Chaperoning Paris (Collins Brothers) Read online

  Closing his palm over the classroom door handle, he pushed the door open.

  Gigi stared up. The color drained from her face. She turned away and straightened her desk. Then she met his gaze and raised her chin. “You get to roam the halls here, Sean? Schools are secure buildings.”

  “I own this school now.” No sense beating around the bush.

  “You—” She stopped, then shook her head. “Why would you own a school? You hated learning when we were growing up.”

  “I could ask you the same thing. Why do you work here?”

  A cough caught in her throat then she dropped her shoulders. “Am I fired?”

  “Should you be?” His voice deepened as her nearness brought back memories.

  Her lower jaw quivered. “I’ve changed the entire French programming. My students won awards unheard of in this state.”

  An uncomfortable silence stretched before them and his eyes never flinched. He studied Gigi. The earnest, wide-eyed woman that stared at him brought back images of the girl on the tire swings with pigtails in her hair, and the way she put stickers on his face. His childhood love for her had begun that day.

  Now Gigi crossed her arms around her waist. “If I’m fired, I have a few things to pack up.”

  “You’re not fired, Gigi.” He took a step closer, and offered his hand to comfort her.

  She brushed his hand and pushed back. An electrical spark bolted through him. Damn. After all these years she could still affect him that way. He stepped back, deliberately severing the connection. “Not unless you want to be. Have dinner with me tonight. Convince me about your trip to Paris.”

  “Dinner?” she asked. “You can’t be serious.”

  “We can go to a local diner, nothing fancy. I don’t want to keep you here longer than necessary. You can get me the details about the trip and give me time to make the arrangements afterwards?” He’d almost convinced himself. This would be a business dinner. Nothing more.

  “Are you sure? Murray planned on canceling the trip to Paris.”

  Sean swallowed. “I’m not him, and you don’t know me these days. I’m not the same man you knew, Gigi.”

  She closed her eyes. “All right. Give me a few minutes and tell me where. Driving with you leaves me stranded so I’d prefer to drive myself.”

  Why would she bring up that night now?

  “You walked home on your own accord that night, Gigi. I followed you every step you took, offering you a ride.”

  “I know you did, Sean.” She stared down, and wiped her eyes.

  Was she crying? Then he heard her mumbling. What was she saying? He strained to hear her words. “You were hard, awful, and polite. Part of me never wanted to see you again.”

  “It’s the same for me, but we have to move on. The past is behind us.” Easy words, but could he?

  She sniffled then raised her head. Her face was dry as she stared back at him. “Patrick okay?”

  Last July, his son, Patrick, had ended up at Gigi’s house because he’d been upset that his mother had died and his son feared his father might also die. Patrick was all he had left.

  He hadn’t known Gigi had returned to town until his mother had told him who’d found his missing boy. A war of emotions had run through him that day, and he had avoided Gigi ever since. He sighed then told her, “I never thanked you, and I should have.”

  “You tried when you showed up. I understood.” She stood up to meet him. “We both have regrets, Sean. I’ll meet you down the street at the diner. Give me ten minutes to pack up.”

  A clear message for him to leave now. He nodded. “Great. I look forward to hearing your plans for the trip.”

  He admitted to himself he looked forward to seeing her smile, too. So how did he make his heart stop pounding near Gigi Dumont?

  Chapter 2

  Gigi’s neck stiffened but she finished tidying up her classroom, turned off the lights, and then left. What was she thinking? She would be eating dinner with the man who by all observable actions hated her for what she had done. She straightened her skirt with her palms. And she had no right to be attracted to him yet her legs were still weak from speaking to him a moment ago.

  Once she made it to the office, she ran her hand through her hair and headed for the door. She would be late for her date with her past. Near the office sign-out sheet, she accidentally dropped her keys. She swooped down to pick them up when she saw Mattie waddle out, her arms piled high with papers and boxes. Mattie worked on attendance, wore a poker face at all times with the students, but she knew more about the school than anyone else.

  “Ms. Dumont, can you help me carry a few things to my car?” Mattie asked.

  “Of course.”

  Sean could wait a few minutes. How was it he ended up buying this school? He made zero sense.

  Gigi took a brown box of papers from the woman’s hands. “Are you parked in the faculty lot?”

  “Yes, of course.” Mattie’s day must have been hectic. She brought a wheeled cart full of papers from the office and, trailing it behind her, she followed Gigi.

  Gigi stared at the parking lot door, but fell back to walk beside the older lady.

  Mattie smiled. “Quite a lot of commotion in the office today. Principal Murray getting fired and Mr. Collins returning from the dead then turning out to be the new owner. The whole office is in an uproar.”

  “Sean worked here before?” “You do know him then. I thought so from how he reacted when he saw you in Principal Murray’s office.”

