Maggie tapped her pencil against her desktop and tried to think of the best thing she could do to help Darren. The man wanted at least partial custody of his son. He should have it. There was no doubt in her mind that the guy was a wonderful man who would make a terrific father. In fact, lately he had been a more reliable father figure than his brother, no matter what Laredo thought about it.

“Psst, Maggie!” Rhonda knocked on the doorframe of Maggie’s office and pushed her way inside. “What are you doing?”

“What am I doing?” Maggie picked up her cup of coffee. The email on the computer screen wasn’t exactly work related. She was calling in a major favor from an old school friend who was now working for the department of family services. Maggie decided there was no need to tell Rhonda about this situation right now. “I’m just puzzling my way through some emails. Why? What’s up?”

Rhonda’s eyes were gleaming with the kind of excitement that only came from the spreading of really good gossip. “I think our over-friendly principal just got the shaft from Darren Hernandez!”

The shaft? What did that even mean? And why was Maggie’s heart pounding as she tried to prevent herself from leaping out of her chair and running to find Darren and demand to know what had happened? It wasn’t like that. No. She wasn’t like that. That would mean that she was acting crazy, and she didn’t have any interest in being like that.

“Okay.” Maggie forced herself to be calm. “What exactly happened? And don’t embellish! That doesn’t help anything.”

“All I know is that Darren came in and asked if Olivia was available.” Rhonda was practically salivating with excitement. “So, I went in her office to see if she was, and of course, she was thrilled that he would ask.” Two lines appeared between Rhonda’s eyebrows. “I’m not really sure why he would want to talk to her, but he said it was something about the job.”

A very small nugget of possibility began to grow in Maggie’s mind. Would Darren have considered making this a permanent situation? It would certainly help his custody case if he had permanent employment with a prestigious private school as a teacher. She gripped the edge of her desk tightly to keep herself from interrupting Rhonda. She needed the whole story, and she had a feeling it was nowhere near done yet.

“And?” Maggie prompted.

“Right.” Rhonda shrugged. “So, he went in there, and I swear they must have talked for thirty minutes.”

Maggie pursed her lips. She did not believe for a second that Rhonda had just gone back to her desk to work. “What did you hear?”

“Me?” Rhonda put her hand on her chest. “You must be joking! I don’t eavesdrop.”

“But you lie like a rug, girl. Spit it out.” Maggie folded her arms over her chest and pegged Rhonda with a look of expectation.

“Okay, so I might have heard a little bit.” Rhonda rolled her eyes. “It got pretty loud for a minute there. I heard them say something about the school board. There was a bit about a permanent position maybe. And then I swear to you Olivia asked him out!” Rhonda was practically vibrating with excitement. “Can you believe that?”

“Unfortunately, I can.” Maggie slumped back into her seat. “That’s horrible. It’s like a nightmare! How can he refuse? She’ll make it so he can’t make the transition to a permanent teacher. It isn’t fair.”

“I don’t think he accepted.” Rhonda perched on the edge of Maggie’s desk and started making expansive gestures with her hands. “Oh. My. God! After Darren left to go to the gym and teach his classes, Olivia came storming out of her office and started bitching at me up one side and down the other. She told me to submit Mr. Hernandez’s application for a permanent position to the school board but to make sure they knew her recommendation was not to hire him!”

“We have to overturn that.” Maggie’s brain was spinning as she tried to figure out exactly how she was going to undo what Olivia Witherspoon was trying to do. “It can’t be impossible. It’s not like the board of directors is completely oblivious to what Olivia is doing around here.”

“You mean nothing?” Rhonda snorted and folded her arms over her chest. “I have to do most of her job.”

Maggie suddenly felt everything inside her head stop. All of her thoughts settled abruptly, and she realized that this could be an opportunity to fix more than one wrong all at the same time.

“Don’t look at me that way.” Rhonda pointed to Maggie and jumped up off the corner of the desk. “I’m not interested in that job.”

“But you’re qualified!” Maggie moaned. “Don’t you get it? That’s why Olivia can pretty much drop the entire administrative part of the job right in your lap. You were a school principal for years in Longmont! I know the town was little, but you have the experience. You have the education. And you know we would all help out! In fact, I bet we can get the other teachers to sign a petition in favor of firing Olivia and naming you her replacement!” Maggie clapped her hands with glee. This was the perfect solution!

“All except the part where Olivia has an employment contract that isn’t up for another year. You’d have to get her to leave.”

“What’s the cost of breaking her contract?” Maggie wondered. She wasn’t well versed in such things. Staffing wasn’t really part of her job. So, other than her own contract, which didn’t have some kind of term attached since it renewed every year, Maggie knew nothing about what it took to hire and fire.

Rhonda made a face. “I suppose I can look at it.” Then Rhonda waved her finger in Maggie’s face. “But do not think I’m going to take that job. I don’t want it!”

“You’d be so good at it though!” Maggie insisted.

“I’ll look into what Olivia might have done to merit firing, but that’s it.” Rhonda started to walk away but then turned around at the last second. “And what’s going on with you and Darren? If you want my help, that’s fine. But I want something in return.”

