Page 83 of Molly's Mr. Wrong
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MOLLYSMILEDATFINNas he walked into her classroom, and he smiled back. That was the last contact they had for the next hour, but Finn sat in his truck and waited for Molly to leave the building. As she walked by his vehicle he rolled down the window and she said simply, “Your place. We need to talk.”
He nodded and drove away. Fifteen minutes later, Molly pulled up at his house.
He opened the door and she slipped inside under his arm, glancing behind her as if checking to see if she’d been followed.
“This isn’t good,” he guessed, reaching out to pull her against him.
She breathed deeply, as if drawing strength from him, then eased back. “Not good.” She took a backward step, hugging her arms around herself. “I don’t know how to begin to say this.”
“Yeah?” he asked softly.
“Things happened that I can’t get into, but the bottom line is that your work is going to be graded by an outside instructor.”
“Why?”
“To prove that I’m guilty of favoritism.”
Finn went still. “Are you?”
“No, but it might look that way.”
“I thought this...stuff...you were doing was aboveboard.”
“It is,” she said fiercely. “By the end of the class you would have earned your grade.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t know that I totally buy that.”
“What do you think I’m doing, Finn? Stringing you along so that I can nail you at the end? By the end you will have an honest C.”
“But right now?”
“High D.”
“On a good day.”
“It’s better than when you walked into my classroom.”
“Yes. My F days.”
“You’ve come miles.”
He had. But miles still didn’t mean average, which were the grades he’d been given—on his remedial papers.
“Can you trust me on this, Finn?”
He let out breath, shifted his gaze to the opposite wall. “Looks like we both need to work on trust.”
“I guess.” She started to move past him, toward the door. “I’m sorry this happened. It wasn’t my intention.”
“Where are you going?”
“Home?”
He shook his head, his body stirring as her gaze jerked up to his. “Not unless you really want to.”
Her lips parted as she stared up at him, and he reached out to take her glasses by the bows and slowly pull them off.
