Page 76 of Dare to Fall

“Way to sell me out, Cecilia.”

Cecilia chuckled, and her blue eyes swirled with warmth as a crowd of crow’s feet tugged at the corners.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Ms. Parker,” I said with a smile.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, Ms. Eva. And feel free to call me Cecilia.” She nodded her chin toward Garth. “You have a good one here. I hope you two will be good to each other.”

I looked up at Garth just as he looked down at me, and the unspoken words danced in his eyes. In that moment, I knew Cecilia was right. Hewasone of the good ones.

“Is she ready for us?” Garth asked, turning back toward Cecilia.

“Yes. You can go on in whenever you’re ready.” She turned her attention back to her computer as we walked toward the double doors of what I assumed to be Garth’s mother’s office.

My heart thudded against my chest as Garth opened the door and followed me through to a large corner office with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the university lake. There was a giant oak desk placed in the center of the room with two leather chairs angled in front of it. Behind the desk stood a woman with shoulder-length chestnut hair curled to perfection. Garth’s mother wore a tailored emerald blazer that cut into her waist, showing off her slight frame.

Dark-brown eyes studied me with curiosity, as if she were trying to determine what it was about me that had piqued the interest of her son. The truth was, I wasn’t entirely sure of the answer myself. But whatever it was, I was thankful I had it.

“Hello, Eva,” President Walker said as her stark-white smile peeked through burgundy-red lips.

“Hello,” I said, quieter than I intended.

“I’ve heard you have been wrapped up in the mess that others have caused.” She gestured toward the seats in front of her desk. “Please, sit down.”

I felt small in the large leather seat, a few feet away from Garth’s reach. He looked over at me and gave me a reassuring smile.

“It wasn’t my intention to be part of the…scandal. I had no idea what Connor and his professor were doing until just a few weeks ago. I…I almost walked in on them in the classroom.”

President Walker sat down in her seat and folded her hands on top of her desk.

“It seems you weren’t the only one who caught their indiscretions. We’ve had multiple professors come forward at this point and disclose they saw the pair…entangled with one another.”

I swallowed against the dryness creeping up my throat. It didn’t matter that Connor and I were no longer together, there was still a pang that darted right through my heart when I was reminded of the betrayal he committed.

“It also appears that there are multiple people who believe you were the one to leak the story to the press and therefore putting Connor and Dr. Davis at risk of losing their careers.”

My mouth popped open to deny that I had anything to do with that, but President Walker continued before I had the chance to get a word out.

“However, my son has always been an excellent judge of character, and he has told me that it is not in your nature to do something like that. So, I have chosen to take his word for it and trust that you are not the one who sold the story.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

“With that being said, it is my job to protect the integrity of this university’s reputation, as well as the students who choose to come here. Therefore, I want to assure you that I have the best legal and PR team handling all of this. We’ve already contacted the local and state newspapers to have the comments made about you redacted from the online forums.”

“Wow. I don’t really know what to say. Thank you so much.” I tugged at the hem of my t-shirt.

“If you spend enough time with my son, you will come to know that, in our family, we protect our own.”

When I looked up at her, there was a genuine smile painted on her lips. A softness took over her face as she glanced between Garth and me. There was no hint of malice or sarcasm as I often found when I’d had conversations with Connor’s mother. Despite her hard exterior, I believed that President Walker was much like her son in that she presented herself to the world as someone who didn’t feel quite as deeply as she actually did.

There was no reason for me to trust her. I’d just met the woman. But something in her eyes told me I could. That if Garth had decided to make me part of his world, then I would inevitably be part of hers as well. And a feeling deep in my gut told me that she most certainly did protect her own.

38

Garth

The smileon Eva’s face when my mother told her she could easily change her major to better reflect her desire to become a photographer had graced my dreams all week. Pure excitement and joy radiated off her as we sat together on my sofa, espresso cups in hand, discussing a path for her future.

It turned out that the university allowed students to cultivate their own major plan, depending on the courses they needed for a particular field. Since photographers typically developed their own businesses and sold sessions instead of photographs to clients, Eva would finish out her senior year by transferring out of her science classes and into a combination of business and art classes.

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