She laughed. Ye Gods, what a great, great laugh she had. Throaty and musical. Abandoned. The kind of laugh that made him want to pick her up and twirl her.
“Usually classic rock. And grunge is considered classic rock now, right? Soundgarden. A few selections from musicals.”
“Aha. LikeMan of La Mancha, for instance.”
“Maybe so, maybe so. All right, Ms. Harwood. What are your guilty pleasure songs?”
“Oh, let’s see... well, there’s ‘Nights in White Satin.’ You know, that old song by the Moody Blues.”
“Oh, yeah. Classic. I don’t think you need to be embarrassed about that one.”
“And ‘Wichita Lineman.’”
“Another respectable choice.”
“I’ve heard it about a million times over the years, and I confess I still get goose bumps from those very first notes.”
“Do you often get goose bumps?” This was adorable.
He would, frankly, love to give her goose bumps. Maybe by applying his tongue to that little hollow beneath her ear where her heart would be thundering because she was wildly turned on.
“Mmm. Sure. Well, sometimes. Usually when I see or hear something that feels, oh...” She shrugged a little self-consciously. “...particularly beautiful and true.”
He couldn’t think of what to say, because what she’d just said was beautiful and true, as far as he was concerned, and she’d said it offhandedly, as though it was just one of the thousands of everyday thoughts she had.
So he just smiled.
Something about his smile made her tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and pink rush into her cheeks.
More cars pulled into the parking lot, and he stepped away to eyeball to make sure no one took cuts, double-parked, ran over an errant child or squirrel.
“Ray says to tell you thanks for the flowers, by the way,” he said.
“Oh. Of course he’s welcome. Okay. So what about you... what are your other guilty pleasure songs, Principal Gabe?”
“Oh, let’s see... Okay, there’s ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.’ Roberta Flack.”
“Oh.” Her eyes were huge.
“What? Too gloppy?”
“No. It’s perfect. That bass line. You know, like a heartbeat.” She tapped her sternum with her hand. “Thump thump. Thump thump.”
“Like a couple of lovers laying there after, you know.”
“Yeah,” she said slowly, teasing him for the euphemism in a way that made, if not goose bumps, then something similarly tingly, trace his spine and tighten his stomach muscles. “After ‘you know.’”
“I have to use euphemisms on school grounds. And especially when I’m in uniform.” He gestured to his glowing vest. “I do actually know all the grown-up words for ‘you know.’”
He was dying to say, “And I’d happily whisper them in your ear in the supply closet right now, if you’d like,” but he knew he was going to need to calibrate with Eden Harwood.
They smiled at each other, and hers was tilted, ever so slightly wry and rakish. But a little uncertain.
“It’s kind of a cut to the chase song,” he added thoughtfully. “Topic wise.”
“It is,” she agreed.
“Whenever I hear it, I stop what I’m doing and gaze mistily into the middle distance.”