by T. N. King
“Sure, Thanks Ms. Stern,.” Liam noticed a flush spread across Rachel’s cheeks as soon as he said her name. He knew he had that effect on women. He couldn’t help it, but in the end, his bad boy charm ended up being a curse. He felt like he could never live up to the fantasies and expectations women had about him in their heads. Yes, they loved his broody and tortured look, but none of them really wanted to hear or deal with his real baggage.
Rachel flashed him another smile, bigger this time, and he turned to the chairs. The office looked almost the same as it had when he was a student here, the same floor, the same walls, even the same chairs. It did nothing to change how small it made him feel, if anything, it made him feel worse. He could almost feel the old anger rising up in him, his hands curling into fists without him noticing. He knew of guys who flashed back to their time in the forces, to the things they had to do, or the people they couldn’t save. Most of the time, he flashed back to this, the sights and smells of high school.
He’d spent a lot of time sitting in these chairs, or chairs just like these, waiting for the principal. It wasn’t Caroline then, but a short balding man, who spent too much time talking about how disappointed he was, as if Liam cared about that. His whole life had been a disappointment, what was one more person’s added on to that? It was the fighting that made him feel alive, that reminded him of who he was, and gave him power over his own life. Fighting was the only way to make people notice him. He was still doing it now, hurting people, even killing them, but it couldn’t keep his problems at bay.
“Penny for your thoughts?” a familiar voice asked, softly.
He looked up, watching one of the students slouch across the office, his hands deep in his pockets. This had Liam once, and could still be him now, the dark emotions still bubbling under the surface of his skin, just waiting to burst out.
“Are you doing all right?” the voice asked again.
Liam blinked, shifting his eyes away from the student, and towards the person talking.
She looked the same as she always did, almost exactly the same way she had when he was first a student of hers. The only change was that her raven black hair had now turned a soft silver. It made her look softer, but he knew there was a hardness inside, that she would do whatever she had to, to get what she wanted. In the end though, he had even disappointed her. She hadn’t wanted him to join the navy, she had wanted him to use his skills and his strength helping people, mentoring students like him, but he couldn’t do it. How could he help people when he was so messed up? She always said it didn’t matter, but that seemed hard to believe. What kind of lessons could he provide for people? Don’t let your mother marry abusive bastards? Or that it’s okay to scream as the police and Child Protective Services dragged you out of the house at midnight? He didn’t even know how to deal with those things himself, how could he help anyone else deal with them?
“Liam? Why don’t you come into my office?” She held a hand out, as if to help him stand up.
He didn’t take it, it would only add to his feeling of weakness. But he did stand up, and follow behind her to her office, taking deep breaths, trying to make himself feel normal again. Whatever that was?
Once the door was closed, she hugged him tight, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
Instantly, he could feel himself start to relax, her warmth flooded through him, bringing him back to himself. He took a deep breath and let it out, draining the tension out of him, and hugged her back.
Caroline pulled out of the chairs near her desk and sat down, motioning towards the other.
Liam sat down in the chair, feeling like it was too small for his body, shifting around in it until their knees were almost touching.
“I’m glad you could squeeze us in while you’re here. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” she said quietly. “How soon is it until you leave again?”
“I don’t know, really. Sometimes it feels like not soon enough, and sometimes it feels like too soon.” He shrugged his shoulders, and gave a quick half smile. “But officially, it looks like I have a couple months.”
“And? How is it going for you?”
“That’s an interesting question. I’m not sure how to answer that. Or if I can even answer that.” He’d been on dozens of missions all over the Middle East and Afghanistan, some with the special ops teams. He couldn’t talk about those, he knew that, but it seemed like that only made him want to talk about it more. Especially sitting here in front of Caroline, she knew everything about him, there were no secrets from her. Except this, the biggest part of his life, and he couldn’t tell anyone about it. Sometimes it felt like it was killing him, keeping those secrets, especially from Caroline. She knew everything about him, sometimes it felt like she knew more about him than even he did.
“There was more to my invitation than just wanting to see you,” she said, suddenly serious, folding her hands in her lap. “A position had become available, working with the football team. I think it would be good for you.”
“But I’ll be shipping out in a couple months.”
She held up her hand, stopping his protests. “It’s a short term position, just covering for someone who had to take a leave of absence. By the time you’ll be leaving, he’ll be back.”
“But I’m not a teacher. Don’t you have to be a teacher?”
“Don’t worry about that. You’d technically be an assistant coach. No teaching degree required. And. I want you here. You’d be an asset to our school team, and the students need the sort of role model you can provide.”
“But…”
Caroline waved her hands at his complaints. “Don’t think of it as teaching, if that’s what you’re hanging up on. It’s not. We already have a teacher. Your place would be more of an educational assistant role, to help and answer questions, to provide mentorship when needed.”
“Like I said, I’ll shipping out soon.”
Caroline nodded, a small cat-like smile curling her lips. “I know. You said two months. This will be a trial position, to see how you feel in the role. And then when you come back, we can talk about a more permanent placement.”
