Rumor Has It

He glanced at her. “Us, getting together like this? Is it really going to make you feel better about what happened in high school?”

She nodded. “I think it will. For so many years, I’ve felt like I should have stayed and faced all their lies. It’s too late to change anyone’s mind now, but by doing this, we’re turning their lies into truth.” She looked at him. “Does that make sense?”

He nodded. “Sort of.” He grinned. “I guess the way I look at it—they all thought we were having so much fun back then, we might as well enjoy ourselves now.”

She grinned back at him. “We’re going to have fun.”

He turned and pulled her to him once more. “Yeah. I think we are.”

He held her close and kissed her cheek, a sweet gesture that made her heart skip a beat. She buried her face against his shoulder and closed her eyes, breathing in the scents of soap and sex. It wouldn’t be fun if she made a mistake and lost her heart to him. Their time together was supposed to be pure fantasy and everybody knew fantasies—like rumors—were usually very different from the way things really were.

4

WHEN TAYLOR PROPOSED re-creating all those old high school rumors, she hadn’t expected doing so to make her feel as though she was in high school again. Yet here she was, all fluttery-hearted and foggy-brained, staring idly into space one moment and unable to sit still the next. She spent long minutes during her break Monday morning staring at her cell phone, willing herself not to call Dylan. “Next thing you know, I’ll be scribbling his name in the margin of my notebook,” she muttered as she forced her attention to a stack of papers that needed grading.

Of course, there were other feelings she’d definitely never experienced in high school. Heat simmered through her when she remembered the way he’d moved his hands across her body. Her nipples rose in hard points as she recalled his hands on her, tender yet so skillful. She closed her eyes and saw again the smoldering looks he’d given her, as if he had never wanted anyone more.

Is this how it would have been if she and Dylan had been more than friends in high school? Would he have had this power to arouse her even when he wasn’t around? The ability to cloud her thoughts even when she wasn’t with him?

She shook her head. The whole point now was to get over any lingering obsession she had with Dylan Gates. To get the man out of her system for good.

She couldn’t hold back a grin. If she had a spectacular time doing so…

“Somebody had a good weekend, judging by that smile.” Mindy slipped into Taylor’s otherwise empty classroom and perched on the edge of the desk. “I gather the reunion was worth going to?”

Taylor attempted an indifferent shrug. “It was all right. I left early.” Which wasn’t exactly a lie.

“Did you see Dylan Gates? Was he as hot as ever? Did you talk to him?” Mindy’s questions came in a breathless rush.

“Dylan was there. We talked…a little.” She busied herself shuffling through the stack of student papers. She didn’t want to lie to her best friend, but this whole “experiment” with Dylan felt too new and unreal to talk about just yet.

“Uh-huh. Well, what did he say?” Mindy leaned toward her. “I want to hear all the dirty details, girlfriend, and I intend to harass you until I have them.”

Taylor glanced up at her friend. “Why are you so interested? I mean, you don’t even know Dylan.”

“I have no social life of my own, so I have to live vicariously through you.”

“And whose fault is that? I know a certain handsome principal who’d probably be thrilled to go out with you if he knew how you felt.”

Mindy sat up straighter. “This morning I volunteered to serve on a task force he’s chairing. I’m going to show him I can be as dedicated and hardworking as he is. Plus, this should give us a chance to get to know each other better.”

“Chicken!”

“You’re one to talk. Don’t think I don’t know you’re trying to change the subject. Come on. Tell me about Dylan Gates.”

“The man is twice as gorgeous as he ever was, I’ll tell you that.” Alyson swept into the room, trailing a paper banner painted with the slogan Stuff The Bears! behind her. Dressed in the school colors of blue and gold, Alyson looked like an escapee from cheerleading camp. She smirked at them. “He and Taylor danced one dance together and then they left.” She raised her eyebrows. “Together.”

Taylor squirmed, fighting the urge to wrap Alyson in that spirit banner like a modern-day mummy. “Dylan and I went outside to talk. It was too hot in the gym.”

