Playing at Love (5 page)

At least they hadn’t mentioned losing the house, although Tess was sure that was implied. It was a tense situation. They had as much at stake as she had.

Tess lifted her hand, pointing her clicker at her car. The horn beeped as the headlights flashed.

“Cutting out already?”

Tess jumped, dropped her keys, and whipped around, ready to attack. Or run.

“Hey, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Charlie?” Tess exhaled. “What are you doing?”

Tess’s brother chuckled and slid his hands into his jeans pockets. His hair had always been lighter than Tess’s, and since he started buzz-cutting it when he was eighteen, it looked even lighter. But the porch light lit up his blue eyes; their color had never changed.

“I just got here,” Charlie replied. “Is it too late for dinner?”

“Mom made a plate for you,” Tess said. “But I’m taking the leftover cake with me, so hands off.” She gripped the Tupperware container tight, not liking the dubious way her brother was eyeing it. There was a time when Charlie might’ve wrestled her to the ground for it, and she would’ve kicked him where it counts. But she was fairly certain they had both outgrown those tendencies.

“Come back inside for a while,” Charlie suggested, stepping onto the porch. “Tell me about your first day.”

“Can’t,” Tess said. “I’ve got a ton to do before tomorrow.”

Charlie frowned, probably noticing the expression on her face. “Why are you so busy after one day? That’s pretty unusual, right?”

Tess rubbed a fist into her forehead. “There’s a problem at school.”

“Is Mac making trouble?” he asked jokingly. “Who do I need to bury this time?”

“Hilarious.” Tess narrowed her eyes. “No, it’s something else. Pretty bad.” She dropped her bag and told Charlie all about the teachers’ meeting, the budget cut, and Joe Walker’s very competitive “noncompetition” to save one of the programs.

“There’s no way,” Charlie said, folding his arms when she’d finished. “There is absolutely no way it will get cut. It’s ridiculous.”

“I know, right?” Tess said, grateful for his support. “Thank you.”

“It’s a legacy in this town.” He laughed. “I mean, can you imagine Franklin High without a football team?”

Tess’s smile dropped. “What? Football? You think they should keep
football
?”

“Well, no disrespect, Tess, but…yes.”

“You suck!” She punched his arm. “And you don’t even really live here. You’re leaving in a few months. And then what?”

Charlie gestured to the house. “Oh. They told you I was thinking of re-upping, didn’t they?”

“Was it a secret?”

“No.” Charlie went quiet for a moment. “I just wanted to tell you myself. I know you were expecting me to leave the Army eventually, but…” He shook his head and gazed off into the darkness. “There’s nothing else I want to do. I’m sorry,” he said, turning back to her. “I know you were counting on me to help out more, financially.”

Tess sighed quietly. “I’ll figure something out.”

“I’m being promoted, so I’ll be making more next year.”

“Enough to cover us if I lose my job?”

Charlie shook his head. “But I won’t have to deploy to the Middle East as much.”

Tess smiled, feeling the urge to reach out and hug her brave big brother. “That’s great news,” she said. “We always worry when you’re over there. Why won’t you meet some nice girl and settle down instead of blowing into town every few months to eat Mom’s food and work on your stupid car?” Tess pointed toward the black Impala up on blocks.

“I’ve almost got her running again,” Charlie said with a wistful smile. He reached for the Tupperware of cake, and Tess surrendered it without a fight.

“You look more interested in that car than in the possibility of marriage,” Tess observed. Her brother was thirty-one, two years older than her. Was he ever going to grow up? “What is it with men and cars…and
sports
?”

“It’s in our DNA,” Charlie explained, peeling back the plastic lid and pulling out a hunk of chocolate cake. “Males remember life events as they relate to specific ball games or cars we owned or even cars we borrowed or drove in once.” He took a bite of cake. “I remember the score of the first Pacers game I heard on the radio of that car.” He pointed toward the Impala. “And I remember the very first girl I took for a ride.”

This made Tess think of something else. “Oh, and you’ll never guess who the new football coach is,” she said, taking her own piece of cake.

“Who?” Charlie asked while chewing.

She took a big bite, chewed, and swallowed. “Do you remember that summer we vacationed at the beach in North Carolina? You were about to be a senior. And I met a guy there.”

