Page 74 of Molly's Mr. Wrong
“Jonas’s parents back him to a fault. I would be careful not to give him any ammunition in any way, other than giving him an honest grade—one you can defend without difficulty. I don’t want the academic standards of EVCC to be compromised.”
But Molly bet that if she fudgedAs for the kid, the powers that be would be fine with it. He was undoubtedly going to attend a larger, more prestigious college once he graduated from high school. Why not give him what he wanted to keep him quiet?
The dean let out a breath. “This conversation is the extent of my ‘investigation’ into allegations, but in the future...watch out for that kid. You will, of course, be involved in the review of the grades.”
“For the record, are you telling me not to be seen with my friend? Or to not go to bars?”
“I’m telling you that you are a probationary instructor in her first year, and even if it’s not fair, you should be careful of anything that can be used against you by a disgruntled student and his influential family.” His mouth tightened. “If we have another complaint that is at all viable, there could well be some kind of documented investigation. Letter in the file, that kind of thing.”
Which was a lot more serious than a single outlier student evaluation. She’d been worrying about the wrong thing.
“Thank you for the warning,” Molly said faintly. She swallowed drily after the dean had given her a tight smile, then disappeared into the hallway. A seventeen-year-old kid was trying to ruin her life.
* * *
FINNSTOPPEDBYMolly’s office on Friday afternoon to discuss the paper her was working on, but he was honest enough to admit to himself that he would have stopped by even if he hadn’t needed clarification on some grammar issues. He wanted to see her.
Just...see her.
He wasn’t certain if that was good or bad, and he didn’t have an opportunity to find out because her office was locked up tight. It was barely five minutes after five and Molly always worked late, but apparently not tonight.
Damn. He shouldered his backpack and headed to his truck.
Even though it was Dylan’s night to sit with Mike, Finn could legitimately stop by his grandfather’s house, see if Molly was around, but instead he headed home. He wasn’t about to pressure her. She wanted to be friends. Fine. They’d be friends.
So what if she made him horny as hell? They’d figure that side of things out as they went.
If they went. She may never see him again.
Finn didn’t like that idea. There was something about Molly that made him want to find out more about her—to do what his teenaged-self had been too stupid to do and discover the things that Molly was too shy to share.
But he’d been too much of an arrogant jock back then, and she’d been too closed off. A geek, like Dylan. She still had a touch of geekiness, but it didn’t define her as it had in high school. Molly was not the same girl who had blushed whenever their arms accidentally touched on their date.
Damn but that had been painful, but now he wished he had a do-over.
So how did he handle this situation? He’d promised friendship. He wanted more.
The sensible thing to do was to bide his time, let her make the next move or two. He didn’t want to put himself out there to get slapped down...although that was a novel feeling. Since when had he ever worried about getting shot down in the romance department?
About the same time that he started to find glasses sexy.
* * *
HOWMANYHOTDREAMScould one woman have before she did something about it? Molly had lain awake long after going to bed on Friday and Saturday nights, worrying about Jonas Simon, only to fall asleep and dream about Finn. It was getting to the point that sleeping was as exhausting as staying awake and worrying.
Molly pushed the sheets aside and swung her feet onto the cool wood floor, gripping the mattress on either side of her legs. Her subconscious was sending her a message and it was coming through loud and clear.You’ve been neglecting yourself and you should stop doing that.
Yeah? Well, what’s the next step?
Her subconscious didn’t have an answer for that.
Since it was Sunday and she’d actually gotten her grading done early, she went to the kitchen, poured a cup of coffee from the carafe Georgina had made for her before heading out close to dawn. Molly wasn’t certain what today’s activity was, but Georgina always left a note on the fridge and sure enough, there it was.
Molly took a bracing sip of coffee and then slipped the note out from under the magnet. Georgina and Chase were going otter watching at the river. Molly gave an appraising nod as she attached the note to the fridge again. Sounded like fun.
She, in the meantime, was going to sit at her kitchen table, prep for next week’s classes and try to convince herself that Georgina and Chase would break up soon, so she wouldn’t have to go into protective sister mode. Because damned if Georgina was going to make the same mistakes she had. It had nothing to do with liking or disliking Chase and everything to do with common sense.
Meanwhile, she was debating about the Finn situation—whether to address their obviously mutual attraction. Hypocritical?
