Before You Go Read online

  "Good work." She grinned, her hand grazing my back as she left the two of us to go seek out Ms. Bell again.

  Zack's eyebrows shot up. "That's seriously all it took?"

  I chuckled at his disbelief. "I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. If a woman is invested in her work, that becomes the easiest way to get through to her. So yeah, that's seriously all it took. Thanks, man."

  "Guess you all are leaving now." He nodded to where Laurel was inching towards the door, speaking with Ms. Bell as she went.

  I turned back to the bulky high schooler. He looked reluctant to see us leave. I wasn't sure what his deal was, but I distinctly got the picture that he wasn't getting much socialization. No wonder the teacher felt the need to plead his case for him. I pulled my wallet from my back pocket and retrieved a card tucked away inside.

  "Feel free to call if you need anything. Or if you come up with any more kickass art for us to check out."

  His face scrunched as he studied the card I handed him. "You're a professor?" He eyed me carefully. "Shouldn't you be old?" he joked.

  I shrugged off the question, holding back my grin as he slid my card into the front pocket of his binder. I wasn't sure that I would actually hear from him, but giving him the option seemed like a nice thing to do. Every kid needed someone extra in their corner sometimes. There were a lot of times I'd been that person for some student or another.

  "See you around, okay?"

  "See ya." He nodded his goodbye.

  I joined Laurel and Ms. Bell at the door as Zack buried himself in a sketchbook. Laurel surprised me by lacing her arm through mine. She didn't even look at me as she did it. I squeezed her affectionately, unwilling to let the gesture go unacknowledged.

  "Thank you again for letting us be here," Laurel said.

  "Oh, thank you." Ms. Bell's gaze trailed over from her to me. "But especially, thanks for giving Zack your time. He's talented, and he deserves for someone besides me to notice it."

  "Anytime," I responded honestly.

  I liked teaching because I liked young people. Zack wasn't much younger than my regular students. He reminded me of the kids that came to class and sat in the back, but by the end of the semester would be finding themselves visiting regularly during my office hours. Sometimes people just needed someone to give a shit about them.

  We finished saying our goodbyes and headed out. Laurel's arm stayed wrapped around mine, the two of us navigating our way back out of the school. She seemed deep in thought, so I stayed quiet. The silence was companionable as we walked out.

  "You were great in there," she said as we stepped out onto the sidewalk outside the building.

  "Thanks."

  "I bet you'd make a great dad." The words seemed to escape before she considered them. She glanced up at me from under her eyelashes, her cheeks tinged a sweet shade of pink. She looked downright bashful standing there. I couldn't for the life of me understand why. It was one of the better compliments I'd received.

  "I'm glad you think so. I can't wait to have kids of my own."

  My honesty seemed to surprise her. "Really? You want kids?"

  "Several, preferably," I confirmed. "Why does that surprise you?"

  Her cheeks reddened even more. "I guess you just seem like such a bachelor. It's hard to imagine you actually wanting to do the whole family thing."

  I guessed I did give off that kind of vibe. Before Laurel, I dated around a lot. My house wasn't a straight-up bachelor pad, but it definitely lacked feminine elements. And the cherry on top, I'd had a good thing with Laurel and fucked it up at the first sign that things might get hard. It was no wonder she was surprised to hear that having a family was something I was seriously considering at my age.

  Worried that anything I might say might ruin the progress we seemed to be making, I changed the subject. "Need a ride home?"

  Laurel

  I faced away from the office door as I tacked photos up on the oversized bulletin board Isaac helped me hang. Technically, I was supposed to have maintenance come to do it, but time was of the essence so I cheated a bit. With only three weeks until the fundraiser, I desperately needed to make a final decision about the order of the artwork. Originally I was using Derek's system of a digital folder, but after seeing Zack's binder during the North Kelley visit I decided I wanted to actually touch the photos I was working with.

  "You know, it's not too late to come work for me directly. I can guarantee you an office twice this size."

  Forcing a smile on my face, I turned to greet Henrik Wade. I wasn't all that surprised to see him showing up unannounced since he seemed fond of checking in for regular updates. After several days of no emails from the man I assumed he would show sooner or later. At the worst possible time, too, of course.

  "Is this the art for the show?" he asked, stepping further into the room despite the lack of invitation.

  "The pieces we've got so far, yes. I'm still hoping to add a few more things from some community artists." My eyes swept over the collection, already seeing some pieces I wanted to swap around. "Isaac is actually picking up several of the pieces from the high school today. We're going to store them here until the show."

  "Isaac Gilmore?"

  It was the first time I mentioned his involvement. If Henrik was surprised, he didn't show it.

  I explained, "Yes. It made more sense for him to go to help lift some of the heavier pieces. We've got a few sculptures coming from them."

  Henrik released a thoughtful noise from the back of his throat as he moved back around to the other side of the desk. The distance helped me breathe a little easier. I didn't feel like Henrik was creepy per se, but the man was certainly intense. I didn't like the way he hovered, though I know those mannerisms were exactly how he'd grown such a successful business. He wasn't a man that believed in standing on the sidelines.

