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Chapter 1
“Iwill not accept any late assignments.” Calista Prescott snapped her laser pointer shut and swept her gaze over the lecture hall of a hundred shuffling, slouching undergraduates. “If your paper is not either in my hand, on my desk, or in my mailbox by five p.m. Friday afternoon…that’s the day after tomorrow, to avoid any misunderstanding…then you will receive an incomplete. And no, emailing me a copy does not count. Printed copies only. No exceptions. Class dismissed.”
Chatter and sighs of relief filled the air. The students stuffed notebooks into their backpacks and started checking their phones. Her graduate teaching assistant, Jordan, approached from the projection booth with a stack of slide carousels.
“If you ever want me to put your lectures and slides on a twenty-first century computer, I would be delighted.” He set the carousels on the table with a grimace, as if he were carrying forty-pound cement blocks.
“The slide projector suits me just fine, thank you,” Callie replied crisply.
“You mean the ancient relic?”
“A perfect tool for teaching ancient history.”
With an unsubtle roll of his eyes, Jordan wound up the electrical cord and placed the carousels and remote control into boxes. “I’ll put this all in your office.”
As he and the rest of the class began heading toward the doors, a barrage of anxious-looking students approached the podium like a Spartan army on the march. Callie stiffened her spine.
“Professor Prescott, did you get my email about my grandma in the hospital…?”
“I can’t get my printer to work, Dr. Prescott…”
“The book I need hasn’t come in at the library yet…”
Callie encompassed the group in a tight smile and hardened her heart to their puppy-dog eyes and beseeching pleas. In her early days of teaching, she’d learned her lesson about showing any weakness. These kids might look like scruffy, ear-pod-wearing innocents, but they could smell blood.
“You’ve all known about this assignment since the first day of class.” She closed her leather satchel and snapped the latch. “No exceptions. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
The group sagged with dismay, and one girl—Laura—bit her trembling lip.
Walk away, Dr. Prescott.
Callie picked up the cashmere cardigan she’d left on the back of a chair and slipped it on. She started toward the door, her heels clicking purposefully. Behind her, the students radiated nervous despair.
Keep walking. Keep walk—
Was that a sniffle?
Her heart sank. Gripping her satchel strap tighter, she swiveled and leveled the group with an icy glare.
“I will have extra office hours today, tomorrow, and Friday afternoon until five. I will also plan to check my email more often than usual. Should you encounter further obstacles in your research and writing, you may either come to my office or email me. I will do my best to assist you. But there will benoexceptions. I wish your grandmother well, Mr. Hamilton.”
Without waiting to see if her remarks mollified them, she strode from the lecture hall. Hopefully her hard-ass attitude would still deflect any notion ofweakness.
She glanced at her slim gold wristwatch. One hour until her meeting with the senior professors in the Classics department, which gave her just enough time to drive over to the Bliss Cove Library and pick up the books she’d ordered through interlibrary loan.
She preferred using the local library since the college library was always so slammed with requests from students and other professors. Not to mention, the Bliss Cove librarian Beatrice was highly efficient, a quality Callie both appreciated and often found lacking in other people.
Outside, the grassy expanse of the quad at Skyline College teemed with students trudging to their next class, backpacks slung over their shoulders as they balanced their cell phones with takeout coffee cups. The May sun peeked through a fluffy layer of clouds, and a breeze strengthened the scent of the Pacific Ocean and the surrounding redwood forests.
Callie had always loved the picturesque beauty of the small private college with its brick buildings and tree-lined flagstone pathways. If it weren’t for her meeting, she’d have gotten herself a coffee and found a quiet place to sit and enjoy the lovely day.
But…junior professors who were up for tenure and trying to finish a book proposal on Greek mythology didn’t have time to enjoy the day. Or to enjoy anything, really.
Her phone buzzed, and she paused to pull it from her satchel. A text popped up from her sister Rory:Drinks at the Mousehole tonight?
Callie typed a reply:Sorry, going to Mom’s then working.
After dropping her phone back into her bag, she got into her car and drove toward the library. Ocean waves splashed against the rocky coastline, and downtown Bliss Cove bustled with people out walking and shopping. Everything about the town—from the ivy-covered buildings to the town square presided over by a white gazebo to the Mousehole Tavern tucked away in a grove of redwoods—was part of Callie’s blood. Even when she was a child, she hadn’t been able to imagine living anywhere else.
