Someone Like You (11 page)

“Demons to outrun.”

“Yeah, well, I think I’ve slain one for you today.”

Nick cocked his head.

“I know the social workers confirmed that Matt is legally considered an adult and can do what he chooses, live where he wants to, but I was worried about the school board. We got a new member who can be a real bitch. So I talked to Meredith Brooke about Matt moving in with you. She thinks it’s a good idea.”

“Why?”

“Because I told her the whole story. She’s as disgusted with the mayor as we are and she’ll convince the majority of board to go along.”

“I would have done it even if she didn’t agree with me.”

Dylan arched a brow.  “Well, this way your job is still intact.”

He hadn’t thought much about risking his teaching position. Hell, what if he’d lost
that
too? He was born to work with kids. “Thanks, Dylan.”

“Meredith agrees with me that you should have alerted the administration about the depth of Matt’s despair, but she believes you saved the boy’s life. We
are
putting a letter in your file, explaining the situation, and what we objected to.”

“I guess I can handle a letter in my file. Besides, you’re entitled to your own opinion.”

“Huh!” Dylan pushed away from the wall. “I wonder why we’re entitled but Brie Gorman isn’t.”

“Dylan, don’t…”

“Go there, I know. It’s just something to think about.”

When Dylan left, Nick sat where he was letting in thoughts of the woman who haunted his midnights. It wasn’t that they disagreed on how to handle Matt’s situation. She was so fiery they’d probably have fought over a whole slew of issues if they’d continued their relationship. It was what she’d thought of him way down deep that cut him to the quick, that made him unable to forgive her, believe in her, trust her. That, he knew, would never happen in this lifetime.

o0o

“Hey.”

Brie looked up from her desk to find Matt come into her room. He wore jeans and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, but she knew what his clothes hid. Dylan had told her he’d be back today, and she’d seen him arrive at Nick’s house the day before, but she hadn’t spoken to him.

“Hey.” She stood and walked over. “How are you, Matt?”

“Better. I, um…” he toed the vinyl with his sneaker “…I’m still seeing Rich, but I’m okay for now. One day at a time, I guess.”

I know the feeling.
“Are you settled in at Mr. Corelli’s?”

“Yeah, he’s cool. And his house is terrific. I got my own room overlooking the lake. I just wish he had--” The boy stopped short.

“Had what, Matt?”

“Um, nothing. He’s been great to me I don’t want to complain.”  Matt seemed thoughtful for a minute. “But you know what? The counselor said I have to admit what’s bothering me, say out loud what I want. I was wishing coach had a piano.”

“I didn’t know you played.”

“Nobody did. But now I can do it out in the open.”

Reaching over, she squeezed his forearm, kept her hand there. “I have a piano, Matt, and you can come over and play mine, anytime. Cella takes lessons.”

“Oh, wow, you mean that?”

“Of course I do. A lot of people care about you. Want you to be happy. I’m one of them.”

Gratitude filled his young face. He was such a good boy. “I know. That’s why I came in here to tell you I was doing better.”

She gave him a questioning look.

“You told Mr. Kane about me.”

Yes, and at great cost.
“I did, Matt, and you should know I’d do it all over again.”

“That’s okay. I wanted to say I’m glad you did it. I shouldn’t have made Coach swear he wouldn’t tell. I said I’d hurt myself worse if he told.”

“Oh, Matt.”

“Coach says it’s water under the bridge, since I’m better, but I wanted to tell you, you know, in case you felt bad.”

Brie’s eyes stung. “Thanks for that.”

As she watched the boy leave, she wished that Nick could be as understanding as Matt. But Brie was coming to accept the fact that he never could and their breach was permanent.

o0o

It was dinner time and Nick went looking for Matt. He wasn’t in the house so Nick checked outside. The air was chilly now that it was November. Usually, he loved this change of season, but he didn’t this year. Nothing was enjoyable, even his football team making the sectionals.

He heard piano playing when he got to the side of the house. Jesus Christ, the kid went over to Brie’s every day after school to play. And he was unbelievably talented. The first time Nick had heard Matt pound out a song at school, he’d been stunned by the boy’s talent.

