by Debbie Mason
“Thank you.” She reached for her glasses, relieved when he let them go. “But I highly doubt I intimidate Principal Wright. She’s been principal here for twenty-five years and is well respected.”
“So are you.” He linked his fingers and stretched his arms over his head, glancing at her as he did. “You do know she’s using you as a de facto guidance counselor to replace the one who quit last year?”
“No,” she said, shocked that he’d even suggest such a thing. Yet at the same time wondering how on earth he’d learned so much in such a short time.
“Yes. You’re helping her to stay under budget, and no one is complaining because you’re doing more for their kids than the counselor ever did.”
The door to the office opened, and Caine subtly moved the cuff of his jacket to show Evie his Rolex. He tapped the face. “I was off by twenty-five seconds,” he whispered, then offered Principal Wright a smile. “Everything in order?” he asked as he withdrew his pen from the inside of his jacket and clicked it several annoying times.
Evie looked from the pen to him. At first she’d thought he and Principal Wright shared an irritating quirk, but now she had a sneaking suspicion Caine knew about the principal’s habit and this was another of his tactics. When he caught Evie looking at him and winked, she knew she was right.
“If you mean did we receive Mrs. Murphy’s request? We did.” Principal Wright went to take her seat, glanced at her desk, then raised her gaze to Caine.
Evie looked at him too. For whatever reason, he’d wanted the principal to know he’d sat at her desk and had left some small sign to ensure that she did. And for some reason, Evie found that incredibly hot, even though she should probably find it more alarming than sexy.
“Why don’t we just put all the cards on the table, Principal Wright? I’m a busy man and you’re a busy woman, and I can tell you like games about as much as I do. So, have you made a decision on Jamie’s expulsion?”
“Yes. I have.”
“Without speaking to Ms. Christmas? Wasn’t that the reason you wanted to meet with her today? To get her take on the situation? Which, as you well know, she’s remarkably qualified to give, not only because of the amount of time she spends with Jamie but because of her credentials.”
With each word out of Caine’s mouth, Evie sank lower in the chair. If he didn’t soon shut up, she’d slide off and onto the floor. She must have lost her mind to think this was a good idea. It was her mother’s fault. When Lenore wasn’t ordering Seamus around this morning, she was following Evie, pointing out everything that was wrong with Holiday House.
So when the school called, Evie’s confidence was at a new low, and she couldn’t face the thought of dealing with Principal Wright on her own. Thinking about it now, the fact Caine was the first person she thought of should have her reevaluating her sanity. The man was her enemy, the bogeyman in her dreams, yet she was acting as if he were her knight in shining armor, her champion.
He was so not her champion in black Armani, she thought when Principal Wright turned her steely gaze on Evie and said, “By all means, Dr. Christmas, please share your expert opinion on the matter with me.”
Not once had the principal ever called her Dr. Christmas or asked for Evie’s opinion in their meetings these past ten months, so Evie knew this was for Caine’s benefit alone. Just like she was positive the woman would make Evie feel as qualified as an undergrad offering an opinion to the head of the department, slaying what little confidence she had left with an eviscerating rebuttal. But just as Evie considered caving, she felt the weight of Caine’s gaze and glanced at him. He smiled and minutely nudged his head in the principal’s direction.
Evie looked down at the papers on her lap. They were her notes on Jamie. She stood and offered them to the principal, surprised when she took them, as she’d never done so before. “As you can see, Principal Wright, there’s been a noted improvement in Jamie’s ability to manage his anger, his willingness to open up and to interact with the other children in the program. His mother and his teachers have all noticed a marked improvement in his behavior, as mentioned in their weekly feedback. If Jamie is expelled, my concern is that all of our efforts will have been for naught, and he’ll become more difficult to reach. There’s also the question as to whether he will lose his year and be held back, which in my opinion would be the worst-case scenario.”
The principal looked up from the reports to raise a quelling eyebrow. “Is that so?”