  "Isaac Gilmore is a good man." Henrik sank down into one of my office chairs. "I think you're the first girlfriend he's had since he started teaching here."

  I paled, dropping into my own chair.

  "Oh, we're not dating. He's just helping with the fundraiser," I clarified. "His sister asked him to."

  Henrik's thick eyebrows weaved together. "That doesn't sound like you're being entirely forthcoming. Ms. Barrett, I did my due diligence. I do that any time I'm considering inviting someone to my team. I was intrigued after meeting you that first time when you claimed not to know Isaac at all."

  I could feel my stomach churning as he continued. "Of course, I assumed there'd been some sort of lover's spat at the time, but it certainly seemed things were back on track. Or did I misunderstand about the date the two of you shared at The Burgundy?"

  Somehow, I let myself forget about that night and its many witnesses. Of course, other people would assume that was a date night. I couldn't exactly correct the misunderstanding without admitting that Isaac was taking care of me while I was drunker than was decent for public display. I tried to think of any other excuse but Henrik just shook his head and laughed under his breath.

  "Anyhow, I was just dropping in. I actually have a meeting I'm heading to at the president's office.

  "It was good to see you," I lied. It was nothing personal, I just hated having someone constantly checking over my shoulder.

  "You too," he agreed as I turned my attention to my emails.

  "Oh, and Ms. Barrett?" I looked up. "You might want to consider why the people around you can see your relationship so clearly when apparently you can't." He knocked twice on the wood door, a flippant gesture that seemed only to serve the purpose of driving home his point.

  I groaned into my hands. As Henrik's footsteps faded in the hall, a different set headed straight for me. Ivy bounded straight into my office with no warning.

  "Looks like that went well," she joked.

  "Hey!" I glanced at the time on my laptop screen. "I thought you were doing that independent study project?"

  "I'm on a lunch break. I get an hour. I'm thinkin
g about that Chinese place with the really good egg rolls. You interested?"

  My stomach growled, answering on my behalf. "Okay, but will you turn a blind eye for me if I order two egg rolls?"

  "Two? I'm getting at least three. I'm starving."

  Locking my office behind us, I followed Ivy out to the back parking lot where her car was parked. Since I didn't have a car of my own, we took to using my employee parking pass for her car so that we were right behind the building instead of on the other side of campus. It seemed fair since Ivy was my ride most of the time anyway.

  A quick car ride later, we plopped down at a table in our favorite Chinese restaurant. It took all of thirty seconds for the owner to come take our order, the man's eyes widening noticeably when Ivy explained how many egg rolls we wanted.

  "So…" Ivy stared at me.

  "What?"

  "I never did get to hear what happened between you and Mr. Naughty Professor that night he took you home from the bar. I don't like when you get all private on me. I like details, woman."

  The owner came back, carrying the glasses of iced tea we ordered. I thought it might be enough to distract Ivy, but no dice. She was still watching me as the man stepped away. I took a long gulp of my drink just to give myself a moment to collect myself before answering her.

  "Laurel," she said in a warning growl.

  I set the drink back down. "Nothing happened." Her eyes narrowed. "I'm serious! He took me home—to his house since you didn't leave me with any keys." Ivy smirked. "We fell asleep and then in the morning I left and came home."

  "No sexy times?" She pouted.

  "Ivy, I was wasted. I'm pretty sure I passed out the second my head hit his pillow."

  She perked up. "His pillow, huh? You slept in his bed?"

  "It wasn't a big deal." I shrugged. "It's just sleep."

  Her expression was doubtful. "I don't know. There's something pretty intimate about sleeping next to someone. That almost seems more intimate than if you all actually hooked up. It's, like, respectful and shit."

  I rolled my eyes at her dramatics. For someone who never maintained serious relationships, she certainly seemed obsessed with forcing me into one with Isaac.

  "Stop acting so nonchalant. Everyone can see there's something real between the two of you. It's so obvious. I don't know why you're so desperate to act like there isn't some insane chemistry happening there. I get that things went bad last time or whatever, but how do you know it won't be different this time if you don't make the effort to find out?"

  "Maybe." I shrugged.

  The truth was, I kept finding myself thinking the same thing. Maybe things weren't finished with Isaac, and how would I know if I didn't pursue it? The only thing stopping me was the fear that I would wind up as hurt as last time. I spent a whole summer distancing myself from my heartbreak, I wasn't sure if I was ready to risk that again.

  A warm body suddenly slid into the booth next to me. "Travis!" I said his name so loudly in my excitement that he flinched.

  "What were the two of you talking about? It looked serious."

  Ivy's eyes danced mischievously from across the table. I sent a silent prayer up into the universe that she wasn't about to spill about my relationship with Isaac.

  "Oh—" she grinned wickedly "—we were just discussing Laurel's career plans for next year."

  My stomach felt like it dropped out from under me. The only thing I wanted to talk about less than Isaac was the future. Ivy was definitely punishing me for not wanting to finish the Isaac conversation.

  Travis turned to me with mild interest. "Yeah? I'm pretty sure Ronnie's sister-in-law would be willing to teach you more about her trade if you're interested."

