by Jenny Penn
“Well I never!” Lynn Anne declared as she lifted up her skirt and swept it aside to storm out of the room as if she were some kind of matron of the ball making a grand exit.
Kitty Anne watched her go. While she was impressed that Nick had dared to stand up to her mother and touched that he had done so for the kids, that didn’t change what their future held.
“We’re going to pay for that,” Kitty Anne muttered, knowing in her gut that her mother was off to claim revenge.
“You don’t think she just might leave?” Nick asked hopefully, but Kitty Anne couldn’t let him cling to that delusion.
“Sorry,” she apologized as she shook her head. “The more insulted she feels, the more likely she is to dig in.”
“Great.”
God only knew what trouble Lynn Anne intended to cause, but the day did go much smoother from there. Nick left Kitty Anne with Dr. J, who stayed with her as the boys started to trot in for their tutoring sessions. Up to date on what most of the boys were doing, he helped catch Kitty Anne up. She was thankful for his assistance.
She’d never really dealt much with children and was a little unnerved by many of the boys’ blatant interest. It soon came to her notice that she was the only woman on campus, she and her mother that was. She was dutifully informed by more than one kid that Nick preached on how women distracted men from accomplishing their goals.
She could have, and probably should have, taken exception to those comments. Dr. J had been quick to explain that most of the boys there were easily distracted by the opposite sex. Kitty Anne understood. She wasn’t much better.
All day, thoughts of Nick and GD and the things they’d done out at the obstacle course had her flushing with a warmth that had nothing to do with the afternoon summer’s sun. Kitty Anne couldn’t help but wonder how she was going to escape her mother when the sun went down…and just what kind of decadent delights Nick and GD had in store for her that night.
They better have something planned because she wasn’t putting up with her mother without getting compensated. That worry faded away when the lunch chime rang. Nick reappeared to escort her across the campus to the dining hall with Dr. J in tow. The three of them chatted easily, though they broke apart when they reached the glorified cafeteria.
Nick got called away seconds after Dr. J took off down the hall to use the facilities, leaving Kitty Anne, for the first time, on her own in a sea of males, both young and old. There wasn’t another woman in sight, including her mother. Kitty Anne didn’t know if Nick had simply failed to send somebody to retrieve Lynn Anne or had spared them all her ill humor by sending a lunch down to her at the bungalow.
As glad as she was that her mother wasn’t around, she’d have to check to assure her mother didn’t starve. There really shouldn’t be any threat of that given the amount of food the culinary track students put out with every meal. Kitty Anne couldn’t deny that she was impressed, not simply by the volume of food they prepared but also by the fact that it all got eaten. Where those kids put it away she didn’t know because there certainly weren’t very many portly ones. They actually seemed to come in only three different sizes—young, teen, and old.
Kitty Anne gravitated toward the old ones clustered around the back tables, seeking refuge among the adult males and assuming that it would be less awkward to eat with them. She was wrong. They grew quiet as she approached, their gazes lifting as they watched her with a speculative curiosity that had her cheeks warming.
They knew.
They all knew.
Maybe not exactly how she’d spent last night but they had the general idea, and Kitty Anne could sense just what they thought about that. Without even giving her a chance, they’d already relegated her to the role of the boss’s girlfriend…probably the ditzy, slutty, boss’s girlfriend. That thought had her sighing as Kitty Anne consoled herself with the assurance that they, at least, knew who had the power.
They’d probably kiss her ass for it. If that was the role they wanted to cast her in, then that was the role Kitty Anne would play better than any other girlfriend ever had. First, though, she had a different mission to accomplish.
Narrowing her gaze on the lone guy sitting at the end of the last table, she watched Seth Jones chomp down on his sandwich and wipe his lips with his napkin without ever once taking his eyes off the magazine he had propped up in front of him. Kitty Anne could see the classic car featured in the photo display as she took the seat beside him without bothering to ask if he minded.
Seth glanced up, surprised by the sudden motion but not annoyed by it. Instead, he smiled and offered her a nod.
