Free The Marriage Intervention by Hilary Dartt

 
    “What’s so funny?”  
    Josie felt her body go rigid at the sound of Blair Upton’s voice. That woman’s way of speaking was grating. Forget nails on a chalkboard. It was ten times worse.  
    “Nothing,” she said when she swallowed the bite she’d just taken. “Just thinking.”  
    Blair slid into a chair across the table from Josie, and Josie put her wrap down. When she noticed Blair didn’t have any food, she looked pointedly at the empty tabletop and said, “What’s up?”  
    “I know the truth about how you got the principal position,” she said.  
    Josie almost laughed again, but managed to hold it in by biting the inside of her cheek. Blair couldn’t possibly know Summer and Delaney had hacked into her human resources account, used her password (bigpenis, all one word) and submitted her almost-complete application after she chickened out.
    Working to keep her expression as serious as possible, she said, “How? Applied for it? Aced the interview process?”  
    Blair smiled as if she knew something Josie didn’t. Something really good and juicy.  
    “No. How you slept with Scott Smith. Nothing feels as rewarding as sleeping your way to the top, does it?”  
    Josie sensed Blair was bluffing, feeling out the situation. Blair had a thing for Scott. Josie had seen her batting her eyelashes at him all over the place.  
    The temptation was strong to admit that she had, in fact, had a relationship with Scott, but that it had nothing to do with her earning the principal position. However, it wouldn’t look good for either her or Scott, even though they were long over by the time she applied.  
    “I don’t know where you get your info,” Josie said. “But it’s inaccurate. Maybe you should try checking your sources before you come in here with veiled threats.”  
    Josie stood up, put her half-eaten turkey wrap back in its plastic bag and pushed in her chair.
    “Oh, they’re not veiled,” Blair said. “I’m going to the school board with this information. You’ll never become principal. And as you know, I came up second on the list. You’ll be answering to me next year.”  
    Whether the anger resulted from Blair’s old-fashioned bitchiness, or from the fact that she couldn’t tell her the truth about how long gone her relationship with Scott was, or the fact that her marriage was falling apart and it was Scott’s fault and she didn’t care if she protected him, Josie felt the blood rush to her face.  
    “I’m afraid you’re quite wrong,” she said to Blair, whose eyebrows arched at her maliciously like they had minds of their own. “Whether I ever slept with Scott is irrelevant because I’m the best qualified for the principal position. That’s why I got it, and that’s why you’ll be answering to me. Until I find a reason to fire you.”  
    “We’ll see,” said Blair, unaffected. “We’ll see.”  
    Josie walked back to her classroom, conscious of keeping her pace normal and even.  
    Threatening Blair with being fired was probably a bit over the top, but it sure felt good to say it. And who would Blair report the threat to? Scott? Even if Blair did bat her eyelashes at him, he wouldn’t give her the time of day on this one.  
    And if Blair went to the school board, her eyebrows would gravely diminish her credibility. At least, Josie hoped so.  

     

CHAPTER SEVEN

    If Paul thought she had blindsided him with the whole “I want to work on our marriage” thing, he had another thing coming. That thing was marriage counseling, prescribed by Summer and Josie.  
    Monday morning, as she dressed in a decidedly non-sexy outfit of khaki pants and a demure pink button-up blouse, she told Paul about their appointment. Having gotten home late, he was still in bed.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he moaned into his pillow.  
    “Don’t blame me. Summer and Delaney made the appointment.”  
    He groaned.  
    “You know we have to go. We can’t cancel now or