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Rumor Has It
Rumor Has It
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Rumor Has It

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Rumor Has It
Cindi Myers

Ten years–that's how long Taylor Reed has been starring in the X-rated rumors that sizzle nonstop through Cedar Creek's grapevine. What she hasn't done with Dylan Gates just isn't worth talking about–so the stories go.Now she's ready to leave the small town and its even smaller minds, but first she's going to give the gossips something hot to talk about. For once the steamy stories of sex and seduction will all be true….A chance to make his fantasies about Taylor a reality? Dylan is more than willing. Soon their sexy escapades are hotter than he ever dreamed possible, and he wants to push their relationship beyond the bedroom door. Despite the sizzling passion, Taylor's determined to keep it an affair. Looks as if he'll have to prove that he can keep the heat between them long after the town has stopped talking!

She’s haunted by the sexual past she never had!

Taylor leaned toward Dylan, the intensity of her gaze making his temperature edge up a few degrees. “Do you really want to make it up to me?”

He swallowed. “Of course.”

She angled closer, her knees brushing his. “I’ve decided I’ve let those rumors haunt me for too long. I’m ready to get them out of my system for good.”

“How are you going to do that?”

She took his other hand and rested them both in her lap. “That’s where you come in.” She traced the lines of his palm with one red-painted fingernail, sending a lightning bolt of sensation straight to his groin.

“I want to revisit the past, so to speak, and turn those hot rumors into truth.”

He blinked, trying to pull his thoughts away from sex, to the discussion at hand. “I don’t understand. You can’t go back in time.”

“Not physically.” She continued to stroke his palm, so that he ached to reach out and pull her to him. “I want to take all those wild stories and re-create them today.”

He’d never wanted anything more. Had wanted it ten years ago, but hadn’t had the courage to admit it. “If you’re sure…”

Dear Reader,

Not many of us would want to live through high school again. But what if we could go back to one moment and correct a mistake we made? What if we had a chance to get things right this time?

That was the idea that sparked Taylor and Dylan’s story for me. And then I remembered the diary I kept in school. Mine was filled with mundane teenage ramblings (oh, the angst!). But Taylor’s diary, on the other hand, is definitely more interesting, filled with the sexy escapades people thought she and Dylan were having, things Taylor wished had been true.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about two people who get a second chance with each other. I love to hear from readers. E-mail me at Cindi@CindiMyers.com. And be sure to visit my Web site at www.CindiMyers.com to see what’s coming up from me.

Happy reading,

Cindi Myers

Rumor Has It

Cindi Myers

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

This book is dedicated to the Conroe High School Class of 1979.

Go Tigers!

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

1

SOMETIMES THE PAST sneaks up and bites you in the butt. You think you’re doing great, planning for the future and then up pops a ghost from your personal history to prove you wrong.

“I hear Dylan Gates is moving back to town.”

Alyson Michaels, who taught physical education as if it were merely an extension of her long career as a Cedar Creek Cyclone cheerleader, dropped this bomb as she stood with Taylor Reed and several other teachers on the bus ramp in front of the high school one bright September morning.

For half a second Taylor stopped breathing. She hadn’t thought of Dylan Gates in a long time, but the memory of him was enough to bring a hot flush to the back of her neck, even after ten years. She swallowed hard and stared out at the lines of students who slouched up the steps of Cedar Creek Senior High with all the enthusiasm of cattle being led to slaughter. Ah, the joys of high school. How ironic that after enduring her own personal high school hell, Taylor had ended up coming back here to teach. Guess she was just a glutton for punishment.

“It’ll be great to see Dylan.” Fellow English teacher Grady Murphy sidled closer. “Last I heard, he was out in California.”

“He was, but he’s moving back to Cedar Creek to open a law practice,” Alyson said.

Dylan, moving here? Taylor’s stomach flip-flopped. “How do you know that?” she asked.

Alyson bounced on her toes like a hyperactive poodle. As usual, she was dressed in a too tight golf shirt, white shorts and tennis shoes with white anklets. She carried the bus duty roster on a clipboard and her blond hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. In her more vindictive moments, Taylor wondered if Alyson’s whole face would collapse if that ponytail was undone. “Troy Sommers, the real estate agent, is a friend of mine. He said Dylan e-mailed him last week about renting space downtown, across from the courthouse. And he told Troy he intended to move back into his parents’ old place.”

“Who’s Dylan Gates?” Mindy Lewis, freshman algebra teacher and Taylor’s best friend, joined them.

“Before your time, child.” Grady grinned at their younger colleague. “Alyson, Taylor, Dylan and I were all at school together, right here at good old Cedar Creek High.” He laughed. “Those were the days!”

“Yeah, right,” Taylor mumbled. Days of sheer torture as far as she was concerned. Even Dylan…

“Speaking of our high school days, are you going to the reunion Saturday?” Alyson asked.

“Why do I need to go to the reunion when half our class is still here?” Taylor said the words only half jokingly.

“I’m on the reunion committee and I noticed you hadn’t sent in your R.S.V.P.” Alyson frowned at Taylor. “I can’t believe you’d think of missing our ten-year reunion. Everyone will be there.”

“I won’t,” Mindy said. “Of course, I’ve got years to go before my reunion.”

Alyson ignored the dig from her younger colleague and pointed a pencil at Taylor. “You don’t want to miss out on this reunion. Trust me.”

Taylor shrugged. “I guess I’m not very big on reliving old times.” In fact, she’d just as soon forget her short career as a student at Cedar Creek High.

