Page 83 of Sweet Trouble
“We were going to clean it up,” a third boy put in quietly. “After she found it on Monday.”
The last kid kept his mouth shut. He looked like he was going to cry.
Jillian’s heart tugged. These kids were pulling about the most wholesome prank in the world. It probably took them all week just to get up the nerve.
“This part of the school is off-limits tonight,” Tripp said. “You’re only supposed to be in the auditorium. You’re going to be skating so many laps, Kowalski. And the rest of you…”
“Hang on,” Jillian heard herself say. “Just wait, wait, wait…”
Tripp turned to her in surprise and she marched forward, the group of boys parting before her like she might try to bite them.
Before she could overthink it, she hurried behind the counter and over to the secretary’s desk.
“Don’t call our parents,” one of the boys moaned.
She didn’t. Instead, she grabbed a set of keys and opened the door to the principal’s office as the boys, including Tripp, stared in wonder.
“Go on, boys,” she told them. “Just be careful.”
“Really?” the leader asked her.
“Really,” she told him. “Have some fun. You deserve it. But don’t hurt anything in here. Be respectful.”
The boys looked to each other with blazing eyes, and then began laughing and carrying their bags into the office and dumping them out to cover the floor.
She could only smile as the space filled to waist height with a rainbow of balloons. The boys must have been filling them all day and then some.
When they were finally finished, one boy snapped a picture with his cell phone, then they gathered up the trash bags and let Jillian lock the office again.
“Have a good night, boys,” she told them.
“Thank you,” the one Tripp had called Kowalski said.
“Yeah, thanks,” another boy added.
The other two chorused their thanks and then all four were taking off down the hallway back to the auditorium, laughing and yelling delightedly to each other about their epic prank.
“Now who’s the troublemaker?” Tripp asked, watching Jillian replace the key at the secretary’s desk.
“Didn’t you put a cow in the principal’s office?” she asked.
“No one could everprovethat,” Tripp said, winking. “I think I like this side of you.”
“Good,” she told him. “If you can change a little, then so can I. I’ve been thinking a lot lately, too. And I think it’s possible that I might be just a little bit too serious. Maybe we need to meet in the middlesometimes.”
“Is that so?” Tripp asked, moving behind the counter to join her.
“Life is short,” she told him, her heart speeding up as he approached. “We all deserve to have a little fun now and then.”
He didn’t respond. He only moved even closer, like an animal stalking its prey. Jillian felt that familiar spark of electricity, and she knew to her bones that he was about to kiss her.
“We should get back to the kids,” she said. But her traitorous feet wouldn’t move.
When he reached her, Tripp lifted one hand to cup her cheek before bending to brush her lips with his.
It was such a gentle kiss, but it still took her breath away.
“Come on,” he said gruffly. “We’d better get back to that dance before we need a chaperone of our own.”