Charlie tore off another corner of cake. “Jack something, right?”

“Jack Marshall,” Tess confirmed. “
He’s
the new coach.”

Charlie was silent for a moment, then he burst into laughter.

“Shut up,” Tess said, punching his arm again. “Stop laughing, jerk face. It’s not funny.”

“
Au contraire
, Tessa. It is
incredibly
funny,” Charlie corrected. “He hung around you the whole summer. I had to pull him aside once or twice to make sure nothing was going on between you two.”

“You did not,” Tess said, feeling her cheeks getting hot with embarrassment.

“I did. He almost took a swing at me when I hinted that you two were, ya know.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Doing it.”

Tess’s hand flew over her mouth, mortified for her teenage self. “Charlie!”

“He was a pretty tough kid.” Charlie rubbed his chin. “I was two years older than him and at least three inches taller. Impressive display of guts. Especially since he was so sloppy in love with you.”

“The Jack Marshall I remember wasn’t sloppy about anything,” Tess said, mostly to herself. Then she couldn’t help picturing the Jack she saw today. “I’d never met anyone so confident…outside of Luke Perry, of course,” she added with a grin.

“And the dream lives on.” Charlie chuckled. “And now Jack works at Franklin?”

“Yeah.”

“Married?”

“He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, but I—”

“You checked out his ring finger?” Charlie laughed and Tess wanted to thump his forehead. “Classic.”

“He was checking
me
out, too,” Tess defended. “I caught him looking at my legs and he touched my arm once.”

Tess didn’t bother telling him about their first, nonverbal encounter, when their eyes had met across the teachers’ lounge,
before
they’d recognized each other. That memory still tingled at the back of her brain as something pure and magical. Too bad it had ended up being Jack, the boy who’d disappeared on her fifteen years ago.

“Okay, then,” Charlie said, pulling off another bite of cake. “Before I would’ve taken a hundred-to-one odds that the football team would be saved, but if it’s
that
guy you’re up against, a guy you have a history with, a guy who was so in love with you once that he almost threw down…” Charlie grinned and rubbed his palms together. “Then this just got very interesting.”

…

Jack’s phone didn’t stop ringing all evening. He’d listened to the first few voice mails from angry, confused parents of players. But after that, he didn’t answer any calls. This was something that only a PR expert should tackle.

And how had the news gotten out so soon? He hadn’t told anybody and was sure his staff hadn’t, either. It must’ve been one of the other teachers. Or was it Tess? Even after promising him and Walker that they would both wait, would she have called up the radio or the paper or whoever handled this kind of news? Jack didn’t think so, but really, he didn’t know Tess; he had no reason to blindly trust her. She had been honest and loyal fifteen years ago—
that
he knew—but he didn’t know her now.

All he knew for certain was that she was incredibly beautiful, even when she’d been glaring daggers at him.

He leaned back in his chair and smiled, remembering how she’d looked at him when they were standing outside Walker’s office. At one point, there had been a free strand of hair covering her blue eyes. Thinking about tucking that silky strand behind her ear made Jack’s smile broaden.

Before his thoughts could carry him any further, he snapped himself awake.

“Football, Marshall,” he said aloud, almost like a mantra. “Think about football—
not
that woman.”

He was going to have to go on the offense if he didn’t want to get steamrolled. If parents were upset now, how would it be in four days from now during the team’s first game? And what if they lost?

Jack couldn’t think that way; he couldn’t afford to. There was too much riding on him keeping his job. He turned off the game tape and reached for his cell.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Brad,” Jack spoke into the phone. “Hey, it’s late, I know.”

“No worries. What’s up?”

Jack had always been the closest to Brad out of all his brothers, even though Brad was the oldest of the three and Jack was the youngest. Something about their eight-year age difference ensured that they were never rivals. It was Brad who gave Jack his first football, and it was Brad who dragged Jack on a three-week backpacking trek through the Rockies starting the day his divorce from Susan was final.

“Is this a good time? Are the girls asleep?”

Brad was also the proud father of three daughters. Which was why he was grayer even than their father, which caused no small amount of tormenting at every Marshall family gathering.

“Dude, they better be,” Brad said. “I’ve already sent them upstairs twice.”

Jack smiled when he heard his brother exhale wearily. What he wouldn’t give to feel that exhausted after spending an evening with his own child, or children…someday.

