Crazy For You (20 page)

First of all, Quinn had cut her hair and he hated it.
Hated it.
It gave him a headache to look at it. She’d looked so sweet before, like a mother, like his girl, and now she was different, farther away from him, and he
hated it.

Of course, it would grow back. She was just going through a phase, and when they were back together, he’d say, “Please don’t cut your hair again,” and she’d be sweet like always, and it would grow back. -

He couldn’t wait.

In the meantime, the BP was getting out of control. “We’ll start a rumor she’s screwing around with Jason Barnes,” he told Bill, almost cackling he was so happy. “That’ll get Jason off that damn play and make her come back to you to save her job. Pretty good, huh?”

Bill looked at him as if he were demented. “Quinn wouldn’t get involved with a student.”

“We don’t know that.” Bobby shook his head. “She’s been acting strange and that kid is always with her. I wouldn’t be surprised—”

Bill glared at him and he broke off. Quinn was not involved with anybody else, especially not a student, especially not Jason Barnes who was practically a son to him, Quinn was not with anyone else, nobody but him.

“It’ll work,” Bobby said, and Bill shook his head but let him go. He had a plan of his own.

He’d realized finally that Quinn was going to be stubborn about owning a house after she’d withstood all the city inspections he’d sicced on her in the past two weeks, so he’d decided he’d just find a good house for them to share. He really didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before, it was so obvious, so he’d call Bucky at the real estate office and when he found the perfect house, he’d show it to her, and she’d realize his was the better choice, and they’d move in together, and her hair would grow back, and he could concentrate on the team again. Not that four losses were anything to worry about.

“I’ll take care of Quinn,” Bobby said, “you just concentrate on winning,” and Bill ignored him because he’d had another idea.

People thought Jason and Quinn were together because they were working on the play. Well,
he
could work on the play. He could see Quinn every night if he helped with the tech. With that and the house—

Things would be back the way they should be in no time.

“What is it this time, Greta?” Quinn asked.

“You’re ruining his life.” Greta kept typing, but she did manage to shoot Quinn a sympathetic glance. “At least life as he knows it. Go on in, he’s waiting.”

Bobby’s glare as she came in was even more self-righteous than usual.

“We have a problem,” Bobby said.

“Don’t we always?” Quinn didn’t try to keep the exasperation from her voice.

“As I’ve told you, Jason Barnes has been coming late to weightlifting and leaving early.” Bobby’s lips tightened and almost disappeared. “His involvement in this play is hurting his athletics. It has to stop.”

“And as I’ve told you, nobody’s forcing Jason to work on the play,” Quinn said. “I really don’t see what I have to do with this.”

“People have remarked on your relationship with this boy,” Bobby said. “I don’t want to have to call his parents.”

Quinn went cold; this wasn’t the BP being a twit, this was the BP being dangerous. “What people and what relationship and why would you call his parents?”

“People have seen the two of you together,” Bobby went on. “There’s a suggestion of intimacy.”

“He’s one of my students,” Quinn said. “He’s a great kid, but he’s a kid, that’s all.”

“You’ve been talking and laughing.” Bobby glowered at her. “He follows you around, and you encourage him and he’s not concentrating on the team. I’ve seen the way you—”

“I get it.” Quinn folded her arms and glared down at him. “You’re the ‘people,’ and you’re mad because you want Jason off the play and me back cooking dinner for Bill.” She wanted to kill the little tick where he sat; who was he to try this garbage on her?

“Others will notice,” Bobby said. “They probably—”

“Yeah, after you point it out so that even giving the kid homework will look like a come-on.” Quinn shook her head at him. “You’re not going to blackmail me with my reputation, Robert. I can’t believe you and Bill would stoop this low. You should be ashamed.”

“I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” Bobby blustered. “Nobody could ever accuse me of being too close to a student—”

That was for damn sure, they all thought he was a dweeb.

