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Her office was as small as Annie had imagined. The desk was small too, leaving room for a love seat and just enough space for Everton to walk around to her desk. She parked the stroller in the hallway and left the door open; there was no way the stroller was going to fit.

“Hey, listen—”

Everton plucked the baby out of Annie’s arms without a word and laid him down on the love seat. After the bottle, he was drowsy and quiet.

Everton turned to face Annie with a glare. “Who are you?”

“I’m Annie Weaver, ma’am,” she said. “You’re Professor Helen Everton. I didn’t catch his name, though.”

“Zachary,” Everton said. “Well…Zach, I guess. We call him Zach.”

“It’s kind of a long story,” Annie said. “I was supposed to live in graduate student housing, and when I got here after driving across the country, they didn’t have a room for me, so I’ve been living in a motel. The people from Student Housing gave me a list of professors who rent rooms, but the list was mostly men. There was one other woman and you. The other lady already rented her room out, so I was hoping yours is still available.”

“My name is on that list?” Everton asked, holding one hand over Zach as if Annie might try to touch him again.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I asked last year for them to take my number off.”

Annie’s heart sank.Shit.What was she going to do?

“Yours was the only one without a phone number, so I had to hunt you down,” Annie said dejectedly. “That’s all.”

Everton snorted. “I asked them to remove my number, and they literally took the phone number off and left the rest of my information on there.” She shook her head. “Idiots.”

“So no room, then,” Annie said, annoyed that she’d wasted her whole morning on this endeavor. “Well, thanks for your time anyway. It was nice to meet you and Zach.”

“I’m sorry,” Everton said, and she sounded sincere. “When I put my name on that list, I had a husband and one less kid. We were always going to convert the garage to a spare room, but we didn’t get past getting it insulated. The shower doesn’t work, and there’s no kitchen or hot water.”

“I understand,” Annie said. “I get it. I do. I don’t want to come off as desperate, but if you told me that you had a pole with a blanket draped over it to rent, I would take it.”

“There’s not much to it,” Everton said uncertainly.

“This is my department, so I’m not going to be a stranger,” Annie said. “I can pay you in cash every month. I assure you I could pass every background check you can muster.”

Everton looked down at Zach, who was completely asleep.

“It would be temporary until student housing became available, which they’ve assured me is no later than next quarter,” Annie said. “And I don’t have more than what I could fit in my car, so I don’t even have a lot of stuff. Just clothes, mostly, and books.”

“Okay, okay. Stop,” Everton said. “You are teetering dangerously on the edge of desperate.”

Annie laughed nervously, which seemed to break the tension. A tendril of hope sprouted inside of her.

“It’s not up to me. I have two other kids, and we’re a family, so taking in a tenant is a family decision.”

“Okay.”

“Come to dinner tomorrow night. You can meet Kevin and Ashley. We’ll see how it goes. God knows I could use the money.” Everton pulled a business card out of a desk drawer, flipped it over and wrote something on the back, then handed it to Annie. “That’s the address.”

Annie took the card and stuffed it in her pocket. “Thank you.”

“Seven o’clock,” Everton said. “Don’t be late.”

Chapter 3

Annie was going to belate.

She had left early—better to sit in her car and wait for time to pass than be late when Helen Everton had specifically told her not to be. But then she got on the freeway going in the wrong direction, and when she finally managed to turn around, she’d gone almost seven miles out of her way.