* * * * *
It’s been two weeks, Carol,” Gracie said as she sat down on the couch next to Carol who was cuddling her flopsy little dog and looking as lost as a child. “Why don’t you just call him, invite him over, lay it all out there and see what happens?”
“No.”
“Look, your even depressing your damn dog.” Gracie frowned as she watched the little dog’s ears perk up. “Fine, I’ll call him.”
“No!” Carol put Boo on the floor and turned to face Gracie. “Look, it’s over, okay? I don’t want to see him again. And I sure couldn’t face him as Carol Haley. He’s...he’s not my type.”
Gracie threw her head back and snorted. “You are so full of it.” She patted Carol’s shoulder, which made Carol glare at her.
“Drop it. Let me mope for a while, then I’ll be back to my normal cheery self.”
“Whatever you say,” Gracie said, but she was anything but convinced.
* * * * *
Tagg cursed under his breath as he pulled the car into the Cooper Valley High School visitor parking lot. He’d finally gotten Billy’s attitude under control, now one of his teachers wanted to see him about his son’s grades. Damn it all to hell!
This week had been horrible. The Richardo case was going nowhere. The junkie had managed to hire the highest priced criminal defense that his drug money could buy—which was the best in the state—and they were slapping every injunction on the case they could drum up. On top of that, he’d been right. Carol Barnes didn’t exist. At least he was sure he hadn’t spent the most incredible night of his life with the only Carol Barnes in Cooper. She was eighty-two years old and lived alone in a small townhouse with her five cats.
He’d gone back to Darby’s where he met her but Colin Darby, the owner who’d also been bartending that night, said he’d never seen her before or since. Figures. She’d been honest when she said it wasn’t something she’d done before. She obviously didn’t want to be found, but if he didn’t locate her soon he was going to go stark raving mad.
Throwing open his door with too much force, he got out and then slammed it. Hard. Damn women. All of them.
He went to the front office and they directed him to Mrs. Sheldon’s classroom. He knocked on the doorframe before entering through the open doorway. The pretty redhead he’d met at the play a couple weeks before looked up from her desk and smiled.
“Detective Taggert, nice to see you again.”
“Mrs. Sheldon,” Tagg said as walked toward her and extended his hand. “I’m sorry I’m running late. Work, ya know?”
Mrs. Sheldon nodded in understanding. “Please, have a seat.”
Tagg scrunched into the desk in the front row and Mrs. Sheldon sat down at the one beside it.
“Detective Taggert, I’ll get right to the point. I have concerns about Billy’s progress with the reading assignments. He seems to be a bit behind and when I’ve tried talking to him, he tells me that...” She sighed. “He has a hard time concentrating on reading when he’s at home.”
He raked his hand through his hair. Billy had told him the same thing not two weeks ago. The only real studying he got done was when he was at his house, not his mother’s. “Mrs. Sheldon, I... Things are not good at his mother’s house. I help him when I can, when he’s with me but...” He shrugged, weighted down by hopelessness.
He felt completely incompetent when it came to helping his son. He hated that feeling. Janice refused to let Billy live with him because she wanted the damn child support money. She said she’d fight him in court—something he couldn’t financially afford right now—if he tried to get Billy before he was sixteen. How he’d ever loved that woman was beyond him.
“Mr. Taggert...Detective, I’m sorry. I do understand familial problems. Your son isn’t the only child in my classes in this kind of situation, but I do have a possible solution.”
“I’ll take any help I can get, Mrs. Sheldon. Until next winter when he turns sixteen, there’s not much I can do.”
Mrs. Sheldon nodded. “Our librarian does private tutoring after school and on the weekends. She doesn’t charge as much as most and, in special cases, she doesn’t charge at all. I think if Billy had a good hour with her a few times a week, someplace quiet, either here or at Ms. Haley’s home where she does her weekend tutoring, his grades would greatly improve.”
Tagg felt the weight slowly lifting from his shoulders. “That would be great. His mother works until seven in the evenings, and he’s with me most weekends, anyway.”
