Forever Fall (19 page)

Mandy gazed in stunned silence at the spot where Luc had stood moments ago. For a long time after Luc quit and then walked out of the library, the room held the same shocked silence.

Had she really heard what her brain said she did? Had Luc not only endorsed the purchase of the simulators, but he’d also risen to her defense against Laureene’s insinuations? Though she was thankful, and it had warmed her heart beyond description, it somehow made the thought that they could never have a relationship harder to bear. If only—

“How can you people just let Mr. Michaels quit?” The distressed, young female’s voice emanated from the rear of the room.

All heads swiveled in her direction.

“Shannon. What are you doing here?’ Catherine Daniels had come to her feet and directed all her attention on her granddaughter.

Shannon and a young man Mandy didn’t recognize hurried to the front of the room. “Jeb and I came to tell everyone that what Mr. Michaels and Miss James did was a good thing. If I hadn’t gone to stay with them, I never would have realized how much of my life would have been ruined by having a baby now.” She turned toward the gathered people. “I still want to be a mom one day, but not until I’ve been a teenager. I want to go to the prom, go to college and get a good education for a future career, maybe even join a sorority. I never would have seen all that without Joey
 . . .
without the simulator.” She swung back to the board. “You have to get Mr. Michaels back.”

Jeb took Shannon’s hand and stood shoulder to shoulder with her. “And Mr. Michaels made me see that my education should be my priority and not sports.”

Asa sprang to his feet. “Now, hold on, Jeb. How do you think you’ll pay for college without an athletic scholarship?”

Mandy smiled inwardly, knowing Asa was seeing his dream of Carson having nurtured the star quarterback on the UCLA football team go up in smoke.

Jeb shrugged. “If I can’t get my grades up high enough to get into the school, what good’s an athletic scholarship going to do me? Worse comes to worse, I’ll just have to get a job to pay my way, I guess.” He faced the room full of people. “Bottom line is Mr. Michaels is the best thing that ever happened to Carson High, and you need to make sure he stays here.”

“That’s impossible. He just quit.” Asa’s voice rang out in the room like an executioner’s proclamation that the criminal had succumbed, drowning out the shouts of agreement with Jeb’s statement. “It’s a done deal.”

“The only thing that’s a done deal in this life, Asa, is death.” Granny Jo went to stand with Jeb and Shannon, forming what was quickly becoming an impenetrable human wall of protest in front of a red-faced Asa Watkins. “Luc Michaels made it possible for my granddaughter to get her GED, then go to school to start a career so she can support her baby. And after hearing these young people attest to his help, I’d say his interest lies more in the students than adding any more trophies to that glass case in your office.”

Asa sputtered, but couldn’t seem to form a coherent reply.

Luc had stood up for her, now Granny Jo and these teens were doing likewise. It was Mandy’s turn to support him and these students. She rose to her feet and joined the other three in front of the board table. “You blackmailed an honorable man into trying to undermine the test that Catherine suggested to prove the simulators were a good way to prevent teen pregnancy. But despite the danger of him losing his job, his home and a community he cherishes, he never once did anything to jeopardize the test. Personally, I think anyone who would sink as low as you did has no place on the school board.”

“Now, wait just a minute. You can’t—” On his feet now, his fists planted on the table, Asa’s complexion had gone from blood-vessel-popping red to apoplexy purple.

“No, you wait!” Catherine Daniels, who had reseated herself after the teens began presenting their case, had come to her feet again. Her tone of voice and expression seemed to set Asa back a bit. “This board appointed you, and we can just as quickly unappoint you.”

Mandy wanted to burst into applause, but she waited to see where Catherine was going with this, hoping it was in the direction of Asa’s termination. Mandy looked at the other board members. Would they defy Asa?

“I say we take a vote right now,” Catherine said, her tone decisive and clear. “I make a motion to remove Asa Watkins as Carson’s School Superintendent. Do I have a second?”

Throwing a disapproving glance in Asa’s direction, Reverend Thomas raised his hand. “I’ll second it.”

“Discussion?” Catherine asked.

Granny Jo took a step forward. “I think we’ve about discussed this to death.”

“Granny’s right.” Reverend Thomas, who had remained silent throughout the discussion of Asa’s transgressions, spoke with the authoritative voice he usually reserved for Sunday mornings. “No need for any more talk. I think we’ve all seen the light. Let’s vote.”

Again, applause broke out from the crowd. Catherine waved her hand to quiet them and turned to the other people sharing the front table with her. “Well?”

All the board members nodded their agreement.

Asa, who had been glaring at Reverend Thomas, transferred his searing gaze to Catherine. “This is most—Most
 . . .
un-Parliamentary. Robert’s Rules of—” His puttered protest went unheeded.

“Very well then, let’s vote.” Catherine cut him off before he could finish his sentence. “All in favor?”

Mandy held her breath. Would they have enough backbone to go up against the man who’d threatened, bullied and now blackmailed them into thinking his way and kept them cowed with his iron-fisted rule?

The remaining board members looked at each other, as if waiting for one of them to make the first move. Finally Bill Keeler raised his hand. “I’m tired of you telling me what to do, how I should think and where I should go, Asa. I vote yes.”

Reverend Thomas and Charles Henderson quickly followed suit. “I vote yes,” they chimed simultaneously.

“Opposed?”

Mandy hid a grin behind her hand as Asa’s hand shot into the air. Then he looked around at an entire room of accusing eyes directed at him and slowly lowered it.

