Chapter 1 #3
That was fine. Mia wasn’t here to make friends.
She’d learned the hard way that letting people get too close meant giving them permission to rip your heart out and stomp on it.
No, thank you. She’d focus on her students, teaching them to advocate for themselves so they could live a good life. They were her heart.
“I wondered if you could help me. I worked over the summer with that teen camp. You know, the one sponsored by the Youth of the Future Foundation? I haven’t been paid, and I need the number to contact them. I tried the number I had, but it didn’t go through.”
Helen’s smile morphed into a frown. Her brow furrowed. “I don’t recognize the name of that foundation.”
Mia opened her purse and pulled out the letter and the contract she’d signed. She handed them over to Helen, who perused them, shaking her head, before handing them back. “Sorry. This has nothing to do with the district. You’d better contact the foundation directly.”
What did she think Mia had been trying to do the last few weeks?
Smiling through clenched teeth, she thanked Helen and stalked from the office, out to the parking lot.
Her pulse pounded in her ears. The midafternoon heat slammed into her, robbing her of breath for a moment.
Construction workers pounded on the roof of the high school.
The roof repairs were scheduled to be completed at the end of the week.
Several sleek SUVs and a newer-model hybrid lined the administration building.
In contrast, a handful of older sedans, SUVs, and pickup trucks sat scattered in the lot by the high school.
She walked back toward her car, passing a row of scraggly cottonwoods. They didn’t provide that much shade. While she walked, a faded van pulled in and parked. Lisa Fuller, the seventh-grade language arts teacher, got out and carried a box of supplies into the middle school wing of the high school.
Mia would have to track down the foundation people herself.
She was surprised that Helen didn’t know about the foundation, but a little extra work never intimidated her.
Mia had been on her own for a long time.
She knew the value of hard work. Going to the school district for help had been out of her comfort zone.
She was independent and capable and preferred to act on her own. That’s the way she liked it.
Then why did she suddenly feel so alone?
She blinked rapidly and pulled her sunglasses over her eyes. She wouldn’t cry. She hadn’t allowed herself that luxury in a long time. It never helped, only made her appear weak. Like a victim.
She might have been a fool, but she was no victim.
A truck rolled past the parking lot. She glanced at the driver and blinked.
Jackson Stewart.
Twelve years had passed since she’d seen him, but she’d recognize him anywhere. He was harder, his profile like granite. His head started to turn in her direction. She sucked in a breath. Her hands trembled at her side, and she ducked behind a tree.
In her mind, memories flowed like a movie. Jackson laughing at a joke she’d made. His lips moving close for a kiss. His hands caressing her face.
His face, rigid in shock and anger when she’d told him he was going to be a father.
She pushed the memories aside. Jackson had been her world. She’d trusted him with everything. Her heart. Her secrets. Her body.
When she’d lost the baby, she’d been devastated. And he’d betrayed her, ripping her life to shreds, destroying her reputation in a single day. To him, the child had been a disaster. To her, it was someone she could love unconditionally.
All the dreams she’d created about him had been a lie. Only she could make her dreams happen.
She waited another ten seconds to be sure his vehicle had taken him out of sight, then she strode to her car and jumped in.
Once inside, she folded her arms across the steering wheel and dropped her head onto them.
She only had until June next year to complete her master’s degree, or she’d have to start all over again.
She couldn’t afford to do that. She only had two classes left to take.
Two! Unfortunately, one of the courses was only offered in the fall.
She had to enroll now, or it would be too late.
The problem was, she didn’t have the money to pay for the courses she would be doing during the school year on top of her demanding job.
She’d had money saved up, but then Aunt Augusta had gotten sick.
Gus had no retirement money saved. No pension.
Her insurance barely covered her medical bills.
Mia had left her comfy apartment in Denver nearly two years ago and moved in with Gus, back in Renegade—the last place she wanted to be.
In the past two years, she’d paid the medical bills and caught up on the mortgage. Her job as a learning support teacher would cover the day-to-day bills, but the money she’d saved for her college classes was gone.
The summer stint as a camp counselor had seemed like a great opportunity to bring in some extra cash. Once she got her master’s in counseling, she could finally become a full-time counselor and open a pregnancy center for those without support. Not in Renegade, of course.
Mia would have to go after the money herself.
Sighing, she pulled herself up and started the car. She needed to get the AC on before she suffocated. Glancing down, she saw she’d missed a call while she was in the office. She tapped the voicemail.
“Hi, Maria,” a young female voice said. Obviously someone who didn’t know her well, if she was calling her Maria. “You don’t know me. I’m, well, I’m…It’s too hard to explain over the phone. Listen. I have some information you need. Please call me back.”
Mia scoffed. “Uh-huh. Right. Like I’m really going to call some stranger back without any more info than that?”
Her finger hovered over the delete icon, but something kept her from tapping it. What if this wasn’t some kind of hoax? Or what if it related to the money the foundation owed her? She pressed the dial button.
“The number you are trying to call has not set up voicemail. Goodbye.”
“Huh.” She ended the call and pulled out of the parking lot.
What had she accomplished today? She still had no money to sign up for her classes. Her counseling degree was still out of reach. And her palms were still sweaty after seeing Jackson Stewart from a distance. She’d managed to teach his brother for a whole two years without a single glimpse of him.
Looked like her luck was changing. And not for the better.
Mia had one more stop to make, and then she could return home. She dialed her cousin Anne Marie’s phone. It went to voicemail.
She frowned, uneasy. “Anne Marie, it’s me, Mia. I’m going to get Gus’s medication now, then I’ll be home. How has she been today? Call me if I need to pick up something else before I head home.”
Call me so I know you’re actually taking care of her.
The temptation to steer toward Gus’s house was strong. But Gus needed her heart medication refilled, and the pharmacy closed at six. She wouldn’t have a chance to come back into town.
Her cousin was a grown woman. She was popular, beautiful, and educated.
And Mia didn’t trust her one bit.