The Marriage Intervention Read Online Free

precisely what he wanted her to see, putting the spotlight back on her. Despite spending several hours with him that day, Josie had no idea what he did for a living, why he moved to Juniper, or even what kind of car he drove.  
    Scott was the first secret-keeper, and because she fell so hard for him that summer— too hard—she became the second.  
    Keeping secrets is a hard habit to break.  
    ***
    When Scott eventually revealed his secret, Josie realized he was the Romeo to her Juliet. Tragic, lovestruck young people destined to be apart.  
    He knew from the outset they wouldn’t be together. When she casually mentioned teaching at Juniper Elementary School, he should have walked away. But, he said, because he loved the slow curve of her smile, the quick chime of her laugh, he waited until she had fallen hard for him to tell her, ensuring they’d have at least some time together before school started and their respective career aspirations kept them apart. Suddenly, every moment felt precious, like a diamond hundreds of years in the making, deep underground, only now twinkling in the sunlight.
      They saw each other daily. For the first few days, Josie let Scott dictate the direction of their conversations. He steered the vehicle to whichever destinations he chose, never once pulling to a stop in any area of his own life.
    Then, curiosity overcame her.  
    “Scott, you know almost everything about me,” she said to him one night while they sat on her porch swing, licking ice cream cones. “But I don’t know so much about you. I mean, you said you moved here for your job, but you’ve never mentioned what that job is. And you’re never working.”  
    “Well, I’ve only been here for a few days,” he said, his tone indicating a flicker of offense.  
    She nodded and laid a hand on his leg. “I know. I was just wondering, that’s all. I’d really like to get to know you better.”  
    He sighed then, a big sigh that made his chest rise and fall, and moved the swing so it creaked on its chains. “Josie, there’s something I need to tell you.”  
    Uh oh. He’s married, with kids. He’s a spy and he’s not allowed to date people. He’s an assassin and I’m his next target. Mission: Kill Josie Garcia.
    “I’m the new principal at Juniper Elementary School.”  
    She sat there so long without responding that the ice cream started to melt, running down over her thumb. After a long moment during which the only sound was that of crickets chirping, she cleared her throat. The ice cream dripped onto her leg.  
    “Wait. So you’re, like, my boss?”  
    He shrugged, nodding. “Well, yeah.”  
    Their relationship would never work. She couldn’t date her boss. Imagine what it would do to her reputation. Imagine how it could ruin her career.  
    Now, she nodded too.
    “This can’t work,” they both said at the same time. Then they laughed.  
    It was a split-second, knee-jerk decision, and she knew it was the right one.  
    But after that, she always wondered, what if? What if they had met under different circumstances? What if one of them worked at a different school? What if she wasn’t a teacher?  
    The answers didn’t matter. Josie Garcia and Scott Smith were destined for tragedy.
    When she and Paul made their relationship official about a month later, though, she told Scott it was over. Really over.  

     

CHAPTER TWO

    Scott and Josie said good-bye the final night of summer break.
    He insisted they do something fun, something, he said, “where we won’t even have a chance to notice how sad we are.”  
    That was Scott, always running away from serious topics, always hiding from feelings any deeper than a dirty puddle in the parking lot.
    So they went to Orbit Golf. Josie hated that place. She’d gone there on her first-ever date with Alejo Gomez, whom she’d pined after for months junior year. He was the perfect gentleman until they came across some of his friends. It was Hole Twelve,