Page 1 of Before He Was Her Headmaster

Chapter 1

Lily

The bright lights of the truck stop are a relief. As soon as the trucker turns off his big rig, I toss him a twenty-dollar bill and holler a rushed thanks over my shoulder before jumping down to the concrete parking lot below.

Hitchhiking after my car broke down was a stupid choice, and I regretted my decision as soon as I got in his truck. We're closer to the city now, so I’ll get a rideshare in the morning to take me to Edgewood Academy.

My home for the next three months.

My father’s voice rings in my head. “One more term, Lily. Try not to get kicked out of this school.”

I hate how it sounds like a taunt because I did nothing to deserve to be kicked out of the other schools. But despite his best efforts, I’m almost done.

One more term and I’ll have enough credits to go to college. It doesn’t matter that I’m technically an adult. To access the trust fund left for me by my grandfather, I have to get my high school diploma.

I would love to move across the country—or to another country—and lose myself in my studies.

I love school. You would think a girl like me would have breezed through the three other private academies my father sent me to. But just like Edgewood Academy will probably be, those schools were repressive and rigid. The opposite of the type of environment I need to thrive.

Does my father listen?

Nope. He has his own agenda. A dangerous one I want nothing to do with.

Getting myself kicked out of my last school only got me a few months of freedom at a public school before my father found another academy to take me in. Take his money, more like it.

Everyone tells me I have a chip on my shoulder, but they don’t understand what I know.

So to them, I seem like a bitter, rich girl who doesn’t appreciate how good she has it.

Edgewood is my last chance to get it right. To be a good girl, a polite girl, a privileged girl who plays by the rules. I can do that. It’s only three months.

I’ll be free by Christmas.

The irony is, I actually am a good girl. I’ve never been drunk, never had sex, never done any of the drugs that other kids at private schools do. How could I when I know exactly where they come from? I’m just a mouthy brat with an authority problem.

I head into the store. There’s a restaurant on the other side and signs for showers. If I play my cards right, I can find a place here to sleep for the night.

I’m lingering by the refrigerators of cold drinks, hoping to overhear someone ask the cashier about the showers. Like how much they are, or if anyone would notice if I bunked in one all night—when a tall, broad-shouldered man comes in from the gas station side. He pulls off a sleek black helmet and stops just inside the entrance, rolling his neck like he’s just been on a long motorcycle ride on the highway.

He unzips his leather jacket as he stalks in my direction, and when his gaze collides with mine, I quickly look away. But from that moment of connection, heat zaps through me. My chin lifts again as if pulled by an invisible force, and I catch him looking at my legs as he stops a few feet from me.

I’m frozen to the spot, which is unfortunate because he clears his throat and points behind me. “Can I…?”

I turn and realize he wants a soda.

Not looking at my legs. Wondering how to get the awkward girl out of his way.

Stammering, I shift sideways, then pretend I’m looking at the orange juice in the next section.

“Thirsty?”

I jerk my head back to him.

He’s really tall, and his hand, when it settles on the handle of the glass door, looks like it’s twice the size of mine. He opens the door and gestures at the juice. “If you want one, I’ll buy you a drink.”

I laugh. “Is that how you usually pick up women? Buying drinks for them from the convenience store?”

“I rarely buy women drinks,” he says seriously. His eyes lock on my mine, dark and intense. “But you look like you need something, and I like to help people.”

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