“What’s going on?” Brad asked. “How’s the new job?”

“That’s why I’m calling,” Jack said, moving his phone to the other ear. “There’s a problem at my new school, a pretty big one. But I think I have an idea. I’d like to know what you think about it.”

Chapter Five

“I love it.”

“You do?”

“Seriously. It will work—I can see it.” Mac fanned her hands in front of her eyes. “I’m getting weepy just thinking about it.”

Tess smiled at Mackenzie, who sat across from her in the teachers’ lounge the next morning. “You need to come hear this girl sing; she’s amazing.”

Mac nodded. “I believe you. It’s going to be fabulous—like nothing the competition has ever seen.”

“That’s the exact idea.” Tess nodded.

“Football is so huge and barbaric in towns like this,” Mac pointed out while stirring her hot tea. “When the public finds out it’s in danger of being cut, they won’t think twice—they’ll rally behind it.”

“Are you trying to make me feel worse?”

“Hang on.” Mac lifted her spoon. “I’m just thinking aloud. There has to be something else we can do. We need to let the people know—”

“Oh, they know, all right,” Tess said, rubbing her temples. “My phone was ringing nonstop last night. I don’t know how the news got out, but I had twenty furious parents calling me.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Mac said. “We need to get the town
behind
us. On
our
side. People need to know they have a choice.”

“How?”

Mac grinned. “Grass roots, babe. We need to find some journalist at the paper who has a soft spot for the arts and nothing better to do.”

“And,” Tess said, finishing Mac’s thought, “get said journalist to write an article about what’s going on. Do you know anyone at the paper?”

Mac shook her head. “Not really. I never read it anymore.”

“Mac!”

“Shh,” Mac hissed, glancing around the room, making sure no other teachers heard that. “I know I should, but I get everything I need from Twitter or
The Daily Show
.”

Tess shook her head, trying not to laugh. “Aren’t you supposed to be teaching current events in your speech classes?”

Mac shrugged, taking a sip from her mug. “I make the students do it. I always tell them
they’re
the ones teaching
me
. Ha!” She took another sip. “They have no idea.”

“You’re so bad.” Tess laughed. “So, what do you think we should do?”

Mac pondered for a moment, then her eyes lit up. “Field trip at lunch?”

Tess and Mackenzie were out in the parking lot before most of the students. “We’ve only got forty-five minutes, so step on it,” Mac said as she strapped herself into the passenger seat of Tess’s car.

“Did you have a chance to research during your free period?” Tess asked as she pulled into traffic.

Mac nodded and flipped a few pages in the notebook she was holding. “There’s some new guy who just got his own column, but his editor hasn’t assigned him anything yet. He’s young, hungry, and completely desperate.”

Tess turned to stare at Mac. “How do you know all this?”

Mac closed her notebook and crossed her legs. “Um, well, it turns out I
do
know this other guy at the paper.” She put a fist over her grinning mouth. “We’ll just leave it at that.”

“Okay,” Tess said with a smile, knowing to trust when Mac did not choose to divulge dating information right away. A few minutes later, they pulled into a parking space at the
Franklin Standard
. Tess climbed out of the car and met Mac at her door.

“How do I look?” Mac asked after applying a layer of lipstick.

Tess glanced at her. “Great. You always look great. What does it matter? We’re here on business.” She grabbed her friend’s arm. “They need to take us seriously. Please refrain from, you know, being you.”

“I know I should be insulted,” Mac said, making sure her bra strap wasn’t showing, “but you’re right. Let’s do this.”

Tess and Mac entered the newspaper office and walked straight to the information desk. “Hello,” Tess said to the gray-haired woman at the post. “We’re looking for…um…” She glanced over her shoulder at Mac.

“Rick Duffy,” Mac whispered.

Tess turned back to the woman. “Rick Duffy, please.” The woman nodded then began typing on her computer.

After a few minutes, Mac called over Tess’s shoulder, “He’s new.” The woman glanced up for a split second then back down.

“Shh,” Tess whispered

The woman behind the desk picked up her phone. “Who may I say is here?”

“Tess Johansson,” Tess answered. Then she felt an elbow dig into her side. “And Mackenzie Simms,” she added quickly.

