Satellite of Love (33 page)

“He told me to just quit and go live with him. He wanted to run away and get married over spring break. If I’d listened none of this would be happening.”

“Oh stop. You’re not the center of the universe. If you weren’t in the middle of this it would have happened to someone else. Now, let’s go find a movie.” Linda started the car.

Maureen squeezed her eyes closed. Not only had she managed to ruin her life, she’d ruined hundreds of other peoples’. Very slick.

* * * *

Tony and Bear stepped back to admire the car. The candy apple red gleamed under the heat lamps. In a couple of days it would dry and he could ship it home. Unless he came back here on the next break and talked Maureen into a little cross-country driving trip.

“Well, it looks better now that it matches,” Tony said.

“Jackass. It looks fantastic.”

“Alright, fine. It looks fantastic. You can’t do anything with it now. How about you help me out with some of the real work?”

Bear rolled his eyes. “That’s the only reason you want me here. So you get free labor.”

“Mom and Dad told me that’s what you were for when they brought you home from the hospital.” Tony walked out of the garage and around the front of the building. “They said, ‘Tony, he looks little now, but when he gets big he’s gonna work for you for free.’”

“Right.”

A car squealed into the front lot. Right about where Maureen’s was the first night he met her. Bear grinned. No matter what happened, that was still an incredible stroke of luck. A skinny guy jumped out and stormed over to where he and Tony had stopped on the sidewalk.

“You! This is your fault,” the guy shouted.

Tony peered at Bear and then pointed at himself.

“No, not you. Him. You son of a bitch. My daughter has been crying all summer. All. Summer.”

Bear shrugged at Tony. “Do I know you?” Bear asked.

“You’re Miss Donnelly’s boyfriend. The famous guy. You’re the reason she lost her job.”

Bear ground his teeth. That would be him. “I’m doing everything I can to get her job back.”

“Yeah, and what are you going to do about Lindsey?”

“Who’s Lindsey?”

“My daughter. You don’t even remember her. We met you at the museum. My daughter had Miss Donnelly last year. She has been crying all summer because of what’s going on in the papers. She’s written letters.”

Conner. The guppy from the museum with the spelling genius daughter.

“This is your fault. She’s been crying all day. My wife has been on the phone yelling at me like it’s my fault. When it’s your fault.”

Tony stepped in front of him. “We had no control over any of this. If you have a problem, you need to take it up with the school board.”

“I have.” Conner snarled.

Maureen would have been a lot better off with the guppy. The guppy wouldn’t have lost her job for her.

“Tell your kid we’re doing everything we can,” Bear told him. “And tell her I’m sorry.”

Conner huffed for a second before stomping back to his car. Hopefully, he was headed off to buttonhole one of the assholes on the board. They deserved it slightly more than he did.

“Well, he is right.” Tony raised an eyebrow at him. “Hurricane Michael.”

16

Maureen stared out the window. Dinner with Tony and Pam had hardly been distracting. She doubted the declaration of nuclear war would have been distracting at the moment. Linda was in danger of getting caught in her tidal wave. How many other teachers she knew hadn’t mentioned it to her? How many she didn’t know? According to Theresa, there were months of waiting and preparing for the trial to get through too. What was she supposed to do? She’d registered for a class at the university, but one class was hardly going to absorb all her time. A couple of parents had contacted her about tutoring.
 

Theresa recommended she stay in the community so she was a constant presence. Michael would be on tour until December with intermittent breaks, unless they added more dates. The thought of that made her stomach clench. She wasn’t sure she could handle the next couple of months alone. A few more might kill her.

Bear cleared his throat. “Maureen, I’ve been thinking.”

“You’re breaking up with me.”

“No.” He turned, giving her a horrified look. “No! What kind of a heel do you think I am? I’m not breaking up with you. I’m never breaking up with you.” He caught her hand in his.

“I can take it. Honestly, at this point I wouldn’t blame you. I’m a huge liability.”

“No, no you’re not.” He pressed her fingers to his lips. “I’m not breaking up with you. I was just thinking that it might be easier if I left early.”

“Because it’s easier to break up from a distance.” Relief coursed through her. Relief? This should be the worst thing that had ever happened to her. He was leaving. But now that the other shoe had dropped, she could move on. She’d always known it would. Someone like him could never stay with her. Especially considering what a walking disaster she’d become.

“I am not breaking up with you, but I am getting you bad attention. If I leave town, that should die down.”

And I’ll be alone again. Naturally. I need to sign up for another class. I can use the credit card Michael gave me to pay for it. Until he cuts it off.
“Of course. You’re right.”

“I’m right?”

“Yes. You’re right.” The searing pain behind her sternum would go away. Maybe she needed to take a full load of classwork. She’d always wanted to take an archeology class.

“I’m ruining your life by hanging around here.”

“Yes.” She pulled her hand away from him and folded it in her lap. “I understand.”

“But I’ll come back. If things have cooled down at the end of August, I’ll come back then. If not, you and me can take the Satellite home. We could drive it back to LA together.”

