Lacing her fingers together, Millie gave her friend a sympathetic stare. Which wasn’t very good. These days, she had a hard time finding sympathy for anyone. “Do you need a glass of whisky or something before we can get to the point?”
“Mari’s been partying with the kids on the sly for the last year or so.” Kate wrung her hands together, then flattened her palms on the tops of her thighs. “She was involved with one of the boys on the football team over the winter, but he apparently broke up with her.”
“Too clingy?”
“Too kinky.” Kate shuddered, then laughed at herself. “Sorry, it’s just… Can you imagine how freaky you’d have to be to turn some nineteen-year-old boy off? Guys are walking boners at his age.”
Millie forced herself to lower her eyebrows. She’d be damned if she’d let Mari Ransom and her antics force her to become reliant on injectable fillers. “I don’t even know what to say.”
Wearing a grim smile of determination, Kate plunged ahead. “The girls said all she did was brag about how she liked to try new things and complain about how boring Coach Ransom was in bed.” She grimaced. “Their words.”
“Her opinion,” Millie added.
Kate sat up straight in the chair. “Her loss. Ty’s a good man, Mil. I wouldn’t have let him come within five miles of you if he wasn’t.”
Her friend’s proclamation startled a laugh from her. “You’re my gatekeeper?”
“I’m your friend.” Kate rose from the chair and strode to the door. “And I’m a goddamn giantess. It’s my job to protect you mere mortals,” she said with a grin that glinted. “He never woulda gotten past me if I didn’t want him to.”
“Katie—”
Kate made a slicing motion with her hand, effectively cutting off any protest. “No. She’s not going to keep pulling this crap. Not on him, and definitely not on you.”
“This has nothing to do with me.”
“Right, because you aren’t in love with the guy or anything,” Kate snarked.
“I’m not.” The denial landed so far short of the truth it burst like a water balloon. The seconds ticked by as every lie Millie had ever told herself or anyone else concerning her relationship with Ty splattered all over the floor. “I don’t want to be.”
Kate’s answering smile was sympathetic. “Oh, I know.”
Desperate for a subject change, Millie waved her hand in dismissal. “First things first.”
“I have the names, but I’d rather not write them down.” Kate wrinkled her nose in distaste. “We have tons of photographic evidence, thanks to her selfie addiction. Let’s give Ty’s lawyer a chance to reason with her like she’s a grown-up before we drag students into the mix. I think the fewer people who know what’s going on, the better.”
“I agree.”
Kate stopped when she reached the door. “But someone better clue the AD in before any of this caca goes kablooey.” She smirked. “We both know Mike isn’t a real big fan of surprises.”
“No, he’s not” came a deep voice from the hall. As if conjured, the athletic director stopped in the doorway just behind Kate.
“M-Mike. I didn’t… You were—” Kate stopped short, took a huffy breath, then concluded with a brisk, “Hi.”
Millie chuckled as she watched her friend’s cheeks flush bright red. Nothing better than seeing her kick-ass giantess reduced to a stammering kid caught in the hall without a pass. Their athletic director seemed to enjoy her discomfiture too. Millie couldn’t blame him, really. Kate and Danny’s power play last spring had wedged the man solidly between a rock and a hard place. Mike and Danny had been good friends since their college playing days. Their interwoven personal and professional lives meant Kate, not a socially adept woman to start, had to navigate a whole minefield of awkward each time she encountered her boss.
“Hi, Kate,” Director Samlin replied mildly. Poking his head around her guardian, he nodded to Millie. “Hey, Mil.”
She gave him a regal nod. “Mike.”
Smirking, he nudged Kate, demanding a more equal share of the narrow doorway. “I wanted to let you know Ty came by my office this morning.” Seemingly enjoying their uneasy interest, he let the announcement hang. “He gave me the lowdown on the situation with his ex-wife.” He paused, then heaved a long-suffering sigh. Mike clearly hadn’t forgotten the trouble Kate’s relationship with Danny had given him or the role Millie played in their escapades. “Also, he told me you two are…involved.”
Millie sat up straighter. “I’m—”
He held up a preemptory hand. “I really don’t want to know the details.” Kate snorted, and he manufactured another one of those forbidding stares. “It’s nice to be informed about what’s going on in my programs.”
Millie sighed and pushed back from her desk. “Listen, I don’t want—”
Tilting her head toward Mike, Kate spoke out of the side of her mouth but loud enough to be sure she was heard. “She’s totally in denial about the relationship thing.”
“I am not,” Millie retorted hotly.
Kate grinned, then elbowed their boss in the ribs. “Ha! She admitted it! They’re in a relationship,” she crowed.
Growling her frustration, Millie thrust out an arm, pointing in the direction of Kate’s office. “Go. Out. Bye!”
“So articulate,” Kate murmured with mock admiration. “No wonder you hired her. She’s a linguistic genius.”
“Get!”
Kate blew her a kiss, then ducked out of the doorway, the sound of her throaty laughter lingering after she was gone. Letting out a breath, Millie reclaimed her chair, then gestured for the AD to take the seat her friend had abandoned. “She’s a menace.”
“Danny’s influence. She was always so easygoing before.”
Millie cocked an eyebrow. “Then you have no one to blame but yourself. If you hadn’t hired him, he wouldn’t have had the chance to come in here and warp my friend with his love juju.”
“Love juju?”
“You’re the one who said she hasn’t been the same,” Millie replied with a zing. “And you’re right.” She let her smile spread slowly. “She’s better. But don’t tell her I
