arm of the chair. "Well, you know how improvisation works. Pretend I had to jump out of an airplane to get to the fires. Anyway, what's up with you, Miss Blush and Flustered?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Maddie sat primly in her leather desk chair.
Randy crossed his arms and said, "Gimme a break."
She sighed. "Oh, all right. It's that new coach–Wilcox. We had a fender bender this morning and then I falsely accused him of being a stalker. He made me feel like a complete idiot. Then he gets all your money for the new seats. And did you see the smirk on his face? I just wanted to smack him one."
Randy played one-handed catch with a coin. "You have had a busy morning. Don't feel too badly about the seats. We'll get them eventually. At least I got the full funding for the musical and materials for sets."
Maddie straightened the items on her already perfectly neat desk. "Good. Hopefully I won't have to cross paths with the coach very often."
Randy laughed. "Don't count on it. Before you arrived the chaperones for the Moonlight Madness Dance were announced. You and the Incredible Hunk are definitely on the list."
Maddie buried her face in her hands. "Don't tell me who else is assigned."
"That's right, your ardent admirer, Phineas Manchester and Phyllis Green, the gruesome gourmet."
Sinking her head down on the desk and groaning, she heard Randy's Bogart rendition from Casablanca, " Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine ..."
Chapter Three
In youth, it was a way I had
To do my best to please,
And change, with every passing lad,
To suit his theories
But now I know the things I know,
And do the things I do;
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you!
Dorothy Parker
Back in her snug little cabin that evening, Maddie gratefully took off her business clothes and slipped into comfortable slacks and a soft mock neck cotton top. She gazed around the bedroom. Thoughtful redecorating had kept her busy over the summer. Grammy's crammed plates and pictures on the walls had given way to a few dramatic watercolors over freshly painted buff walls. One of Grammy's more artistic quilts hung behind the bed. Another hung on a quilt stand in the corner. What a challenge to keep the best of her grandmother's touches, while making the space personally her own.
She wandered into the bathroom and pulled the pins and clips out of her hair, freeing it from its pent-up style. Maddie brushed it out and shook her head, enjoying the feeling of liberation. She swiveled her neck to release tension.
The three dots on her throat caught her attention. She lightly traced her fingers over them. How Thomas had brought that area of her body alive, her first erogenous zone. She remembered lying on a posh leather couch as he paid special attention to her throat, ear lobes, the lids of her closed eyes before he moved to other more obvious body parts.
Thomas…that smooth, urbane, college professor son of a bitch .
Maddie clutched the rim of the marble sink and moved closer to the mirror. Did her past show? Was she turning into one of those classic black and white photos of wrinkled old women who wore every event and misfortune of their lives in the lines of their faces?
The surface of the mirror began to waver like a rock hitting a glassy pool. Grammy's face now stared back at Maddie. "What in tarnation did that scoundrel do to you anyway?"
Maddie didn't fight the hallucination. Her private talks with Grammy didn't really hurt anyone did they? Her subconscious needed some way to deal with her emotional baggage.
Her mind wandered to the day she met Thomas. They shared an umbrella to the Boston College English building. Her first day of teaching at the college level. As a tenured professor, he impressed her with his confident, worldly wit. He made her laugh and helped her through the first tenuous weeks.
Being impressed with her Woodbridge pedigree and Harris fame, he wined and
"I don't know what you're talking about." Maddie sat primly in her leather desk chair.
Randy crossed his arms and said, "Gimme a break."
She sighed. "Oh, all right. It's that new coach–Wilcox. We had a fender bender this morning and then I falsely accused him of being a stalker. He made me feel like a complete idiot. Then he gets all your money for the new seats. And did you see the smirk on his face? I just wanted to smack him one."
Randy played one-handed catch with a coin. "You have had a busy morning. Don't feel too badly about the seats. We'll get them eventually. At least I got the full funding for the musical and materials for sets."
Maddie straightened the items on her already perfectly neat desk. "Good. Hopefully I won't have to cross paths with the coach very often."
Randy laughed. "Don't count on it. Before you arrived the chaperones for the Moonlight Madness Dance were announced. You and the Incredible Hunk are definitely on the list."
Maddie buried her face in her hands. "Don't tell me who else is assigned."
"That's right, your ardent admirer, Phineas Manchester and Phyllis Green, the gruesome gourmet."
Sinking her head down on the desk and groaning, she heard Randy's Bogart rendition from Casablanca, " Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine ..."
Chapter Three
In youth, it was a way I had
To do my best to please,
And change, with every passing lad,
To suit his theories
But now I know the things I know,
And do the things I do;
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you!
Dorothy Parker
Back in her snug little cabin that evening, Maddie gratefully took off her business clothes and slipped into comfortable slacks and a soft mock neck cotton top. She gazed around the bedroom. Thoughtful redecorating had kept her busy over the summer. Grammy's crammed plates and pictures on the walls had given way to a few dramatic watercolors over freshly painted buff walls. One of Grammy's more artistic quilts hung behind the bed. Another hung on a quilt stand in the corner. What a challenge to keep the best of her grandmother's touches, while making the space personally her own.
She wandered into the bathroom and pulled the pins and clips out of her hair, freeing it from its pent-up style. Maddie brushed it out and shook her head, enjoying the feeling of liberation. She swiveled her neck to release tension.
The three dots on her throat caught her attention. She lightly traced her fingers over them. How Thomas had brought that area of her body alive, her first erogenous zone. She remembered lying on a posh leather couch as he paid special attention to her throat, ear lobes, the lids of her closed eyes before he moved to other more obvious body parts.
Thomas…that smooth, urbane, college professor son of a bitch .
Maddie clutched the rim of the marble sink and moved closer to the mirror. Did her past show? Was she turning into one of those classic black and white photos of wrinkled old women who wore every event and misfortune of their lives in the lines of their faces?
The surface of the mirror began to waver like a rock hitting a glassy pool. Grammy's face now stared back at Maddie. "What in tarnation did that scoundrel do to you anyway?"
Maddie didn't fight the hallucination. Her private talks with Grammy didn't really hurt anyone did they? Her subconscious needed some way to deal with her emotional baggage.
Her mind wandered to the day she met Thomas. They shared an umbrella to the Boston College English building. Her first day of teaching at the college level. As a tenured professor, he impressed her with his confident, worldly wit. He made her laugh and helped her through the first tenuous weeks.
Being impressed with her Woodbridge pedigree and Harris fame, he wined and
Similar Books
The Edge of the Fall
Kate Williams
Algernon Blackwood
A Prisoner in Fairyland
Shadows in the Silence
Courtney Allison Moulton
Escaping Christmas (Contemporary Romance)
Charlotte Ashwood
King Hall
Scarlett Dawn
Left for Dead
J.A. Jance
Fear Drive My Feet
Peter Ryan
The Edge of Justice
Clinton McKinzie
Nicademus: The Wild Ones
Sienna Mynx
A Lion Among Men
Gregory Maguire