A Child's Wish

He watched her for long seconds. “Let me think about it.”

He hadn’t said no.

“If I do call some kind of meeting, you should be there, too.”

“Okay.”

“I can downplay Barnett’s spin on this,” he continued slowly, frowning as he looked at her. “His public attack on you is inexcusable. But…” He paused and Meredith knew she wasn’t going to like what was coming. Mark’s nearness was starting to suffocate her. His approval meant so much—she was beginning to recognize that it meant more than it should—and his disapproval was hard to take.

Her awareness of him was also tricky. Barnett’s threats would be moot if she suddenly developed a hankering for her boss. District policy on sexual relationships between colleagues at the same school was perfectly clear and completely unflexible.

“I’m not sure how I explain your initial action. We both know what I think about that. I’m pretty much on Barnett’s side there.”

“So I’ll do that part,” she said quickly, before everything began to go backward. “I did fine on the news. You said so yourself.”

“It’ll need to be soon.”

“I agree.”

“I’ll see if I can set up something with the parents tomorrow morning before school.”

“Fine.”

“Seven-thirty work for you?”

“Yes.”

He nodded, then glanced at his watch. “We need to head out or we’re going to be late.” He didn’t move.

She stared back at him.

“You’re a lot of trouble, Meredith Foster.”

The words I’m worth it popped into her head and she kept them there.

“I have to go with my conscience, but I’ll do what I can to help you.”

“Thank you.”

He lifted a hand toward her face—stopped midway and let it drop. “Don’t thank me yet,” he told her, turning away and reaching in his pocket for his car keys. “It might not be enough.”

Those words were his farewell.

Standing alone in her kitchen, Meredith heard them again in her mind. There was a limit to what he would do. And it might not be enough.

For now it was all she had.

She’d have to do a lot of right living to make sure that what she had was enough.

AT SEVEN-THIRTY Thursday morning, parents representing twenty-nine students showed up in Ms. Foster’s third-grade classroom. Mark was at the door, welcoming them and watching as Meredith stood at the front of the room, greeting everyone with reassuring smiles. Their sons and daughters were enjoying doughnuts and juice, compliments of Mark, in the gymnasium with Macy Leonard. While he might have doubts about the advisability of hiring Meredith Foster, in the past five seconds he’d understood without a doubt that he’d made an excellent choice in his secretary.

“How’s it going?” Susan, dressed in a sleek black pantsuit with a red silk blouse, came up beside him. She looked great.

“So far, so good,” he told her quietly, resisting the urge to kiss her. She was a great woman, a great friend and he was lucky to have found her.

Or rather, lucky that Meredith Foster had introduced them.

“Everyone showed up.”