“Would you care to meet Ms. Haley? I’m sure she’s in the library.”
Tagg smiled. Finally, something in his life was coming together. “I’d love to. Thank you.”
As they entered the deserted library, Mrs. Sheldon called out, “Ms. Haley?”
“I’m in non-fiction, Gracie, come on back.”
Every muscle in Tagg’s body tightened. That voice....
“There’s a parent here to meet you about tutoring his son,” Mrs. Sheldon called back.
“Be there in a sec.”
Tagg swallowed and whispered toward Mrs. Sheldon, “What’s Ms. Haley’s first name?”
Ms. Sheldon drew her brows together. “Carol.”
Tagg turned around to face the wall to hide his smile. She was a high school librarian. At his son’s school, no less. “I’ll be damned,” he whispered.
“Excuse me?” Mrs. Sheldon asked.
“Nothing,” he whispered, pretending interest in the poster of student’s pictures on the wall. And there she was, smack in the center of the collage surrounded by the kids. She hadn’t lied about that—she worked with children. His son, for one. He almost laughed aloud, remembering how Billy had wanted him to meet Ms. Haley, and how he’d thought she was hot.
In the picture, his sexy Carol Barnes was as prim and proper as could be in a long denim skirt, thick off-white sweater, and glasses. He didn’t know if he should kiss her or strangle her when she came out from the stacks.
“Detective,” Mrs. Sheldon said just over a whisper. “Would you like me to leave the two of you alone for a few moments?”
“Just one question.” Tagg threw her a grin. “Does Billy actually need the tutoring?”
“Yes, Detective, he does. I didn’t get you here completely under false pretense.” She grinned at him, and her bright green eyes lit with laughter.
Tagg remembered Carol telling him her cell phone had belonged to her friend. Tagg stifled his chuckle. “How mad is she going to be?”
“Furious.”
“You better stay then. Beyond wanting to discuss a personal problem with her, I want to get Billy the help.”
Gracie nodded. “Not a problem, Detective.”
“Call me Tagg.” He gave her a quick, conspiratorial wink.
Carol came around a tall bookshelf with a smile plastered on her gorgeous lips. Then she stopped dead in her tracks and stared, her smile disappearing as her mouth fell open. She wore a floppy blue Cooper Valley High logo sweatshirt and baggy, faded blue jeans that hid every delicious curve her body possessed. Her running shoes were inexpensive and well-worn.
“Ms. Haley,” Tagg said as he stepped toward her and extended his hand. Two could play this little game. “Nice to meet you. Mrs. Sheldon tells me you’re available to help my son, Billy, with some tutoring?”
Her mouth snapped closed. She shoved her thick, heavy-looking glasses up her pretty little nose, and those gorgeous light hazel eyes flashed at him as if she were ready to commit murder. It required all his training to keep a good poker face.
She took his hand and shook it a bit too hard. “Hello,” she said stiffly. “Who is your son?”
Gracie, bless her soft little heart, stepped right into the roll. “This is Detective Taggert. His son is Billy Taggert. The one I told you about with the concentration problems.”
“Oh, yes. I see the resemblance now. I know Billy.” She pulled her hand from his with a hard jerk, fury burning in her eyes. Served her
right. Hiding from him, making him think she was some kind of criminal when in reality she was the sweet librarian Billy had gushed about. She’d helped his son with a couple assignments. He’d actually been meaning to stop by and thank her in person.
“So, do you think you’d be able to spare a few hours over the next few weeks to work with Billy after school?” Gracie asked. “With finals coming up, he’s going to need the time to finish reading the assigned books.”
Carol sent Gracie a very clear I’m going to kill you glance, and shook her head. “I’m not sure. Because of finals, I’m pretty booked.”
“Ms. Haley, I’m desperate,” Tagg said in all sincerity. “I’m willing to pay whatever it is you charge.”
Carol glanced between Gracie and Tagg, looking like she didn’t know which of them she wanted to throttle first.
