The Teacher and the Soldier (14 page)
Read The Teacher and the Soldier Online
Authors: Rj Scott
“Daniel, can we go for a walk?” Luke asked the question just as Zach had said he should.
‘Get him away from his friends, make him see what a fucking idiot you are and ask him if he really meant he loved you and really wanted you to stay, which of course he did but you just didn’t get it’.
Of course Zach had added way more to the instructions, but Luke couldn’t for the life of him remember a single thing other than the first instruction to get away and talk privately.
Daniel leaned over Kieran and grabbed a jacket from the rack then stepped out into the cool air. “Let’s walk then.” His tone didn’t give anything away, but at least he moved away from Kieran. Before his nerves got the better of him Luke walked away from the house and Daniel hurried his step to catch up with him. Neither man spoke until they passed through the gates to Broadfield Park then it was only Luke asking if it was okay to sit.
Daniel sat on the bench that had a view of the church and beyond that the space where the police station used to be. Luke made to sit down then stopped himself. Sitting meant too much nervous energy coiled inside him. Sitting meant being too close to Daniel. He would lose his resolve if Daniel touched him.
“So I went to talk to the Principal at Weston High, Derek Wallace, nice guy, nearly retired,” Luke added the description.
“I know Derek,” Daniel said.
“Of course you do,” Luke muttered. He coughed and began to pace the narrow path in front of the bench. Daniel relaxed on the bench and spread his arms across the back of it—every inch the epitome of cool and laid back. Diametrically opposite to Luke actually. That only heightened Luke’s anxiety. “Finn mentioned the DARE program and I talked to Derek about the kind of support that is in school for programmes like that for drug awareness and also a GLBT group. That was what I was interested in at my old school. There’s a vacancy for a teacher at Weston, English, Pupil Support, some science coverage for first years. It’s a different school to what I am used to. Departments cross over and make the subjects work together.”
“So there’s a job,” Daniel summarised. “Did you take the job?”
“That depends on you.” Luke ran out of words and stopped the pacing to stand in front of Daniel, Luke’s heart on his sleeve. Daniel got up off the bench.
“What do you need me to do?” he asked. There was hope in his expression and for the life of him Luke could not recall one real reason why he had run two days before.
“I stopped at a motel and I was sitting on this hideous orange quilt and talking to Zach and he brought up the one thing that I should have asked myself. I was telling him all the reasons why I couldn’t stay, he asked me to consider all the things that made a list of why I could stay. I still have issues you know…” Luke stopped. He was beginning to ramble and not make sense. Daniel moved closer and rested his hands on Luke’s hips. He began a gentle soothing motion with his thumbs and Luke swayed closer.
“Nothing we can’t handle together,” Daniel whispered in the dark.
“Are you sure? I want to believe I can live in Ellery with you but…”
“But what?”
“Do you know why I don’t wear a watch?” Luke blurted. Daniel frowned and glanced down at Luke’s arm. He wouldn’t be able to see a lack of watch under the heavy jacket Luke wore, but that didn’t matter. “Because when he hit me. I let him do it. I was a scared pathetic sixteen-year-old who respected my dad and didn’t know how to tell him to stop. He wore a watch, nothing special, but I remember it would catch me sometimes. Those were the punches that did the most damage.”
Daniel made a noise halfway between a moan and a sigh and slipped his hands to the small of Luke’s back to pull him close. With his cheek resting in the juncture of Daniel’s throat and shoulder, Luke let Daniel hold him upright.
“I’m sorry no one helped you,” Daniel said. He buried his face into Luke’s hair and kissed his nape. “I wish I had known you then or that my mom had seen for real what you were going through.” Luke burrowed deeper momentarily then pulled back, stepping out of Daniel’s close hug.
“So, you said some things, back at your cabin, how you wanted me to stay…”
“And that I loved you,” Daniel said.
“Yeah, that.”
Luke held out his hands and Daniel grasped them and used the hold to pull him close again. “Zach made me see how with you it was different. When I wasn’t with you I missed you, whenever I saw you I couldn’t stop smiling, when we made love I saw into your eyes and I wanted you so much. Zach made me see that I am in love with you.”