“—so the very fact that you’re vulnerable should tell you something.” He paused, smug, and she wanted to smack him because he was right. “You know better than this; teachers have to be above suspicion. You tell Jason he can’t work on that play anymore. Send him back to Bill where he belongs.”

“I’ll tell Jason you and Bill are concerned about his weightlifting,” Quinn said. “Anything else, you’re going to have to do. But I promise you this”—she leaned forward, intense because she was so furious—“you start any rumors about Jason and me, and I will file a grievance against you that will make Carl Brookner think you’re scum.”

He went white then, his brows drawing together in fury, and she felt better. It was the smug part that made her nuts.

“As long as you don’t say anything to anybody,” Quinn pointed out mildly, “you’re not vulnerable. And if you don’t say anything, there won’t be a problem because the only person around here with a slimy enough mind to even think I’d fool around with a student is you.”

“You be careful,” Bobby said. “You just be careful. People notice. People talk. They already think you’re crazy because you broke into the pound to get a dog.”

Quinn shook her head and left, pausing on her way out of the outer office to say to Greta, “You know, I think he’s losing it.”

“I’m sure of it,” Greta said. “Oh, and you had a message from the bank. Something about your loan.”

“Oh, hell,” Quinn said, but when she called, Barbara said, “I just wanted you to know your loan is through. You can come in any time and sign the papers.”

Quinn’s mind went blank. “My loan? What loan? I thought I needed more down payment.”

“It’s through,” Barbara said brightly. “Come in any time.”

That wasn’t like Bank Barbie, ducking a financial question. “I’ll come on my planning period,” Quinn said. “We’ll have a nice long talk.”

Barbara looked a little nervous in her neat gray gabardine suit when Quinn got to the bank. “I’m going to lunch in five minutes,” she told Quinn, sliding papers across the desk to her. “If you’ll just sign—”

Quinn nodded. “Good. I’ll come with you.”

“Well...” Barbara looked flustered.

“I want to know what happened,” Quinn said.

Barbara blushed. “I promised him I wouldn’t tell.”

“Him? Him who?”

Barbara looked over her shoulder and then whispered, “Nick.”

“Nick?”

“Shhhh.”

“We are definitely going to lunch,” Quinn said grimly.

Half an hour later at the Anchor Inn over French silk pie, Quinn was still grappling with the enormity of it. Nick wouldn’t speak to her, but he’d pony up half the down payment for her house. Exactly what train of thought had taken him there, she wasn’t sure, but she knew she was both grateful and furious—grateful that he cared that much and furious that he’d done it. Bill had gone behind her back to screw up the loan, that she was pretty sure of, and now Nick had gone back there, too, to rescue her, treating her as if she were a child.

“I can’t believe this,” she told Barbara.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Barbara said. “He’s taking care of you. You’re so lucky.”

“I’d rather take care of myself,” Quinn said. “I’d rather he treated me as if I were capable of taking care of myself.”

“Why?” Barbara looked at her so blankly that Quinn said, “I don’t get you. You have a real career at the bank, and you make good money. Why are you so fixated on getting a man to support you?”

Barbara drew back, two spots of color flaming in her cheeks. “I don’t need a man to support me. I’d never depend on a man for money.”

“Oh.” Quinn blinked at her. “Then why do you keep dating married men?”

“I
don
‘?,” Barbara said, and the distress on her face was real. “I truly don’t. I never date them until they’re separated. It’s just so hard to find somebody to take care of you, you know? When you find a good repairman, you know you’re lucky.”

Quinn thought back to the string of men who’d tromped through her house on all those inspections. She’d looked at every one of them and thought,
Are you taking me for a ride on this? Because I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.
“Okay, I’m with you there, but they end up living with you, Barbara.”

“Only three of them,” Barbara pointed out.

“You’re only twenty-eight,” Quinn said. “Three married men by the time you’re twenty-eight is statistically significant.”

“I don’t date them while they’re married,” Barbara insisted. “I’d never date a married man. It’s just that when I find somebody who’s really good and can fix things, I have a lot for him to do.”

“So he comes over a lot.” Quinn nodded for her to go on.

