“You started it!” someone shouted from the back of the room.
The president stood up. “This meeting is now going into closed session.”
The other board members followed him backstage. Maureen wondered what he was going to do when he found out the only way back into the school was through the auditorium. Not very good planning on his part. Behind them, the crowd got louder. They sounded more like the crowd at one of Touchstone’s concerts, only angrier.
“We need to get out of here.” Michael pulled her to her feet.
She swayed, staring at him. “Why?”
“The crowd is getting ugly and I don’t want you in it.” He turned her and propelled her by the shoulders over Theresa and out into the aisle. The outer aisle was already filling with people, but he shifted in front of her and cleared a path to the door towing her behind. Before she realized where they were, the metal doors were clanging behind them and he was pulling her down the sidewalk to the parking lot.
“Wait a minute,” she said, yanking her hand out of his. “We can’t just leave.”
“We have to. This looks dangerous.” His eyes scanned over her shoulder.
“There isn’t going to be a riot at a school board meeting.” She glanced back at the people already spilling out of the building. At the moment, they did look more like a mob than the audience of a school board meeting.
“Let’s just go.” Tony waved his hands like he was trying to herd them forward.
“Come on, Maureen.” Theresa grabbed her arm. “You shouldn’t be here right now. Let Michael take you home. I’ll meet you at your place.”
Pam and Tony hurried off in the direction of their car and Theresa went to hers. Maureen allowed Michael to take her to the sedate gold Saturn he’d bought for her.
“This isn’t happening,” she muttered.
“I’m sorry, baby. It’s happening.”
“I didn’t just lose my job.” She turned to the window. They were one of the first cars to leave. Four police cars and two vans were parked in the fire lane. Some people straggled to their cars, but a larger group congregated on the cement apron in front of the main doors. She could pick out half-remembered faces from parent teacher conferences past.
Michael reached for her hand as he turned onto the road. “We’ll go home and regroup. You knew this might happen. What’s next? The defamation suit?”
“I just lost my job.” Her throat closed. “This must make you really happy.”
“No, baby, it doesn’t.” He glanced at her. A second later he glanced at her again, frowning. Then he pulled off into a restaurant parking lot. “Why would you think this would make me happy?”
“You get what you want now.” Arms tensed, she fought the urge to pull away from him. She couldn’t do that now. Without him, she had no income. She’d lose her house and her car. She’d never get another job.
“Maureen, you’re getting all freaked out. I never wanted you to lose your job. I wanted you to be happy and I can’t seem to pull it off.”
Tears gathered on her eyelashes, and she blinked. “We’ll be together now as much as you want. I could finish the tour with you.” He wouldn’t. Now that he had her, he wouldn’t want her around all the time. Now she was an albatross. He’d get tired of her much faster. She should have tried to make friends with Marc’s ex while she was in California. And a couple of the other band members’ exes. Those women were going to be her peers soon.
“Maureen, hey, snap out of it.” Michael caught her face between his hands. “We’re not going to be together that much because you’re going to win this defamation suit and they’re going to have to give you your job back. And in December when the tour ends, I’m gonna come here and we’ll decide what we’re gonna do from there. Okay? Everybody’s going to your house. We’ll talk it out. We’ll make a plan. I told you I was going to do whatever it took to make this work and I am.”
She nodded. Reality weighed around her, dragging her into the seat. She was wholly dependent on him and trapped. His phone rang. “You better get that.” Then she leaned her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.
* * * *
Bear stared at her through another ring. She’d detached herself. It was freaky to watch. He pulled out his phone and answered it without looking. “What?”
“Is it over? How did it go?”
Marc. From the sound of things everyone was with him. Bear heard Tessa raving in the background. “They didn’t renew and things were getting hot so they moved the meeting behind closed doors.”
“I can’t believe it. Maureen’s lawyer said the police were there.”
“You talked to Maureen’s lawyer?”
“Tessa’s on the phone with her now.”
Which explained Tessa’s raving. “So why are you calling me?”
“Because we want to know what’s going on and we’re all on the wrong side of the country at the moment, so spill.”
“Poor baby, stuck in LA thousands of miles from all the action.” Bear glanced at Maureen. Her head had lolled to one side and her lips were parted. How could she fall asleep at a time like this? “I don’t know anything. They voted to not renew her. One of the board members complained and asked for a revote. The crowd started to get hot. The board walked offstage and I got her the hell outta Dodge.”
