Rumor Has It Read online

  “No. But you’re a lot kinder than I could ever be,” Emily said, and left.

  Kate didn’t feel kind. She felt a little shaken, a feeling that didn’t improve when she called for the next parents to come into her classroom for their conference and saw that among the others waiting for her was Griffin, wearing a guest tag in what she recognized as Ryan’s handwriting, complete with a smiley face alongside his name.

  Eighteen

  Grif questioned his sanity while waiting in the hallway of the elementary school for Kate. He’d had breakfast with Adam and Dell then spent the day working on the ranch with his dad.

  It had been a good day. A damn good day. And he had no idea the last time he could have said that about a day with his dad.

  He had things he could be doing and absolutely no business waiting here for a woman who’d already gotten what she wanted from him.

  But there was something niggling at him. His sister had gotten into his head. She’d accused him of taking advantage of Kate, and now he kept thinking about that.

  Kate had promised she was fine, had even joked about their chemistry still being a problem, but was she really okay? She wasn’t a one-night sort of woman, and now he was wondering if maybe she was just pretending all was good just to assuage his guilt. Maybe . . . maybe she was secretly pining away for him.

  He watched yet another parent come out of her classroom. It had been some sort of parent-kid afternoon, and he’d seen the way Kate handled herself and others.

  Effortlessly.

  Every single kid got a kind word. Every parent the same. Never a lack of patience or an awkward moment.

  Nope, she only exhibited those particular personality traits with him.

  Which for some reason made him like her even more. He looked at his watch. She’d been on her feet all day. That had to be exhausting. And doing it while dealing with kids . . . well, that was Grif’s very own definition of hell.

  But she didn’t look strained. She looked . . . sexy and adorable in yet another colorful cargo skirt, cardigan sweater, and leggings. Her hair was up, prim and proper today, and she was apologizing to one of the parents for having to wait to speak to her.

  Grif watched as the parents filed out with smiles on their faces, each thinking that their kid was the shit. It couldn’t possibly be true, but Kate made them believe it.

  “You didn’t like school much, did you?”

  Grif looked down at Tommy. The kid was wearing jeans that were slightly too big on his scrawny frame so that when he walked, he had to hitch them up or lose them. One of his battered sneakers was untied. And in complete opposition to the bedraggled, vulnerable appearance he gave off, his hoodie featured the Incredible Hulk in all his green fierceness.

  “I like school,” Tommy said.

  This surprised Grif, given that Tommy never seemed to actually be interacting with anyone other than himself. “You do?”

  “Yeah. The library’s full of books, and you can pick whatever you want. And there’s Internet on the computers in there so I can play games. Words with Friends is my favorite. I’d rather play on a cell phone, but my dad says I can’t have a cell phone yet, so I play it on my iPod Touch when I’m at home.” He shrugged. “And I like the brownies. And Mrs. Hinkle. She’s the cafeteria lady. She doesn’t make me eat my veggies if I don’t wanna.”

  Grif nodded. “That’s a most excellent cafeteria lady.”

  “You don’t like veggies either?” the kid asked, tilting his head up. As he did, his hood fell back.

  There was a bruise under his left eye, and it looked new. “When I was your age,” Grif said, “I used to sneak my veggies to the dog beneath the table until I got caught.”

  “You get in trouble?”

  “Always.” It was the truth. Holly could have murdered someone and gotten away with it, but Grif had lived on his father’s shit list. It was just a matter of how far up or down on the list he was at any given point. “How about you?” he asked. “You get in trouble?” He paused. “Maybe today?”

  Tommy went still then pulled his hood back up over his head. “No. I don’t really get into trouble very much.”

  “Maybe someone caused you some trouble, then.”

  Tommy didn’t answer that one. Instead he walked down the hallway and out to the playground.

  Grif went with him and then crouched down to look into Tommy’s face. “He bothering you?”

  “No.”

  “Tommy.”

  Tommy looked away. “I hit him first,” he whispered.

  This shocked Grif into a short laugh. “Yeah?”

  “He was picking on Gwendolyn. She’s in my class. He told her that her dad works for his dad and is a complete loser and that so was she. I looked for an adult like we’re supposed to, but there was no one.”

  “And?”

  “And Dustin was still too close to her, so . . . I pushed him, and then his elbow hit me in the eye when he went down.”

  “That was nice of you to stick up for your friend.”

  “No man left behind,” Tommy recited. “Even if it’s a girl, right?”

  “Right,” Grif said.

  Tommy nodded, then nibbled on his lower lip, pride gone, replaced by unhappiness. “He cried,” he whispered. “He tried to hide it, but I saw.”

  Grif let out a long breath. “You have your iPod Touch with you?”

  Tommy pulled it out and Grif took it. “I’m loading the Find My Friends app and putting myself on it. Next time you look around for an adult and can’t find one, you’ll be able to find me. You text me, and I’ll come. No matter what. Okay?”

  Tommy looked awed. “’Kay. Will I be able to see how far I am from you? Like exactly?”

  The kid was so much like Kate, with his need for the little details, Griffin’s heart clenched a little. “Yes, exactly. And let’s do this, too . . .” Grif loaded a good map app as well. “Now you can see mileage from one place to another, any place.”

  “Cool!”

  Just then Ashley zipped into the parking lot and honked for Tommy.

  Tommy waved at her. “Gotta go,” he said to Grif. And with the resilience only a second grader could exhibit, he ran off.

  Grif watched Ashley wait until Tommy had his seat belt on before ripping out of the lot, and that’s when he caught sight of the Lexus changing spots from the far north part of the lot to directly behind Kate’s car.

  Someone else waiting on Kate, he thought, and then she was walking out to her car. When she caught sight of Anders, she stood at her car door while the guy approached.

  Grif didn’t know what the guy was saying to her so he moved closer and was glad for it when he saw Kate stiffen. The dickwad was in her face, yelling at her about his son’s grades and some missed tournament. It wouldn’t have been surprising for her to be shaken at the confrontation.

  But that’s not what happened. Nope, the curvy little dynamo’s eyes were calm but flashing a steely determination, her shoulders squared.

  She wasn’t shaken or afraid. She was annoyed as hell, and it made Grif grin.

  He loved her ’tude. The only thing that could improve this scenario would be for her to use one of her new self-defense moves he’d taught her to flatten the guy. Yeah, Grif would really enjoy that.

  Kate glanced at Grif as he moved in close to her side, giving him a narrow-eyed look that said, Don’t you dare interfere.

  Yeah, she was made of damn sturdy stuff, and she knew how to handle herself. She’d been born handling problems, and this was just that. Just one more problem in a long line of problems.

  But that didn’t stop Grif from staying right at her back. He was close enough to catch the scent of her—a sexy-smelling shampoo, some sort of lemon disinfectant, and, if he wasn’t mistaken, crayons.

  Trevan gave him a fuck-off-and-die look. “This is a private conversation,” he said.

  “Then take it down a notch,” Grif suggested.

  “Don’t tell me what to do.”

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