  "I don't really want to write dirty novels with your girlfriend's sister-in-law, but thanks for the offer." I let out a sigh, annoyed that I was being forced into the conversation that I spent months avoiding—ever since I graduated, really.

  "My vote is for her to go to grad school," Ivy announced. It wasn't the first time she suggested it, either.

  Travis nodded thoughtfully. "I could definitely see that. Another degree under your belt and you could probably do literally anything."

  It wasn't like I hadn't considered it before. There were plenty of jobs I could take at the moment that would be fine, but I really did need to think about getting my next degree if I wanted to stay competitive. I was happy Henrik made it possible for me to stay another school year at Kelley, but the time for moving on was quickly approaching.

  Ivy and Travis continued to debate the merits of my hypothetical future plans as I half-listened. By the end of lunch, I wasn't any closer to figuring out my future. I did, however, think I knew what I wanted to do about Isaac.

  Isaac

  Isaac

  Sweat dripped off my forehead as I shifted full-blown statues around the large storage container. It wasn't outrageously hot outside, but it was seriously amazing how much heat was trapped in that thing. Nor did it help that I was moving around pieces of metal and clay nearly as big as myself.

  It was interesting how North Kelley could be a public school but still flush enough with cash to afford those kinds of building materials for the art program. The public school system in the east coast town I grew up in was so bad my mother homeschooled Jocelyn and I. It was strange to think schools like North Kelley existed only a few hours away from there.

  Our dad passed away the year Jocelyn graduated from Kelley's undergrad program. Our mom passed away years later, the year after I finished my graduate degree. My sister and I's relationship was fine growing up, but after our parents passed we really got close. We were the only close family each of us had left, that simple fact drew us together.

  "Shouldn't someone be helping you lift this stuff?" Zack asked, appearing at the opening of the storage container.

  "Ms. Bell thought the stuff I wanted was in the front. She didn't realize she had it backward until we opened the thing up. She's inside trying to recruit some teachers to help."

  Zack scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure that will work." At my confused look, he explained, "North Kelley isn't exactly brimming with teachers interested in helping out their fellow teachers. Everyone sort of sticks to their own department. There's a part-time art teacher, Mr. Tony. He would help if he was here but he only comes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays."

  "Guess it's just us then, kid."

  He grinned, completely unconcerned by the daunting amount of work ahead of us. Though, I figured that had less to do with me and more to do with him getting to see some of his art pieces for the first time in almost a year. Apparently, once the stuff went in storage, it didn't come back out often.

  We barely made any headway before my phone chimed with an incoming call. Grumbling, I dragged the offending device out of my pocket and stared at the screen. A Florida area code was flashing across the screen.

  "Let me take this real quick," I excused myself, stepping out of the container and striding across the lawn out of hearing range. "Hello?"

  "Hi, it's Marsha Knight from CMSU. I'm looking for Professor Gilmore."

  "Speaking." The way I grunted out the word wasn't very polite but I couldn't bring myself to care. The woman was relentless.

  Marsha Knight remained undeterred. "We still haven't heard back from you about our offer. For obvious reasons, we don't like to leave positions unfilled for this long, but we're still really hoping you might like to be a CMSU Shark next semester."

  "It's definitely something I'm considering, yeah." An ache tore through my chest.

  "Is there anything we can do to help you decide? I'd love to bring you down for a tour of the school—"

  "Hey, listen. I'm sorry to cut you off but this actually isn't a good time. Could you call back some other time?"

  The line went silent for so long that I pulled the phone from my ear to check and see if the call was still connected. It was.

  "Of course. When would be a good time—"

  "Great, thanks
," I cut her off again.

  She would keep calling until I made a formal decision. I was willing to bet on it. Ever since the offer rolled in, Marsha kept my voicemail and email busy with pressure for me to make a decision. I still couldn't quite bring myself to think about it long enough to come up with one. There were a lot of reasons to want the change, but there were also a lot of reasons to be hesitant. Laurel seemed to slowly be warming back up to me, which I considered to be top of the list.

  "Was that your girlfriend?" Zack asked, smirking when I returned.

  "Nah. Just a work thing."

  Zack turned away from me, shifting paintings out of the way as he spoke with a forced casualness. "My old man used to work at the university."

  "Is that right?"

  His answering nod was excruciatingly slow. "Ricky Gomez. Used to be one of the ground's keepers. My parents weren't married when I was born so my mom gave me her last name instead of his."

  Fuck.

  I knew exactly who the kid was talking about. The man carried a reputation for being a mean drunk. It took forever for them to prove he was drinking on the job, but once they did they fired him on the spot. The rumor was he tried to sue for wrongful termination but there wasn't a lawyer in the entire state that would touch the case.

  "He probably never would have even gotten that job if I hadn't filled out his application for him. He kept passing out halfway through the thing. Finally, one night I finished it for him. Mom and I thought maybe a job would help him get clean." Zack let out a sigh too heavy for someone of his age. "Sorry. I know it's a lot."

  "That's alright. I'm glad you feel comfortable telling me."

  "It's not for no reason, you know. I thought telling you about it might help you understand why your college doesn't want me."

  I stepped closer, forcing him to turn and look at me. "You think they're blackballing you because of your dad?"