“That ugly?”
“We have fewer cops at our shows.”
“Shit. How’s she doing?” In the background Brian was demanding the phone. Funny, a couple of months ago they were all suspicious of her and now she was one of their own.
“She was freaked out a minute ago, but she just fell asleep. I think it’s too much for her. We’re all meeting at Maureen’s.” Inside her purse, Swing started to play. “Shit. Her phone’s ringing and I don’t want it to wake her up. Talk to you later.” He snapped his phone closed as he dug for hers. “Hello?”
“Uh. Is Maureen there?”
“She’s asleep.”
“Oh. It’s Linda. You guys left before I caught you.”
“Yeah, I was sort of afraid somebody was going to produce a rope so we could have an old fashioned lynching.”
Linda snickered nervously. “So what’s the plan?”
“We’re meeting up at Maureen’s.”
“We being?”
“Theresa and my brother and sister-in-law.”
“Okay. I’ll swing by the grocery store and pick up some refreshments and meet you there.” Linda hung up.
Great. It was going to be a party. Bear put the car in gear and drove back to her house. Pam and Tony were waiting in the driveway. Theresa had parked on the street. Pam swooped in and took over care of Maureen before he could even get out of the car. The lawyer started discussing strategy for what to do next with Tony. Or rather, the lawyer talked and Tony nodded a lot.
Bear went to the kitchen and put on the coffee pot. Maureen had a coffee fixation like no one he’d ever seen. Even in this heat, she’d want a cup of coffee. He checked the ice trays to make sure there were some ice cubes in case she wanted it cold. Linda arrived with a couple of plastic containers of cookies. He gave her a plate to put them on and went to take drink orders. Theresa had the table covered with her briefcase, masses of loose paper, a tablet computer and two phones. She was making notes in her tablet and talking so fast Tony looked like a bobble head doll. There was a knock at the door and when he answered it, the women outside said they worked with Maureen. As they joined Theresa’s audience and Linda took over door duty, Bear retreated to the kitchen to wash glasses because if people kept showing up, they would run out.
It felt like hours had passed before Theresa announced that she needed to go. Maureen had reappeared some time earlier looking more like herself. Theresa had worked out a complete battle plan and issued orders. Bear walked her to the door, leaving Maureen to talk to her friends.
“Can I ask you a question?” he asked after she’d stepped through the door.
“What’s that?”
“How much of this is my fault?” He clenched his teeth, hoping she would laugh and tell him he was being an egomaniac.
Instead, Theresa pursed her lips. “I don’t want to get involved in your love life.”
“I know, but I’m asking. If she didn’t know me, would she be having any of this trouble?”
“No. You’re famous and you’ve drawn attention to her. People are making a lot of assumptions about what your life is like and, by default, what her life is now like and they don’t want that for their children.” Theresa shifted her briefcase to the other hand. “I’m sorry. It is what it is. The damage is done. You can’t undo it. All we can do now is try to be as normal and reliable as possible.”
“I have a top ten song and a top ten album and I’m in the middle of a huge tour right now.”
“Yeah.” She thrust out her lower jaw, which made her look like a matronly bulldog. “That’s a problem. This story is starting to get picked up by major news organizations because of your involvement.”
He wanted to bury his face in his hands, but didn’t. Wouldn’t look good to the lawyer. “Thanks.”
“For giving you bad news?”
“For giving it to me straight.”
She nodded and walked down the drive to the street, and he turned back to the party, which was now breaking up. Tony extracted a promise from him to come to the garage tomorrow and Pam invited them to dinner tomorrow night. Maureen’s co-workers were pleased to have met him, but subdued by the news. None of them seemed to blame him for it. No need. He was doing enough of that for everyone.
If it wasn’t for him none of this would have happened. If he’d stopped it after that first pizza, she’d have carried on with her life, taken the classes she needed to keep her teaching license, never been in the paper. She’d have been happy.
But he’d had to get greedy.
He closed the door behind Linda and turned to Maureen. She stood clutching the back of the couch like she’d just experienced her first major earthquake. He held out his arms. “Come on, baby. Let’s go to bed.”
“We should clean up.”
Bear glanced around the room. A couple of glasses sat on the dinner table by the empty cookie plate. Clean up would take twelve seconds. “I’ll get it in the morning.”
