Jackie, a freshman math teacher, was one of the four teachers who’d drawn chaperone duty this time. And if Sophie wasn’t mistaken, Dillon Burke was also a chaperone. Oh Lord. The last place Sophie wanted to be was a dance—with him. And from her experiences chaperoning school functions, she knew all the teachers would be seated together. There would be no way to avoid him.
For one second, she thought about fudging, saying she did have plans, important plans she couldn’t change, but she knew that wasn’t a good idea. The principal would expect her to elaborate, and she wasn’t a good liar. She always stammered...or blushed...or both. She’d give herself away in an instant.
So she smothered a sigh, said, “No, I don’t have plans” and agreed that she would fill in for Jackie.
Well, she thought philosophically as she walked back to her own office, at least now she could keep tabs on Joy. Heck, she might even take advantage of having to be in Dillon’s company by quizzing him about his nephew. See what she could find out about the boy.
That decided, she only had one other serious problem.
What in the world would she wear tomorrow night?
* * *
Dillon took a quick shower after the game—which Crandall Lake had won by ten points—and changed into the clothes he’d brought to wear to the homecoming dance. He wasn’t thrilled about chaperoning, but when he’d tried to get out of it, Principal Pearson had been quick to let him know he had to take a turn just like everyone else on the faculty.
“It wouldn’t be fair for me to let you off the hook,” Pearson had said. “Would look like I think you’re better than the others, and that isn’t the way things work around here.”
Dillon knew the man was right. He tried to operate the same way with his team. Yes, some of the players were much more talented and vital to the team, but there was no way he was going to act as if that were the case. The worst possible thing a coach could do for the morale of his team was play favorites.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to chaperone tonight’s dance, he told himself as he headed for the ballroom where the dance would take place. It might even be fun, like reliving his own high school days.
When he arrived—later than the other chaperones since he’d had to shower and change clothes after the game—he saw the other three were already seated at their assigned table.
Oh, hell. He hadn’t known Nicole Blanchard was also chaperoning tonight. The woman had been driving him crazy ever since the beginning of the school year. She followed him around, flirted shamelessly and seemed to think he welcomed it. No matter what he said or did, she didn’t take the hint that he wasn’t interested. She was pretty enough, but he’d only had to be in her company for one day before he knew she was bad news. If he paid her the least bit of attention, she would have them engaged and married. He’d been avoiding her as much as possible, but that would be tough to do tonight.
Then he noticed who was sitting across the table from Nicole.
Sophie.
Their eyes met and held for a brief moment; then she abruptly stood, said something to the others and walked away. He stood there, watching her. She looked amazing. Her black dress was short and formfitting, hugging that shapely bottom of hers in a way that left nothing to the imagination. And those legs! There ought to be a law against spike heels for someone who had legs like hers.
Maybe he wasn’t sorry, after all, that he was one of the four teachers working tonight.
* * *
Sophie knew it was cowardly of her, but the moment she spied Dillon walking toward their table, she’d had to get out of there, at least long enough to get her emotions—not to mention her hormones!—under some kind of control. So she’d quickly excused herself and headed for the ladies’ room. While there she ran a comb through her hair—which she wore loose tonight—freshened her lipstick and given herself a fast pep talk.
You’re a grown-up, not to mention a high school counselor. If you can handle hundreds of teenagers, you can certainly handle one Dillon Burke. He’s not that irresistible.
Despite the lecture, she was still not quite prepared to face him, so she decided that while there, she might as well take care of business. She had no sooner locked herself into the end stall than several giggling girls entered the room.
“God, he’s hot, isn’t he?” one of them said.
“Yeah, but lot of good it does us,” another commented.
“I don’t know what Joy Ferrelli has that we don’t,” the first one said, “but Aidan hasn’t even looked at another girl since he got to town!”
Sophie froze. She couldn’t identify any of the voices.
“I know. From the moment he met her that day at the pool. She’s putting out. She has to be.”
“Well, if she is, Marlowe’s gonna find out sooner or later, and then watch out.”
Putting out? Were they serious? Had the relationship between Joy and Dillon’s nephew gone that far? Surely it couldn’t have. Why, Sophie hadn’t even known about it until the other day. How could those kids possibly have become so involved without Sophie knowing? Crandall Lake was a small town. Sophie had thought she would immediately know if Joy was doing anything she shouldn’t be doing. She’d certainly never thought allowing Joy to lifeguard at the city pool would cause problems. Why hadn’t Joy mentioned meeting Aidan before now?
You know why. She knew how you’d react. If not for the fact that she wanted to come to the dance with him tonight, she probably still wouldn’t have mentioned him.
It seemed to take forever for the girls to finish their business in the ladies’ room and leave. When the door finally closed after them, Sophie escaped the confines of her stall, washed her hands and tried to calm herself before going out to face the others. It wasn’t bad enough she had to contend with Dillon tonight. Now she had more to worry about with Joy. Please, God. Those girls are just jealous. Don’t let it be true. She’s only sixteen!
As she walked back to the teachers’ table, she scanned the large ballroom, looking for her sister. It wasn’t easy to spot Joy, because the DJ had put on a thumping dance anthem, and hundreds of kids were on the dance floor. But Sophie finally spied her sister, in the corner farthest from the teachers’ table. And sure enough, she was with Aidan Burke. They weren’t doing anything, just standing side by side, but something about the way Joy leaned into him, and the way his head tilted down so he could look into her eyes, made Sophie’s heart sink.
She recognized the way they were together, because it was so similar to the way she, Sophie, had been with Dillon. Those girls were probably right. Joy and Aidan were intimate.
Oh God, Sophie thought. I need help dealing with this.
One thing she knew for sure. She should never have given in to Joy about tonight. She should have put her foot down and made her sister stay home. But would that have done any good? For all Sophie knew, Aidan Burke would have stayed away from the dance, too. In fact, he could have gone over to Sophie’s house and spent the entire evening there, alone with Joy, and Sophie wouldn’t have been the wiser.
No, it was better to have the two of them here, where Sophie could at least see them. And as she’d planned earlier, she would find out as much as she could from Dillon about his nephew.
Then tomorrow, she would corner Joy and they would have it out. What Sophie would do from that point on, she hadn’t a clue.
“We thought you fell in,” Nicole Blanchard