“Or not,” she whispered to Tate as Jordan came over to her with a smile.
“Now how much do I owe again?” he asked leading her towards the far table where they were collecting the sponsor money.
“Well, fifty a shot and I’ve made a hundred and seventeen…so…fifty-eight fifty I believe,” she answered looking to Ms. Simmons for confirmation.
“She’s right,” the teacher answered. “I’m sure you weren’t anticipating this amount when the day started.”
“Well I wanted to do a hundred a shot, but she refused to let me go that high. I’ll throw in an extra fifty though,” Jordan said handing over the cashier’s check he had prepared and then the cash.
“Hmm?” she asked him looking at the stacks.
“Well the first was for winning the tournament. That part I was sure you’d manage but there was a slight chance of Arthur pulling out the final game.”
“Okay, I’ll forgive you for that then.” Mel laughed, grinning when she saw Ms. Simmons’s face as she looked between them.
“You certainly know how to keep things to yourself Melinda. Especially some things that would be quite evident to most,” she added spying the matching wedding bands.
“You’re right and yes I do.”
“How long?” she asked handing Jordan a receipt.
“Since May seventeenth,” she answered.
“And your mother?”
“Gave her blessing; we just wanted to keep things simple. We only invited Tate and Jordan’s sister Nicole to be our witnesses.”
“And what does this do for your plans for college? We recently received notification of your test scores and they were phenomenal.”
“She’s going even if I have to force her to,” Jordan stated. “As much as I love having her around the office I think a full partnership is what’s in our future.”
“Jordan owns Holmes Construction and Architecture, and he thinks I should go for an engineering or architectural degree,” she said at the teacher’s confused expression. “I currently am the office manager.”
“Office savior is more like it,” he countered. “Before Mel started working for me the place was in chaos. Now I don’t have time to blink before finding the right file and she has a knack for getting the perfect ad out to draw in more customers.”
“So your work study is with Jordan? Mel that could be considered a breach of the program.”
“Because you believe I would fluff the reports? We’d be willing to have someone come sit with us for a day or twoand you can see that my statements of her are nowhere near exaggerations,” Jordan said calmly.
“That might be best, then no one, such as Miss Augustan, can argue when you pull out the top spot,” Ms. Simmons stated.
“Of course, you all have the address and I’m there every afternoon and on Saturdays,” she said knowing when to pick her battles. “I’ll see you Monday.”
“Enjoy your weekend Melinda; it was nice to meet you Mister…”
“Turner, Jordan Turner,” he replied. “I use Holmes for business purposes.”
“So are you going by Taube still or should we be changing the records?” Ms. Simmons inquired.
“The official record will show Turner, I’m using Holmes for the office since Jordan is and as far as everyone here’s concerned it’s Taube. I guess you could say I have as many aliases as I do secrets,” she stated with a small laugh.
“It appears you do,” she agreed as they left.
“Sorry, I know you wanted to keep things quiet,” Jordan said after they’d gotten home.
“I don’t care if she knows and it’s better that it comes out now to the faculty and they head off the complaints of unfairness before they form. I think it’ll just be interesting to see one of my teachers in the office.”
“And if the others ask about me? Why I laid down a thousand dollars on a single shot?”
