“Good,” she said, unbuckling her booster seat strap.
“You know Marissa will be there today, right? We left you a message.”
“Yes, we’re looking forward to it.” Brianna glanced at Layla. “You okay, honey? You should get going.”
Layla pushed her face over the front seat and kissed Brianna’s cheek. “I love you.”
“Love you too, princess.” She watched her run out the door and into a pack of classmates, all with bright backpacks strapped to their backs like turtle shells.
“Will he be there?” Cheryl whispered.
“He who?”
Cheryl lifted her eyebrows and looked around, then pushed her head into the window and whispered, “Hugh Braden.”
“How do you know about Hugh?”
“Oh please. Do you really think you can hide a man like that?” She whipped the morning newspaper from behind her back, and on the front page of the Local News section was a photograph of Hugh’s smiling face, Brianna staring up at him like a star-struck groupie.
Holy shit.
She noticed two of Layla’s other classmates’ mothers heading for her car.
“Um, I don’t know, Cheryl, but I have to get to work. Sorry to be rude.” She rolled up the window and hightailed it out of the school parking lot.
She parked behind the tavern and dug through her purse for her phone. Damn it. She’d left it on vibrate and had three messages from Hugh. Her heart raced as she listened to them.
Hi, beautiful. Don’t freak out, but we’re in the newspaper. Complete with my proclamation of being off the market. Love you. I’ll call you later.
She groaned.
Hey, babe. Just trying to catch you before my appointment. I’ll see you tonight at Layla’s party, and I’ll try to call you later. Love you.
Why wasn’t it Friday night? Getting out of town would be so much easier.
Hey, still trying to reach you. It just dawned on me that you might be freaking out and I wanted to say…Sidecar. Love you. Don’t be scared. Nothing can ever come between us.
A call from Hugh rang through and she switched over.
“Hey there,” she said, thankful that he’d reached her this time.
“Sidecar.”
She let out a breath and felt her lips curl into a smile. “I’m not freaking out too badly.”
“I’m on my way into my meeting, so I can’t talk long, but I wanted to…no, I needed to know that you were okay.”
“I’m good. I’m not going to let my insecurities or fear come between us. How do you usually handle this stuff?” Layla’s lunch was sitting on the backseat. Crap.
“I don’t pay it any mind anymore. At first it was kind of exciting; then it became a pain in the ass. But to be honest, I’m kind of glad about this picture. Now the world knows I’m with you. That’s a good thing, because I’m ready to shout it from the rooftop.”
She pictured his eyes lighting up and his deep dimples on his perpetually unshaven and way-too-sexy cheeks. Then it hit her like a punch to the gut. “Layla. Oh God, Hugh. They’ll be all over her at school. I gotta get over there.”
“Damn it. I wish I were there. I’m sorry, Bree.”
She heard the distress in his voice. “It’s fine. I can do this. I’m not a wimpy weak girly girl.” She touched her locket. “I’m a brave, strong girlfriend.”
“Yeah, you are. Love you, babe.”
“Love you, too. I gotta go save my daughter, who is probably drama queening it up for the entire class about Prince Hugh.”
He laughed. “I can’t wait to see you.”
“Oh, wait. I’m sorry. One more thing. I was mobbed at school and they were asking if you were going to be at the birthday party. That was a little freaky.”
“Sidecar, sidecar, sidecar. I’ll leave that up to you. I don’t want to hide, and once your friends see that I’m a regular guy, they’ll get used to me and the excitement will wear off. But if you worry it’ll take the focus off of Layla, I’ll stay home.”
She sighed. “You’re so good to us. I’m not missing a minute with you because of fan girls anymore. I made a promise to myself.”
“Good. I gotta run, babe.”
She ended the call and said, “Sidecar, sidecar, sidecar,” as she threw the car into gear.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
THE FIRST THING Brianna did when she walked into the school was go to the principal’s office. Principal Shue was not known for being warm and friendly. Oh, how she’d avoided that office when she was younger. But now, after seeing Cheryl’s reaction to Hugh, the only thing that mattered was Layla’s comfort and safety. Shue had ruled the school with an iron fist when Brianna was younger. Brianna was certain she’d enforce stringent rules when it came to her daughter’s safety.