Like a little hair dye and colored contacts would fool him. Ha! He hadn’t spent fifteen years with the Cooper police force for nothing. Payback is a bitch, sweetheart.
“Let me check my schedule,” she finally said as she stepped behind the checkout counter and pulled out her purse. She opened a day runner and flipped a few pages. “All right. Tomorrow from three to five, I’m open. How much time will he need?” she asked, directing the question toward Gracie.
“I’d say a good twenty hours before finals.”
Carol made a cute little scrunched up face that made Tagg want to grab her and kiss her, to bend her sexy little body over the counter and have his way with her. He wanted pull the band from her hair to rid her head of the tight granny knot. To feel its silky mass over his hand, his arm. His body.
“Okay. How about if we just settle on tomorrow. Gracie—Mrs. Sheldon can give you my address. By the time Billy arrives, I’ll have a schedule lined out.”
“Thank you, Ms. Haley. I owe you one.” Tagg grinned at her and watched her eyes narrow into a glare.
“You don’t owe me anything except seven-fifty an hour.” Her tone was so cold, he could’ve sworn she’d start spitting ice.
“Isn’t that a bit on the cheap side?” he asked.
Gracie answered. “I keep telling her that. She insists that she would do anything for the kids. She’s a very sweet person.”
Tagg nodded his agreement. Sweet and shy and cute and mad as hornet right now. He didn’t envy Gracie for having to deal with Carol’s fire first. He’d take care of her later.
Extending his hand to Carol, he said, “I really do appreciate your helping Billy.”
She shook his hand and pulled back as quickly as possible. “Tomorrow at three.”
Tagg nodded and turned toward Gracie as they walked from the library. They’d almost reached Gracie’s classroom when the fiery-haired woman burst out laughing. Tagg smiled and closed the classroom door behind them.
“You should have gone into law,” he said. “I’ve never seen anyone hold a straight face as well as you just did.”
“I think I’ve got a hole in my cheek from biting it so hard. She’s going to kill me, and then come after you.”
“Do you really think she believes I didn’t recognize her?”
“From the look on her face, she bought it.” Gracie sat down in the squeaky office chair behind the big wooden desk. “Now, before we discuss the books Billy needs to read, tell me Tagg, what are your intentions with my best friend?”
Tagg leaned against the edge of the desk facing Billy’s teacher, and grinned. “First, I’m going to make her pay for putting me through hell for the past three weeks.” He ran his hand through his hair and sent her a smile as thoughts of retribution grew in his mind. “Then I’m going to ask her how she feels about getting involved with a cop.”
Chapter Eleven
“How could you have done that to me?” Carol whined into the phone.
“Well, shit, Carol,” Gracie said, sounding completely exasperated. “How was I to know he really wouldn’t recognize you?”
“I told you he wouldn’t. You could’ve gotten Peggy or Joe to do the tutoring. You know they need the work more than I do. Now I have to see him. Here. In my apartment.”
“Maybe he’ll just drop Billy off and leave.”
“You don’t know Tagg. He takes his parenting very seriously. That boy will be so much better off once he’s moved in with him and away from that...that...woman who is supposed to be his mother.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” Gracie said on a sigh. “I really thought—”
“My pizza’s here, the doorbell just rang. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Bye. Good luck.”
“What?” But Gracie had already hung up.
Carol grabbed the money off the kitchen table for her extra, extra cheese and pepperoni pizza. Just what the doctor ordered for a broken heart. That, along with the tub of rocky road in the freezer, should get her through the night. She pulled open the door. “Ta—Detective?”
“Hello, Ms. Haley. I hope I’m not disturbing you,” Tagg said with a shy, sexy smile. “I was hoping you might have a few minutes to discuss Billy.” He lifted up the small stack of books in his hands. The books Billy needed to read. “Mrs. Sheldon didn’t give me your phone number, so I thought I’d drop by.”
