, but she didn’t think any of them would come out of the closet in order to save her reputation. She sure didn’t want Lam to do it.

  Vivi stopped by the principal’s office first thing Monday morning. He’d seen the photo. He knew who it was. He showed her a comment she’d missed suggesting it was Miss DuVal hugging Lane Kettering, but the comments that followed-started by a “LamtheMan”-suggested that Miss DuVal was too smoking hot to go slumming it with the likes of Lane Kettering. That served to prompt a long line of vividly disparaging comments about Lane and how he wouldn’t know what the hell to do with a woman if one landed in his lap.

  “I’m sorry about this,” Vivi told her principal, trying to stifle her laughter. No wonder Lane hadn’t told her about this thread. “How did you find out? Your own personal Instagram account? Or were you on Facebook?”

  “Miss, DuVal,” he scolded. “I’m not as out of touch as you think I am.”

  “Mr. L., I didn’t mean…”

  “I know you didn’t. I’m kidding you. Unfortunately another teacher brought it to my attention. Your prom date.”

  “Phil Liskey?” Hmm, Vivi thought. Maybe that clueless thing was an act.

  “I heard about the big prom proposal.”

  “What did my prom date have to say?”

  “He said he thought it looked suspiciously like you and Lane. He said he was concerned for your reputation as an educator. He suggested I speak with you.”

  Vivi sank down into a chair.

  “He knows,” she breathed. “Of course he knows. I’m wearing the same thing in the photo I had on when he did his Prince Charming proposal earlier that day. So what does this mean?”

  “Nothing,” Principal L., said. “I told him I’d look into it. I told him I’d speak to you. I’ve done both. As far as I’m concerned, this matter is complete.”

  “Complete?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, but I feel like I’m getting off easy.”

  “Really? You’re going to the prom with Phil Liskey.”

  Vivi burst out laughing.

  “We’ve got a week until prom, three weeks until graduation. Vivi, you and Lane have handled yourself beautifully up to this point. Just do me a favor and keep your guard up through the rest of the year. And, frankly, I’d like you to rethink your contract and come back to Wilson next year. I’ll take the heat for whatever happens after graduation. I know the truth. And I know what an outstanding teacher you are.”

  “Thanks, Mr. L. I’ll think about it.”

  At the end of Statistics class, Lane and Lam were filling Vivi in on what the seniors were saying about all the couple photos over the weekend. Turns out one of the couples was in a lot of hot water, totally derailing any interest in the photo of Vivi and Lane. Seems everybody thought the photo of Sandy Watkins and Greg Sengstack, the couple voted “most likely to marry,” turned out to be Sandy’s twin sister, Cindy and Greg, as Sandy had gone away for the weekend to attend to college registration. The boys were suggesting just how stupid Greg was when Phil Liskey entered the classroom.

  Instead of stopping the merriment, Vivi motioned Phil to join them. “Phil, come in. We’re talking about all those pictures that came out over the weekend. Did you see my picture with Lane?” she asked as if it was the biggest scandal to ever hit Wilson.

  “Your picture with Lane?” he asked, as if this was news to him.

  “Well, nobody believes it’s us. But it is,” she claimed.

  “Bullshit,” said Lam.

  “See, I told you,” Lane said to Vivi. “Nobody believes that a smoking hot teacher like you would ever be caught with a lowly senior like me.”

  “What do you think, Phil?” Vivi asked with a smile.

  “What do I think of what?” Phil asked cautiously.

  “Oh, he totally thinks you’re a smoking hot teacher, Miss DuVal,” Lam said. “It’s a good thing you asked her to prom when you did, Mr. Liskey. I was working up the courage to do it myself, but you got there first.”

  “Who have you not asked to the prom?” Lane teased Lam. “He’s been turned down by so many girls it’s just embarrassing.”

  “One. One girl has turned me down,” Lam argued. “Because I didn’t ride in on a horse or blow up a fireworks factory. I’m telling you, it’s not easy getting a date these days in the you’ve-gotta-top-that age of prom invitations. I don’t know if it’s worth it. I might just show up stag so that all the ladies can enjoy time with Lam the Man.”

  “As if,” Lane huffed. “All I know is I’m taking the smoking hot teacher’s cousin, and she’s a handful. Mr. Liskey, that invitation for a double date still stands.”

  “Thanks, Lane, I’ll think about it.”

  “Come on, Lam. Let’s let the old people practice their waltz.”

  “Right behind you. See you, Miss DuVal. Mr. Liskey.”

  “See you, Lam. Bye Lane. Say hi to Tinley for me,” Vivi called.

  “Will do,” Lane said as he exited her classroom.

  “Well,” Vivi said brightly, smiling at Phil. “Shall we practice our waltz?”

  Chapter Thirty One

  “You look beautiful,” Lane said, caught off guard and floored by the vision in front of him.

  He’d been fixing his boutonniere in the mirror outside of the ladies room at the Oxford Inn waiting for Tinley when he looked up to find Vivi standing in the hallway alone. She wore a pale blue strapless dress that fell to the floor over layers of tulle. Her Sleeping Beauty hair was partially up, partially down, curled and enticing. Her lips were pink, her eyes deep brown, and when she batted those long eyelashes at him, all he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss her.

  It must have shown on his face, because she stepped close to him and brushed at his lapel. “I wore this for you.”

  “Viv,” he breathed.

  “I’ve encouraged all my sweet, docile cheerleaders to give Mr. Liskey a thrill and ask him to dance. Maybe while he’s otherwise engaged…”

  “Lam and I can ask you to dance.”

  Vivi laughed. “There are going to be rumors about Lam and you if you’re not careful.”

  “There are going to be rumors about Lam and me and you if we’re not careful.” He laughed.

  “Bring ‘em. How are things going with Tinley?”

  “She’s the biggest flirt ever. But I think that’s going to work out okay for me. No one is going to question me dumping her at the end of the night.”

  “Ha,” Vivi laughed. “Is sh
e aware of your plan?”

  “Hell, no. I want it to look real. How are things going with Liskey?”

  “Perfect gentleman.”

  “It’s early yet.”

  “I can handle myself.”

  “Yeah, but here’s the thing. You don’t have to. Lam and I are going to be all over following the two of you out of here, making sure our favorite statistics teacher gets home safely.”

  “Don’t you have after parties to attend?”

  “Not after my ugly breakup. Pretty sure Tinley will hook up with some other guy and show up at those parties. I’m going to be too busted up to want to see all that.”

  Vivi couldn’t help but laugh. “Lane, this doesn’t sound like much of a prom night for you.”

  “You’d be surprised. Trust me. I’m gonna have a helluva time.”

  “You two look good together,” Lane’s friend, Jamie said innocently as he came up on them.

  Lane tilted his head as if studying Vivi. “You know, Jamie. We do look good together.”

  “Have fun, boys,” Vivi said as she headed into the restroom.

  “You should ask Miss DuVal out,” Jamie suggested. “I mean, after the school year and all. She’s a smoke show.”

  “You think she’d go out with me?” Lane asked, curious.

  “Why not? You’re going to fucking Notre Dame,” he said, patting him on the back and moving down the hall.

  The evening was rather extravagant for Wilson teens. The ballroom, the dinner, the band-who was killing it-all sent the message that this was their time for fun. And the Wilson seniors took full advantage. Tinley was tipsy after sneaking in a flask stashed in a secret compartment in her purse. Half the guys on the football team had flasks strapped to their calves. Lane thought he had enough to worry about without getting caught with alcohol, although he did appreciate the quick guzzle of tequila he’d had before entering the prom. It helped him not worry so much about Vivi and focus on enjoying his friends.