By Proxy(32)

She unlocked the front door of the school and he stepped in behind her, the old, familiar smell common to every high school in America surrounding him, making him feel fifteen again.

She chuckled at him. “The smell, right? Everyone says that.”

“You forget. It’s really evocative.”

“Good or bad?”

“Mmm. Good, I guess. I liked high school well enough.” He followed her down the hall, toward the main office.

“Did you do any sports?”

“Yeah. Lacrosse in the spring. I played a little hockey but mostly sat on the bench.”

She looked back at him, raising an eyebrow, and he sensed she was trying not to smile. “That must have hurt.”

“Frankly, would have hurt a lot more to be smashed into the boards on the ice. Is hockey big here?”

“Not as big as Minnesota, but all the kids skate. You know, on lakes and ponds and such. You can’t grow up in Montana without learning how.”

He nodded. “I believe that.”

They passed the main office, and Jenny paused, glancing in. “There’s a light on. I wonder if Paul’s here.”

“Paul?” he asked, following her into the office.

“Our principal.”

The main office was quiet where two secretaries would probably sit at the two empty desks situated behind a long counter covered with piles of paper. Jenny knocked lightly at a door that had light pouring out of the bottom. The sign on the door read, YOUR PRINCIPAL IS YOUR PAL. Sam rolled his eyes.

A cheerful voice boomed from behind the door. “Come on in!”

Jenny pushed open the door and a good-looking young man stood up from his seat behind the desk, breaking into a beaming smile. Sam guessed his age at about thirty. Tall and blond, with an athletic, well-built body and an engaging smile totally directed at Jenny, he was dressed sharply in light khakis and a crisp blue and white gingham dress shirt, which was rolled up casually mid-forearm to reveal a light smattering of blond hair on a corded arm. His eyes met Jenny’s easily and held them, before noticing Sam behind her. His expression cooled appreciably.

“Who’s this with you, Jen?”

“Paul, this is Sam. Sam, this is our principal, Paul.”

Your Principal is your Pal, indeed. A sick feeling started fanning out from Sam’s gut. It got incrementally worse when he turned to Jenny, who was smiling at the attractive, young principal with an easy grin.

“Good to know you.” Paul’s tone, however, suggested it was anything but good. He offered his hand.

“You too.” Sam’s voice was similarly cool. He returned the strength of Paul’s grip easily and pumped his hand twice before dropping it.

Paul turned to Jenny with a full-faced grin, hands on his hips. “How’re you today, Jenny? Always good to see my favorite science teacher!”

His favorite science teacher? Come on. Are principals even supposed to have favorites? Sam found it hard to believe there was more than one science teacher in such a small school anyway, which made it a corny joke, too.

“Oh, you!” she said, shaking her finger at the principal like she’d heard that one before, but her smile wasn’t going anywhere. Sam felt a sheen of sweat break out on his forehead.

“Warm in here, right?” he asked.

Jenny turned to him. “N-Not really.”

Paul pushed his preppy tortoise-shell glasses up on his nose to stare at Sam intently.

He looks like a J. Crew model, Sam thought with derision. What principal is thirty years old and looks like a J. Crew model? And what’s he doing in Gardiner, Montana, when he should be sailing regattas in Connecticut?

“So, Sam…you visiting family? Passing through?”

Sam smiled at him tightly.

“Sam’s cousin is marrying my best friend Ing,” Jenny offered.

Paul nodded. “In town for the wedding then?”

“Something like that,” Jenny replied. She turned her eyes to Sam and her expression, caught between tenderness and laughter, like she was holding on to an inside joke that only they knew, made his heart skip a beat.

Paul’s eyes widened with what looked like worry, but he smirked. “Where’s home?”

“Chicago.”

Sam noticed his shoulders relax perceptibly then and the next smile he offered Sam was a hell of a lot more genuine. That’s when Sam’s suspicions were confirmed. Paul’s interest in Jenny was not just professional. Sam’s nostrils flared, but he forced himself to smile smoothly back at Paul. “Spending some time with Jenny today, though.”

Paul turned to Jenny, eyebrows raised in question.

“The booth,” she confirmed. “For the stroll tonight. Sam’s going to help me bring the pieces up from the basement. The boys said they’d come pick them up later.”