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Mr. Rowen’s frown lifted a bit. Kylee supposed that was his rendition of a smile. “You might be able to help me out with something.”
“Of course,” Kylee offered. Since they were sitting out in the public area of cubicles, she assumed she was safe from a pink slip. She was game for anything that could guarantee her continued employment.
Mr. Rowen leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “We are looking to win a contract with the school system in Adalia. Do you know any of the administrators there at the elementary school? Perhaps your child’s teacher?”
“I… uh…” Kylee didn’t want to have any more chats with Mrs. Steen. She felt bad she had to send Molly to that class every day. Luckily, she also knew an administrator. If there was anyone Kylee wanted to reach out to and see again, it was Ron. “Um, I know the principal at Barton. He and I went to school together.”
Mr. Rowen’s brows raised to his hairline. The movement of those facial muscles in the upper part of his face lifted the ones in the lower part of his face. He looked like he was kinda, sorta smiling. “Do you think you could set up a meeting with the principal?”
“Um, sure. I just met with him yesterday.”
“That’s excellent.”
“We hadn’t seen each other in a long time, so we’d said we’d make plans to go out to dinner. He suggested we go to an old restaurant that we used to go to as kids called-”
“That’s excellent, Ms. Bauer. Follow up with him. See if you can work your angles.”
Her angles?
“If we can get the elementary school on board with our company to offer the test prep for the standardized exam that gives us a leg up to contract with the entire county.”
Kylee looked to the screen where she was just starting to make headway with the test prep and back to her boss. He wanted her to use her angles to get her old best friend to agree to use Thrive as their test prep company. Was that ethical?
“Can I count on you to take care of this, Ms. Bauer?”
“I… uh…”
Mr. Rowen’s mouth thinned into a definite frown. “This would be a big account for this company. If you were the one to get the account, there would definitely be a promotion in your future.”
“A promotion?”
“Crafting your own curriculum and assessments with the college prep side of the company instead of the elementary and secondary levels. You could begin working on our SAT and ACT prep courses.”
Kylee had never liked back-scratching. As the daughter of an outcast prince who married for love, and now a divorcee from an uncommon jerk, she’d always gotten by on what she knew, not who she knew. But Ron did say he wanted to see her. And help her. They were friends. He would certainly hear her out.
“Can you handle this, Ms. Bauer?”
“Yes, sir. Consider it handled.”
Chapter Eight
“So,
you go over the loop, and then pull under.” Ron gave Ricky, Jr.’s tie a tug.
“You're choking me, Principal Kidd.”
Ron wasn’t choking the kid. Like his mother, the little boy did have a flair for the dramatic. Luckily, Ricky, Jr. was one of the lead actors in the school play today.
Ron gave the knot of the tie a tug to loosen it a bit. The kid took a deep inhale and relaxed his small shoulders. “My mom went out last night with a man in a tie. But it looked like a girl’s hair ribbons.”
“A bow tie?” asked Ron.
Ricky shrugged. “She was dating a musician last week. He never wore ties. His pants had holes and he didn’t wear a belt, so his pants hung low enough to see his underwear. Then there was the grandpa she dated.”
“Your mom dated a grandpa?” said a light feminine voice.
Molly Bauer turned to face them in her place next to the curtains. She’d come to Barton a couple of weeks after the school year had started, so she didn’t have a speaking role. But Barton was inclusive, so she couldn’t sit the play out. She was dressed in green to be part of the scenery.
