Loves Me, Loves Me Not by Barbara Jean Hicks

Author:Barbara Jean Hicks [Hicks, Barbara Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-78600-5
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2011-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

It was Timothy’s opinion—or at least it had been Timothy’s opinion, Bonny corrected herself—that Simon Wyatt married Priscilla because Bonny was already taken. Of course, back then, Timothy had always said that any man who wasn’t crazy about Bonny Van Hooten Fairley was just plain crazy.

But Simon was still with his wife. Unlike Timothy.

Pris was a redhead too, though her hair was short, curly, and a shade darker than Bonny’s straight fall of copper. In Bonny’s opinion, the similarity ended with their red hair. She could never hope to be as patient, even-tempered, and mellow as Priscilla was. She and Simon had two boys, the older of whom Bonny knew without a doubt would have driven her to the brink by now.

Bonny sometimes wondered—though she banished the thought as soon as she realized it had entered her head—how a child with her and Timothy’s genes might have turned out.

“So I guess your ex is going to be around for a while, huh?” Priscilla commented, stepping to the counter with several greeting cards in hand.

Bonny’s head jerked up from her stack of mail. She frowned at the other redhead over the top of her reading glasses. “Be around for a while? What do you mean?”

Pris handed Bonny the cards and pulled her wallet from her purse. “He got the job.”

“Job? What job?”

Priscilla looked as puzzled as Bonny felt. “At the high school. You mean you didn’t know he was back in town to interview with Simon?”

Bonny was too shocked to try to hide it. “I had no idea!”

Pris gave her a sidelong look. “Of course he has other reasons, too, I hear …”

Bonny ignored the prompt. “What kind of work could Timothy do at the high school?” she wondered aloud, mystified at the news. Surely Pris must be mistaken.

“He’s taking Lonetta’s classes while she’s on pregnancy leave. And helping out with the cross-country team, which Simon’s ecstatic about.”

“What? Timothy?” She shook her head in denial. The coaching maybe, but … “Timothy’s not a teacher.”

“He’s not?” Priscilla looked even more puzzled. “But he has to be, Bonny. Simon couldn’t hire someone who didn’t have the proper credentials.”

“True,” another voice broke in. “Timothy’s fully certified, Bonny.”

Bonny looked over Pris’s shoulder to find Lonetta herself, shaking the rain off her coat and puffing from the effort of carrying her large belly around. Bonny hadn’t even heard the bell on the door.

What was she doing here midafternoon on a school day, anyhow?

“Doctor’s appointment,” Lonetta said, as if she could read Bonny’s mind—or at least as if she knew an ex-teacher would wonder. “I talked to your ex this morning, Bonny. Seems he went back to school for his teaching certificate a couple of years ago. Secondary, with math and science endorsements.”

“B-b-but …”

“I know,” Lonetta said. “Surprised me, too.”

Surprised was hardly a strong enough word for what Bonny was feeling. Floored, maybe. Totally flabbergasted.

And to tell the truth, a little sick to her stomach at the implications.

Timothy? With not only teaching credentials but a job at Pilchuck High?

So there was a reason he’d been asking around about rentals.

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