“You are?” Daniel sounded disbelieving. “You don’t have to say that now.” The hesitation and question in his tone sent panic skittering down Luke’s spine.
“You do still love me? Right? You want me to stay?” Luke pulled every ounce of self-confidence he could muster from deep inside to push into those words.
“You don’t fall out of love overnight, Luke. I hated that you left but I let you go because you needed to leave. I was only giving you a week’s head start then tracking you through the lawyers. I’d already decided to go with you away from Ellery if that is what you need to do.”
Luke shook his head. “Your mom, friends, you can’t leave that.”
Daniel sighed. “This is going to sound like every cliché line in every romance on the Hallmark channel, but none of that means anything if I don’t have you here with me.”
“I love you. But I understand if you want to take it slow because I’ve blown it—”
“Move in with me,” Daniel interrupted. Cradling Luke’s face with his hands he pressed a gentle barely there kiss to Luke’s cold lips. He pulled back, but Luke wanted more than that. He chased for the kiss and they stood under the Tennessee sky in the shadow of Ellery Peak and sealed the deal in the best way they could without making love there then on the cold ground. When they broke apart they were both grinning.
“You realise what you’re taking on, Daniel?” Luke asked gently.
“Yeah, Luke, I know. I’m taking on the man I love and want to make a life with.”
Luke melted there then and they hugged for a long time talking plans and ideas and forever. Then mischief rose inside Luke.
“You so know I am going back to your friends and telling them you said that.”
“I know at least ten ways to kill a man with my bare hands,” Daniel deadpanned.
“Come on,” Luke said. He gripped Daniel’s hand. “Let’s go and tell them it’s the two of us now.”
They walked back to Max’s house and opened the door to find Max, Finn and Kieran gathered in the kitchen with expectation on every face. Luke wasn’t sure what to say but then Daniel broke the exchange of stupid grins by simply lifting their joined hands.
“Your turn now, Kieran.”
Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:
Moments
RJ Scott
Excerpt
Chapter One
“Shit, Sam. March? That’s four frigging months.”
Jacob Riley, all six-three of pissed-off male, slammed the door to the small conference room behind him and stamped to the window to stare moodily at the bright sunshine-filled day outside. He twisted both hands tight into his hair in frustration, wondering how the fuck this day had just all gone to hell. His lawyers—his
fucking
well-paid lawyers—had said they’d get him off, not land him with some lame-ass probation community service crap. Jeez, like he was gonna be taught anything by cleaning streets or dealing with people’s trash.
Shit.
The TV in the corner was showing some trashy entertainment show, where a very smug presenter was reporting the latest news. Jacob tried to tune it out but it was nigh on impossible—it must have been the tenth time the show had been played in rotation.
The news of the arrest of actor Jacob Riley boosted the audience figures for the half season’s finale of
End Game
to their highest point for eight months. He’s been offered a lifeline in a county programme of rehab and his spokesperson said he’s concentrating on work and on himself. Well, folks, here’s hoping this is one recovering addict who actually makes it out alive.
“It’s on hiatus,” Samantha replied carefully from just inside the door. “I’ve just got off the phone with HBO and they’ll delay your return to
‘Game
until you’re free to come back. Remember, with Christmas on the way, we have some room to manoeuvre.”
Jacob spun on his heel. His quiet, calm assistant stood holding a clipboard, a cellphone balanced on top of it.
“Fuck,” he summarised. HBO would be stupid to lose him, he was convinced of it.
‘Game
was
his
show. Jacob’s character was pivotal, the star of the whole goddamned show.
“You’re lucky you play Zach,” Sam snapped. “And that Zach is a drug-taking manic depressive. Otherwise I swear they would have canned you today, no hesitation.”
Was she trying to make him feel better?
“Sam, do I look like I give a shit?”
“You need—”
“No! I don’t need
anything
or
anyone.
They push me off the show and they’ll see their ratings drop overnight. No one loses Jacob Riley and sees their show survive.
”
Sam stared at him in bewilderment.