“It’ll be your last chance to see everyone before you head off to London or wherever it is,” Grady said.

“Oxford.” In January, Taylor would start a graduate fellowship at the hallowed university, far away from Cedar Creek, Texas, and reminders of the past.

“Dylan will be there.” Alyson studied Taylor through lowered lashes. “Maybe you two can pick up where you left off, for old times’ sake.”

“That’s right—you and Dylan were quite an item senior year, weren’t you?” Grady mused. “Is it true Coach Nelson caught the two of you in the boys’ showers?”

For once Taylor was grateful for the shrill bell that announced the start of classes. Nodding goodbye to Alyson and Grady, she maneuvered past groups of students and headed toward her second-floor English classroom. Only four more months to endure Alyson’s and Grady’s snide comments and suggestive winks. Four months until she started life over in a place where no one had ever heard of her allegedly torrid past.

Mindy caught up to her. “What was all that about? Who’s Dylan Gates?”

Taylor shrugged. “A guy I was friends with in high school.”

“Friends? As in boyfriend-girlfriend?”

“No, it wasn’t like that.” Not that Taylor hadn’t dreamed about the possibility. “There were some rumors about us, but they weren’t true.”

“Alyson and Grady apparently think they were.” Mindy wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Of course, those two are still stuck in high school. I mean, look at them. Alyson still thinks she’s the popular cheerleader and Grady is the dumb jock panting after her. It’s pathetic, really, when people can’t move on with their lives.”

“Yeah, pathetic,” Taylor echoed. But were they any worse than a twenty-eight-year-old woman who let high school teasing still get to her?

“Good morning, Mindy. Taylor.” The principal, Clay Walsh, waved to them from the door of his office.

“Good morning, Clay.” Mindy’s cheeks flushed pink as they moved on down the corridor.

Taylor nudged her friend. “If you like him so much, why don’t you come right out and tell him?”

Mindy’s smile dissolved into a look of openmouthed horror. “Does it really show that much?”

“Relax. Only because I know you so well. But seriously, why not let him know how you feel?”

Mindy glanced back at Clay, who was still watching them from his office doorway. She quickly faced forward again. “I’ve tried dropping hints,” she said. “But he doesn’t seem interested.”

“What kind of hints?”

“Well…I always give him a big smile and say hello whenever I see him in the hall. And when I sent Larry Atwater to the principal’s office last week for disrupting class, I walked him down there myself and told Clay I was available to discuss the situation further after school.” Her shoulders slumped. “But all he said was that he appreciated the offer, but he didn’t think that would be necessary.”

Taylor couldn’t hold back her laughter. Mindy glared at her. “What’s so funny?”

“You! How are any of those things supposed to let a man know you’ve got the hots for him?”

“Well, what do you think I should do?”

Taylor composed herself. Who would have thought usually outgoing Mindy would have such a problem letting a man know she was interested? “Flirt with him,” she suggested. “Make it a point to sit with him at lunch. Stop by after work and invite him to have a drink with you.”

Mindy’s eyes widened. “I couldn’t do that!”

“Why not? The worst that could happen is he’d turn you down. And I’d bet money he wouldn’t.”

Mindy shook her head. “It’s complicated, with him being principal. Not to mention fifteen years older than me.”

“That shouldn’t matter. I think you two would be good together.”

“Like I’m supposed to trust the judgment of a woman who hasn’t had a serious relationship with a man in how long?”

Taylor switched her book bag from one hand to the other. “It’s been a while. Maybe I’m just picky.”

“Maybe you’re too picky. Or a coward.”

“A coward?” Taylor glanced at her friend. “Because I have high standards?”

“Sometimes women use that as an excuse because they’re afraid of getting hurt.” She shrugged off Taylor’s glare. “Hey, I may be an algebra teacher, but I minored in psychology.”

“I minored in home economics, but you don’t hear me telling you what to fix for supper, do you?”

“Feeling feisty this morning, are we?” Mindy laughed and came to a stop at Taylor’s classroom door. “Okay, I promise not to analyze you anymore if you promise not to say anything else about Clay.”

“Deal.” The two friends parted, still laughing, and Taylor prepared to face another day of trying to make classical literature relevant to hormonal teens.

“Wassup, Ms. Reed?” Class clown Berkley Brent-meyer greeted her as he passed her desk. “I had a great idea this weekend. Instead of wasting our time studying all this boring old stuff, why don’t we move right along to modern literature?” He held up the latest Stephen King release. “I guarantee we’d all stay awake in class if we were reading this.”

“Nice try, Berk. But I’m betting even Stephen King did his time studying the classics.”

As Berk shuffled to his place in the third row, Taylor took her seat at her desk and pulled out her roll book. “Open your books to page seventy-six. This morning, we’re going to continue our discussion of Beowulf. While everyone is getting ready, please pass in your journal entries.” As part of the creative writing portion of senior English, students were required to keep a journal. Some days Taylor assigned topics for them to write about; other days they were free to explore any subject they wished.

A tall blonde in the fourth row raised her hand. “Yes, Jessica?” Taylor asked.

“I thought a journal was supposed to be private. But how can it be private if you’re reading it and grading us?”

“If there’s anything you don’t want me to read, don’t put it in the journal.” Taylor surveyed the class. “Certainly all of you should feel free to keep private journals outside of class. In fact, I’d encourage it. The journal entries you make for class may be completely separate from those.”