“I’ll say it was hot.” Alyson’s laugh made Taylor cringe. “It didn’t take any time at all for that old flame to heat up, did it?”

Mindy clapped her hands together. “I knew it! So you two hit it off just like old times, huh?”

Taylor opened her lesson planner and pretended to study it. “It’s not like you think. Dylan and I are just friends.”

“Uh-huh. The way you were just friends back in school?” Alyson laughed. “The rest of us should be so lucky to have friends like that.” She draped the banner around her shoulders like a paper shawl. “I do hope you’ll manage to be a little more discreet than you were last time you two got together. After all, as a teacher you have a certain position in the community. You can’t expect to get away with being a wild glamour girl anymore. You owe it to the reputation of the school to act with a little more dignity.”

“Dignity. Of course.” Somehow, Taylor managed to keep a straight face.

Alyson threw one trailing end of the banner over her left shoulder. “I’d better get busy hanging the rest of these banners before the pep rally this afternoon.” She stalked from the room, the ends of the paper banner flapping behind her.

She was scarcely out the door before Mindy collapsed in a fit of laughter. Taylor joined her, both hands clapped over her mouth to try to keep the sound in. “Imagine—the p-perpetual cheerleader l-lecturing you on dignity!” Mindy gasped between giggles.

“While wrapped in that stupid banner!” Taylor coughed, trying to regain control of herself. The hilarious thing was, Alyson had no idea how ridiculous she looked.

“She does have a point, though.”

Taylor looked up to find Mindy’s gaze fixed on the classroom door, her expression sober. “Who? Alyson?”

Mindy nodded. “Teachers do have a public image to uphold. You blow your nose in this town and the next day everyone is talking about your bad cold. If you want to fool around with someone, you practically have to drive to the next town.”

Taylor shrugged, ignoring the mixture of guilt and apprehension that knotted her stomach. She and Dylan had already talked about this. They were going to be careful. And what did it matter if people thought she was up to something scandalous? She was going away in a few months, anyway.

“So what did you and Dylan talk about?” Mindy asked.

“Nothing important.” She manufactured a smile for her friend. “Honest.”

Mindy shook her head. “I don’t believe you, but I guess when you’re ready to tell me, you will.”

“I will.”

“Then I’d better get back to my classroom and try to convince twenty-five freshmen that algebra really is more important than the opposite sex.” She slid off the desk. “Though I tell you, some days I have my doubts.”

When Taylor was alone again, she picked up her cell phone. Time to see if Dylan was still willing to go through with this, now that he’d had a couple of days to reconsider.

DYLAN SPENT MONDAY morning moving the last of his books and supplies into his new office, debating whether or not he should call Taylor. She’d said she’d be in touch with him, but he wasn’t a man who liked to wait on other people.

Still, this whole thing had been her idea, so that meant she was calling the shots—at least for the time being. He’d volunteered to tag along and follow her lead.

A smile stole across his lips. As if that were any great hardship. Saturday night had been incredible. Better than any of the tortured fantasies that had plagued him as a teenager. He’d spent years kicking himself for never making a move on Taylor, but now he had to concede she’d been worth the wait.

Which rumor would they turn into reality next time? He opened a carton of law books and began arranging them on the shelves. Outside of the camping trip, he couldn’t remember much of the gossip that had circulated about them ten years ago. Maybe because he was already established in the community or because he was male, it hadn’t affected him as much. He seemed to recall something about a scene in the boys’ locker room shower…and wasn’t something supposed to have happened at the drive-in…?

“You look awfully serious for a man moving into a new place. Or is that your lawyer face?” Troy Sommers leaned around the doorway. “Thought I’d stop by and make sure everything was going okay.”

“Great.” Dylan shook Troy’s hand. “I’m almost ready to open for business.”

Troy looked around the room and nodded. “You’ll have more work than you can handle. Lots of folks around here still remember you from high school.”