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“Professor Goode,” he said in a professional voice, not one he’d used with me since he hired me years before.
I was friends with Calvin. I’d met his family, his children. We’d eaten dinner together. I considered him a friend. But he wasn’t here on a social visit. He was here on official university action.
I had no doubt Ashley would tell them. She went by the books about everything, and it was one of the reasons I’d picked her to be my TA. She could be trusted, was loyal, and played by the rules.
But that also had repercussions seeing as her catching me with Grace meant she hadn’t been able to keep it to herself. I couldn’t blame her, wasn’t even angry. In fact, I was glad she’d told the university.
It meant there was no more hiding, no more pretending I wasn’t in love with Grace … no more acting like I had any control where she was concerned.
“Dean Richards,” I said in return and held out my hand for the envelope. The look on his face spoke volumes, but then again, I hoped mine did as well.
I wanted him to see how unaffected I was, that everything had come full circle, that things had happened the way they were supposed to.
“You know why I’m here?” Although he phrased it like a question, I could hear in his voice he already knew the answer.
“I know.”
He exhaled as if this were painful for him. And maybe it was. We’d considered each other friends. He probably saw this as a betrayal.
“The school has put you on suspension until further investigation. A hearing will be held tomorrow with more details on the situation. I’ll need you present first thing in the morning.”
I nodded. “And Grace?”
“She’s been notified as well. We’ll need her there to take her account of it all.”
“She didn’t do anything wrong. No disciplinary action will be taken against her.” Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hardened, demanding shit, given the fact I wasn’t in any position to do so. But I’d be damned if she got dragged under for this.
“She’s not to blame for this, Professor Goode.”
What Calvin really meant was that I was some predator preying on an innocent student. He could think what he wanted, as long as she was left out of it.
“What were you thinking, Lucian?” he said softly, the man I’d called a friend coming through for a moment. But I didn’t answer his question.
“Thank you, Dean Richards. I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”
I wasn’t going to tell him we loved each other, or that this was some slip of judgment and I was sorry. Because it wasn’t. I had Grace, finally, and I wasn’t letting her go. And that would most likely cost me my job, but so be it.
So be it, because it was all worth it. She was worth it.
ChapterTwenty-Five
Grace
The next morning
Icouldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Do you understand everything, Professor Goode?”
I turned and looked at Lucian, knowing my eyes were wide, feeling like my heart would jump out of my chest.
“I understand,” Lucian said without any emotion in his voice. In fact, he sounded like he didn’t give two shits that he’d just been suspended from his position until further investigation.
“This is a mistake, a misunderstanding,” I said before I could stop myself.
I faced the board again, knowing I looked shocked. They couldn’t tell us how long the investigation would last, or if Lucian would even still have a job when it was all said and done.
“How can you take the word of one person over a member of your staff?”
