Chapter 14
Please don’t leave before we can talk. Meet me in my office.
Janae read Adam’s text over and over again for the last ten minutes while she sat in her car stewing.
“Go home, Janae. You don’t need an explanation. You already know he played you. That’s the only important thing right now.”
She leaned forward in her car, pushing the ignition button and then gripping her gearshift knob for dear life. Since she religiously backed into parking spots, all she had to do was step on her brake, shift into drive, press her accelerator, and go.
Yet, the car remained in park, and gas was expensive as hell. She pressed the ignition button again and shut the car off. She wasn’t leaving, not until she told him exactly where he and his so-called friendship could go.
In a blur, she locked up her car, headed straight for the administration building, and was doing her level best to keep her rage under wraps for fear the school safety officer would see her as a threat.
Her professional face must’ve worked because soon the officer said, “Ms. Sanders, he’s ready for you.”
I sincerely doubt that.
Janae kept her face as impassive as possible. She may have been seething inside, but she didn’t need anyone in her business. So she kept a professional smile fixed to her face until she sat down in the chair in front of Adam.
Too angry to speak, she looked down at Adam’s desk upon entering his office for a distraction and found his desk plate engraved with words that felt like a match to gasoline as she read each one.
DR. A. D. HENDERSON, ED.D.
In smaller print, the title written beneath his name burned brighter than anything else on the plaque.
INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
The litany ran across his mind like a ticker reel at the bottom of a newsfeed. He walked around to the opposite side of his desk, flopping down in his chair as he tried to figure out next steps.
“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?”
He watched her sit down across from him, staring at him with hard-set eyes and pursed lips.
“I’m not exactly sure what you want me to say. I didn’t know you were the PTA president, Janae. I know this is a small town, but that doesn’t mean I know every single person in the district.”
She cocked her head to the side as if she were trying to unlock some mystery that he was somehow the key to. It took all of his effort to keep the thrill of her eyes on him from feeding the small spark of desire that, if given the chance, would grow into a full-on blaze in the middle of his office.
He was barely hanging on. He’d gone decades without seeing this woman, yet one night in her presence, one night of just talking to her, one night learning about her, and he was suddenly unable to think about anything or anyone else.
Get it together, Adam.
“You really expect me to believe you didn’t purposely seek me out?”
“If you’re asking me if I came home with the specific intentions of looking you up, the answer is no.
I had no idea anything was going to happen between us when I moved back.
Once I ran into you, then yeah, I was interested in seeing where things could go.
I like you, Janae. I really do want to get to know you better.
But I didn’t do it with any motive other than getting to know a beautiful woman who intrigued me.
I didn’t know you were the PTA president. ”
Some of the tension in her shoulders began to loosen, just slightly.
“But…”
With that one word spoken, tension tightened the muscles of his neck.
“Even if I did, my interest in you would’ve had no impact on me doing my job.”
He was trying to keep his cool, but her insinuating he’d had some ulterior motive in getting to know her was really beginning to piss him off.
“I’m sorry, Adam.” He watched her open her eyes and look directly at him. Part of being an adult was admitting when you were wrong, and if she was taking the high road, so could he. “I was out of line for accusing you of something like that.”
His anger began to slowly drip from his face one steadied breath at a time, drawing the tension from the air. “Thank you for your apology. Please.” He pointed toward a small sofa in the corner, taking the seat next to her once she sat down.
“I’m sorry you’re so upset about this, including the program cut. I have to make budget cuts, get the district lean and efficient.”
“And it can’t be lean and efficient with an arts program?”
“At the moment? No. It’s costing us money, Janae.”
“You have no idea how many kids you’ll be displacing.
Kids who need that after school structure because their parents are working late, kids who find freedom of expression in their creativity, kids who find themselves because of the joy creating something gives them.
You can’t tell me that’s not important.”
“Of course it’s important,” he answered gently.
“I’m not insinuating it’s not. I’m saying my job is to prioritize what’s most important.
Extracurriculars are great. But if it comes down to providing their fundamental education versus programs that are there simply for their enjoyment, I have to choose their education. That’s my job, Janae.”
She stood up, as if she needed to put some distance between them so she could think.
She turned to him, tilting her head to the side as she watched him watching her.
“Janae, I didn’t ask you to meet me here for us to fight. I meant it when I said I wanted us to work together to try to figure this out.”