“Good afternoon, Miss Allison.” He offered her that polite greeting as he displayed the same manners he had when Nick had introduced them earlier.
It was those manners that made it hard to believe that he was related to Patton, who was way too excitable to be polite. She also wasn’t half as skittish as Seth appeared to be as he rushed to fold up his magazine and scoot his chair over to assure she had space.
“Thanks, Seth.” Kitty Anne smiled, stressing the use of his first name as she set her tray down on the table. “And I believe I already told you that it’s Kitty Anne. Miss Jane just sounds so…old maid, don’t you think?”
“No. No. Of course not,” Seth vehemently denied with a shake of his head. “I didn’t mean to imply any such thing.”
“I know.” Kitty Anne could also figure out from the blush staining Seth’s cheeks that he hadn’t spent much time around women either. “Don’t sweat it. I was just teasing. So…what are reading about?”
“Cars.” Seth shuffled his magazine about nervously as he looked shyly over at her. “I don’t imagine that’s a very interesting subject to a woman like you.”
“Like me?”
“Pretty,” Seth qualified.
“You say the sweetest things,” Kitty Anne murmured.
He was young, yeah. He could barely be but about twenty. Still, the promise of the man he’d finish growing into was there. Tall and lean and a little gawky right now, Seth would soon fill out. Those sweet-boy features, which were slightly blunted from his youth, would sharpen into a look that would be a lot more dangerous to the female population.
Then, of course, there were those eyes. So clear, so deep, so violently violet, they trapped a person within their depths and made it hard not to get lost in his gaze. Kitty Anne managed, though, finding herself strangely unaffected, probably because her heart already belonged elsewhere.
“Actually, I like cars.” Kitty Anne smiled, hoping that didn’t sound as weird coming out of her as it had felt. “I admit I don’t know much about them, but…I like pretty ones.”
She knew how that sounded, just as Kitty Anne knew how Seth would take it. Sure enough, that giggly answer put him at ease.
“You want pretty, you got to go back to the classics,” Seth informed her, grumbling over what sounded like a well-worn complaint. “Modern cars are all plastic and soulless.”
“You sound like my mom.”
“Your mom?”
Kitty Anne could make out the faint echo of fear in Seth’s tone as he repeated those two words, and she could easily guess why. “Left an impression, didn’t she?”
“She was lovely.”
“And you’re lying.” The last thing Kitty Anne would ever say about her mother was that she was lovely. Feisty was more like it.
“Your mother is not that bad,” Seth quickly assured her, continuing on before Kitty Anne could tell him to save the lies. “You should have met mine.”
She couldn’t have asked for a better opening but tried to play it cool, not wanting to startle her prey. “Your mother was a character, huh?”
“She had…some issues.”
There was a world of possibilities hidden within Seth’s hesitation, but Kitty Anne didn’t get a chance to try and explore them. Before she could press him for more details, Nick appeared by her side, yanking a seat out and plopping down his tray as he
slumped down with a sigh.
“I swear, one day I’m going to go through that line when there is actually still food left in it,” Nick huffed as he eyed Kitty Anne’s plate. “Hey, you got two bread puddings!”
“Get back.” Kitty Anne smacked his hand with the back of her spoon as she guarded her tray. “That’s my pudding.”
“Ah, come on, don’t you want to give me just a little?” Nick asked, giving her a big puppy-dog eyes look as he outright begged. “Just a tiny taste? Hmm? I’ve been a good boy, haven’t I?”
“Oh, stop embarrassing yourself.” Kitty Anne shrugged his chin off her shoulder when he rested it there to blink up pleadingly at her. “It’s just bread pudding.”
“Please?”
“Fine.”
“You’re the best.” Nick swiped one of the small bowls of bread pudding off her plate while dropping a quick kiss on her cheek.
“And don’t you forget it,” Kitty Anne shot back, but her attention was caught by the boy approaching the table.