“And then sometimes they ask me out,” Barbara said. “But I always tell them that even though I’m really, really grateful for how hard they’ve worked, and that I think they’re wonderful, because they are, I couldn’t possibly go out with a married man. Because I couldn’t.”

“And then they leave their wives,” Quinn said, light dawning. She could just imagine Matthew, after umpteen years with Lois bitching at him, having a young, beautiful blonde telling him he was wonderful.

“And then for a while it’s wonderful,” Barbara said, almost to herself. “And I feel so safe, and I know who I am because I’m with this wonderful man who knows everything.” She came back to earth and said, “But it always turns out he doesn’t. It’s so disappointing because they always say they do, you know? But they don’t, and you can’t trust them after all.”

“I think you’re supposed to love them for themselves,” Quinn said.

“Well, I do,” Barbara said. “Until they fail me.”

Quinn went back to the essentials. “Why would you want somebody who would dump his wife?”

Barbara looked dumbfounded. “People get divorced all the time. Nick’s divorced, and you’re with him.”

“No, I’m not,” Quinn said. “He’s not even talking to me.”

“Then why did he pay your loan?” Barbara said. “He must think he’s with you.”

“I don’t know what he thinks,” Quinn said. “I’m not even sure what I think. My world is going through a weird phase.”

“Darla Ziegler is living with you, isn’t she?” Barbara said.

Quinn frowned at her.
“No.
She’s just staying temporarily to work on the school play.” That sounded so lame she could see why Barbara wouldn’t buy it, so she ditched the excuses and went for the truth. “She hasn’t left Max. They’re still married.”

“If I had somebody like Max, I wouldn’t move out and leave him alone,” Barbara said. “I heard he was at Bo’s last night. That’s terrible.”

Bo’s. Oh, hell. “They are not getting divorced, Barbara,” Quinn said. “Forget it.”

Barbara flushed, and Quinn felt sorry for her. “You’ll find somebody wonderful who knows a lot who’s not married,” Quinn told her. “It’s bound to happen.”

Later, driving back to school, she realized that had been pretty patronizing. It wasn’t as if she were doing any better than Barbara, really. Barbara was at least getting her house worked on. Quinn couldn’t even get the guy she wanted to pay attention to her (although he’d pay her down payment, the dumbass), and she couldn’t get the guy she didn’t want to leave her alone.
Fix your own life before you start on Barbara’s,
she thought.

She started with Jason. “Mr. Gloam is upset that you’re doing both the play and baseball.”

“I’m not the one screwing the team up,” Jason said.

“He seems to think that would be me,” Quinn told him. “He also implied that our relationship might be, uh, more than teacher and student.”

“He’s whacked,” Jason said.

Quinn moved back as Thea came out of the storeroom with more paper. “I think so, too, but he can make life hell for me, so I’d appreciate it if you’d stand at least twenty feet from me at all times.”

“You’re kidding.” Jason looked disgusted.

“What’s wrong?” Thea said, and Jason said, “Gloam thinks I’ve got the hots for McKenzie.”

“He’s just trying to blackmail me into kicking Jason off the crew,” Quinn told her. “He doesn’t really believe it.”

“You’re not going to kick me off, are you?” Jason said, and Quinn shook her head. “Good,” he said. “This place is crazy.” He looked at Thea as he said it, and then went back to his seat, only to get up a few minutes later and say to her, “Listen, Thea, if Gloam shows up at practice, I’m sticking to you. Maybe he’ll think I’m after you instead of McKenzie and get off her back.”

“Are you that good an actor?” Thea said coolly, and Jason shook his head and said, “This place is
definitely
crazy.”

“Not just this place,” Quinn said and thought about Nick. He’d paid off her loan. He should be thanked for that. Her pulse kicked up a little at the thought. Exciting wasn’t turning out to be as easy as she’d thought it would be, but it was definitely worth pursuing. After ignoring her for two weeks, Nick should definitely be thanked.

Whether he wanted to be or not.