She nodded and went to him, sinking into his embrace. For a long time, she clung to him before she let him guide her down the hall to the bedroom.
* * * *
Maureen spun her spoon on the table. The world had taken on a haze since last night and she couldn’t penetrate it. Kaitlyn and Linda had asked her out to lunch to get her out of the house. Theresa thought it would be a good idea for the public to see that she wasn’t cowering at home. Maureen was dubious. She’d rather be at home, in bed with the covers pulled over her head.
“Maureen, are you with us here?” Kaitlyn asked.
“No,” Linda said. “She’s on tour with Michael.”
“Michael is at the garage today. He goes back out in two days.” Seventy-two short hours. Less because the flight to Tampa was an early one.
“You’re not going with him?”
“I can’t. I have to stay here and be a model citizen.” She stuck out her tongue.
“When is he coming back to town?”
“At the end of August. They have a two week break right when school starts because Brian’s daughter starts preschool and he wants to be there.”
“Aw.” Kaitlyn sighed. “That’s so sweet.”
“So he’ll be here right when school starts.”
Maureen shrugged. “Or I’ll be there. Nothing keeping me around.” No job. No way to get a job until after the dust settled. Her last paycheck would arrive around the end of August. After that she’d be digging into her savings or asking Michael for handouts. Would the bank accept the credit card he’d given her for house payments?
“Slut.”
Maureen looked up. She vaguely remembered the woman standing at the end of the table, but her hair color didn’t look right. The hard, angry set of her expression did. “Excuse me?”
“I knew you were a slut when you had my Logan, but nobody believed me. Well, now they do.”
“Logan Szabeki’s mom,” Maureen said.
“I’m not surprised you remember. As much as you hated my son.”
“I didn’t hate your son, I hated his behavior.”
“My son did nothing wrong in your classroom. The other kids blamed him for everything and you let them.” Logan’s mother put her fists on her hips and narrowed her already squinty eyes. Maureen couldn’t remember her last name. She knew it had been different from Logan’s, but nothing else.
“Logan Szabeki,” Linda mused. “Did he just spend six months in juvie for boosting a car?”
Theresa had hoped Maureen’s friends would shield her from the worst of the public. Maureen decided she should have warned Theresa about Linda.
“My son is a good boy.” Logan’s mother stamped her foot.
“Your son is a del—”
“Linda, let’s just go. It’s all water under the bridge.” Maureen stood. “It was nice to see you again.” She gave Logan’s mom a bland smile and walked away. They hadn’t paid the bill yet and she had to wait at the hostess desk for them to get it.
“This is unacceptable.” Linda stomped toward the car. “Now the parents of every brat you ever scolded for picking his nose is going to feel justified in calling you a bad teacher.”
“I don’t know if you should be saying that out here.” Kaitlyn glanced around. “Someone might hear you.”
“They need to hear me. Like teaching their little monsters isn’t hard enough without them being convinced their kids are perfect. I hate to break this to you but even the perfect ones screw up. They’re kids. It’s in the job description.” Linda hit a button on her key fob and the horn started honking. “Oh darn it. They need to make these buttons bigger.” She jabbed at the key fob again to no result, and Kaitlyn snatched it out of her hand.
“Just because you’re under investigation doesn’t mean you get to act like a big baby. Maureen’s taking it better and she’s lost her job.” Kaitlyn turned off the panic button and unlocked the car doors before handing it back.
“What do you mean, under investigation?” Maureen asked.
“Oh, we all are, it’s nothing.” Linda opened her car door. “Do you guys want to go to the mall or something? Is there a half decent movie playing?”
“The state is questioning some of Linda’s education credits,” Kaitlyn said.
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” Maureen turned to Linda.
“Like you need the extra stress. It’s nothing. I did a seminar. The state is questioning whether or not it counts. Let’s go to a movie. It’ll be cool in the theater.” Linda climbed in her car and slammed the door.
Maureen hurried around to the passenger side and jumped in. “Linda, if you lose your license, you’re going to lose your job.”
“Well, if they decide to disallow that seminar all the sudden, there’s about two hundred and fifty other teachers who are going to be in the same boat.”
Maureen leaned her head on the seat. “This is all my fault. I should have listened to Michael.”
“Michael.”
“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.”
Satellite of Love Page 22