  Every hair on her arms and legs rose, and Gigi could swear she heard her heartbeat. “How did he react?” She’d been upset with Murray for threatening to cancel the Paris trip and hadn’t paid much attention to Sean that moment.

  “If you don’t know, I ain’t telling you.” Maddie turned her face sideways and continued to gaze in his eyes. “Are you going to Paris tomorrow with your students?”

  “I think so. I hope so.” Sighing, Gigi opened the parking lot door, held it for Maddie, and stared up at the sky. “I’m going to meet Sean to beg for his approval. It’s not my fault the law changed and Murray decided to cancel nonrefundable tickets and told me I need to tell parents tonight. He had no answers and offered no other solutions.”

  “That would cause every parent at the school to call in demanding someone’s head on a platter.”

  “Yes, and guess whose head it’ll be.”

  Mattie’s eyes went wide. “Do you think Mr. Collins will find a solution other than firing you?”

  “If he fires me, it wouldn’t be because of the trip to Paris.” Gigi couldn’t meet Mattie’s gaze. “He and I dated in high school. We broke up and never saw each other again. It’s been easy to avoid him even if his family does live next door to me. We have our separate paths, different times we leave the house.”

  “Now he’s the boss.”

  They walked through the corridor, out the door, and faced the afternoon sun.

  “He’s single. You’re single. He’s gorgeous, and he’s under your skin. Go for it,” Mattie encouraged.

  “Sean Collins and I will never get back together.” Gigi stared straight ahead, but felt the heat rise in her face. “I want to take my students to Paris. This is the reason we’re eating together, nothing more.”

  “If you say so.”

  As they neared Mattie’s car, Gigi’s eyes gazed at Gerard Collins’ fancy car as it passed out of the front gate. Shouldn’t he have left already? Had Sean brought his brother to serve as backup to Murray? Gigi crossed her fingers. If there were two Collins at dinner tonight, then his brother would create a buffer between them. Her stomach tightened. Sean couldn’t bring up the past if Gerard was there. Tonight the trip mattered, not her and Sean’s broken hearts.

  Gigi finished packing the boxes in Mattie’s backseat then reached for the wheeled bag.

  “Thanks, dear. I might not know the Collins, but you do. Please put in a good word for me and the rest of us at school. Nerves are going to
be on edge in the coming weeks during this change of ownership. And in the middle of the third quarter in the school year,” Mattie said, shaking her head.

  Gigi closed the backseat door for her without saying a word.

  “Mr. Murray never ran the place right,” Mattie continued, “and Mr. Collins has a reputation for business and being a good teacher.”

  Why had Mr.-Richer-than-the-rest-of-the-world-population ever worked in a school setting? Sean preferred math, not people. She kept her opinion to herself. “Sean’s fair-minded. I can’t imagine him pushing any good people out. Read Fortune 500 tonight. Six months ago there was a story about his health and—”

  Mattie put her hand on Gigi’s arm. “Stop procrastinating. Have fun on your date, dear. You’re a good egg.”

  “Thanks, but it’s not a date,” Gigi reminded her.

  “Sure, dearie. And one you’re late for.” Mattie opened her car door on the driver’s side. “You might want to put on lipstick before you see him.”

  Gigi nodded to Mattie then hurried to her car. Once inside, she practiced her breathing techniques to release the tension in her body. Her therapist had ordered her to stay calm. He’d also said to forgive herself. Her body flashed hot. Sean would never forgive her for what she’d done.

  Now for the sake of her students and her reputation as a groundbreaking teacher, she had to face him. Deep breath in, long exhale out. Burying her mother hadn’t been this soul-stealing.

  Gigi stared as Mattie’s car went through the gates, then started her car. Time to face the music, however discordant.

  A few minutes later, Gigi found a spot near the local small-town diner. Her eyes darted around and she spotted the sleek silver Aston Martin again. She rolled her shoulders. It might be easier to face the Collins clan, admit her sins, get the trip to Paris figured out, then make it home to catch up on her saved television shows for the week and relax.

  Her stretch reminded her that her body still burned. Sean’s brief touch earlier had left her simmering. She held her pocketbook closer to her body. He’d not touch her again.

  Gigi’s chin lowered to her neck. To stop dwelling on the past, she reached into the backseat and felt around for her emergency heels and slipped them on.

  At least she’d walk like a lady. She had given up any chance of happy-ever-after with Sean at age seventeen. In her panic, she’d broken up with him then taken off to San Francisco, then New York, then Amsterdam, and finally had settled down in Paris, all before her eighteenth birthday. Ten years hadn’t taken the pain away.

  Finally, she stepped out of the care and headed for the door.

  The bell dinged above her head and she gazed around. Her eyes stared at Sean sitting in a booth. Alone. Memories came flooding back of the many times they had snuck out of their high school to grab breakfast in a similar place. How they’d giggled and laughed, fully entrenched in the feelings of young love. Sean had been cute in high school. She licked her lips and stared. The years had enriched his appearance, transforming him from cute to drop-dead gorgeous. No one in the place could hold a candle to him.