Nick was drawn to the window where the music drifted out of. Through the glass, he could see Matt at the keyboard and Brie’s little girl right next to him, enrapt. Matt had said Cella treated him like a big brother and he loved it.

Then Brie walked into the room. She wore stretchy black pants with a sweater and every fucking curve she had was revealed in the outfit. His entire body tensed as she dropped down on the couch and curled her legs under her. She smiled at Matt and Cella.

Nick felt like somebody had ripped his heart out of his chest and stomped on it. He wanted so bad to be in that room with all of them. The notion shocked him. When he recovered, he turned and headed back to his house. He’d keep supper warm and wait for Matt to come home. No way did he trust himself to go into Brie’s house and face her, given how he was feeling right now.

o0o

Nick entered the teachers’ cafeteria and was confronted with the sight of Ian Lancaster and Brie huddling in the corner. They were staring down at some papers and smiling broadly. He didn’t realize he was standing there and staring until Delaney Dawson socked him on the shoulder.

“Hey, Corelli, what are you doing?”

He liked the young teacher who’d replaced Annie. She was brutally honest, outgoing, sometimes brash and the kids adored her.

“Hey, Delaney. I’m doing nothin’.” He scanned her clothes. She was a crazy dresser. “I like the black boots, kiddo.”  She wore them with skin tight leggings and a striped shirt to her knees.

Delaney nodded to the corner. “They make a cute couple, don’t they?”

“Who?”

“Brie and Ian, silly. I hear they’re dating.”

He crumbled the paper he was holding. “Well, Ian’s a nice guy.”

“Yeah, too bad you and Brie never got together. The kids told me you’d been hanging in her room a lot a few weeks ago. I thought you’d make fireworks together you’re so different.”

Nick had to bite his tongue. They’d made fireworks, all right. And he’d gotten burned.

Luckily Delaney was leaving the cafeteria so he could sit alone, away from everybody else, and read the newspaper. When the bell rang, and he headed out, he refused to check to see if Brie was still there with Ian.

As he walked down the hall, a few kids stopped him to ask questions, so he was hustling to get to class when he saw a crowd gathering in front of Brie’s room. Goddamn it. Another fight? He muscled his way through the kids and found Delaney holding onto Stephanie Grayson, a troubled girl Nick had in class. Opposite them was Brie, corralling a second female student Nick didn’t know.

“Stephanie, stay back,” Delaney shouted just as Steph broke free and lunged for the other girl. Both Brie and the second girl were thrust backward and slammed against the wall of lockers. Nick dove in, grabbed Stephanie and yanked her away from everybody.

Teachers fought their way through the crowd and finally got the kids dispersed; the two perpetrators were hauled off to the office—Delaney went, too--and Dylan, who’d come late to the party--approached Brie. 

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Her hair was mussed and there was a rip in the sleeve of her blouse. “My back hurts a bit. I’ll take some Tylenol.”

“Well, if it keeps bothering you, go home.  Later, you can fill out a workman’s comp form.”

“I will. I’m free now, so I’ll rest for the hour.”

“Thanks for intervening.”

She headed into her room. Nick stomped after her and slammed the door shut. “What the
hell
do you think you were doing?”

Brie spun around. Closer, he could see a bruise forming beneath the collar of her shirt. “Excuse me?”

“I told you not to break up fights.”

Her gaze narrowed on him. “And I told you I wasn’t going to stand by and let two kids pummel each other.” She cocked her head. “Besides, I don’t know why you’d bother coming in here for someone you loathe so much.”

He stood there clenching his fists.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to rest for a while.”

Nick watched her grab her purse and a bottle of water off the desk and disappear behind the room dividers, saw the blinds close and imagined her dropping down onto one of the big chairs and taking some Tylenol.

It was all too much, the rage at what Brie had said to him, the constant tension of thinking about their situation, the consuming desire that kept him up nights. He stalked to the back of the room.

She’d closed her eyes, but when he stepped into the partitioned off space, she stirred. “What do you
want
?” she asked scowling.

“This.” He grasped her shoulders, pulled her up. And took her mouth, desperate for the taste of her. Immediately, she fell into the kiss.

