The minute they were gone, both Leslie and Shayla burst out laughing. They worked together putting the finishing touches on the table. Then Leslie went into the living room to collect the girls.
“I want to stay for the party,” Kristi said, clamping her arms over her chest and showcasing another stellar pout.
“It’s a party for grown-ups,” Cassidy said. “It’s gonna be boring.”
“Hey,” Shayla said with mock affront. “Grown-ups know how to have a good time.”
Cassidy gave her an unconvinced look.
Leslie pulled Kristi to her side. “How about we have our own party tonight?” she asked. “We can bake cookies and watch a movie. But first, you girls have to bathe Buster.”
“Can I take a bath with Buster?” Kristi asked.
“No,” Leslie answered. “Buster has to take her own bath.”
“And don’t get me wet this time,” Cassidy warned.
“Sounds like fun times in the Kirkland house tonight,” Shayla said with a laugh. “I’m almost sorry I’ll miss it.”
“You won’t miss anything. Those two will end up getting in a fight, and I’ll end up giving Buster a bath. It’s our typical Saturday night.”
With another laugh Shayla enveloped her in a hug. “Thanks again for helping. Of course, I’m going to tell everyone that I did it all by myself.” She cupped Leslie’s shoulders in her palms and gave them a firm squeeze. “Remember what I said. You deserve this—whatever this is you have going with Mr. Cute Butt.”
Leslie sent her a grateful smile. “Thank you, honey. Good luck with the in-laws tonight.”
Shayla waved that off. “Compared to my other in-law, this set is easy.”
Leslie stuck her tongue out at her as she ushered the girls out the door.
The rest of the night turned out just as Leslie had predicted. Moments into Buster’s bath, Kristi accidently—or so she claimed—sprayed Cassidy with the sprayer, which instigated a fight between the girls. Instead of baking cookies and watching a movie, they were both sent to their rooms after dinner, and Leslie was stuck grooming Buster.
As she dried the dog with a fluffy bath towel, Buster turned to her and licked her nose.
“I still don’t want to like you,” Leslie said. “I don’t care how cute you are—you’re not going to win me over.”
Buster scarfed at her, wringing a laugh she had been determined not to give the little runt.
“I guess you’re not all that bad,” she said. “You’re actually starting to grow on me.” She rubbed the towel behind the dog’s ears. “I wasn’t sure I could adjust to having you here, but it turns out I’m starting to adjust to a lot of things I never thought I would be able to handle.”
Releasing a sigh, Leslie set Buster on the floor and, bracing her hands on her thighs, pushed herself up. On legs that trembled slightly under the weight of what she was about to do, she walked over to the closet in her bedroom and opened the doors wide.
She stared at the clothes hanging on the right side of the closet. For two years the suits, dressed shirts and starched blue jeans had hung neatly next to hers. But their wearer would not be returning.
Swallowing past the ache in her throat, Leslie pulled hangers out one at a time, removing the clothes and laying them flat on the bed. She was halfway through the closet when she came upon Braylon’s dress uniform.
She dropped her face into her hands, her shoulders shaking as she silently wept. Quiet sobs racked her body, stealing the breath from her lungs as she remembered all the times she’d watched him get into that uniform. Handsome. Brave. Proud.
How lucky she’d been to have him in her life.
But he was gone, and because of Gabriel, she could finally see a new future in front of her.
Leslie moved the uniform to her side of the closet. It was the one thing she could never part with, the one piece of Braylon she would allow herself to hold on to.
As for everything else, maybe if she finally let go of it all, she could finally move on.
Chapter 8
Gabe grabbed an apple from the bowl the school counselor kept on her desk, taking a loud bite as he made his way out of the front offices. He headed for the teachers’ lounge, hoping the turkey sandwich he’d stored in the fridge two days ago was still good. Eating his lunch after classes had already ended for the day wasn’t ideal, but his normal lunch period had been usurped by an emergency meeting with the parent of a student who had been caught cheating and had been given after-school detention.
Gabe could remember back to when he’d gotten in trouble in school. His mother always listened to both sides, but tended to give the adult the benefit of the doubt. Those days were a thing of the past. Now the parents he encountered thought their kids could do no wrong. Every teacher and administrator was out to get them.
It didn’t help that he was still at the very top of most parents’ hit list.
Shaking his head in frustration, Gabe backed his way into the teachers’ lounge, which was busier now that students had been released for the day. Some were gearing up for the extracurricular activities they sponsored, while others were preparing their work for tomorrow.
As he made his way to the refrigerator, Gabe sensed several sets of eyes on him. He also noted that there had been a definite drop in the volume of conversations. He glanced at the table where two of the kindergarten teachers sat, along with Chantal Wayne, who taught second grade. He smiled and waved. The gesture wasn’t returned.
Dammit.
What had he done to piss people off now?
From the moment he’d been placed in the interim assistant principal position he’d anticipated teachers being somewhat jealous. It was only natural. Here he was, an outsider who hadn’t even been at the school a full year, coming in and suddenly being in a position of authority. To Gabe’s surprise and relief, his colleagues had taken the transition with ease. They’d respected his new position and hadn’t treated him any differently than they had before he’d stepped into his new role.
