Page 3 of The Do-Over Girl

“I know, I know. But this was different. I needed to test him, to see if a long-term relationship was going to work between us.” I pause. “Though I would have waited until we were at home so the entire office didn’t witness my…”

“Humiliation?”

“No. Maybe. Not exactly. My ... departure on poor terms. But how did I know he was going to take it a step too far and fire me on the spot?”

“You know something? I think you’re lucky you got out of your relationship with boring Brad—and the job too.”

I snort. “So lucky. But the luckiest thing about it is that I have you for a friend. You’ve given me a place to work, arranged a place for me to stay and given me a soft landing when it could have been far worse.”

It’s not that I don’t have the money to get my own apartment or the connections to get another job in New York City—let Brad try and enforce the non-compete clause. But it’s that I felt so adrift and Nikki makes me feel like I belong somewhere.

She looks down and chews her lip. I know that look. She’s hiding something—something I’m not going to like.

“What are you not telling me? What surprise could possibly be as bad as Nash Lewis working here as coach?”

“There is one more thing,” she says, barely meeting my eyes and now I’m worried.

“Are you dying?”

She shakes her head and aims a sheepish smile at me. “You’ll be working with him as co-rainmakers.”

“Co-rainmakers?”

“We’re counting on you two to take charge of raising the money to keep the school going. If we don’t raise five million dollars by the end of the hockey season, the board says this is the last year for Andrews Point Academy. And when we close, there will be no more high school in this town. The kids will have to travel an hour or more to go to the regional high school. If what the expert from the Chamber of Commerce says is true, the whole town could turn into a ghost town in a few years.”

I blow out a whistle as it feels like her words have taken a deep bite out of my gut. “No pressure there. What about you and Archie? What are you doing to raise money? And what about the original trust?”

“We’ve been working at raising money all along—that’s how we got into this mess. The Andrews Trust ran out two years ago and we can’t raise tuition anymore. None of us have the contacts or public relations savvy that you do.”

“Thank you. This challenge is kind of right up my alley.”

“Right—I knew you’d love the challenge.”

“Five million bucks in less than a year for a remote private school in a small town in Maine is more than a challenge, Nikki. I’m not sure what our sales pitch should be or if we have anything to sell.”

She sighs and lifts her shoulders. “That’s where Nash comes in. He’ll turn the hockey team into a winner, and we can go with that—plus, we can work with his celebrity status.”

“I suppose. Does he know we’ll be exploiting him?” I give her an evil smile.

“Yes he does. He’s on board.”

I pause and work up my courage to ask this next question. “Did he know I was coming back to Andrews Point?”

She nods and scrunches her mouth to stop herself from smiling.

“I take back everything nice I said about what a good friend you are.”

She laughs and comes around the desk to put an arm around me. “It won’t be so bad. If things don’t work out, at least we had a fun year together and then you can go back to New York City and get another job with a better PR company. Or…”

“Or what?”

“Or you could write that novel you’ve always wanted to write but were too busy making money to do it.”

“Hmm. Another silver lining. You are a treasure—even if you are a school principal who wears the worst glasses and most un-chic suit I ever saw.”

She laughs. She’s impossible to mock insult because she truly doesn’t take anything I say seriously unless I’m telling her that I love her like a sister.

“Let’s get out of here. I have some unpacking to do.”