Package Deal (6 page)

“Because we all rub it for luck.
His hat’s copper.
” She grinned. “J
ust like
you and I
did
the other day
.
Shakespeare was a famous playwright, so he’s important to our department
.”
She
took
Cecelia
to the back of the small lecture hall where her students were bent over their bl
uebooks. “You can sit here
. But y
ou must be extra quiet while they are writing
.” She pointed to a seat well away from the students.
“
I have to wait ti
l
l everyone is done. Then w
e’ll go
home
, like we planned,
after the exam is over.”

“
Mom,
I like sitting back h
ere, even if it is kind of dark,
”
Cecelia whispered.
“Better than in your office.”

“Why is that?”

“
It’s so small, and that man—h
e
smells
like cigarettes or something
,
and he always
trie
s
to talk to
me wh
en
I’m reading.
”

“
If
he’
s in the office, just sit in the small chair. I’ll move it closer to the
filing cabinets
.”

“I think he’s
ick
y.”

“You just don’t know him
very well
.
Did you know h
e’s
from Wisconsin, not that fa
r
from where Grandma lives?
”

“I don’t think Grandma would like him, either.”

“Maybe not.”
She sighed, wishing she had
her own office space or had
been assigned
to share
wi
th one of the other, friendlier
faculty members. If only the renovations had been completed before her arrival.

Two days later, she was
in her office
reading bluebooks when the phone rang.

“Amanda?”

“Yes.”

“It’s Marcus Dunbar. I—”

“
Tour guide extraordinare
, right?”
You with
the
intense blue eyes
and the
buff
bod
.
She
smiled to herself
, glad he had called
.
H
e was s
ingle, good with kids,
and
a man who can put together a great article
, according to JJ and some of the other faculty.
She
forced herself to
stop
reviewing
what she liked about him, what excited her about
the possibility of
seeing him again.

“
Well, I do my best, ma’am. How’s that little girl of yours? Still reading the
Narnia
series?”

“She’s great,” she replied with a delighted laugh.

“
I wanted
to go over my article about you
and what you are doing. Can we meet
over
coffee,
maybe this afternoon?”

Amanda looked at her
schedule. “If we can
meet
at three. I have office hours from two to three.”

“How about if I come over at two? If a student asks to see you, I’ll
treat
Beatrice
to the latest campus
news
while I wait
.”

Amanda
chuckl
ed. “I’m sure Beatrice would love that. Sure, come on over at two.”

After her afternoon class, Amanda
pushed
Carlton’s
big computer
to the side
of the desk
and stacked his
papers
on
the wide window
sill
. The student who followed her back from class left after a few minutes. Marcus
knocked on the door
,
then entered and took a seat, pulling
his interview
from his briefcase.
His blue eyes sparkled at her.

She
tried to ignore his grin as she reached for the pages in his hand
. “Would you like me to read it over?”

“M
y newsman colle
agues would kick me out of the d
epartment if they knew I was allowing an interviewee to fact-check my work
.
” He
gave her the paper
s
, brushing his fingers against her hand
. “But
go ahead.”

Amanda read the p
ages
, marked a couple of sentences, and handed
the work
back to him.

“
You have a great eye for editing
. Maybe I should show you the other
article
s
.
H
ave you ever thought
of ditching the dowdy English department and coming over to j
ournalism
where we’re more up-to-date?”
He grinned at her
.

“I’m not sure my colleagues
would appreciate your description, and the answer is an emphatic ‘no
.’
I know how to e
dit because I have to know that,
when I’m doing magazine articles.”

He sat up in the
chair
as he
glanced toward
the partially
open
door. “You have a
custom
er. I’ll wait outside.” He rose, vacating
the seat
,
and
moved aside
as the student entered
.

“I’m sorry, Professor Gardner. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
The student’s
flip-
flops slapped against the floor as she sat down and pushed her rain cape off her shoulders.

“That’s ok
ay
,
Nancy
. What do you need?”

“I was wondering if I
could write my paper as a poem,
like Emily Dickinson.”