Resentment bubbled up inside him. He was fully aware he was coming across as petulant and childish. But how could Sam or anyone understand what was going through his head? Sam, with her to-do lists and her anal outlook on life, sure as hell couldn’t. Who the hell did she think she was? HBO wouldn’t tell his assistant anything of any importance.
“We have four months to get you into a programme and complete your work through the community service,” she continued. Her patient tone, measuring every word, talking to him as if he were a small child—he hated every syllable.
“No,” Jacob snapped, balling his temper and his dismissal of her into that one word.
She stepped away from him to stand against the door. “Jacob—”
“No. I’m not cleaning streets, I’m not searching for rubbish or any of the usual crap they put celebrities through to humiliate us!”
“Jacob, it’s not meant to be a humiliation. But it is a punishment,” Sam said, raising her free hand in an attempt to placate him. Her cell phone slid off the clipboard and tumbled to the floor.
Jacob listened, but what she’d said only served to increase his temper. He could feel the itch of addiction under his skin, and it terrified him. Although he would never admit it, he was out of control and it was eating at the edges of him.
In over a year, he hadn’t wanted a hit as badly as he did at this moment. Frustration and anger burst out of him with uncontrolled force. He reared up and crowded her against the door, his hand circling her wrist and gripping tightly. “Don’t get all sanctimonious on me, Sam, it’s not your style,” he snarled.
“Jacob, you’re hurting me,” Sam whimpered, visibly pushing as close to the wood as she could. Her words didn’t register, and his grip tightened. “Jacob. Please…” she said, tears in her eyes, pain and real fear in her voice. Something in the simple
please
reached through his anger. He threw Samantha’s hand back towards her body, but he didn’t move away.
“I’m sorry, but don’t push me, okay?” he said tiredly. Half closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. It was the first time in their relationship he could see fear in Sam’s eyes, and it scared the hell out of him. Was she actually afraid of him?
What do I say? How the hell do I…?
“Your father,” Sam said. “Your father is waiting for you in the next room.”
Jacob flipped from menacing back to petulant instantly.
“Great, another thing to make my day.” Jacob stepped back, watching as Samantha rubbed her wrist and blinked back tears.
“Jacob, he wants to help. He knows of this place you can go for the next—”
“He’s the one who got me into this mess, Sam! He freaking turned me in!”
“He’s waiting.”
* * * *
“I’ve pulled strings, son, and arranged to get you into a new type of programme, something different. It has an original approach, and it’s very exclusive.” Joe Riley stood stiff and straight in front of Jacob. He’d lost all his energy on the walk across the conference room. Jacob slouched, unwilling to show even the slightest interest. “I’ve made a hefty donation to get you accepted. The only stipulation was that you are clean.”
Jacob looked into his father’s grey-blue eyes then shrugged. He’d heard all too clearly the question under Joe Riley’s statement, and hated him for it.
A year—a damn year
.
Joe closed his eyes and sighed. “Isn’t there something dramatic you feel you just
have
to say at this point, Jacob?”
“If I thought you would actually listen to me—just once—maybe I would have something to say,” Jacob said sarcastically.
“Are you clean?” Joe asked.
“Fuck,” Jacob snapped, “I’ve been clean for a year, and you damn well know it.”
His dad crossed his arms and shook his head. “No, Jacob, I don’t know that. I know what you told me, then I find you mixing with the same lowlifes you knew six years ago. What was I supposed to think? What was I supposed to do? Tell me, son.”
“Turn me into the cops, obviously.” Jacob clenched his hands into tight fists at his sides.
“Do you think it was easy for me to do this, Jacob?
Call the police on my own son?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do, actually.” He’d long ago convinced himself that his dad had perversely enjoyed turning him in, and he chose to ignore the pained expression that crossed his dad’s face. “It kinda solves all those issues around having to maybe—I don’t know—talk to me instead?”
Joe inhaled sharply as if he had been physically hit, and Jacob wondered how his dad was going to defend his parenting skills this time.