He looked very, very familiar. Kitty Anne all but froze as the kid skirted around the table to stop and talk to Seth about needing help with some math homework. Math, apparently, wasn’t Seth’s subject, but he promised to help. That was just what brothers did for each other, and there was no denying their relationship or the brilliant color of their eyes.
Patton didn’t just have one brother. She had two.
Rachel was going to flip.
* * * *
Nick didn’t like the way Kitty Anne was eyeing Seth and Kevin. He could all but sense the excitement gathering within her. That couldn’t be good. Something was definitely up, and he could take a guess as to what, or more likely who. Nick was pretty sure the answer started with Rachel.
Rachel was a mischievous one. She was the one who had dragged his Kitty Anne into that insanity down in Dothan. Now, clearly, the little reporter was using his woman to do her dirty work again. That meant the real question was what was Rachel after.
There was one way to find out that answer. He’d have to interrogate Kitty Anne. Nick had never interrogated anybody, but it sounded like fun, the kind of fun GD would want in on. It also sounded like the kind of thing that would go better if it was planned and prepped ahead of time.
That was just what Nick headed back to his office to do after he dropped Kitty Anne back off at her classroom after lunch. He didn’t make it, though, before Mr. Selvage caught him in the hallway. Selvage was the academic administrator, and as such, it was basically his job to annoy Nick with details that he’d often like to avoid, which was just why Selvage was there that day.
“Mr. Dickles, we need to have a word about that woman you hired.” The tall, lanky man stepped up to block Nick’s way as if he weren’t a hundred pounds outmatched.
“That woman happens to be my fiancée,” Nick returned with a dark enough glare that Selvage should have been intimidated, but nothing fazed he man, which was one of the reasons Nick had hired him in the first place.
“Oh good. Then can she just be that?” he asked hopefully. “Because if you hire one woman, then you have to hire a whole bunch more. It’s none or a ton, your choice, but whoever you hire, they have to be qualified first!”
Nick had known this was coming. It’d been a bit of insanity to actually hire Kitty Anne, but he had to keep her close, and he knew she wouldn’t let him keep her any other way. Selvage was just going to have to find a loophole.
“Kitty Anne’s qualified,” Nick insisted. “It’s English, and she’s been speaking it her whole life.”
“That is not the point,” Selvage shot back in that stiff tone that assured Nick the man was not amused. “She is not certified to teach in this state or any other state.”
“Then what about hiring her as a tutor?” Nick was pretty damn sure there were no regulations regarding tutors. “That could work, couldn’t it?”
“Except for the fact that you still need to hire another teacher,” Selvage stressed. “We need two English teachers, given the number of boys in attendance, or we’re in violation of the state’s ratios.
“And if you do that, then you need more money.” Selvage rushed to talk over Nick when he opened his mouth to tell him to go hire another teacher. “You’ll be creating a position for your fiancée, and that is not in our budget.”
“Fine!” Nick snapped, knowing he was not going to win this battle. “Then we won’t hire her, but just don’t tell her, okay?”
“Don’t tell her?” Selvage blinked in confusion. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“It means don’t tell her,” Nick repeated. “I’ll pay her out of my own pocket, and we’ll just hire another teacher. Okay?”
It was not okay. Nick could tell, but Selvage was now the one who had to admit to defeat. He did so with a curt nod before he turned and stormed off. That was not the end of the matter. Nick knew that. He also knew what he had to do before Selvage went off and said something to Kitty Anne.
On the positive side, he caught sight of several boys lugging heavy bags back out of the bungalow through the window as he stepped into his office. Nick smiled. Apparently all it took to get rid of Kitty Anne’s mother was a firm tone and a few blunt words.
Chapter Seventeen
Kitty Anne sat down at her new desk and tried not to let her anxiousness show. It was time for her to meet her first student. As Dr. J had said, the only way to learn to swim was to jump into the pool. Kitty Anne didn’t tell him that she didn’t know how to swim. She didn’t care to learn either, but this job was different.
This camp had a purpose. Her job had responsibilities. Kitty Anne had never had either one of those things before. It was a little unnerving, because if she screwed up, she’d screw some poor kid up. Just when she’d about talked her way out of the job, Kevin knocked on the door.