But there was nothing warm and fuzzy about the vibes he was picking up right now.
Gabe left his turkey on wheat on the top shelf in the refrigerator and turned to the table of teachers.
“Hey, Chantal, do you have a few minutes to discuss the Lock-In/Learn-In event?” he asked.
She glanced at the two kindergarten teachers, hesitated for a moment, then said, “Not right now. I’ll email you.”
That pretty much confirmed that something was off. Chantal had taken the lead on the Lock-In/Learn-In. She was always eager to discuss it.
Gabe needed to talk to his person on the inside so he could figure out just what the heck was going on here. He took off for Tristan’s class, catching him just as he was packing up his sheet music.
“Hey, man,” Gabe said. “You got a minute?”
“For you? I don’t know,” Tristan said. “Not sure I want to be seen speaking with the enemy.”
Gabe dropped his chin to his chest. “I knew it,” he said. “I wasn’t just imagining those cold shoulders I got in the teachers’ lounge a minute ago.”
“When people who trusted you find out you’ve been holding out on them, it sometimes rubs them the wrong way.”
Gabe held up his hands, stupefied.
“One of the teachers at Maplesville High let the cat out of the bag,” Tristan said. “The school is buzzing about proposed cuts to the staff due to the merger. And word is that you knew all about it. I can’t believe you’ve been holding out on me, man. I thought we were boys.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t heard anything about cuts to the faculty.”
Tristan shrugged. “It’s not as if it was unexpected. You can’t have a merger and not get rid of some staff.”
“Why not? It’s the
same number of students. Some will just be in a different facility.”
His friend shrugged again. “It fits the narrative the school board has been trying to write here for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if word comes down that they’re closing GEMS. That’s what they really want to do.”
Gabe vehemently shook his head. “No, no, no,” he said. “I don’t understand why people keep saying that. No one is closing the school.”
If this school closed, not only would he not get a permanent assistant principal position, his head likely would be on the chopping block when it came to faculty cuts. Of the teachers here, he was the newest. The last one to walk in the door was always the first one out.
“It’s hard not to jump to the worst-case scenario,” Tristan said as he zipped up the flat case he used to carry his sheet music. “The school board has a track record when it comes to Gauthier.”
Leslie had said the same thing, but Gabe didn’t care what the school board had tried to do in the past. Closing GEMS was not on the table. He couldn’t help it if the people in Gauthier were paranoid. He only knew what he had been promised by Superintendent McCabe, and he couldn’t very well be the new permanent assistant principal of a closed school.
As for teachers losing their jobs, Tristan was right, it was probably inevitable. The assumption that those cuts would come from GEMS didn’t sit well with Gabe at all. Leslie had told him that the people here were used to getting the short end of the stick; it was only natural that they would believe that the same would happen this time around.
Not if I have anything to do with it.
He made his way back to his office, his footsteps slowing as he approached the teachers’ lounge. But he didn’t have the authority to discuss anything with the teachers. Hell, he didn’t know enough to discuss anything with them. Neither McCabe nor Principal Williams had said anything about teachers’ jobs being cut.
He needed to talk to the superintendent as soon as possible so he could set teachers’ minds at ease. He’d discovered just how quickly rumors could fly in this small town, and if word got out that GEMS would lose teachers in this deal, Gabe would find himself in a stickier situation than he was in already.
And that was something he could not permit. He barely had anyone in his corner as it was; he sure as hell couldn’t lose any more support.
* * *
It was like déjà vu.
Hadn’t it been just a couple of weeks ago that he’d stood before a group of angry parents railing at him because of a rumor that had gotten completely out of control? When he’d called Leslie and asked to get on the agenda for the monthly PTO meeting to address the current rumor regarding GEMS teachers losing their jobs, he’d hoped that it had not spread too far yet, seeing as he’d just heard it from Tristan a few hours ago. But small towns and all that.
Leslie had barely called the meeting to order before Reshonda Cochran, the mother of students in both his fourth-and fifth-grade science classes, stood and, ignoring the agenda’s order of business, brought up the subject of the school merger and potential job losses.
“Not only did I hear that it would be only teachers from GEMS that would be cut, but I also heard that Principal Williams is being replaced, too.”
The murmurs in the crowd grew louder and more agitated.
Gabe put up his hands. “Wait, wait, wait. I can’t speak on any changes to the faculty regarding teachers, because I simply don’t know, but I can assure you that Principal Williams’s job is safe. In fact, Principal Williams will be over the newly merged middle school.”
This reveal set off a round of excited murmurs around the room.
He knew he wasn’t supposed to say anything, but neither Williams nor McCabe was here fielding questions from this hostile crowd. If he could find a way to set their minds at ease regarding this merger, he was going to use it.
“What about the mascot? Will it be the one from our school or the one from Maplesville?” another parent asked. Gabe was pretty sure it was the same parent who had asked about the mascot at the last meeting.
