Page 56 of Molly's Mr. Wrong
Every now and then Chase mentioned Finn in an offhand way while telling a story or explaining something that had happened at the store. Hearing Finn’s name always made Molly’s pulse bump a little, almost guiltily, and she hated that.
So the guy was hot. So he could kiss. So she called him a pretty face who lacked substance—that hadn’t been meant for his ears, it didn’t truly describe her feelings for him, and she had apologized. She certainly wasn’t going to explain any of that stuff to him. That would be courting disaster, pure and simple. Finn was not predictable. Finn kissed her in parking lots.
And you kissed him back.
True. But since then, she’d come to her senses. Now if she could just shake this edgy, unsettled feeling she got before, during and after her night class. This feeling that things weren’t right and she needed to make them right.
No. Simply, no.
The only problem was that Finn was still having difficulty with his classwork—more and more as time passed. Despite his talents on the sporting field and in automotives, his brain was wired for scattergun when it came to English, and English was a skill he would need as an instructor—especially a high school instructor, as they were now directed to include writing in every aspect of education.
“So do you want to go hiking with us next time?” Georgina asked Molly as they tidied up the kitchen after both had survived a long day of classes. “Chase says it’ll take four hours and we’ll see two alpine lakes.”
“I’d go, but I have no boots,” Molly said.
“I think we can work around that,” Georgina replied. “They’re having a sale at the Recreational Outlet. Chase and I are going tomorrow morning before he goes to work.”
“Sounds fun, but I think I’ll stay at home and grade.”
“You aresomuch fun,” Georgina said with mock enthusiasm.
“I’ll do my best to tone it down.”
“Mikedates more than you do.”
It was true. He could have dated once and dated more than she had since arriving in Montana. As it was, Elaine Fitch was spending as much time at Mike’s house as Chase was spending at theirs. She always waved cheerily when she caught sight of Molly, and Molly found herself hoping she’d be that happy when she reached Elaine’s age.
Maybe it was surviving teaching that had put her in such a good mood.
Molly was once again in drowning mode, feeling as if she were never going to catch up, but doing her best to look as if she had everything totally under control—a normal state for any teacher.
The thing was that she wasn’t certain she had everything under control. The first round of student evaluations—part of her overall professional assessment—had been given the week before, and to her surprise, she’d received one abysmal review. She had a strong feeling that Denny had penned the assessment, and even though she told herself she couldn’t control what people thought of her, that she’d been professional and fair with him, the fact remained that she had an unsatisfactory student review.
Even worse, she didn’t see Denny changing his opinion of her before the semester was up, so she was simply going to have to excel in all other areas.
She had a formal in-class observation coming up in a matter of weeks and the second set of student surveys would be given during the first week in December. Until that time she had to focus on being the best instructor she could because she wanted to keep this job and eventually work her way into tenure—one of her life goals.
And, even with Finn issues, she loved the Eagle Valley and wanted to make it her permanent home. If she lost this job, she’d have to embark on another nationwide search, a move...
Molly went to the cupboard and took out the chips for a quick pick-me-up.
A couple handfuls in, she decided that she was overthinking things, making bonfires out of tiny sparks, but the worst-case scenario here was one she didn’t want to face.
She simply couldn’t afford to lose this job.
CHAPTER TWELVE
MIKEDIDN’TSHOWup for work Wednesday morning. Cal and Karl arrived around nine, emptying the coffeepot and then settling in for news and the occasional check of their computer dating profiles. Finn figured that Mike was simply late, until Cal asked if Finn had heard from Mike that morning.
“He was here yesterday, but left early.”
“I tried to call a few times, but it went to voice mail,” Karl said.
“Huh.” Finn pushed a hand over his head. Since Mike had come out of retirement, he rarely missed a day at the shop. “I’ll drive over and check on him.”
The boys nodded and went back to the news. Finn started for the side door. “I’m heading over to Mike’s.”
Lola lifted a hand without looking away from her computer screen and Finn headed out the door. He dialed Mike as he walked, and as the boys had said, it went straight to voice mail. There was always a chance that he was entertaining his lady friend in an intimate way and had shut his phone off, but Finn couldn’t see his grandfather playing romantic games early in the day.
