The Cowboy Who Broke the Mold by Cathleen Galitz Read Free Book Online

to the fact that Cindy Lawton’s father was on the school board and that the failing mark the senior had earned in Carrie’s class not only rendered her ineligible to play in the state basketball tournament but also jeopardized the pretty senior’s graduation, as well. When Carrie had adamantly refused Scott’s request to raise the grade, he exercised the “administrative privilege” of changing it himself—without her consent or knowledge.
    “I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, Carrie, but it’s the way of the world. Everyone does it.”
    “I don’t,” she had said with conviction.
    “Excuse me,” Scott had added maliciously, “I meant to say it’s important to anyone who wants to keep a job in education…And that just happens to be me. Have you ever thought how your obstinacy might endanger my job?”
    As usual, Scott was able to twist things around so that she was the one left feeling guilty. He was able to temporarily smooth things over, but Carrie felt uneasy about her decision to reconsider breaking off their en- gagement. Uneasy enough that when she was in the girls’ bathroom one day and accidentally overheard Cindy talking to a friend, she neither plugged her ears nor stepped out from behind the stall to identify herself.
    “How did you get that grade changed in Miss Raben’s class? She’s such a stickler about eligibility,” asked a shrill, bubble-popping voice through the metal stall door.
    “Easy,” came a laughing reply.
    For a moment Carrie feared the girl’s explanation would be drowned out by the gurgle of water splashing in a sink.
    “I just gave our horny principal a little of what his goody-two-shoes fiancée’s been holding out on. Can you imagine anyone being a virgin at her age?”
    The wind that roared through Carrie’s entire being threatened to blow her spirit away like a dry reed. Her desecration was complete. She didn’t know which was worse—to be so completely duped by a man who would stoop so low as to abuse his position or to be made to feel a freak by a loose teenager willing to demean her- self for so little in return.
    After a heartfelt cry that lasted the better part of her planning period, Carrie had marched straight out of the bathroom and into Scott’s office. When confronted, he’dvehemently protested her accusation, but his initial ex- pression belied the truth. Carrie’s resignation followed the next day. As well as the reason why mailed to every member of the school board.
    Scott was outraged, dangerously so. And Carrie felt certain he would have made good his threat to do her bodily harm as well as keep her from ever getting an- other teaching job altogether had she not discovered a listing in the placement bulletin indicating Harmony School District was anxious to fill this last minute po- sition. A follow-up call confirmed they were, in fact, desperate.
    The experience left her sour on all men. The safest course of action, Carrie decided, was to simply assume they all were creeps until proven otherwise. She cer- tainly didn’t need to be kicked by the same mule twice to know that she would never risk her heart and her pride like that again with any man—let alone one in a position of authority over her. No way, never again.
    Watching the pair of eagles seek opposite ends of the horizon, Carrie knew if she could ever truly begin the healing process, it would be beneath this unending blue sky. The exact color of Judson Horn’s eyes, it defied a paintbrush.
    Slipping a fingernail beneath an edge of the tear- spattered envelope that he had given her, Carrie slit it open. An invitation for a districtwide ice cream social fell into her lap.
    She smiled.
    Hope rested gently on her shoulder like a sparrow. All alone in the world for the first time in her life, she was surprised how very much she liked the feeling.
    On his way out of Harmony, Jud swerved to miss a gray tabby cat that had darted out in front of his pickup.He chastised himself for