When he drew away, he looked down into her face, shocked by the intensity of his feelings for this woman, so at odds with the anger seething inside him. Because of that, he turned walked out.

o0o

“I promise never to take you for granted…”

“I promise to love you with all my being…”

“I promise to always work out our problems…”

“I promise to care for you and the boys at all times…”

Brie listened from her spot next to Annie as she and Dylan made their commitments to each other. Thrilled for her friend, she nonetheless felt a gaping hole inside her.

She’d thought that her relationship with Nick would change after that kiss in her room. His actions indicated he wasn’t over her. She’d felt his frustration and anger, and his desire, too. But he’d kept his distance since then and Brie let him have his space.

“Give them the rings, please,” Annie’s minister said.

Brie provided Annie with Dylan’s wide gold band and the boys, Trevor and Danny, who were Dylan’s best men, handed him Annie’s.

“…with this ring…”

“…I thee wed.”

Then, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

If Brie had ever seen a more elated expression than the one on Dylan’s face, she couldn’t remember when. He looked like he’d been given a gift by the gods.

They kissed—not chastely—making the people gathered at the wedding chuckle, Annie’s twins included.

Brie’s heart was stolen, though, when Danny tugged on Dylan’s hand, and said, “Does this mean I can call you Dad?”

Even Dylan’s eyes got misty.

The bride and groom had decided to have their wedding and a cocktail party at Crystal Corners Inn, where Dylan and Annie met again after twenty years. They were married out on the glassed in porch, with the lake’s waves crashing on the shore behind them.

Brie hugged Annie, who was absolutely beautiful in an off white tea length dress made of lace and satin. Dylan, handsome in a black suit and crisp white shirt and tie, kissed Brie’s cheek.

She said, “Congratulations, husband and wife.”

Annie leaned into her man. “Thanks.”

“You look beautiful,” Dylan told her. “I don’t think Corelli’s going to be able to resist you in that dress.” Brie had bought the mauve handkerchief hem dress that she’d tried on the day she and Annie went shopping.

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say our favorite coach has been a bear lately, and I think it has something to do with you.”

Brie let her gaze stray to Nick. He was on the other side of the room near the fireplace. His shoulders seemed a mile wide in a blue suit that she bet made his eyes an even deeper navy. His head bent low, he listened to what Meredith Brooke was saying. Apparently, the superintendent didn’t hold grudges because Nick was smiling. He could take lessons from her, Brie thought. God, she wanted him to forgive her. She touched her fingers to her lips. She could still recall the sensation of him taking her mouth. It had been an angry kiss, but she’d welcomed it.

“The kids” raced up to her. Cella, Danny, Trevor and Matt, who looked happy today.

“Mommy, Matt wants to take us to the game room. Can we go?”

“Yes, of course. Thanks, Matt.”

“I love these kids, Mrs. Gorman.” 

All four of them took off.

Brie sipped her champagne as she watched Dylan and Annie dance, witnessed the undiluted joy on their faces, and felt a spurt of envy so acute it embarrassed her. She wanted what they had together. With Nick? It might have been, given time.

The rest of the night passed quickly. When the newlyweds left, Annie’s former in-laws, who’d come up for the wedding, took the boys and had asked Cella, too, to stay overnight with them. Brie felt sad about going home to an empty house. Oh, well. She headed to the coat room.

She’d just gotten on her light wrap when Nick came into the small space. His gaze was so intense, she took a step back. Reaching out, he grasped her hand, opened her palm, put in a card, turned and walked out.

What the hell? The card was a key to one of the rooms at the Inn. He wanted her to go upstairs? With him? But where had he gone? She debated whether she should go along with his silent invitation—for all of ten seconds. Hurriedly, she left the coat room and rushed up the winding oak staircase to number 30.

Letting herself inside, she saw he’d already been here but now was nowhere to be seen. Champagne, open and chilling, some strawberries, coffee and lit candles had been set out. She crossed to the bar and saw a note. It read, “Thanks for coming. Had to take Matt to his buddy’s. He’s staying the night there. Be back soon.”

Well, the man had gall, she thought. Still, she waited.

She was sitting on the couch sipping the champagne imagining all sorts of scenarios, when Nick barreled through the door. Stopping short when he saw her, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank God.” He shed his suit coat and ripped off his tie on the way to the couch. Once there, he sat down, took the glass out of her hand, and drew her into his arms.