Page 26 of Tomorrow Belongs to Us
It would be an excuse to get in touch with him again.
“What have you got to lose. He's hot, he's older, wiser, and he's back in your life. What are the chances that of all the places he could live in, he's here, in this town, near you? Surely even you must know that means something. This is fate!”
“You are such a delusional romantic. I can't be with him.”
“Why not? This man is a keeper.”
“He’s old.”
“He’s better looking and fitter than some of the losers you end up spending the night with.”
“I am a woman of needs.”
“You’re a loose woman.”
She’s right, and I don’t want to be so reckless. I’m trying not to be so reckless. It’s a good thing that I have so much pressure in my job and that I’m competing with Preston. I have to be on the ball, alert, at my best. Still, it irks me when Arla calls me out on my sexual habits. “You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“Mr. Turner would be good for you, now that you’re older and supposedly wiser.”
But my family would hate it, for one thing. My mom even to this day hates any mention made of that man, and Erica and Jensen have forbidden me to ever bring up his name.
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“You're a grown up now,” Arla continues, setting down her empty glass. “You get to make your own rules. Principal Fielding doesn't get to set boundaries for you anymore.”
Chapter 12
LANCE
“What did they want?” Lesley asks as I walk into my office and collapse into my chair.
Her office is directly opposite mine, and we see one another daily, even if it's just to wave across the hallway. She usually has her door open, as do I. It helps, especially when it comes to young female students wanting to seek my help on something.
I've learned to be cautious.
Lesley is the only person here that I feel close enough to, that I confide in. She's older, much older, and she'll be retiring soon.
I will miss her.
She welcomed me into this department. Academia can be cutthroat. Nobody thinks of it like that, but Lesley is wise and gracious, and she took me under her wing from the start.
I trust her, and so I tell her why the police wanted to see me.
“It's not how it was, the shooting,” I say, ripples of tiredness coursing through me. I've been interviewed but I’m not worried because I have nothing to hide, but still, the news is unsettling.
“What do you mean?” She looks concerned and gets up to close the door. “What do you mean it wasn't how it was? Stop talking in riddles, Lance.”
I sigh loudly. “The shooter wasn't after Heidi. He was after me.”
Lesley blinks three or four times, processing this news. “What? Why?”
“Because he thought that his girlfriend and I were together.”
She gives me that look. The stern grandmotherly look would make me shrink in my seat, if I were guilty. “Lance ...”
“Of course we weren't. She's my student.”
“Did you help her?”