She stressed the ‘when’ and he liked that, he liked that she had faith in him, she already knew she’d be seeing him again.
It was an interesting offer, and he thought about what it would be like to tell his parents that he was leaving the SEALs, and coming to work at the school. They would be happy he would be away from the danger, or, at least, they would seem to be happy. He was never sure if they were actually happy with the things he did, or they were just saying it. Maybe they’d regretted adopting him, but there was no return policy for kids, and so had to keep him. Maybe they looked at him every time he visited, and wished he was more like their real kids, or that he was gone altogether.
“Did you want to take a look around the old place?” Caroline asked. “I’m not pushing if you don’t want to, but we’ve made some big changes since the last time you were here. One of which I think you’ll particularly appreciate.”
Against his better judgement, he found himself nodding. “Yeah, I’d like to see things.”
Caroline stood up and pushed her chair away, “Excellent. I think you’ll be impressed.” She lead him out of the office, stopping only to tell Rachel she wouldn’t be available for calls, and that they would be back soon.
Liam slowed his speed to match hers, as she led him through the building he remembered only too well. There was the cafeteria where he had ambushed Saul, after a batch of bad weed. He’d ended up getting a black eye, but that was nothing compared to Saul’s broken nose.
As they walked, she pointed out the things that had changed since the last time he’d been here. They turned a corner, and Caroline stopped, gesturing to one of the open doors. “This is the place I think you’d appreciate. It’s too bad we didn’t have it when you were here. I think it would have done a lot of good for you.”
She stepped away, and Liam walked to the doorway, stic
king his head through to look around. It was a weight room, fully set up, not with the newest machines, but they were well used and well looked after. She was right, it would have gone a long way to helping him, it would have given him somewhere to burn off his energy, somewhere away from his perfect brother and sister. It wouldn’t have been enough, but it would have been a start.
“The teams get special times booked, and it gets used for gym class of course,” she explained. “But we leave it open as much as possible, to make sure students can use it when they need it.” She turned to him, and added with a small smile, “As long as there’s supervision. It’s just too bad we don’t have someone to do that more often.”
He laughed softly, “You just don’t give up, do you?”
“You should know by now, I always get what I want, no matter how long it takes to get it.” There was a hint of teasing in her voice, but her eyes were hard and serious.
“Oh, Caroline! I’m glad I caught you. Can I talk to you about something quickly?” a voice came down the hall. If was soft, but he could hear it clearly, cutting through his distracted thoughts.
A pair of heels came clattering the down the hall, and he could feel Caroline pull away from him. Suddenly the heels stopped, and Liam turned to look at her, pulling himself away from the door. A woman stood in front of them, a hand to her chest. A pair of reading glasses were low on her nose, letting him look over the lenses and into her smiling green eyes. She was what his mother would have called a delicate beauty, her features carved from the most perfect marble. She was probably around 5’3” but her green heels probably gave her another inch or so. Her long wavy honey blonde hair was messily twisted up and secured with a large sparkly clip. Large strands had fallen out and were framing her face in the most accidentally beautiful way. She wore a modest floral wrap dress and green cardigan. Liam found that he couldn’t seem to look away from her.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” she laughed, soft and fluting. “I didn’t know you were with someone. I can talk to you later.”
Caroline put a hand on the other woman’s arm, “Is it still about that issue we spoke about yesterday?”
A frown passed over the woman’s face, but she smiled again, putting on so he wouldn’t guess there was a problem, “It is, unfortunately. But I won’t bother you with it now, you’re busy.” She said glancing at Liam again.
Their eyes caught for a moment. It had almost seemed as if they recognized each other for a moment even though they’d never met before.
Caroline nodded, “Come see me tomorrow, during your prep time.”
Liam watched as the women’s attention snapped back towards Caroline. His eyes wander slowly down her body to her feet where she was twisting in small circles on the balls of her feet as she thought, and Liam watched her skirt flare out slightly around her. He stared at it, watching how her legs curved under the material.
“It’s at two, and I have a parent coming in for a meeting then. What about after school?”
Caroline thought for a moment and nodded. “That’s sounds good. I’ll keep that time open for you tomorrow.”
“That’s great, thanks,” the woman nodded back, before turning slightly to go.
Something seemed to tear inside him, he didn’t want her to go, he wanted to stay talking to her, and hear her laugh again. Caroline put a hand on her arm, and lightly squeezed the other woman’s shoulder. He suddenly wondered what she felt like, in her dress and sweater it was hard to see anything, was she soft or hard under all those clothes. Caroline’s interesting offer was suddenly a lot more tempting now.
“Before you run off,” Caroline continued. “I’d like you to meet someone. Miranda, this is Liam Stone. Liam, this is Miranda Carter, part of our English lit. teaching team.”
He held out his hand to shake, and she took it. He was surprised at how warm and soft it was, as if he’d really thought she was a statue, or some kind of fairy. Liam suddenly had the urge to pull her in. To have her body pressed up against his. To breath in her scent. To taste the sweetness of her soft lush pink lips. But he didn’t do any of this instead he just searched her greens eyes to see if there was any hint that she felt the same way. He noticed a blush crept slowly across her neck, and he let her hand go.
