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the
fifteenth, but teachers have to start preparations a couple of weeks early.”
    “So, not for several months?”
    He shook his head. “No. We have a teacher retiring
after this Spring semester is over, so there’s nothing sooner than the Fall.”
    A bird in the hand… She’d find a way to make ends meet
somehow. Maybe she could find a temporary waitressing job. The economy was
pretty awful, though. She’d just have to find a way. The opportunity to teach
at a prestigious school, to use her education and her interest in children for
something worthwhile, well, that was practically too good to be true. From
under her eyelashes, she looked at John again, and saw the gleam in his eyes.
Maybe it was too good to be true. Maybe he had an ulterior motive. Judging from
his posture, the way he considered her, she was almost certain there was more
to this job than he was telling her. Her instincts told her to get away. Jim
would certainly tell her to wait for something that didn’t make her so
uncomfortable.
    Jim’s over-protectiveness, however, was not going to
sway her. She needed a job, and this would be a wonderful job she could stick
with for a long time and really enjoy. She’d manage John Heath and avoid his
smarmy looks. She may have gotten a little help getting her foot in this door,
but she’d landed the position on her own merits and no one else’s.
    “I accept.”
     
    * * *
     
    “I’m packing.”
    Jim’s frown was instantaneous. “That’s what it looks
like.” He took Kiki’s arm as she bent over a cardboard box. Her friend, to whom
Jim had never been introduced, was standing nearby, her eyes wide. “Why are you
packing?”
    Kiki shrugged out of his grip. “I have to move before
the first of May.”
    He watched her put another armful of books in the box,
and he reached over it to offer the other young woman his hand. “Jim
Chesterfield.”
    The dark-skinned, dark-eyed woman simply nodded, confirming
his assertion, and offered a limp handshake. “I-” she paused to lick her lips,
“I’m Madhuja. I mean, Maddie.”
    Jim tried to smile a friendly smile, but he was
distracted by Kiki’s packing nearby. She wore shorts and a t-shirt, a bandana
over her hair. There was a piece of packing tape stuck to her left forearm.
“Nice to meet you, Maddie.”
    “Kiki,” he said firmly, turning back. “Stop for a
minute and tell me why you have to be out by the first.”
    She sighed deeply and looked at Maddie. The girl was still
standing there, embarrassingly awestruck by Jim. He hated it when people did
that, but aside from reassuring smiles, there was little he could do for it.
    The day had been full of frustrations. The new
hardware division of Rocket Flare was over-budget and pushing its schedule
back. His plane hadn’t passed the pilot’s inspection, so there was a delay
getting it off the ground. He trusted his pilot, though, so although it was
annoying, he had to deal with it patiently. But he didn’t feel inclined to be patient
with Kiki. Two days away and all hell had broken loose. She was half-packed
already.
    “Kiki!”
    She turned her attention to him and pushed a strand of
hair off her forehead. “Yeah?”
    “Why are you packing? Why do you need to get out by
the first? You said on the phone that you’d gotten the job at Wildwood.”
    “Yeah, I did. But it doesn’t start until August.
That’s three months from now. I can’t pay my rent. I can’t stay here and cheat
Mrs. Steddenhoffer out of her rent money.”
    Honor was a good thing; he couldn’t fault her for
that. “Okay. Where are you going?”
    “Does it matter?”
    His temper rose a notch. “Yes, it does.”
    “Look, Jim. We had one more date planned. I’m sorry it
can’t be tonight—you can see why. But the rest of my life doesn’t concern
you.”
    She was avoiding his question and that worried him. “I
care about you, Kiki.”
    Her eyes closed for a moment, then opened again,
resolve in the tightness around her