Evie felt the weight of Caine’s gaze, offering his silent support, she suspected. It was pathetic she needed it. There should be no question in Principal Wright’s mind that holding Jamie back would be a mistake. He might be having difficulty with some of his peers, but he’d grown up with these kids, and several of them had stuck by him even when he made it difficult for them to do so. He was also big for his age, and smart.
“It is, and I’m sure you’ll find that Jamie’s teachers agree with me.”
Principal Wright pushed the papers aside, and Evie’s shoulders sagged. Challenging the woman had been the wrong tactic. She shouldn’t have let Caine’s confidence in her go to her head.
“I’m afraid I disagree. And while I don’t have a doctorate in psychology, I have been principal here for twenty-five years. I even taught two of the teachers whose opinion you seem to value more than mine. But while you might question my judgment, I’m confident in my decision to expel Jamie.”
“I’m not. Not at all. And I’m going to send a written request to the superintendent of the board to look into the matter,” Evie said, shocking not only herself but Principal Wright.
“Pardon me?”
As though he didn’t hear the principal, Caine smiled at Evie and said, “You could always ask your friend the mayor to speak to him.”
“If you think you’re going to blackmail me into changing my mind, you have another think coming. And while you might be friends with the mayor, Ms. Christmas, I have been a friend of the superintendent for years. And I can tell you that he’s never sided with a complainant against me in twenty-five years.”
She was sunk, and she’d brought Jamie down with her. “I’m sorry, Principal Wright. I shouldn’t have threatened to contact the—”
“Evangeline, would you mind if I had a word with Principal Wright? Alone,” Caine added when she nodded but didn’t move.
“Oh. Okay.” She stood to gather her things and then said to Principal Wright, “I’ll need my files.”
Caine stood and walked to the door, holding it open for her. “I’ll bring them with me when I leave.”
“Don’t say anything to make it worse,” Evie murmured as she brushed past him, but he probably didn’t hear her because he was already closing the door behind her.
She took a seat outside the principal’s office, trying to hear what was going on inside. Caine seemed to be doing most of the talking. She hoped he’d figured out a way to get Principal Wright to relent on the expulsion. Evie had been going to suggest a five-day suspension as a compromise before Caine had high-handedly kicked her out of the meeting. A meeting she’d been invited to. She’d barely had time to contemplate next steps when the office door opened.
“Once you’ve completed your list and have an amount, e-mail it to me and I’ll have it taken care of,” Caine said, offering his hand.
“It was a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Elliot.” Principal Wright shook his hand. “I’ll have Jamie brought to my office, and you can take him with you. I expect a letter of apology to both myself and the student when Jamie returns to school tomorrow morning, along with a list of tasks he will perform over the next month that both benefit the school and meet with my approval.”
“Agreed.”
“I don’t believe this. You bribed her!” Evie whisper-yelled when the principal closed the door.
Caine shrugged as he put on a wool coat that probably cost more than her entire inventory combined. “You either want the boy expelled or you don’t.”
“Of course I don’t want Jamie expelled, but I don’t want you to pay—”
“The sooner you accept that you don’t get anywhere in this world without money, the better off you’ll be, Evangeline.”
Chapter Thirteen
Evangeline turned her nose up at what Caine felt was the best advice he could give the woman. He didn’t understand why she was mad at him. She’d gotten what she wanted: The boy was getting a second chance. Principal Wright got what she wanted: repairs and upgrades to the school that she never had the budget for. And Caine had gotten what he wanted: his grandmother’s name on the library.
Which he hoped would go a ways in assuaging Emily’s need for revenge, as the library had been dedicated to Colleen Gallagher twenty years before. He’d needed to give his grandmother something. There’d been an uptick in her texts this morning. He’d be able to hold her off for only so long.
“All right, then. I’ll see you around seven to pick up my second angel assignment,” Caine said, adjusting the collar of his coat before heading for the door.
Evangeline latched on to his arm. “Hold it. Where do you think you’re going? You’re not done with your first angel assignment.”