The woman dialed an extension then spoke quietly into the receiver. “He’ll be right out,” she said, hanging up the phone. “If you’ll just have a seat.”

Tess and Mac walked to a row of plastic chairs along the wall. Tess was wearing her game face now. She was going to explain to this Rick Duffy guy exactly what was going on. If he was hungry for a story, he’d eat hers up. She smiled to herself and tucked some hair behind her ears. Ready.

A few minutes later, the door swung open and out stepped a man. He was young, as Mac had predicted. He was also tall with dark-blond, kind of rumpled hair. Not Tess’s type when it came to a date, but she wasn’t surprised when she heard Mac make a sudden intake of breath. Tess
was
surprised, however, when she glanced at Mac and saw an expression of pure lust in her friend’s eyes.

Oh, dear
, Tess thought, feeling the need to giggle.
I’ve just lost Mackenzie to a pretty face
.

Tess quickly swallowed her laughter and straightened her jacket. “Rick Duffy?” she said, stepping forward. “I’m—”

“Tess Johansson,” he cut in smoothly. “From Franklin High.” He extended his hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for coming.”

Tess blinked at him, feeling totally confused. “Um, hello,” Tess said. “It’s nice to meet you, too. I’m sorry to just pop in like this, but it’s our lunch hour. Do you have a few minutes?”

Rick nodded. “Of course. Come on back.” He looked past Tess toward Mac. “Both of you.”

Mac made a little noise and followed behind them. When Tess turned around to cut her a sharp look, Mac immediately stopped grinning. “What?” she mouthed. Tess rolled her eyes.

“Mr. Duffy,” she said as she walked by his side through the busy hallway.

“Call me Rick, please.”

“Rick,” she said, smiling. “And call me Tess. I wanted to talk to you about something very important. There’s a situation at the high school that I thought you should know about—that the
town
should know about, actually.”

Rick nodded silently. She followed him as they rounded a corner.

“You’d probably find out about it through the grapevine, but I thought it imperative you hear it firsthand from an actual source.”
That way
, Tess extended her train of thought,
you’ll be sure to take
my
side and write a fabulous story about the music program getting squashed by the big bad football team. The good people of Franklin will rally around the arts and demand we be saved!

Tess couldn’t help smiling as she considered how simple it was going to be. It was a brilliant idea. Tess was only ashamed she hadn’t thought of it herself. She’d have to take Mac out to a big celebratory dinner soon.

“It won’t take long,” Tess said. “I’ll explain to you what’s happening and hopefully you can write an unbiased—”

“Tess,” Rick cut her off. “Thank you so much for coming in. I really appreciate it. But I already know about what’s happening at the school.”

Tess felt her mouth fall open. “What do you know?” she asked, eyeing him.

Rick tilted his head. “About the superintendent being fired, the school board demanding cuts, the football team and choir—”

“How?” Tess asked, holding up a hand. They were stopped outside an office door. Rick stepped in first. “This all happened yesterday behind closed doors,” Tess said, following him in. “Who…” But her voice trailed off when she saw who was waiting in Rick’s office.

…

Saying that she looked surprised would be an understatement. Shocked was more like it. And maybe a little pissed off. That was twice in two days.

“Jack Marshall,” Tess practically hissed.

Despite her glare, Jack couldn’t help feeling something hot spread through his chest when she looked at him, and his heart gave about five hard pounds before he made it calm down.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“The same thing you’re doing, apparently.” That didn’t lighten the tension—her glare only deepened.

“Why don’t we sit down,” Rick suggested, moving to the other side of the long table. “I normally work out of a cubicle, but I figured we would need more space. Please.” He gestured at the empty chair in front of Mackenzie. She sat first, obediently.

Jack was going to wait for Tess to sit before he did. She didn’t move for a long moment, but finally lowered herself into the chair next to him.

“Now,” Rick began, “Jack briefed me on what’s going on.” He turned to Tess. “As I was just saying. But is there anything else you’d like to tell me? Anything else I should know?”

Jack glanced at Tess. She looked like she was at a total loss. But a moment later, she seemed to wake up. “Did you tell him everything?” she asked Jack, all business. “Then I won’t need to go over the same stuff.”

“Yes,” Jack answered. “He’s up to speed.”

Tess nodded.

“So, what can I do for you, then?” Rick asked.