“A great idea! Let’s
see what you have
started
.” She t
ook the paper from the student, made a few suggestions, and returned it to her.“When it’s done, you’ll want to share that with the other
class
members.”

The student smiled shyly
at Marcus as she left.

He
slipped back into the office. “I’m glad she left so quickly. I need coffee or I’m going to fall asleep. Want to join me? It’s almost three.”
He
smirk
ed at her.

“I’d like to
, but Cecelia is due any minute,
so we can walk home.
When you called, I forgot she has a scout meeting tonight.
”

“
It won’t take long, and s
he can come, too. Does she like her coffee with cream and sugar, or just cream?”

Amanda
smil
ed
. “Neither. She
’ll want
soda, but I
prefer that she
have
milk
or maybe juice
.”

“You’re no fun
,
Amanda. Let her live a little.
P
op
now and then
won’t hurt her. And if she’s going to
the
Campus School, she probably
needs to learn to drink coffee,
so she can keep up with those kids
who stay up til
l
midnight because their
parents insist they get A
s in every class.”

“Cece
lia holds her own just fine,
without coffee. Besides, she’s my daughter,
and
I’ll decide what she drinks.”
But s
he grinned
as she
glanced sidelong at him.

“
You’re the boss
.” H
e reached for her hand
just
as Cecelia entered the office
.

“Hi, Cece. Are you ready to go?” Amanda pulled her hand
away
.

“Yes.
”
Her daughter
craned her neck to look
up
at
Marcus
.
“
You again
?”

“
Yes, me again. I wrote an article about
your mother
and she had to check it
.”

“Why couldn’t you check it yourself? She checks her
own stuff
—
what
she writes.”

“
You’
re a very smart girl. Sometimes
we
writers like to
get a second opinion
.”

“
Do
you work
here
, too
?”

He nodded.
“
Not in this department. I
n j
ournalism. Do you know what that makes me?”

“
A newspaper writer,” Cecelia replied, her blue eyes wide as she
star
ed
back
at
him
. “
You
need a haircut.”

“Cece! That wa
sn’t
polite
,” Amanda
gasped, feeling her face flush with embarrassment
.

“Don’t get on her case,
Professor
. She’s right.” Marcus brushed one hand through his
shaggy
hair. “Thank you for reminding me, Cecelia.” He bowed to the little girl, who giggled in response.

“Want to go for coffee
?
As a thank-
you for your mother
check
ing my article?
”

“Can I have coffee,
too,
Mom?”

“No, Cece, you can’t. But if you are q
uiet while
Professor Dunbar a
nd I are talk
ing, you can have a small glass of
juice, or maybe
soda.”

Marcus
gave
Cecelia
a thumbs-
up.

Her daughter
laughed out
lou
d.
“Ok
ay
. I’ll be quiet. Where are we going?”

“To the u
nion—it’s close
,” Marcus offered. “My treat.”

“Goody
,” Cecelia replied. “Come on, Mom, hurry up.” She stood by the door while Amanda
shov
ed
the papers she
had
to grade into her briefcase
.

The three of them left for the
student
union, Cecelia skipping beside Marcus.

As they walked, Amanda
imagin
ed
what
her
mother might say if she could see the three of them together
.
Marcus
definitely was
someone she
wanted to
get to know better.
It would make her mother happy
to know that she was seeing
someone,
maybe
even
getting close to
dating
again
.
Except she needed to be careful,
and
not
jump in
to something that might end badly. Especially with Cecelia in the picture.
Maybe
it
was
too soon to consider
getting involved
,
particularly
with a
nother faculty member.
For all she knew, Marcus might hit on every new instructor who appeared in September.
After all, this was her
first appointment.
She intended to
concentrate on
her classes and her writing
so that
she met, maybe even exc
e
e
ded, her
chairman’s expectations.
Still,
Cecelia seemed to like
Marcus
and he seemed to like her
. That was a
good thing. She could
never get close to someone
Cecelia did
n’t like.
Her daughter’s happiness
came first
.
But did
n’t
her daughter need the influence of a father figure in her life?