Finding Our Forever (Silver Springs #1)(54)

“If you can be careful not to let on to what I’d rather they not know at this point...”

“I won’t say a word,” she promised. “That’s up to you.”

Cora slung her purse over one shoulder. “Then I’ll bring him home with me next time I come—if he’s available.”

Her mother sniffed and used the tissue in her hand to dry her face again. “Make sure he’s available,” she said.

Cora chuckled at her sulky words. “Okay. He’ll be my peace offering.”

*

Cora was just getting her purse to head to the cafeteria to meet Darci for lunch when Eli ducked into her room. “Hey,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” she admitted, but smiled, anyway. She loved the way he looked in the worn denim jeans and soft T-shirt he wore. Because he was so involved in the school’s athletics program—as well as caring for the school’s animals—unless he had a business meeting he dressed more casually than the other administrators she’d known. But he did such a good job helping Aiyana run the school, and he fit in so well with both the faculty and the students, no one questioned what he wore.

“You got back late?”

Although he’d tried calling her around one to see if she was safe, she hadn’t checked her phone until she was on the drive home and by then she felt it was too late to respond. “After four.”

“Then you’re running on almost no sleep.”

She covered a yawn as she checked the clock on the wall. “I’m halfway through the day. I can make it.”

He didn’t pull her into his arms and kiss her like she was hoping he would. When he stopped halfway to her and leaned one shoulder against the wall, she was shocked by the degree of her disappointment, which only alarmed her further.

“So...what’s going on?” he asked.

She busied herself straightening her desk so that she’d have a good excuse not to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“With your family. You seemed pretty upset when you ran out of the house yesterday.”

“It was nothing,” she said. “Just the usual stuff.”

When he made no rejoinder, she glanced up.

“Stuff that you don’t care to share with me.”

Cora caught her breath. Was she being unfair to continue keeping her secret? Part of her was tempted to tell him, to completely unburden herself and let it out. But she was too frightened by what could change. He meant so much to her—already. And she couldn’t begin to guess how it would affect Aiyana; she had no idea why Aiyana hadn’t wanted her in the first place.

Surely there would be a better time to try to explain her situation—and that “better” time always seemed to be later. “Matt called my mother and tried to make trouble for me.”

“By telling her you went home with me.”

She cleared her throat. “Yes.”

“And that caused a problem?”

“Matt and I were together for two years. She cares about him.”

“She’s hoping you’ll go back to him.”

Cora stacked some self-portraits she had yet to grade in the box of stuff she took home with her at the end of each day. “Not necessarily. It’s just that... I’ve only been here a month or so. She was concerned that I might be jeopardizing my job.” Part of what she said was true, at least. Her parents were concerned about what she was doing in Silver Springs—they were just concerned for different reasons than she’d given him so far.

“By hooking up with your boss.”

“Yes.”

“Does the fact that you’re on the rebound have anything to do with it?”

“I’m not on the rebound,” she said. “I’m over Matt.” Sadly, she was over him before she even broke up with him. “But we were together long enough that my mother wasn’t convinced of that. She expected us to get married one day.”

He pushed off the wall and came toward her. “Why didn’t you marry Matt? I bet he’d pop the question in a heartbeat if that was what you wanted.”

“I wasn’t ready. And I didn’t love him as much as I felt I should.”

He picked up the blown glass paperweight that had been an end-of-the-year thank-you gift from a class she’d substituted for and tossed it from hand to hand. “So did she calm down? Is everything okay?”

“Once I promised to bring you home for dinner.”

No longer interested in the paperweight, he put it down as he came around the desk to where she was standing.

“Are you still interested in visiting LA?” She arched her eyebrows in challenge as he drew close. He’d mentioned driving her home to see her folks when they were in bed together yesterday afternoon, but meeting her family said something a bit more in this context. They both understood she’d be bringing him home as “her new man.”

Her skirt moved up to her thighs as he lifted her onto the desk and stood between her knees. “What do you think?” he asked and pressed his lips to hers in a hot, wet kiss.

His hand slid up under the silky material while his tongue mated with hers.

“Eli!” she gasped when his thumb found its way beneath her panties. “Not here!”