“Merry Christmas, Mackie,” she replied, and wrapped her arms around the little girl. She carried Luke’s niece downstairs and found everyone in the living room.
“Hey, beautiful,” Luke said as she sat next to him.
“Hey,” she said quietly.
Everyone laughed and opened presents around the fire while Embry silently freaked out inside. After all they’d been through, she didn’t want to believe Luke might be hiding something else from her. So when he wrapped her in his strong arms and whispered, “I love you,” she pushed all other thoughts from her mind.
35
Embry lay in bed relaxing with Luke. He was reading through legal papers for one of his cases, and he looked downright delicious doing it. He was bare-chested, the comforter covering his naked bottom half, and he wore dark-framed reading glasses. Embry laughed to herself as she pictured the girls in her class that lusted after him and how their heads would explode if they saw how Professor Brody looked while he worked at home. The man was pure sex, and he didn’t even know it. Luke glanced over catching Embry mid-stare, and a self-assured smirk lifted his lips. Maybe he did know it.
Embry shook her head, set down her book, and reached for her purse on the nightstand. She pulled out the mail she had stuffed inside and began to flip through it. She opened a few Christmas cards from random family members and skipped past credit card offers and other junk mail. She almost missed the thin envelope with her school’s crest in the upper left-hand corner. Turning it over, she was confused. She had already received all of her loan information for the following semester, and as far as she knew, grades were uploaded onto the university’s server, not sent out in paper form. “Luke?”
“Yeah, babe,” he replied, distractedly.
“Does Whitman send grades out by mail?”
He looked at her, and then his eyes traveled to the envelope. “No, they go up online only. You should get an email when your professors make them available.”
“Hmm, okay,” she said.
Luke went back to his work, and Embry slipped her finger under the flap of the envelope. She unfolded the single sheet of paper, and her entire world stopped.
She sat stock-still staring at the page in front of her, the words “Notice of Disciplinary Hearing” in big bold letters at the top. Her heart stopped dead in her chest and then kicked back in, beating at an erratic and frenzied pace. Her eyes frantically scanned the document. The words review board, investigation, and violation of university policy jumped from the page.
Oh my God. She couldn’t move, couldn’t form coherent thought. She didn’t know how long she sat there staring at the paper in her shaking hands before Luke interrupted her.
“Baby?”
She didn’t answer. Couldn’t.
“Hey,” he said, stroking his hand down her arm. “Are you all right?”
She turned to him, tears spilling from her eyes. “They know,” she whispered as she handed him the letter.
“What?”
She watched as his eyes scanned the page and grew wide. “Fuck,” he breathed out and scrubbed his hand down his face. He looked over at Embry, his eyes filled with concern. He reached for her, pulling her close and squeezing her hand. It was the only thing keeping her grounded. “We’re gonna get through this, baby,” he said reassuringly. “I promise you.”
Embry crawled into his lap and buried her head in his chest. “I don’t understand how this happened.”
His arms came around her and he held her tight. “I don’t either. But we can’t focus on that. We have to figure out how we’re going to handle this.”
“It’s in two days, Luke. What am I supposed to do?”
“How long have you had this letter?”
Embry shook her head against his chest. “At least a week. I’ve been spending so much time here, I forgot to check my mail. Why?”
“I’m surprised I haven’t been notified. But it doesn’t matter if you opened it a week ago or today, they like to handle these things expeditiously. When there’s been any kind of accusation like this, they launch an investigation immediately.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“I know how the school procedures work. It’s just what they do.”
“How can you be so calm about all of this? Aren’t you worried?”
He stroked his hand over her hair and placed a kiss on her head. “Of course I’m worried, baby. But one of us has to be calm. I don’t want anything jeopardizing your future, including me.” Luke slipped a finger under her chin, bringing her eyes to his. “We knew this was a possibility. I thought we were in the clear with the semester being over, but apparently we’re not. So all we can do is figure out what our options are and prepare you for that meeting. Okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed.
And prepare they did. Luke pulled up copies of the university’s conduct code and disciplinary procedures online and read through them until he could practically recite them from memory. He came up with every question he thought Embry might be faced with in front of the review board, and he quizzed her until she was comfortable with each answer, repeating them automatically.
“When did we first meet?”
“When you took over for Professor Coleman.”
“Had you seen me before that?”
“If you were around campus, I didn’t notice.”
“Do you ever speak to me outside of school?”
“Yes. We communicate by phone regarding our research.”
“Have I ever been inappropriate with you?”
“Of course not. You’re my professor.”
“Did I offer you any special help with assignments?”
“No, never.”
“Did you do anything to gain favor with me in class? To persuade me to alter your grade?”
“Other than study hard and be prepared for class, I’ve done nothing that would give me an unfair advantage over the other students in my class.”
Embry lay in Luke’s bed the night before the hearing, snuggled in his arms as he breathed evenly, sound asleep. His family had already gone home, and she was left alone with her thoughts. She went over all of the possible outcomes of the hearing—expulsion, probation, failure, Luke losing his job. Each of those things worried her, but she realized that as much as she didn’t want any of those things to happen, she’d be okay as long as she didn’t lose Luke. They’d get through it. They’d be okay, as long as they had each other.
She snuggled closer, her thoughts wandering. What if she had met Luke in a different place or time? As she lay there, asking herself those questions, she realized that she wouldn’t change a thing. She would risk everything to protect what they had. She could survive without law school but not without Luke.
Embry stood in front of the bathroom mirror the next morning. She dressed business casual in a black pencil skirt, white button-down, and gray cardigan. Her hair was tamed and pulled back into a sleek ponytail and her makeup was muted.
Luke came up behind her, brought his arms around her waist and placed a light kiss on her cheek. “You look perfect. Stop worrying. It’s going to be okay.”
She turned in his arms to stare up into his eyes for some sign that he was lying, but all she saw was sincerity. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
“I do. Just do exactly what we practiced. Don’t deviate. Deny everything and get as much information from them as possible.”