“Where I’m going is to try to run a billion-dollar corporation out of a hotel suite.”
“If you’re running it out of a hotel room, then it shouldn’t be too difficult to run it out of Holiday House.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because until Jamie…You remember him, don’t you? Your first angel assignment? The one you haven’t completed yet.”
“I haven’t completed it? I’ve more than completed my assignment. I didn’t just find the boy a mentor; I became his mentor. I had to give so much personal and private information that I’m surprised Principal Wright didn’t ask for my blood before I signed the papers. I’ll be updated regularly on the boy’s academic performance until he’s eighteen.”
She didn’t bat an eye. Between the black-framed glasses and the knot she’d twisted in her dark hair, she looked like an uptight professor. And why that made him want to back her against the wall and kiss her until her glasses fogged and her long, silky locks escaped from the knot to fall about her shoulders, he didn’t have a clue.
“Eighteen,” he repeated. His voice held the heat of the image he was having a difficult time erasing, coming out more sensuous rasp than angry snap.
“So, that’s how you think it works? Hand over some cash and sign a few papers and the deal is done?” She stepped into his space and inched up on her toes. “That may be how it’s done in your world, Mr. Elliot. But it’s not how it’s done in mine.”
Wrapping his hands around her biceps to lift her off her feet, bringing them eye-to-eye, nose-to-nose, mouth-to-mouth, he said, “Be careful, Ms. Christmas. You know what they say about playing with fire.”
“Are you the fire?” Her voice was soft and sexy, and she sounded interested, which was exactly the opposite of what he’d intended. He’d wanted to scare her away. The heat between them was dangerous. This was dangerous, he thought as he bent his head to kiss her.
“Evie, is everything okay?”
At the sound of a young male voice that cracked on the last word, Caine immediately let Evangeline go, reaching out to steady her when she stumbled. The flush on her cheeks deepened, and hazel eyes that only seconds ago had gazed up at him as if he were a present she wanted to unwrap now looked at him like she wanted to give him back and demand twice the amount she’d paid.
Caine wasn’t angry at her or at himself, though he knew he should be. He was angry at the boy who’d interrupted him before he’d gotten one small taste of Evangeline.
She turned away from him to go to the boy. “Yes. Everything’s okay, Jamie.”
Caine had known the kid was going to cause him no end of trouble from the second his mother slid into the passenger seat of his car and cried her heart out on his shoulder while Theia and Rosa DiRossi looked on. Still, until his very moment, he’d had no idea how bad it might get.
The boy was tall for his age, lanky and lean, just like Caine had been at thirteen. But it was the emotion in his eyes, the grief he couldn’t hide behind the defiant tilt of his chin, and the angry fists balled at his sides that reminded Caine most of the boy he used to be. A boy who’d spent the first month in his grandmother’s house muffling his cries in his pillow, grieving for his father, his mother, his uncle, and his dog.
Caine wanted to cross the small space, grab the boy by his narrow shoulders, and shake him. He’d lost his father, and for that he had Caine’s sympathy. But the boy had no bloody idea how good he had it. He had a mother who loved him, who was working her fingers to the bone to keep a roof over his head and food in his belly. And he had Evangeline and half the town doing what they could to help. Caine didn’t know who he was angrier at, Evangeline or the boy for making him remember.
“Are you okay, Jamie?” she asked, gently brushing back a lock of dark hair to reveal a shiner.
Caine noted the boy’s cut and swollen upper lip when he curled it in response to Evie’s question. The kid pushed her hand away, not roughly or Caine would have intervened. Jamie had brushed it aside like a boy who no longer wanted to be touched or coddled in case those who offered the kindness were taken away from him too.
Evangeline had been right. The worst thing for Jamie would have been being expelled. He would have taken it as proof that he didn’t deserve any of this, that the familiar and good could be taken from him in the blink of an eye. That if he broke the rules and acted out, they’d toss him away. The hurt was on his terms then. They hadn’t abandoned him if he pushed them away first. He’d build another wall inside himself, strong enough to keep the pain from touching the soft parts of him that he didn’t want.
