Winning the Teacher's Heart. Jean C. Gordon
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Название: Winning the Teacher's Heart
Автор: Jean C. Gordon
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon Love Inspired
isbn: 9781474032056
isbn:
Yep, way too friendly, which he couldn’t say about Becca, given her dark frown. Unless she was jealous of Lori. They had been rivals in school. He yanked out the chair across the table from Becca. Only in his mind. The source of Becca’s frown more likely could be chalked up to his plans for the racing school and Lori getting in the way of Becca speaking her mind about it.
He slid into the chair and wrapped his hands around the coffee mug. “I take it you want to talk about the track.”
“I do.” The sip of coffee she took sweetened her frown into what could almost be called a smile. “I hope you don’t mind that I ordered your coffee. It’s a regular.” She glanced at the specialty coffee he’d bought. “But maybe you’d like something different.”
He lifted the bag of coffee. “This is for Connor. I’m good with anything black that doesn’t taste like motor oil.”
She took another sip of her coffee and gazed at him over the rim of the cup, her brown eyes colored with apprehension. “The Zoning Board’s decision surprised you.”
He bit his tongue before he said something he’d regret. “Right. The town attorney had told my attorney everything looked like a go. That there wouldn’t be a need for a public hearing.”
“That’s my fault.”
He took a healthy draw of his coffee and waited.
“I didn’t get the agenda for the meeting until yesterday afternoon, and what I got didn’t have a lot of details. With work and the kids, I didn’t have time to do any research. Evidently, the other board members and the town attorney already had discussed it. Tonight was my first board meeting.”
“Yeah. Dan, my attorney, and I had felt out the town building inspector about the project a while ago, before I’d decided on a spot to build it.”
“That spot being my backyard.”
“Not exactly your backyard.” He’d made a tactical error not sounding out the property owners on Conifer Road about his idea when Bert had first written him about his intention to leave him the acreage. But it had seemed like everything was coming together for him. He looked across the table. Until now.
“Close enough for me and some of my neighbors to have some questions.”
“Ask away.” He leaned back in his seat.
“Why? Why come back here when you could go anywhere?”
He worked to maintain his casual pose, while a small blaze lit inside him. From her words, it sounded to him as if she was as opposed to him being in Paradox Lake as she was to him building his racing school here. He’d thought better of her. Correction. He’d thought better of the image of Becca he held in his head from high school. An image that could be all wrong.
“Yes, I could go anywhere. I could build the school and motocross track here and run it from somewhere else. Let me ask you a question. Is it the racing school or me you have a problem with?”
Becca blanched and he slunk down in his chair. What had gotten into him, jumping to a dumb conclusion like that? He knew. He wanted this project to succeed with the same competitive hunger that had made him a champion racer. And the stakes here were greater than any race’s.
“I’m sorry if that’s how I sounded.”
The contrition in her voice tore at him worse than her misinterpreted question.
“I’ll start over. My neighbors and I have some valid concerns about a motocross track near our homes, some of the same concerns we had when Bert Miller was considering selling his property to a syndicate bidding on a state gambling license.”
Becca was equating his racing school for needy kids to a gambling casino? The banked flame in his belly reignited.
“Other people in the community may have issues, too. I thought it would help me if I knew why you wanted to build it here.”
“Understandable. I...”
The ring of her cell phone interrupted him.
She pulled the phone from her pocket and glanced at it. “I have to take it. It could be about the kids.”
Jared finished his coffee while Becca listened to the person at the other end of the call.
“That was Debbie. My daughter’s running a temperature. I have to go.”
“I hope Ari’s okay.”
Becca stood and scooped up her purse. “It’s probably just a summer cold.”
He pushed his chair back. “Let me know if you want to get together to talk about your concerns before the public forum. I can show you the plans and tell you more about them.”
“Okay. I’ll call you at Connor’s. You do understand that it’s not personal.”
“Of course.” He walked her out and they parted at her car. The problem was that it was personal for him—both his reasons for wanting to build the school and track in Paradox Lake and the urge he’d had earlier to pull Becca into his arms and comfort her when she’d blanched at his sharp question.
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