Carol wanted to scream. To grab him by the collar and shake him and yell at him. To bury her nose against his throat and breathe in his crisp, spicy scent and have him draw her back into his arms. Okay, so she never really believed he wouldn’t recognize her if he saw her again. That’s why she’d hid in that smelly broom closet during the play’s intermission. But he hadn’t, and she hated him for it. After the night they’d spent together…
She tucked the bills into her jeans pocket and stepped aside. “Come on in.” Boo came running from the bedroom, barking a happy greeting.
Tagg bent down and scratched Boo’s ears as he glanced around the apartment.
“Please, have a seat at the table in the kitchen. Coffee?”
“Mm, please. Were you expecting someone?” He laid the books on the table and sat down.
“I have a pizza on the way.” She set a mug of coffee in front of him. “What is it you needed to discuss?”
“I’m worried about Billy. You see, his mother and I split a couple years ago and he lives with her.”
Nodding, Carol slid into the seat opposite him. “Billy’s talked to me about her. Mrs. Sheldon told me a bit more. I know he doesn’t get much parental supervision when he’s with her and that he has difficulty... Well, Detective, let’s just say I understand.”
“Thank you.” He sipped the coffee. “I talked to him this evening on the phone, and he told me he’d only read one of the assigned books. Mrs. Sheldon said she’d be happy to retest him on the books he’d failed the tests on. I was just wondering if you could tell me what I need to do to help him.”
Carol’s heart melted even more toward the man, despite being furious with him. He cared so deeply for Billy. She pushed her glasses back up her nose. Now was not the time for soft, mushy feelings toward Detective Taggert.
“The best way to help him is to just be there for him. If all he needs to do is read, be in the same room. Question him on the books. Show interest. But I’m sure you do that now.”
Tagg nodded.
“You’ve read these?”
“Years ago. When I was in high school.” He set the coffee mug down and met her gaze.
Carol’s mind scattered when those deep blue eyes focused on her. Her face heated under his gaze. Stop it! He thinks your some old maid librarian! “Maybe you should reread them.”
“Would you mind if I sat in on the tutoring sessions?”
Carol opened her mouth to say that was not a good idea, but she couldn’t use her own feelings toward Tagg to inhibit Billy’s learning. “Sure.”
“You have very beautiful eyes.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your eyes. They’re incredible.”
“Detective,” she said as she stood and moved out of the kitchen.
<
br /> The doorbell rang and she rushed to get it. She paid for the pizza and laid the huge box on the kitchen counter.
“You are expecting company.”
“I’m hungry,” she snapped.
Tagg raised that one eyebrow at her. Darn him. She shoved her glasses up her nose. “Was there something else you needed?” she asked, wanting him to leave.
“Yes, actually. I was wondering if you’d have dinner with me.”
“No. I can’t. I have a very busy schedule. As you can see, this is what I do for dinner most evenings.” She motioned toward the pizza box.
Tagg came out of his chair and moved toward her. “But, Ms. Haley, I would really like to see you again. Ever since meeting you this afternoon... I don’t know, I could swear I know you from somewhere.”
“You’ll see me when you bring Billy for tutoring.” Carol backed into the counter. Tagg kept moving toward her.
“I’d like to see you on a personal level. I really do appreciate your helping Billy, but I’d like to get to know the real Ms. Haley, not just the high school librarian.”
Carol gritted her teeth. So, it was a line he used a lot, huh? She supposed there were probably a lot of women he’d like to get to know better. Bastard.
“I think you better leave, Detective Taggert.”
“Please, Ms. Haley, call me Tagg.”
“I’d rather not.”
“What’s your first name?”
“Detective, I am not interested in...in...in whatever it is you have in mind. Now please leave.”
She watched his shoulders droop, and he stepped back. Finally she could breathe. If he’d taken one step closer she’d probably have thrown herself into his arms.
“Well, can’t say I didn’t try.” He gave her that lopsided grin that made her tummy tickle as he picked up the books from the table. “I have something for you, though,” he said as he reached inside his sports coat.
Anna Leigh Keaton & Madison Layle - Serve & Protect 02 - One Night of Paradise Page 8