Catherine grabbed Asa’s gavel and struck the table once. “Majority rules. Motion is passed.” Then she turned to the ex-superintendent and grinned. “It appears as though your services are no longer needed here, Asa.”

A roar of applause went up from the gathering.

Mandy fought once more to suppress her smile. She just wished Luc could have been here to see this.

Asa huffed loudly. No doubt the sound of the wind leaving his sails. He snatched his gavel from Catherine. “You’ll be sorry you did this.”

“You might want to be careful about threatening anyone with so many witnesses present, Asa.” Catherine motioned toward the gathered townspeople, her lips still curled in a satisfied grin. “You have no sway over this board anymore.”

Asa glared at each of the board members in turn and then stalked from the room, his face now a lighter shade of purple, and his precious gavel clutched tightly in his fist.

Catherine retook her seat. Mandy and Granny Jo returned to theirs. Jeb and Shannon found seats in the back of the room.

Catherine folded her arms on the table and looked thoughtful. “Well, this is all well and good, but it seems to leave us with a bit of a dilemma. We now have no superintendent.”

A thought occurred to Mandy. Something that made perfect sense. She raised her hand. “I have a suggestion.”

Luc had driven around
aimlessly for the last hour, still stunned at what he’d done. He hadn’t gone to the meeting with the intention of quitting his job. Quite the contrary. He’d been prepared to do whatever was necessary to save it. Then he’d seen Mandy. At that moment, he knew he could do no less than to admit what he and Asa had done and expose Asa for the manipulative, underhanded control freak that he was.

And when Laureene started casting aspersions on Mandy, he could not sit there and listen to the woman he loved being slandered. Mandy had done nothing to deserve that. When she’d entered into that experiment, she’d had only the best interests of every teenager in Carson in mind. Though the teenager had fought her, she’d done everything she could to make Shannon see that getting pregnant at her age would be the biggest mistake she could ever make.

Then Asa put in his two cents, and that had pushed Luc past the point of endurance. He had no desire to work for an underhanded creep like Asa, even if it meant relocating and leaving behind everything and everyone he’d come to care so much about.

Suddenly the loud muffler on a passing car roused him from his thoughtful daze. After checking his watch, he realized that he’d been sitting outside his house for more than a half an hour rehashing what had taken place at the meeting. Slowly, he climbed from his car and made his way up the front walk and into the house.

As he walked into the living room, his footsteps echoed hollowly on the hardwood floor, reinforcing the emptiness of the building. Was this what his life would be like from now on? No one to share meals with. No one to talk to about his day. No one to love and be loved by. If all his future held was a solitary existence and a house that didn’t come close to resembling a home, then it wouldn’t make any difference if he lived in a penthouse or a tent.

Luc flopped down on the couch and stared blindly at the walls around him. He tried to ignore the pile of packing boxes he’d gotten from Keller’s market, brought home and stacked in the corner
 . . .
just in case. The empty cardboard boxes just underlined the bleakness filling him.

Already he missed the family-like dinners he’d shared with Mandy and Shannon, the laughter, the games and even the fights. Those few days had been the closest thing to having a real family that he’d ever known.

But most of all, his heart ached with missing Mandy. It amazed him that she’d come to mean so very much to him in such a short time. But she had, and now he’d lost her.

He’d been so wrong, so afraid if he loved her that any relationship they’d formed would end up in ruins like his parents’ relationship. For Luc, the words
marriage
and
love
had always been synonymous with heartache and failure. And Mandy wanted nothing less than a committed relationship—love, security, babies—the only things, given the example set for him by his parents’ marriage, he didn’t think he’d been prepared to give her. But Mandy wasn’t his mother, and he’d been stupid not to see that when he had a chance to tell her how he felt. And now, he’d never get that chance.

Tired of feeling sorry for himself, Luc decided it was time to tackle the task he’d been putting off for days. He dragged his body off the couch, grabbed the pile of newspapers stacked on the ottoman and began wrapping the pictures and knickknacks he’d accumulated over the past three years and putting them in a box across the side of which he’d scrawled
LIVING ROOM
in black marker. He might as well be ready to move when the time comes. Besides, he needed something to keep his mind off Mandy.

He’d been at it for about an hour when a knock sounded on his door. Laying aside a sheet of newsprint and wiping his soiled hands on a rag, he went to the door and swung it open.

Granny Jo Hawks grinned back at him.

“Granny Jo!” A cold chill raced down his spine. Granny had never come to his house before. “Is everything okay? Mandy?”

“Mandy’s fine. Everything is fine.” She glanced over his shoulder at the disarray in the living room. “But it doesn’t appear as though everything’s fine in there. Going somewhere?”

He laughed without humor. “In case you’ve forgotten, I just quit my job, and since there aren’t any openings left for a principal in Carson, I’m going to have to be moving on.” He glanced at the boxes and back at her. “No sense in putting off the inevitable.”

“There’s no need for you to be going anywhere.” Granny Jo made an impatient sound. “Aside from being a mite on the impulsive side, your manners appear to need attention.”

He frowned. “Excuse me?”

She nodded her head toward the living room. “Are you gonna leave me out here or invite me in?”

“I’m sorry. Please.” He stood aside and made room for her to enter. “My apologies.”

She patted his shoulder and walked inside. “No need to apologize. You’ve had a rough day.”

He laughed again. This time ironic humor colored his voice. “You might say that.” He motioned toward the sofa. “Please, have a seat.” Once she was seated, he joined her. “You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here.”

“Well,” she said, folding her hands in her lap, “the school board asked me to come talk to you. It seems they have one small problem.”