“Well,” Tess said, “I thought it might be best to get the town involved—
aware
,” she quickly corrected. “This concerns them, too: where their taxes are going, who they choose to elect next year, and what—”

Jack couldn’t help coughing a chuckle under his breath.

“Do you need a cough drop?” Tess asked. Her glare was back. “And what are you even doing here, anyway?”

“Meaning?” Jack knew his tone sounded condescending, but she was too easy to tease.

She blinked slowly. “You know what I mean.”

“I have every right to talk to the press,” Jack said. “Just like you. And don’t play games, Tess; you came here to try to sway him to write a story about the choir.”

“That’s not true!” Tess said indignantly.

Jack wanted to laugh again—he could tell she was lying. He knew this because of the way she was wrapping a strand of hair around her middle finger then sliding it off, over and over. It was her tell. But he wasn’t about to call her on it in front of other people.

“Okay, okay,” Rick said. “I think I understand what you want. It shouldn’t be difficult to clear it with my editor.” He looked down at his notebook. “What I propose is that I write an article tonight—purely factual, no editorializing. And if there’s enough public interest, I’ll keep following the story.” He jotted something down. “The football team has a game every Friday night?” he asked, looking up.

“We have one bye week, but other than that, yes.”

“Any away games in those first weeks?” Rick asked, flipping a page.

“Just one,” Jack replied. “We’re pretty lucky, in fact. We originally had two but Merrillville’s stadium was damaged last month. So we’re actually playing that game at home. Though it’s
officially
away. Our schedule is on the school website,” he added, “through October, at least.”

“I see,” Rick said, scribbling something in his notebook. He ran a hand through the front of his hair and Jack thought he heard Mackenzie sigh, or maybe even moan. He noticed Tess turn to her and whisper something low and sharp.

“As far as I understand, the show choir”—Rick pointed his pen at Tess—“performs the halftime at every game.”

“Every home game,” Tess clarified.

Rick made note of that and was about to go on when Tess continued. “We also take the show on the road,” she said. “We have two major competitions in the fall and two in the spring. We perform at school assemblies and rallies, and we do numerous performances in the community during the holidays.”

“I didn’t know that,” Rick said, and then he flashed a glance at Jack.

Jack inhaled but chose not to comment.

“Oh?” Tess looked at Jack again. “I’m not surprised that the
football coach
didn’t know the complete schedule of my choir.”

Jack felt like laughing again, but was suddenly torn between saying something patronizing about glee club solely to wind her up and staring at her full lips.

Her lips won.

“I do have one question,” Rick said.

Jack quickly averted his eyes and turned to him.

“Or maybe it’s just a concern,” the newspaper guy added. “From what I understand, if neither program lives up to expectations, they will both be cut. Right?” Jack was about to jump in and say something, but he stopped, noticing how rigid Tess had suddenly become. “What I mean by that is, there is no contingency plan if there’s a tie, so to speak. Is that correct, or am I missing something?” Rick asked.

Jack looked at Tess. She was wearing the same blank expression that he felt on his own face.

Jack hadn’t been considering anything but victory.

“I hadn’t thought about that,” he admitted.

“Neither had I,” Tess agreed.

“So I’m thinking…” Rick leaned forward. “Public opinion is really going to matter. That’s the way I’m going to pitch it to my editor, at least. I’ll go to every game, and I promise both of you, I’ll report only what I see; I won’t take sides. Sound fair?”

Jack thought for a moment then nodded. “Yes, that’s fair.”

“Thank you,” Tess said. “Fair.” She didn’t look happy about it and Jack didn’t feel happy about it, but neither of them said anything.

Rick shook each of their hands and walked them to the door. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “And thanks again for stopping by. I really hope I can help.”

“’Bye,” Tess said, and then Jack saw her swing around to Mackenzie. “Thanks a
lot
,” she hissed at her. “You were supposed to be my backup. Why the sudden tongue-tied performance?”

“Sorry,” Mackenzie said, snapping back to life as if she were waking up from being hypnotized. “I don’t know what happened.”

“I do,” Tess said. “You chose your hormones over an important cause.”

“No, I didn’t. I…” She began backing up. “I think I forgot to give Rick my card. He might need to call me. I better just…” Without another word, she spun around and headed down the hallway toward where Rick had disappeared.