Page 64 of Once Upon a Holidate
“You’re, um, going to want to walk around a while before going home.”
He looked down at himself, then back at her. “Technically that’s your fault. At least it’s dark out. I wouldn’t want to scare the neighbors.”
“I don’t think they’d be scared. I think they’d be impressed.”
He chuckled, kissed her briefly and walked to the door. “Thanks, Wynn. For all of it.”
“Anytime.”
He left. She locked the front door, then leaned against it and smiled, thinking she felt like a teenager—counting the minutes until the weekend.
Chapter Eleven
Wynn had to admit she was having a good morning. Her sexy make-out session with Garrick had left her smiling, and Hunter had already made plans to spend Saturday night with a friend. She and Garrick would have the house to themselves and plenty of time to take things to the next level. All in all, a happy chain of events.
Her nine o’clock meeting had been successful, with the bride and groom narrowing down her invitation choices to just three. Wynn had ordered the samples, and they’d set up a second meeting to talk about the various options. A local business had ordered postcards for a mailing along with several sets of business cards, and more of Natalie’s special-order paper had arrived.
Wynn did her best to keep her happiness to herself. Being cheerful was one thing, but giddy tended to confuse her employees and frighten the customers. During a brief lull, she busied herself putting up seasonal decorations, including a beautiful menorah, a tabletop Christmas tree, a Kwanzaa flag and her silly plasticSnow White and the Seven Dwarfsset. The latter had been a gift from Ms. James, Wynn’s neighbor whenshe’d been a kid. Ms. James had always believed in Wynn. Later, when Wynn was a scared and struggling single mom, she would think of Ms. James and vow to make her proud. She brought out the set every holiday season, mostly to try to show her friend that somehow she’d managed to pull it all together.
Wynn got herself a cup of coffee and retreated to her office. She had several orders to proof, then payroll information to send over to her accounting person. She picked up the first flyer and studied the design. After measuring the borders, she carefully read each word to make sure it was spelled correctly. She’d just initialed the sticky note attached to indicate she’d reviewed the design when her cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Is this Wynn Beauchene?”
“Yes.”
“Hi, I’m Camilla Henderson. We’re in the process of reviewing Hunter’s Junior ROTC application, and I have a few questions.”
Wynn stared unseeingly at the work on her desk. The caller was unfamiliar, as was the topic. Hunter’s what?
“I’m sorry, but who are you again?”
“I’m Camilla Henderson. I work for the local JROTC director. There are a few items missing from the application. I could get the answers now from you, if it’s a good time.”
“His application to Junior ROTC?”
“Yes.”
What on earth? Hunter hadn’t applied to Junior ROTC. Wynn didn’t even know what that was. They’d never discussed anything like it, and Wynn had never signed any kind of application.
Even as she mentally tried to make sense of it all, a bigger, uglier problem sat down in front of her. There was no way Hunter could have applied to any kind of program withoutgetting a parent’s signature. And if Camilla had an application in her hands, one Wynn didn’t know about, then someone had faked the parental approval. And that someone was most likely Hunter.
Disappointment joined confusion. She still wasn’t sure what was going on, but she was going to have to figure it out.
“Sorry for sounding so distracted,” she said, doing her best to fake a casual tone. “I’m in a meeting. May I call you back later?”
“Of course.” Camilla gave her a direct number and hung up.
Wynn turned to her computer and typed Junior ROTC into the search engine. Seconds later she was on the website and learning that JROTC was, in fact, a real thing. From what she could tell, it was a leadership program that was very successful. She’d heard of ROTC at the college level but not anything in junior high or high school. But when she checked the local area, his school was listed as having a program. All of which was interesting, but didn’t change the fact that Hunter had gone behind her back to apply. He hadn’t bothered talking to her at all—he’d just done it.
What had he been thinking? Did he really believe he could get into an ROTC program without her knowing? Even more to the point, why hadn’t he said anything to her? They talked about everything—or she had thought they did. Now she wasn’t sure about anything where he was concerned.
She got to her feet and circled her desk. Her stomach hurt, and her head was spinning with questions and thoughts. This wasn’t her kid. Hunter didn’t act like this. When he wanted to do something, he asked and they talked about it. She wasn’t unreasonable. Why had he done this and what was she supposed to do now?
She picked up her phone to text one of her friends, only she didn’t know if any of them would have the kind of advice she needed. After hesitating a few seconds, she texted Garrick.
I have a kid problem I need to talk about. You have any free time today?