As she entered the glass doors of the main office, she remembered that Shue required appointments before ten o’clock in the morning. I am not a weak girly girl.
The school secretary, Ann Olephant, smiled when Brianna entered the office. “Brianna, how are you, dear?” She was a sweet gray-haired woman with a slight hunch in her back and silver glasses that hung from a chain around her neck and never seemed to find their way to the bridge of her nose.
“Fine, thank you. How have you been?” Brianna’s stomach clenched when she spotted Shue on the phone in her office.
“Oh lovely, dear.” She leaned across the desk and whispered, “Saw your picture in the paper.”
“That’s why I’m here. I don’t have an appointment, but I’d like to speak with Principal Shue, please.”
“Oh yes. I think she’ll make the time, given the situation. Just have a seat, and I’ll let her know you’re here.” She pushed her stout body from her chair and hurried into Principal Shue’s office.
The situation? Now Hugh and I are a “situation”?
Brianna sat in the plastic chairs by the door. Two of the lunchroom aids breezed into the office. One carried the newspaper, folded to show the photograph of Hugh and Brianna. Luckily, they were so engrossed in the damn thing they didn’t notice her sitting to the left of the doors. She sank down in her chair.
“Can you believe it? I heard—”
“Brianna. It’s been a very long time.” All six feet of Principal Shue looked over her.
Brianna jumped to her feet. “Yes, it has. Thank you for seeing me.” She followed the clomp, clomp, clomp, of Principal Shue’s black orthopedic shoes into her office and sat across from Principal Shue, separated by a large wooden desk. She still wore her dyed-too-dark hair cropped short above her ears and layered throughout, and she still wore the same style polyester pantsuit that she’d worn when Brianna had been in school. She looked just as manly.
Brianna fidgeted with the seam on her purse, wrestling the same jittery feelings she’d had as a grade schooler.
“I hear Layla is a little celebrity today.” Principal Shue leaned back in her chair and crossed her thick legs.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, her class took a few minutes this morning to discuss what it was like to know someone famous. It was a good lesson for the children. You know, etiquette and such. The teacher did a nice job of handling it.”
“Etiquette?” Brianna gripped her purse in both fists. “That is not at all appropriate for my daughter to experience in school. What our private life consists of is not up for classroom discussion.”
“Oh, Brianna. You always did buck the system.”
“Buck the system?” I’ll buck the fucking system all right.
“The way you used to fight against Take Your Child to Work Day.” She narrowed her eyes at Brianna, and Brianna bristled.
She’d always hated those days. They had twenty-one children in their class, and on Take Your Child to Work Day, she and the Baker twins were the only children who came to class. The Baker twins’ parents also worked two jobs just to make ends meet. She’d argued the validity of Take Your Child to Work Day every year her mother was unable to take her, and every year Mrs. Shue gave her the same song and dance about the importance of children seeing what it was that their parents did for a living. Unfortunately, she never gave her the answer Brianna had needed. She never told her that her mother’s boss was an ass or that at the time it had been difficult for a single mother to find employment that paid well enough to provide for them. Or what Brianna had really wanted to hear, even if it was unreasonable—that Take Your Child to Work Day had been canceled. Forever.
“I still think that day is quite silly,” Brianna said. “I came in today to ask that you please monitor Layla’s class and her friends now that…” I’ve been photographed with my boyfriend? My lover? Oh God, what do I say?
“Now that the cat’s out of the bag?”
Brianna sighed. “Look, I don’t want Layla to be the center of attention because of Hugh’s career. She’s a six-year-old girl, and she’s here to learn and socialize, not to become a public spectacle.”
“Perhaps you should have considered that before you started dating Mr. Braden.”
Ouch. Brianna stood. “Perhaps, but since this…issue has come about, can I count on you to protect my daughter or not? That’s the only thing that matters at this point.”