“Do you think your mother and I want to be visiting a morgue, identifying your body, and seeing track marks on your arms? We had to do something, had to stop you from self-destructing.”
Jacob tugged self-consciously at his sleeves, anger building inside him. He had been clean for well over a year. Why didn’t anyone trust him? Jacob rolled his eyes. “Now who’s being dramatic? Just because I had the stuff didn’t mean I was using. You could have tried asking me why I had it on me.”
“And you wouldn’t have lied to us?” Joe asked simply, his voice calm. Jacob didn’t answer. He wasn’t going to rise to the bait. “This is your last chance, Jacob. Take it. You could actually make something of yourself.”
“So what the hell do you call two movies and a successful TV series? Nothing?” His parents had never liked that he had decided to pursue acting. They’d always made it very clear that they expected him to join the family accountancy firm. He’d endured several wearying years of forcing and badgering.
“I swear, Jacob, if you ruin this, I will hold back every penny of your inheritance.”
Where the hell have I heard that before?
“I make three million a movie, and eighty thou for every episode of
‘Game
. Seriously—you really think your money matters to me?”
“I swear every penny of mine will go to your brother,” Joe continued, but Jacob had heard that threat before too, and it had the same impact as always—no impact at all.
“That loser?”
“Tell me, Jacob, why is
Micah
the loser? He has a career, a wife, a great kid—your nephew. He has a life.”
“I’ve got a freaking career, Dad, and let’s face it—kids? That isn’t gonna happen. I’m gay!” Frustrated, Jacob pushed his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes.
“I’m not arguing, Jacob. This isn’t about some petty brotherly feud, or who is happy and who isn’t. You had every advantage—everything money could buy, every ounce of love your mother and I had in us. Son, please. This is your life, and your mom and I are desperate for you to see that! But somehow you don’t give a damn about it.”
“Well, maybe I don’t.”
“For
g
od’s sake, Jacob, stop being so damn melodramatic. As far as I’m concerned, we’re done talking. Go home and get some clothing together. Ben is outside. He’ll take you home, then he’ll drive you down tomorrow.”
“And if I say no?”
“You can’t. I’ve pulled strings, but at the end of the day, it’s either this programme or you’re back in prison. This programme is the only reason you’re not back there now.”
Shit.
* * * *
Ethan Myers was tired—exhaustingly, mind-numbingly tired. He’d been up all night with Isabella and the baby. Today he was faced with an inspection from the county and the new arrival of…whoever the man was.
Coffee. Black coffee.
He’d drunk so much of the stuff through the night he was wired and on the shaky side. He groaned softly as he lowered himself into his office chair. He couldn’t allow himself to collapse onto the sofa because sleep would immediately chase him down.
Dawn had long since passed. In fact, Ethan had watched it paint the sky with delicately muted pinks and mauves before the morning daylight had begun to break the fragile peace of the pre-dawn hour. He had watched the sky out of the window in Beth and Isabella’s room as he’d paced, rocking Beth in his arms and singing softly. Her fever had finally broken overnight. Just before six a.m. she’d actually allowed herself to be settled in the arms of her mother.
He glanced up at the clock, which showed eight a.m. The quarterly building code compliance inspection was scheduled to start in half an hour. Wearily, he ran a hand over his face, rough with stubble. He hoped against hope he would pass for casually cool as opposed to casually scruffy. Scruffy was not a good look for a man in charge of two hundred thousand dollars of the county’s budget.
His head was drooping ever closer to his desktop when Isabella popped her head round his permanently open door. He shot upright in his chair in surprise, his hand flat on his chest.
“Sorry, Mr Myers,” she said with a wry smile. “I just wanna say thank you for your help with Beth in the night.”
“It’s really not a problem. That’s what I’m here for.” Her smiled turned to a frown and he knew exactly what she was going to say.
“She’s my responsibility.”
“Considering you spent all of yesterday dealing with a fractious baby, I think sleep was just what you needed,” he said reassuringly. She shifted nervously from foot to foot. “How is Beth now?” It was always so difficult to get a real conversation out of the quiet teen, and he usually carried the bulk of any discussion they had.
