Maybe This Time (The Educators Book 3) (10 page)

hurry back time to go boom!!!

Her mother interrupted her reading, but Steph had seen enough.
“
Are you sure you want to go to your father’s now, darling? You don’t have to until Wednesday.”

“I wanna see Violet, Mom. Besides, I missed a weekend with him and he gets grumpy if I don’t make it up.” Hmm, Steph hadn’t wondered much about what that meant, but now the statement made her think maybe he wanted to be with her.

Quiet. A favorite weapon of her mother’s, probably of all bipolar people, was freezing you out. Since she was little, every time Steph did something her mother didn’t like, she was given the cold shoulder. When she cooperated, Andrea lavished love. She never understood it as a kid, still didn’t, really.

When they pulled up to the front of her dad’s condo, Andrea didn’t even ask whose little blue Mazda was in the driveway.

“I’m not getting out. It’s damp still from the rain and I don’t want to dirty the new shoes I got in New York.”

For a minute, she studied her mother. Today she wore a chic green linen suit and pearls which she’d bought in New York and spent a fortune on. Steph didn’t share her sense of style, wearing jeans capris and a short striped blouse. Though she did put on the clunky sandals she bought in the city.

She pecked her mother on the cheek. “Thanks for the vacation. See you Thursday.”

“Goodbye, dear.”

Stephanie raced into the house. When the door slammed, Ms. Dawson appeared in the archway to the living room. She wore dark peach pants and a long white top with a huge peach belt. Her hair was pulled off to one side in a big clip that matched the silver on the belt. “Hey, girl, you’re back.”

Dropping her bags, Steph flew to Ms. Dawson and threw herself into her teacher’s arms. Now this woman knew how to hug—hers was firm and hardy. And, for the first time in days, Stephanie felt safe again.

“I missed you,” she said enthusiastically.

“I missed you, too.”

Meowing at her feet. “Oh, Violet.” Steph bent down and picked up her kitty. “Hey, little one, Mommy’s home.”

She saw Ms. Dawson smile.

Embarrassed, she said, “Stupid, I know. Why do people pretend to be mommies and daddies to pets?”

“Maybe because they don’t have children or their own.”

They moved to the couch, where Steph sat and cuddled the cat. “You ever wanna have kids, Ms. Dawson? I bet they’d be really cool with a mom like you.”

Ms. Dawson smiled—real broad. “I certainly do.” She pointed to the floor. Mag sandals, by the way. Now, tell me about New York.”

Steph motioned to her bag. “Don’t have to. I wrote in my journal every day, so you can read about it.”

“I will. Let me just ask you this. Did it go all right with your mom? You haven’t seen her in a while.”

Hardly.
“Yeah, sure,” she lied even though she could still picture her mother dead drunk on the bed three out of the four nights they were away. She could tell Ms. Dawson, who’d always keep her secrets, but she didn’t want to spoil the reunion. She sniffed. “What do I smell?”

“Pizza. I made you and your dad dinner.”

“Oh, great. I been eating French food and gourmet Italian.”

“You poor girl.”

“Want a snack?”

“Uh-huh. But I can get it. You look a little tired. I didn’t ask, are you feeling better?”

“Definitely.”

They munched on cheese and apples and played with Violet until her dad got home—early. When he came to the entryway of the great room from the kitchen, his smile was mega bright. It did something to Stephanie’s insides. So she stood, crossed to him and hugged him tight. “Hi, Dad.”

He held on to her, too. She couldn’t remember the last time hugged him without him starting it. Finally, he let her go. “Thanks for that, Steph.” He kissed her head. “I’m glad you’re back.”

She led him to the couch, where Ms. Dawson sat.

“Hi, there.” Her father voice gravelly. Boy, he must have really liked the hug.

“Mr. Grayson.”

“Why don’t you two use your first names, you see each other so much?”

“Fine by me,” her dad said. “If Ms. Dawson agrees.”

“I agree, Gage.” Ms. Dawson’s face lit up. For a minute, Stephanie didn’t understand why. Maybe she was just as glad to see Steph as Steph was to see her.

“Hey, Ms. Dawson made pizza for dinner. Can she stay, Dad?”

“If she has the time and inclination to eat with us. Thanks, by the way, for cooking.”

“Sure, I’ll stay. It’ll be fun.”

Stephanie sighed. Now this felt like home.

