Teacher's Pets [Unlikely Bedfellows 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read Online Free PDF

the phone sounded. “I’ll get it,” Beau said. He took off down the hall as the second ring came through.
    It had felt good to tell the Leah story to someone. He didn’t think he ever had before. He’d been so ashamed, it hadn’t seemed like the kind of thing to admit. In truth, the incident with Leah was a deciding factor in his leaving school. Not that the administration hadn’t made the decision for you.
    Time had gradually worn away the memory of her, but seeing her today, reliving all that had happened when they were undergrads at Eastern Ohio University, brought everything back. He’d liked Leah—really cared for her in a way guys didn’t for girls they simply wanted to fuck. The two hadn’t been friends long. That one semester and part of the next before the infamous frat party had been enough, though, to let Steve know she was special. She wasn’t beautiful, but she was smart and funny and open in a way that allowed him to share his thoughts with her. And even his fears. He’d cared for her much more than he’d realized because after she stormed out of his room and didn’t speak to him again, the hurt had been deep. Like he’d lost much more than a simple friend who was also a girl. Not that he’d let on to anyone else, but a little part of him had belonged to her and he hadn’t known it until it was too late. Based on her reaction to him today, it was still too late to make reparations.
    Beau came back and took his seat. “That was Dr. Morris. She wants to meet me at the coffee shop in town this afternoon at four for a discussion. It seems I scored another hundred on today’s test.”
    “That’s good, but why does it mean anything?”
    “I’m not sure. She said she’d explain later.”
    Steve mulled that over. Concentration on a test? Sounded more psychological than sociological. “Did she say anything else?”
    Beau raised his brow and stared at Steve across the rim of his cup. “Yeah. She said not to bring you.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Beau approached Holy Grounds, a coffee shop made from a converted church, from the west entrance and entered after holding open the door for a couple of girls coming out. One of them looked up and smiled flirtatiously. “Thanks.”
    The other nudged her in the ribs. “He’s old,” she said in a stage whisper, “and he looks military.”
    The first girl’s smile disappeared in a flash. “We don’t need the likes of you to hold open the door,” she said before they walked off.
    “Fine,” he muttered. Would he ever get used to being vilified for doing nothing more than joining the service and doing his duty?
    Was it his fault President Kennedy stuck his finger in the Southeast Asia pie? Or that President Johnson seemed alternately not to know if he wanted to keep the pie or forget about it? Was he to blame for President Nixon taking four years to claim we won the pie while at the same time handing it under the table to the Viet Cong? All Beau and Steve, and thousands of others, had done was what their country asked of them. And for that, they were the ones hated, while men who burned their draft cards or gave up their country and ran to Canada were made heroes. More than not getting used to it, Beau would never understand it.
    Inside the coffee shop, he found a mix of kids studying or chatting over food and sodas. He and Steve had been in there a few times but preferred to do their studying at home. After years of “fine dining” in the Marine Corps mess halls or in the field, they preferred their own kitchen and dining room for meals, too. And their age differences—thirties compared to late teens—meant their interests and goals generally were out of alignment with the kids they attended classes with.
    He stood just inside the door and searched the room for Leah. He found her sitting on the other side, against the wall. A man sat across the table, his back to Beau. Intensity marked her face and her hands moved furiously, as though she was trying