Page 95 of Pretty Relentless

Panic sets in.

He’s leaving?

After he just told the entire town he was in love with me, he’s walking out the door?

I jump up. “Excuse me, excuse me,” I mumble to the people I pass, trying not to step on their feet as I scurry toward the exit.

Pushing through the door, I burst outside into the cold of night. “Gavin!” I holler, my eyes scanning.

“There’s no reason to yell.”

I whip to my right to find Gavin leaning against the wall, waiting. “I thought you left.”

A grin cracks across his lips. “Not without you.”

“But…why did you come out here?”

He sighs and shakes his head. “Because I didn’t want to listen to anyone say one bad thing about you.”

Giving him a smile, I step forward and press my hands to his warm chest. “Hardly anyone said anything negative. If they were there to advocate my dismissal, they didn’t say a word. They didn’t have a chance, really, because my coworkers and former parents started speaking, everyone else seemed to get real quiet, real fast.”

“Good,” he says, slipping his arm around my waist and pulling me toward him. “I’d have to have words with anyone who spoke ill of the woman I love.”

Unable to contain my smile, I go up on my tiptoes and press my lips to his. “I love you too.”

He opens his mouth, claiming mine in a bruising kiss that makes my toes curl. “For the record, I’m done pussyfooting around this. I want everything with you, Ava.”

My heart pirouettes in my chest. “I want that too.”

He kisses me again, his tongue sliding inside my mouth as his hands slip beneath my sweater. Cold fingers brush against my lower back, sending a shiver through my body, but the heat of the kiss more than makes up for the frigid temperatures around us.

“Should we go back inside?” he asks, resting his forehead against mine.

“No, I think we should go home. Whatever happens next is out of our hands. What will be, will be, right?” I ask, repeating his words from Monday.

“That’s right,” he replies, taking my hands in his. “Let’s go home. And maybe get naked,” he suggests, a wolfish grin on his gorgeous face.

Before we’re able to take off, the door opens, and the attendees start to file out.

“There you are!” Grandma hollers, making a beeline for Gavin and me. “We thought you took off for some nookie.”

My face flames red as my dad looks on, uncomfortable. “No one thought that but you,” my sister argues, shaking her head.

“The meeting’s over?” I ask.

“No, but there’s nothing more we can do. They’ll do their executive session like always, but the superintendent spoke and pledged his support of you before they went back for the closed-door meeting. He said it would be an outrage to the school if the board voted to remove you, and he’d hate to see what sort of fallout would happen,” my dad informs me, a look of pride on his face.

“I watched the board members the entire time, and most of them seemed to really listen to those who spoke up for you. The only one I thought seemed shady was that Mark Bollinger. He kept subtly shaking his head in disagreement.”

“Mark? His wife is Julia’s best friend. I saw them Sunday—” Gavin stops speaking, his eyes wide with realization. “Shit, I saw him and his wife on Sunday. They were snowmobiling around the Bluff. Son of a bitch, I know who took the photos.”

I watch him as he turns concerned, sad eyes my way.

“Kelli, Julia’s friend. She had to have taken the photos, I’m just not sure which one posted them.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him, wrapping my hand around his.

“The hell it doesn’t. If my ex-wife had anything to do with those photos being published, I’ll—”

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