“Don’t coddle him, Evangeline. He’s fine.” Caine nudged her aside to offer Jamie his hand. “Caine Elliot. Your mother and Evangeline have decided you need a mentor, and I’m it.” Once again the boy curled his upper lip without allowing the pain to show on his face.
“You may want to come up with another way to show your contempt,” Caine suggested. He’d once been the master of the contemptuous sneer. He curled his own upper lip and touched it. “At least until the cut heals. And so you know, I’m about as happy with the arrangement as you are. Now, if you’ve got your things, we’ll be on our way. You’re sprung for the rest of the day. But by the time I’m done with you, you’ll be wishing you kissed the boy instead of punching him.”
The boy and the woman stared at him. Evangeline recovered first. “Jamie, wait here a moment. Caine, I’d like to speak with you. Alone.”
“No. The time for talk is over. Unless you don’t want me to mentor him? I didn’t think so,” he said when she looked from him to the boy and nibbled on her pouty bottom lip. “Come with me, Jamie. We’ll meet you at Holiday House, Evangeline.”
“If you don’t mind, I could use a ride. I walked here.”
“What do you mean you walked? It’s got to be at least a twenty-minute walk from Holiday House, and the temperature is dipping well below balmy.”
“Thank you for the weather report. I’m well aware how cold it is, as I’m the one who had to walk the twenty-five minutes to get here. Because I’m the one who had to sell my car to keep my business afloat.”
“I suppose you’re going to blame me for that too, aren’t you?” Caine said, taking a step to close the distance between them.
The boy moved in front of Evangeline and lifted his chin, puffing up his scrawny chest.
Caine smiled. “There may be hope for you after all.”
* * *
Three hours later, Caine stood on Evangeline’s back porch with his uncle. “There’s no hope for the boy. He’s a surly, argumentative pain in the arse.”
“Aye, he reminds me of you.” Seamus’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. His uncle had spent part of the morning trying to win over the boy while spending the other half looking like he was
about to cry.
“Don’t get maudlin on me, Uncle. The past is in the past. I think you’ll agree I turned out all right.”
“If you’re talking about living the life of Riley, I’ll give you that. But you’re missing all that’s real and good, boyo. The parts that will bring you true joy. Like a woman, a family.”
“I have you, Emily—” He held up his hand. “Don’t say anything against the woman who raised me. I have Theia too. As for women, I make out well often.”
“Aye, and making out is all you do. You need someone who loves you enough to stick by you through the good times and bad. Mark my words, the women you date would be out the door should your star start to fall.”
“No chance of that happening. Besides, I’m happy with the status quo,” he said, even though his uncle’s prediction hit a little too close to home. His grandmother’s threat had taken up residence in the back of Caine’s mind. He’d texted her the news about the library being named after her. She’d yet to respond, which was unusual. He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a text to her nurse. He’d hired the woman when Emily had refused to move in with him.
Her nurse, Mrs. Jordan, responded right away, as he’d paid her to do, though he would have preferred anything to the text he received.
Everything is fine, sir. She’s just having a visit with her nephew. Alec McCleary.
“Is everything okay, lad?”
Obviously Caine’s ability to keep his emotions from showing had slipped. “It’s fine. I’m just trying to figure out how I’m supposed to stay on top of Jamie when I have a company to run.”
“I suppose you wouldn’t appreciate me repeating Evie’s words back to you, then?”
“That parents all over the world do it every day? No. I wouldn’t. Even though you just did in that sly way of yours.”
“You can’t blame the lass. She doesn’t know what you’re up against with the Wicked Witch. Oh, go on with your castigating looks. I can say what I please about her. She has to be wicked to expect her grandson to seek revenge on his father’s family, threatening to steal the company away from you if you don’t do her bidding. Your da was a good man, one of my best friends, and I tell you straight, Caine, he wouldn’t want you to do this.”