Okay. So, that was kind of fair. Right? Except Maggie didn’t really know what to call it. “I suppose we’re dating. It’s just very low-key and”—Maggie could not stop the smile that stretched over her face—“I really like him, Rhonda. He’s a wonderful man. He’s really patient and not pushy at all. I’ve never been with anyone who respects me so much. It’s like he just wants to be with me. That’s enough for him. Just to hang out and talk and have fun together.”

Rhonda’s face took on a very warm smile. “That’s really great, Maggie. Really. It sounds like you’ve found your prince charming. I know, after everything else that’s happened in the last few years, that’s probably a pretty big relief.”

Maggie gave a tight nod and was not sorry to see Rhonda leave. Everything that had happened in the last few years. Wow. What a way to put it. Maggie’s parents had passed away. She was utterly alone. Once it was absolutely certain that there was no inheritance and that Maggie’s parents had been in debt up to their eyebrows, her loving fiancé had dumped her on her ass and left her to deal with everything on her own.

The sudden ringing of her cell phone nearly made Maggie jump out of her seat. She snatched it up, grateful for the distraction. “Hey. What did you find out?”

“Oh my God. Are you ready for this?” The voice on the other end of the line was Cara. Cara was Maggie’s former school friend who worked for family services.

“Yep. Hit me. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Did you find someone named Carly in the system?”

“Carly Valdez. The boy is five. His name is listed as Jaeger Hernandez. We show Carly getting child support payments in the amount of seventeen hundred dollars a month.”

“For one kid?” Maggie yelped. She leaped out of her desk chair and started pacing back and forth in her office. “How is that possible?”

“Carly doesn’t work. She’s supposedly on disability. There have been seventeen complaints in the last five years about her parenting. Family services has sent people out there for a welfare check every single time. Carly lives with her mother.”

“Thank God someone is taking care of the poor kid!” Maggie’s heart went out to Darren. There was no possible way he could know any of this.

“The woman was hospitalized three weeks ago with walking pneumonia. She’s in her eighties.” Cara’s tone was grim. “I think if Darren wanted to, and if he could establish a real household, he could file for full custody and win.”

“But Carly has him believing that no judge would do that!” Maggie was having difficulty processing what she was hearing. “He has no idea this is what’s happening.”

“I’m going to go out to the grandmother’s house right now. My boss actually told me to consider your phone call a request for another welfare check. They’re really worried about this kid because his grandma is in the hospital.” Cara sounded out of breath. “I’m heading to the car right now.”

“Yes!” Maggie sat down. Then she stood up again. Shit! What did she tell Darren about this? What could she say? “Call me. Let me know what happens. If something happens and you remove Jaeger from his home, can Darren have temporary custody?”

“Does he have someplace for the kid to sleep? Someplace safe?” There was the sound of a car door slamming on Cara’s end.

Maggie thought of Laredo’s place. It was huge. “Yes. If Darren hasn’t moved into his new place by tonight, his brother has a posh house a few miles from my school. It’s just his brother and his nine-year-old daughter. There’s no reason Jaeger couldn’t stay.”

“I don’t have to tell you what this is going to do to the kid,” Cara reminded Maggie grimly. “He’s never even met his father. There’s no telling what his mother has told him.”

Maggie knew that. She just didn’t know if Darren fully grasped what could happen. “I know. I’ll try to prep Darren.”

“All right. I’ll keep you posted.” Cara ended the phone call, and Maggie was left staring at her smartphone and wondering if she had just done a good thing or a bad thing. This was a five-year-old boy. He was still young enough to be impressionable and amiable to meeting and integrating new people, but if his mother had been feeding him a steady diet of “Daddy is an evil person,” it was going to be tough to change that pattern of thinking.

Maggie felt too restless to stay in her office. She stumbled through her door and found herself heading automatically for the gymnasium. She could hear the yelling inside, but it sounded about as controlled as she’d ever heard it.

Peering through the windows of the gym door, Maggie exhaled slowly as she spotted Darren surrounded by fifth graders. He was showing them how to throw a football to each other. Even the girls were having a fantastic time. Their young faces were alight with excitement. Everyone was paying attention. Everybody was having fun. And even the smaller, less athletic kids were getting some special attention from Mr. Hernandez as he offered smiles and encouragement.

Darren is absolutely a natural with kids.

And for Maggie Brown, there was nothing more attractive in a man. If they could just get through the insanity that seemed determined to swirl all around them, maybe they could finally find a place in the sun.

A strange noise behind her made Maggie jump and turn around. She put her hand on her chest to still her thundering heart as she spotted Olivia Witherspoon standing there with her hands on her hips and a horrible sneer on her pretty face.

“Go ahead and look,” Olivia told Maggie. “He won’t be here for long.”

Maggie was so tired of bullies. Maybe this was why Olivia Witherspoon never did anything about those third grade boys. They were kids after her own heart. “It’s really sad that you care more about your love life than what’s good for this school and these kids,” Maggie told the irritated principal. “But you’d better watch out. You’re not as untouchable as you think you are. People like you always get what’s coming to them.” Maggie thrust her chin out and glared at Olivia. “Always.”