“I still don’t know. Maybe they’ll hold a contest to come up with a brand-new mascot.” Now that he thought about it, that wasn’t such a bad idea. He’d bet the students would really get into something like that.
“I want to know about the PTO,” Janice Taylor asked.
“What about the PTO?” Leslie asked.
“This PTO currently serves both elementary and middle-school students. Some of us have kids in both age groups. Once the middle schools merge, will we have two separate PTOs? Will we have to join in with the PTO at Maplesville Middle School? What’s going to happen?”
Leslie’s forehead dipped in a frown. Apparently, she hadn’t thought that far. Gabe hadn’t, either. It was a legitimate question that would have to be answered, but he could only handle one crisis at a time.
“I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Leslie said. “We’re all adults and we all have the children’s best interest at heart, whether they are from Gauthier or Maplesville. I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
The voice of reason saved the day yet again.
She had the perfect temperament for this position. Gabe was pretty sure he’d have given up by now if anyone else on this PTO board were president.
He managed to get through the rest of the meeting unscathed. Someone brought up the anti-bullying initiative, but he’d apparently convinced enough parents during the last meeting that it was a good thing. Several in the crowd spoke up in favor of it.
After the meeting finally ended, Gabe was approached by one parent after another. He tried his best to assuage the fears and concerns many still had.
He looked around for Leslie, his chest tightening in concern at the realization that she’d left the school without speaking to him. Had he missed something? She hadn’t seemed upset at him, which had Gabe even more confused.
As he walked to his car, his phone chirped with an incoming text. His shoulders sank in relief after reading it.
He got into his car and drove around the main building. He pulled alongside the huge green garbage containers between the cafeteria and field house, then cut the engine. A few minutes later he spotted headlights in his review mirror.
Leslie’s white SUV pulled up alongside him.
Gabe unlocked the passenger-side door and waited for her to get in.
“Just give me one minute to text the girls’ babysitter,” she said. Her fingers flew across the touch screen. When she was done she tossed the phone into his cup holder, leaned over and caught him by surprise with a deep, smoldering kiss.
“Wow,” Gabe said once she’d sat back on her side of the vehicle. “Thank you.”
“I’ve been wanting to do that all night.”
Gabe chuckled. “I wasn’t talking about the kiss, although I thank you for that, too. I meant for having my back in there. You could have sided with the audience.”
“I didn’t really side with anyone,” Leslie said. “But I need you to be honest with me, Gabriel. What do you know about the faculty cuts?”
“I swear to you that I don’t know anything. I only learned about this rumor earlier today when I walked into the teachers’ lounge and found myself the recipient of the stink-eye. And, let me tell you, they give a mean stink-eye here in Gauthier.”
Her lips twisted in a subtle smirk. “I know,” she said. “I’ve gotten it a time or two myself, usually when I walk into church late.”
“Late-for-church stink-eye is the worst stink-eye.”
Her smile widened. “Let’s hope this is the last of it that you’ll see. I know the people here seem overly concerned about this, but you can’t really blame them.”
“If they were not concerned about what is happening to their kids, that’s when I would start to worry. I th
ink we put some minds at ease tonight, though.”
“I think we did, too,” she said.
He leaned over and nuzzled her neck, nipping the spot behind her ear. “We seem to make a pretty good team.”
“You think so?” she asked. Then she gasped.
“Oh, yeah,” Gabe said. He gently tugged her toward him and closed his mouth over hers.
The kiss went from sweet to scorching before he could catch his next breath. The moment Leslie’s desperate moan escaped her throat, Gabe was gripped with a hunger so fierce it consumed his every thought. He plied her with his tongue, thrusting it deep into her hot, wet mouth.
His hand sought her breasts, coasting from one soft, supple mound to the other. He felt her nipples grow stiff under his touch and he got hard. Instantly hard. Painfully hard.
Gabe’s mouth moved from her lips to her throat, while his hands went lower. He skimmed his fingers along her thigh and then cupped her bare knee. Her legs parted ever so slightly, giving Gabe all the invitation he needed to continue on his quest. He ran his palm up her inner thigh, the skin so deliciously warm and smooth he had to stop himself from diving headfirst for a bite. He traced a path up her thigh to the spot between her legs, finding it as hot and damp as he’d imagine.
A groan tore from her throat as he moved her soaking panties to the side and slid his finger up the wet folds. Or maybe he was the one who groaned. The sounds resonating around the car became so loud and desperate Gabe couldn’t tell who made what.
With unrelenting fervor, he stroked in and out of Leslie’s pulsing center, slipping two fingers deep inside her while the pad of his thumb massaged the tender nub of nerves at her cleft. As his fingers penetrated her, his tongue continued its exploration of the delicate skin at her throat. He licked and sucked and nipped, soaking in every bit of her flavor.
He felt her body tighten around him and knew she was close to the brink. Gabe pulled out one wet finger and circled the knot again before he pinched down on it, imagining the throbbing nub inside his mouth instead of between his fingers.
Forever With You (Bayou Dreams Book 5) Page 13