The only bummer was her phone kept vibrating which meant she was getting texts. She didn’t want to deal with Schmooze tonight so she finally took it out of her pocket and buried it in her bag in the foyer.

o0o

Delaney showed up at The Cottage House in Crystal Corners at six fifteen on Thursday evening. She’d beat it out of the Grayson home a) because Brie and Annie had asked her to meet them for dinner tonight, and b) it was harder than hell to see Gage without touching him, talking to him intimately, kissing him. And she was afraid she was going to slip up in front of Steph. Last night, she tried to keep her eyes off him, but every once in a while she’d catch him staring at her like he wanted her for dessert after the pizza and she’d blush. Once, Steph had asked if she was getting sick again.

Tonight, she felt good and was looking forward to having dinner with Brie and Annie. The two women invited her to go out a lot, but she rarely did. Lately, though, she wanted to be more normal, have girlfriends, like most women did. Her whole outlook seemed to be changing.

Brie waved to her from the center of the restaurant. “There she is,” the woman said when Delaney reached their table and sat down. “I’m so glad you came this time.”

“Thanks for asking again. I don’t know why I don’t do this more.”

Annie said, “You can trust us, Delaney.”

What an odd statement.

“Would you like a drink?” Brie asked. “I’m having soda water because of the baby but Annie’s indulging in wine, so go ahead and have some.”

“Um, no, soda water is fine.” The waiter took her order.

“So how’s life at the high school?” Annie asked. The yellow of her dress contrasted nicely with her auburn hair.

“I love teaching the older kids as much as I thought I would, though at first I had to work like hell to get the lesson plans done for the new material. It’s not so bad now. Do you miss it?”

“Not as much as I’d miss Dylan. If I had to give up one of them, I’d rather it be where I teach.” She sighed dreamily. “He’s such a good man. I’m so lucky.”

Brie giggled, the girlish sound so in contrast to her chic paisley dress, the kind Steph’s mother wore. “I feel the same.”

A blinding streak of jealousy shot through Delaney. She wanted to shout out loud that she was in love. She wanted to talk about pregnancy and kids with women who’d had them.

“You two
are
really lucky, you know. Your men are the greatest guys at school.”

Annie and Brie exchanged glances.

“Honey,” Brie said grasping her hand. “We want to spend time with you. But we have an ulterior motive for asking you here tonight.”

“You do?” Alarm shot through her.

Reaching out, Annie touched her arm. “I got to school early yesterday morning.”

Oh, shit!

“I saw you being dropped off in the back of the building. By a guy.”

“And you want the details?” Delaney asked, hoping to deflect the conversation.

Annie smiled. “Sure we do. But we’re offering friendship, mostly, if you want somebody to talk to. You know, girl talk.”

“Why does it feel there’s more to this whole invitation than
girl talk
?”

“Because I recognized the guy who kissed you goodbye.” Annie set down her drink. “I met him at open house last year.”

And just like that, Delaney could feel herself shut down and go into self-protective mode.

Brie jumped in. “You’re seeing Gage Grayson, aren’t you? Stephanie’s dad.”

She didn’t respond.

“Delaney,” Brie pleaded. “We want to be here for you.”

Annie added, “Honey, I’m the queen of impossible relationships. There’s no reason in the world Dylan and I should have ended up together. It was completely out of the question and I was afraid I’d lose my job.”

“That’s why she transferred. We know you know all that. But what you don’t seem to realize is that we care about you and we want to help.”

Suddenly, the loneliness and the lack of friends and a normal life caught up with Delaney. Her eyes clouded and tears coursed down her cheeks. Damn those pregnancy hormones.

“You can tell us, Delaney.”

She looked at Annie. “I…I can’t. You’ll tell Dylan. Maybe you already have. Dating a student’s father is unconscionable.”

“First, I haven’t told Dylan about what I saw. And didn’t you hear me before? We have a checkered past. For Christ’s sake, I was his student and fell in love with him. How can this be worse?”

“It is.”

“Because of Stephanie? She adores you. She’ll love having you in your life.”

“Don’t you see, she’s so fragile? She’s just beginning to trust her father. And she trusts me to the bone. I know her, Brie. She’ll think I don’t really care about her if she finds out I’m sleeping with her dad.  Please, don’t tell Dylan yet, Annie. We have to figure out how to handle this.”

Both women cocked their heads. Brie asked, “Handle Steph?”

“Not only her. Hell, I might as well tell you everything. I’m pregnant.”