“Liam is thinking about joining the phys. ed. team temporarily,” Caroline continued, as they pulled their hands away, ignoring the moment. If it had even been a moment, he wasn’t sure. It had been so long since he had been so immediately attracted to a woman, that he could have imagined her blush.
Miranda’s face seemed to harden at the mention of Phys Ed, but it passed so quickly he might have imagined that too. Maybe that was where her mysterious problem was coming from. Every protective instinct in his body suddenly flared to life, the way it always did on the field when the shooting started. He wanted to protect this woman, from whatever was happening.
“That’s exciting,” she said finally, bringing her smile back. “I hope you decide to stay.”
“Caroline is making it very difficult to say no.” He laughed.
“Oh yes….” Miranda laughed again. “I know all about that. She has amazing powers of persuasion.”
Liam laughed, but didn’t reply. He knew all about what Caroline could do to get her way, though she hadn’t had to use this talent on him in a while. This woman had no idea the kind of power Caroline could bring to bear on him, and it made his skin warm thinking about it. Distracted, he missed the rest of what she said, coming back to the conversation when Miranda leaned forward and touched his arm.
“I’d better let you go,” Miranda said. “I hope you enjoy the rest of the tour. And maybe we’ll see you again soon.”
Liam watched her walk away, the soft fabric of her dress clinging and swirling around her legs as she moved. He couldn’t bring himself to look away until she turned the corner away from his sight. Once she had disappeared, he turned and caught Caroline watching him.
She shook her head slowly at him, her eyes unreadable. “She’s not what you think she is,” Caroline said softly, though her voice was hard.
“What?”
“She isn’t like your other girls. You can’t treat her the way you treated them. You can’t do to her what you did to them.”
A flicker of frown passed over his face, and he turned to look back the way Miranda had gone. “I know,” he said it so quietly he wasn’t sure she had heard him, he barely could hear himself. “She’s a special person. I can tell that by just looking at her.”
“Yes, she is. And I will not have anyone treating her badly, and then throwing her away.”
The tone in her voice sent shivers down his spine, it was her controlling voice, whenever she spoke like that, he had to listen, there was no choice. He was compelled to do whatever she said, though, he didn’t need her orders for this. He couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt someone like her.
“If you decide to do anything with her, you need to tread carefully.”
Slowly, as if in a trance, Liam nodded his head. “Of course.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Miranda drummed her fingers on the steering wheel idly, softly humming. Now that she thought about it, not only had she been humming a lot today, but she was also in a surprisingly good mood considering all the terrible things happening in her life lately. If she was really being honest with herself she knew exactly why she was in a good mood—Liam Stone.
She couldn’t stop thinking about him. It was shameful really. She should be way past schoolgirl crushes by now, but it seemed like every 10 minutes or so her mind wandered back to that handshake or his stoic brown eyes or that smile that tugged on the corner of his mouth when she laughed. Miranda found herself smiling just thinking about that moment. His strong hand wrapped around hers the piercing stare of his brown eyes. The way his leather jacket clung to him in all the right places. Miranda could feel her cheeks getting warm just thinking about it. She glanced at her reflection in her car’s rearview mirror. Yes, she was blushing.
“Get a hold of yourself!” she said out loud in her car. Laughing to herself again. “It was just a handshake Miranda, calm yourself.” But she let herself smile and feel good about this silly crush because it had been so long since she had felt like this. She found herself silently hoping that he would take the job at the school.
Then a sudden, frightening thought sprang into Miranda’s mind. Her hands gripped the steering wheel tighter and a slow creeping dread slipped into her stomach.
Harrison.
Miranda took a deep breath. She had to get this crush under control. She was already in enough trouble as it was at school. She felt like she was walking on eggshells every single day. She never knew what was waiting for her around the corner, if she would run into a lewd remark from one of the students or if Harrison himself would be there with the twisted malicious grin on his face.
If Harrison found out, she had feelings for another guy. He wouldn’t only be angry with her; he would be seething with jealousy. Miranda remembered once while they were still together how jealous he got when she talked to one of his old assistant coaches at the high school staff Christmas party. He had yanked Miranda away from him yelled at her in front of a few of the teachers. And if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the next day Harrison even fired the assistant coach. Now that they were divorced and Miranda was actually single and available, she could only imagine how much worse his jealously would be.
Another, perhaps even scarier thought popped into Miranda’s head. What if Harrison turned Liam against her just like he did with all the other teachers is the Phys. Ed. Department?
Miranda pulled off the large clip holding up her hair and tossed it in the passenger seat. She ran her hands through her honey blonde hair, letting it fall onto her shoulders. She let out a long exhale. She would have to be careful and keep an eye on Liam. He could be the perfect tool for Harrison to use against her to cause her downfall. She would just have to carefully watch his behavior, keep him at an arm’s length, and be careful never to tell him too much about her.