“Dr. J said I should come and see you.” He stood there hesitantly, looking as nervous as she felt.
That helped to soothe Kitty Anne’s own sense of insecurities as the sense of purpose she’d feared she would not feel rose up within her. Her job was to put this kid at ease. It started with a smile.
“Yes, please, come in, Kevin.” Kitty Anne gestured for the boy to have a seat at the chair across from her desk, which was really just a big metal table.
“How’d you know my name?” he asked, skeptical and clearly reluctant to come much further into the room. “I haven’t introduced myself yet.”
“I saw you talking with your brother this afternoon at lunch. Don’t you remember? I was sitting next to him.”
Kevin shrugged at that and inched a little closer. Kitty Anne smiled and continued chatting away, hoping to tempt the boy even closer as she picked up the vanilla folder from the table.
“And even if I hadn’t seen you there, I would have known your name because it is on your file. See?” She held the folder up for him to read the name typed in bold print on the tab. As Kitty Anne had anticipated, that had him stepping even closer.
“That’s my file?” Kevin eyed the folder curiously. “And what does it say about me?”
“All sorts of things.” Kitty Anne flipped it open and scanned through it. “That you’re smart, quiet, and you don’t get into trouble.”
“That’s a lie,” Kevin stated without an ounce of reservation. “I’m always in trouble, one way or another.”
“Really?” Kitty Anne lifted a brow and glanced back through the folder as she settled down into her seat. “There is no mention of disciplinary problems in your file. You want to tell me what you meant?”
“What are you? My counselor?” Kevin shot back, smacking his book bag down onto the table. “I thought you were supposed to be helping me with my writing?”
That was when Kitty Anne learned the first rule of dealing with her students. Don’t push. So she backed off and nodded for him to have a seat. “Fine. Let’s get started.”
“I was supposed to be writing a story.” Kevin yanked a notebook out of his bag and
then dropped the bag onto the floor and his ass into his seat. “But I didn’t do it.”
He laid that down like a challenge, but Kitty Anne didn’t take the bait. Instead, she calmly asked if there was a reason why he hadn’t done his assignment.
“Saul quit.” Kevin shrugged. “I didn’t figure it would be due.”
“Well, I guess we’ll let that one slip,” Kitty Anne allowed, not wanting to start their relationship off on any rockier of a footing than it already had. That didn’t mean she could ease up on the kid. “But you’re going to write me a story now.”
“But I don’t want to write a story.”
She should have seen that one coming. Kitty Anne felt certain it had been planned, but she wasn’t about to give up. She couldn’t. This was her job and whether he liked it or not, Kevin needed her to do it well.
“Why not?” Kitty Anne pressed, deciding that the best thing would be to let the kid have his say before she shot him down.
“Because I don’t know what to write about.” Kevin just sounded frustrated now. “I mean I try but then there are characters and I don’t know what they’d say or do.”
“Who said you had to make things up?” Kitty Anne countered. “You can write about what you know. You can write about your life.”
That seemed to give the kid pause. It also gave her one because she couldn’t help but be struck in that moment how much his expression reminded her of Patton. Patton was smart, too. Not quiet, though. Definitely, stubborn. Kitty Anne had a sick feeling that so was Kevin.
“Nobody wants to read about my life,” Kevin finally responded. “Trust me, lady, it’s no fairy tale.”
“And that’s what will make it interesting.” It was also what would give her insight to the world he came from and how exactly he’d ended up at Nick’s camp, because right then Kitty Anne was really hazy on the details.
“It will?” Kevin eyed her doubtfully.
“It will.”
Kevin didn’t appear to be convinced but she was the teacher. That was a power that Kitty Anne marveled at for the rest of the day. That and the sheer audacity of teen age boys. She fielded more than one almost comical come-on and had a feeling she’d be fielding more over the coming days. The truth was that Kitty Anne had a feeling that she really didn’t belong there.