  She lowered her hands down her side, took one long, soothing breath, then she marched to the executioner’s chair. Without a glance at him, she plopped down, and picked up the menu.

  He stood to greet her then sat back down. She stared at her menu, ignoring his chivalry.

  He cleared his throat. “Gigi, you surprised me today.”

  “Ditto that, baby.” A wave of heat flashed to her face. Did she just call him ‘baby’? What was wrong with her? He wasn’t her baby anymore, and she wasn’t a teenage girl.

  His smirk hadn’t changed. “Baby? That’s how you’re going to greet me?”

  She ignored his comment and said, “Sean Collins, about the trip to Paris . . .” Good. Focus on work. “Do you know the whole situation?”

  “No.” He pushed her menu down.

  Her face wrinkled but she did her best to continue avoiding eye contact.

  Challenged, he tipped the menu completely back down to the table, and she hesitated another moment. She swallowed then braced herself to meet his stormy gaze.

  Her face froze. His smile was friendly.

  “What I know is Murray said no. Now tell me what’s going on so I can help.”

  Her heart pounded against her chest. “Murray said yes originally. Everything had been approved. Then three days ago, school laws changed. There must be a female chaperone accompanying any female students, and a male chaperone with any male students. I’m a female—”

  “Obviously,” Sean said, his blue eyes twinkling. “And a pretty one.”

  “A flu wiped out the men.” Heat rushed to her face, and she felt herself blush again, but continued. “Our plan was to travel to Paris. We have ten students in the group, six girls and four boys. So we need a male chaperone. Everything has already been paid for. We need someone fast, someone already approved in the statewide database, and Murray didn’t want to brainstorm how to fix this snafu. His list of men didn’t pan out and he didn’t care. Five minutes before you walked in this morning, he ordered me to cancel the whole trip.”

  “Jeez. Are you serious, Scout? I mean, Gigi.”

  Scout? Her eyes widened and she stared at him. His did too. At least they both had memories to ward off. She’d once followed him to Cub Scouts to know what the boys did, and the nickname stuck. “He wanted me to call each student’s parents and tell them they are out thousands of dollars for the plane tickets they bought for their son or daughter, not to mention the other things we’ll be doing on the trip.”

  “You have to leave tomorrow?” Sean’s eyes narrowed.

  Gigi remembered that look. He’d squint his eyes then looked up to the left whenever he calculated math.

  Her body went rigid and she continued. “Yes. We’re to be in Paris for a week. We are the only East Coast school in the country eligible to go. It’s not fair to the students who worked their butts off to make money.” She slammed the tabletop for emphasis.

  The waitress came over, studied them for a moment then as if having determined that everything was okay, she took the pencil out from behind her ear and asked, “Can I get your order, lovebirds?”

  Sean’s eyes darkened.

  Long breath in, then out slowly. Gigi picked up the menu. “I’ll have the chicken Caesar salad with the dressing on the side and water.”

  Pushing his menu forward toward the waitress, Sean smiled at her. “Large meat pizza and a pitcher of diet soda, two cups.”

  He couldn’t be serious. Didn’t he survive cancer? “Sean, that’s not healthy.”

  “Thanks.” He shook his head at the waitress then jerked his head toward to her. “She’ll eat my food. She’s skinnier than she should be. Bring fries, too.”

  The waitress chuckled then left.

  “I need an inside scoop on what else Murray did. I’ll solve the issue, and you can go tomorrow,” Sean said, leaning forward.

  “Thanks. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. Ah, is Gerard here?” Her gaze darted around the small restaurant.

  “My brother, no. Why?”

  “That’s his fancy car outside, isn’t it? Unless your blue blood caught up to you today. I wondered if you had your lawyer sitting around waiting to pounce on me.”

  “After we eat, we can dig out the fighting sticks.”

  Gratitude should have showed up in her movement, but she couldn’t find it. Gigi bit her lower lip. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  His audible sigh of relief relaxed her. “I’m alive, Gigi. Despite Jennifer. Despite the disease. I’m here. This makes you my last enemy to vanquish.”

  Vanquish? She knew it. “Just fire me. Don’t tease me. Don’t pretend to be nice and help me solve my problems. And don’t call me Scout. Tell me how you hate me and get this over with.”

  “I was joking.” He coughed. “I’m not over what happened between us. I’ll never be, but I don’t hate you. I never could.” His voice
sounded calm.

  Her heart raced a mile a minute, and he had no idea.

  “Tell me why you work at the school.”

  She sat up straighter, flexing her fingers. He had no clue who she was now. “I’m not rich, not like you, Sean. I’ve worked all my life, and I have certain restrictions on my life right now. That’s pretty much it. Why did you buy the school?”

  “Moral grounds? Did your inheritance not keep up with your fast lifestyle, Geegs?”