“Oh, my.” Brie’s hand went to her stomach.

“Yes, oh my.” Annie’s eyes were wide.

“Let me explain.” She told them how she met Gage in the airport and how the rest unfolded. “You probably think less of me because I’d have a one night stand.”

Annie grasped her hand this time. “Not me. I was called Wild Child in high school. I fell apart after Dylan left town. That’s why I think he’ll understand more than you think. But I won’t tell him until you’re ready.”

Delaney breathed a sigh of relief.

“We should talk about Steph a minute, too,” Brie suggested.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen her hanging out with Schmooze and Catherine Long and Mitzy Porter. They’re trouble, Delaney. Catherine’s in the hospital, did you know that?”

“Yes, but I don’t know why.”

“There was another run-in with Tom Speranza Friday when you were out. Apparently, Catherine’s father beat her up and she’s been taken out of his care. The kids are saying the girls’ vendetta against Tom has spiraled. I’d hate to see Steph get involved in all that. They’re bad news.”

“She’s already is involved. Or she was a few weeks ago.” Delaney told them about staying with Steph after school. “And she’s been away so I hope that distances them further. But you’re right, I have to talk to her about this.”

Brie picked up the menu. “Now, let’s order and you and I can bore Annie to death by sharing pregnancy stories.”

Again tears threatened. “I always wanted girlfriends to talk to about things like this. I only had one and we got separated early on in foster care.”

“Now, you have us.” Brie smiled.” And you can share away. We’ll keep your secrets, too, until you and Gage figure this out.”

Delaney tried to focus on the menu but couldn’t because she was overcome with a feeling she almost didn’t recognize—that maybe she wasn’t alone anymore.

o0o

On Thursday, Stephanie pleaded menstrual cramps and didn’t go to school. The texts this week from Schmooze had gotten sort of threatening, so she was worried about seeing the girls. They were going to hurt Mr. Speranza and wanted her in on it. Said she
had
to be. They talked about guns and bombs and they were meeting today after school to make a plan of action. Of course, Steph’s mother let her stay home—her dad probably wouldn’t have--so she had time to think about what to do. By three, she still hadn’t made a decision. Should she tell someone? Who? Ms. Dawson? But did she really want to involve somebody she loved with those girls? Her dad? Though the two of them had problems, he was good in a crisis and could probably handle it. Her mother was out of the question.

As if Steph had conjured her, Andrea peeked her head into the room about three o’clock. Steph was lazing on her bed with Violet next to her. “You okay?” Andrea asked.

“Yeah, sure.” Steph touched her abdomen. “I feel a lot better.”

“I’m heading off to get my hair done. I might stop for dinner with a friend. Can I bring you food back?”

“I don’t think I’m supposed to be left alone.”

“Darling, that’s your father’s rule. You’re almost sixteen. You can handle a couple of hours by yourself. Take care.”

With that, her mother was gone. Closing her eyes, Stephanie pictured Ms. Dawson, every day for weeks coming over to her father’s house, taking Steph to her apartment, or hanging out at school with her. And today, she’d called on her lunch hour to ask how Steph was feeling. Steph’s throat got tight—how bad was it when your teacher liked you better than your own mother?

She heard her mom on the steps again speaking to someone before Andrea appeared in the doorway again. “Look who’s here, Steph.”

When her mother stepped aside, she saw Schmooze and Mitz were in the hall.

“I’ll leave you three to talk. See Steph, you won’t be alone after all.”

“I--” But her mother disappeared.

Schmooze and Mitz sauntered inside and closed the door. They were dressed alike in black jeans and white blouses with leather vests. Steph tried to joke. “What are you, twins today?”

“Solidarity,” Schmooze said. She crossed to the bed and sat down. Really close. The strong scent of cigarettes wafted up to Steph and made her stomach queasy. “We came to bring you back into the fold.”

“What do you mean?”

Mitz approached the bed, too, and snatched up Violet. “This the kitty you like so much?”

“Yeah.”

Mitz looked it in the eyes, then dropped Violet to the floor!

“Oh, my God, what did you do?” Steph tried to scramble to her feet, but Schmooze blocked her way.

“Listen, Stephy baby, and listen good. We’re heading over to Speranza’s house when it gets dark. To plant a bomb in his garage, triggered for when he opens the door. Might not happen until tomorrow, but Tom Tom is gonna be outta commission for a while.”