“You don’t have to feel guilty about this.”

He clutched the steering wheel. “Well, I do.”

“It’s the most logical choice.”

“Jesus, would you get mad at me or cry or something already? You sound like you were raised by Vulcans.”

She studied her hands in her lap. She couldn’t say she hadn’t seen it coming. The moment she met him she’d known he was going to walk away. Exciting, funny, sexy guys like him didn’t hang around with dull elementary school teachers. And at that point she hadn’t realized how many excellent reasons he had to go. “Michael, I don’t want to make this harder than it is.”

“It’s not that hard.” He turned into her driveway. “Okay, it’s really fucking hard. I’m going to miss you and I’m going to want to see you every day and I can’t. But I will see you and I will marry you and we will make a life together.”

Maureen reached for her car door. “I know that.” The limp lie felt like the best alternative at the moment.

“Let me get the fucking door.” He threw open his door and stomped around the car. Opening her door, he lifted her out and held her. “I love you, Maureen. Things have sucked lately and I wish I could stay here and help you through it but even your lawyer says I’m making things worse by being here. If I go away, things will get better. I really want things to get better for you. I want to make your life perfect.”

The orange street lamps made it hard to see, but his sincerity shone through his gaze.

“Marry me, Maureen.”

“You asked me that once.”

“I know and I’m asking you again. Marry me.”

“Okay.”

“Christ. She says okay.” He cupped her face in his hands. “You remember when I told you I was willing to do whatever it took to make this work?”

“Yes.”

“That is what I am doing now. If me going away for a little while now will mean we can spend the rest of our lives together later then I’ll do it.” He groped in his pockets. “I still don’t have a ring for you, but this might work better.” After another moment’s search, he pulled his Mustang keychain out. A simple key ring with a short chain from which the pony emblem dangled like a charm. Picking up her left hand, he draped it over her ring finger. “There. You need me, you just hop in the Satellite of Love and you come find me. Okay?”

She turned her hand, studying the key ring hanging from her finger. It was escape and promise in one. Sobs gathered in her throat. Clutching her fingers around the key ring, she threw her arms around his neck.

* * * *

“Hey,” Marc answered on the first ring.

“I’m in Tampa.” Bear flopped backward on the bed. This room was his home for the next three days.

“Oh.”

He stared at the ceiling. Leaving Maureen at the airport this morning, he’d realized what it must have felt like for her to leave at the end of spring break. Getting on the plane required a supreme act of will.

“I’m assuming Maureen isn’t with you.”

“No.” Maureen was home by now and had been for a couple of hours. He hoped she wasn’t crying. She’d cried a lot last night, and screamed at the universe for making life so hard, but she’d never once questioned his need to leave.

“What happened?”

“It was getting pretty hot and I was attracting a lot of negative attention. I was ruining her life just by being there.”

“The story got picked up by CNN dot com. Legitimate news.”

“Great.”

“So you guys broke up?”

“No, we’re just…separated.” Separated sounded too much like almost divorced. He closed his eyes. Was that little girl still crying? Was her father still looking for somebody’s neck to wring?

“You know what, I’m not doing anything here. I think I’ll come out early too.”

“Yeah, I know how much you want to spend another night in a hotel room.”

“About as much as you do. I know, we can go to Disney World. How clean cut and straight laced would that be?”

The image of Marc walking around Disney World wearing mouse ears made him laugh. It helped stem the pathetic desire to gush over the fact that his friend was willing to fly in early just to hang out. “Might be fun. Give CNN dot com something to report. I’ll be here when you get here.”

* * * *

“…and I’ve filed a libel suit against the newspaper on your behalf.”

Maureen swam out of the fog of her reverie. The house was too quiet and it distracted her. “What was that last part?”

Theresa peered over the top of her bifocals. “What part?”

“The last thing you said.”

Theresa consulted her notes. “I filed a libel suit with the paper. They claimed on numerous occasions that the school board possessed a number of complaints against you, but the board had never produced a single one.”

“But if the board said it, it’s not the paper’s fault.”

Theresa peered over her bifocals again. “It’s the reporter’s job to track down proof. Without proof they never should have gone to print.”

“But that reporter could be fired.”

“And should be. She wasn’t doing her job.”

Someone else on the verge of losing their job because of her. Was the poor reporter sitting at her desk worrying about when her last paycheck was going to arrive and how she was ever going to get another job with this on her record? “Theresa, this is too much. I want justice, not revenge.”

“Maureen, justice is what you’re getting. You did your job well and without fail for many years. Then along came a couple of people who wanted to shift blame for something beyond your control to you and a couple more people who didn’t do their jobs.”

“It feels like revenge.”

“If you wanted revenge, we’d have to add some zeroes to the damages.” Theresa smirked. “I see that you’re tired. Your boyfriend left?”

“Yes.” That was why the house was too quiet. Even when Michael was out, his temporary absence made noise in the house.