She smiled at him playfully. “Well, you were the second smartest person in our graduating class. I expect you should be able to come up with something.”
He regarded her carefully, trying to track where she was going with this. “The second smartest? Second to whom?”
“Me, of course. I was valedictorian?”
“By half a point, Janae.”
“Doesn’t matter, I still won.”
Her deep brown eyes lit up like an autumn paradise filled with her signature confidence that was fast becoming addictive.
“What’s your schedule looking like this weekend?”
She pulled out her phone, tapped a few times, and then said, “This is my weekend off. Why do you ask?”
He stood and stepped around his desk, stopping when he was in front of her.
“Spend the weekend with me so we can figure this thing out.”
She cocked her head to the side, opening her mouth to speak, and he held up his hand, interrupting her.
“For work, Janae. For work.”
“Sure.” She nodded, and they both allowed their mutual laughter to fill the air. “Where?” The lightness passing so easily between them felt good considering how angry she was when she first stepped inside his office.
“At my parents’ cabin.”
“It’s been a while since I’ve been up that way.”
“I’m surprised you still remember it. You only stayed as long as the tutoring sessions lasted, and you had no interest in any conversation that wasn’t about teaching Michael math. The minute we were done working, you were out.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. Back then, she couldn’t bear to be in his presence when she thought the only thing he’d seen her as was the smart girl who had no interest in having fun.
“Your parents’ cabin was the hangout spot for you and your jock buddies. As soon as we finished working, I knew your team and their bunnies would show up. It wasn’t my scene, so I left.”
He stared at her with what looked like sadness in his eyes.
“Janae, the only people who were in that cabin on session days were you, Michael, and me. I never would’ve put you in a situation where you felt uncomfortable, especially when those days were my only chance to talk to you without an entourage or either of our parents being around.”
He stepped closer and she wasn’t sure if it was because she was still sitting, but he seemed to be everywhere. It should’ve made her uncomfortable. Instead, she wished he’d sit down next to her so she could be in his space without looking as thirsty as she was.
“I never minded the times we had to meet at your parents’ house because you were coming directly from practice with your dad. Your mom was always nice to me.”
“I would’ve been nice to you too if you’d let me.” He did sit down next to her on the sofa and she could see the slight bit of sadness glinting in his eyes. “I knew you were cool with Mike, so I always thought you ran out so fast because you didn’t want to be around me.”
If only her immaturity had allowed her to have a conversation with Adam, things could’ve been so different.
She wasn’t wishing away her marriage or any of the relationships she had before meeting Marq.
She just wondered if high school might have been different if they’d connected the way they each apparently wanted to in this moment.
Emotion thick and strong filled her chest, making it hard to breathe.
For all her badassery, she couldn’t understand for the life of her why his presence and his words were making her feel like she might be in need of some albuterol even though she’d never had any respiratory issues a day in her life.
“Is it still colder up there at the tip of the mountain like it was when the group of us would go up there as kids?”
He chuckled for a brief second, and she knew he was aware of her swift subject change.
She had to break the spell his words were weaving somehow.
They were in his office, and even if she could manage to sort out everything she was feeling and have a deep conversation with him about this, his workplace wouldn’t be where she would do it.
“Probably more so since we’re both old now.”
She placed a hand on her chest and let her jaw drop in mock offense. “Speak for yourself. I’m not claiming that.”
“Live in denial all you want if it makes you happy. Just make sure you bring a sweater. I don’t want you blaming me for that arthritis that’s gonna grab hold of you from being out in that cold air.”
She half smiled, half glared at him. “You’re so damn disrespectful.”
“I rather think that’s one of my better qualities.”
“You think?”
He leaned in closer, too close for the two of them to be sitting in his office, where the attraction between them couldn’t go further than the heated glances they were sharing now.
“I know. Come up and find out for yourself.”
She nodded, opening her mouth to say something, but before she could say it, the intercom on his desk buzzed.
“I guess that means it’s time for me to get back to work.” He stood, taking her fingers into his and gently pulling her up from the couch. “As much as I’ve enjoyed sparring with you, I gotta get back to it.”
She nodded, smiling as she headed for the door.
She’d come here to fight, and somehow, Adam had bled all the anger out of her and figured out a way to get her to work on a compromise.
If his luck held, maybe he could pull this miracle off twice by figuring out how to do his job and stay in her good graces.
I guess I’ll find out this weekend.