Page 40 of Before He Was Her Headmaster

Lily misses the next creative writing seminar. I know she’s on campus because people have seen her, but it’s always that she “just left” or “is around here somewhere.”

She’s dodging me, and I don’t like it.

We have two weeks to go.

We have a plan. I’ve given my notice, and Madeline Taylor has agreed to take over as the interim headmaster in the new year.

So why is my little girl hiding from me now?

But she doesn’t hide forever. Just as I’m thinking of using my headmaster powers and summoning her to my office, she appears there the next morning. I hear her voice asking if I’m available, and I stalk to my office door, swinging it the rest of the way open as she approaches.

She doesn’t make eye contact with me.

Instead, she carefully closes the door, then flattens herself against it, her face pale. “Sorry,” she whispers. “I needed to see you.”

I lower my voice so it’s just for her. “I’ve missed you. What’s wrong?”

I gesture for her to sit, but she doesn’t move. I swallow around the now-familiar lump of regret in my throat. Not because we’ve complicated our relationship—which is wild and perfect and inevitable, because she’s mine, and I’m hers. But that she can’t come to this office and find the support she needs. That any other student would get.

“It’s… uh….” She takes a long, steadying breath, then squares her shoulders. Her face is set in a new and unreadable expression. Not Stubborn Lily or Loving Lily, but… Resolved Lily.

Like she thinks I’m going to change her mind about something, and she doesn’t want to give me a chance.

I don’t like it.

Frowning, I lean in. “What is it?”

She moves around me toward my desk, then glances over her shoulder as if making sure the door is solidly closed. Then she grips her hands together, her knuckles turning white. “I’m—”

A knock interrupts her, and one of the student helpers of the day opens the door just as a fire alarm goes off in the distance. “Excuse me, Headmaster Craig. We have a situation in the quad.”

I’m already moving, pausing next to Lily only long enough to squeeze her shoulder.Later, I try to tell her with my eyes.

She gives me a tight smile.

* * *

She’s still in my office when I get back—curled up on the leather couch under the window, fast asleep. I lock the door so we won’t be disturbed, then cover her with a blanket and go to my desk. Something tells me we might need to move up the timeline of Lily and Sebastian hitting the road. I don’t know what’s wrong, but whatever it is, we can make it right.

If my sweet girl isn’t happy here, we’ll need to leave. It’s just that simple.

I’m halfway through reviewing the term grades already submitted when she wakes up with a start.

Throwing off the blanket, she swings her feet to the floor, but when she tries to stand, she goes pale. “Nope,” she mutters. “Ugh. Gross.”

Alarmed, I move to her side, crouching in front of her. “What’s wrong? Are you sick? Should I call the school nurse?”

She shakes her head, her messy waves extra cute today, even with her pale, pinched expression. “I’m not sick. Not exactly.”

I take a minute and search her face, but it’s when I reach for her hand, and she trembles, pulling it toward her belly, that I figure it out.

“You’re pregnant,” I whisper.

She nods, and a tear slips down her cheek. “I’m having a baby.”

“My baby.”

“Yes.”

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