Second Chances: Love in Juniper Ridge (Carver Ranch Book 1)

by Heather Tullis

  She tried to decide if she was glad for the interruption of what might have turned out to be a really nice kiss, in a far too public place, or if she wished he’d stayed away. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she focused on her son, answering the dozens of questions he shot at her.

  When Gage stood, saying that he ought to finish his rounds, Karissa felt more in control of herself and was able to look at Marsh with the casual friendliness that she’d dropped earlier.

  That was, until he smiled at her, making her heart flutter all over again.

  When they’d fully thawed, Marsh took them to Wendel’s Drive-In for burgers and fries and saw them home in time for her to get ready for work. She was dragging from their day on the slopes, but the afternoon had been worth the loss of sleep.

  Paul ran to tell his grandparents about their fun as soon as Marsh opened the door, letting the little boy escape from the truck’s back seat. Karissa got out a little slower and was happy to accept Marsh’s hand when he took hers.

  “I hope you had fun,” he said.

  “I did. Thanks.” She felt a little shy, coming to the end of their first date, even if it had included a child.

  “You’re welcome.” His free hand found her waist and he moved closer to her. “Maybe next time we can go out alone, though. Just you and me. Say, Tuesday night? You’re off then, aren’t you?”

  Her heart raced, thinking about a real date with Marsh, alone. Not just pastries in the cab of his truck for ten minutes. She nodded. “I am. If you wanted to make it seven o’clock, I could have Paul through dinner and in his PJs.”

  “That works for me.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek, his lips just brushing the corner of her mouth.

  As Karissa said goodnight and went inside, she was disappointed that he hadn’t kissed her for real. Then she wondered how he’d gone from her nemesis to someone she desperately wanted to kiss—and not in retaliation for her ex’s bad behavior.

  The first thing Marsh did Monday morning when he arrived at school was to stop into the principal’s office to see if the drug test results were in yet.

  The moment he walked in the door, Trudy, the office manager, shook her head. “He’s on the phone and won’t be off for a while. I won’t interrupt him. I’m not even sure if he has the test results yet, so you’ll just have to wait until he tells you later.”

  Marsh was surprised that she’d known why he was there. “What, have you got ESP now?”

  She chuckled, shaking her head. “Mark and Jeff have already been in here asking about the test results. You’ll know today—that’s all I’m sure of.”

  “All right.” It was the last thing he wanted to hear. He’d tried calling the principal and the superintendent over the weekend, but both phones had gone straight to voicemail, and neither man had returned his message. Waiting was so frustrating!

  Marsh tried to focus on his lesson first period, but the time dragged on. Five minutes before it ended, the assistant principal entered the room. “Harmer wants to see you in the office,” he said to Marsh. “I’ll hang here for a while.”

  “Thanks, Wilks.” Marsh stood and made himself walk normal speed to the front office. Trudy sent him to the conference room. Jeff, the wrestling coach, his assistant George, and Rex were all waiting when Marsh arrived.

  Principal Harmer waved Marsh toward a chair when he joined them in the conference room. “Take a seat. You’ll notice,” he continued a moment later, talking to all of them, “that Mark isn’t here. The girls’ basketball team all tested clean. Unfortunately, you guys are not so lucky.”

  Marsh felt his chest constrict. One of his boys was using? Could there be two? “How bad are we talking about?”

  “Bad.” Harmer looked at the wrestling coach. “You have seven boys who tested positive.” He picked up a paper and read off the boys’ names. “You, Marsh, have five.”

  Marsh barely heard the names read off. He was shell shocked. Five? Half of his team? What was he going to do? How could he possibly play with so many holes on his roster?

  Harmer let the news sink in for a long moment before he continued. “The superintendent is looking into this. Valley also had some positive tests, though not nearly as many as we do. And, oddly, only one of the wrestlers was using weed. The rest of our athletes were using performance enhancers.”

  “Steroids?” Marsh felt like an idiot asking for clarification, but he still couldn’t believe it.

  “Yes. And it’s likely they all got them from the same place. We haven’t talked to them about their sources, yet, but the school board is pulling the boys out of class as we speak. The consequences have to be universal for all of them. No exceptions. Starting with a week’s suspension from school."

  Marsh felt his heart clench and almost wished he hadn’t been so straightforward with the boys about being dropped from the team if they got caught drinking or using drugs. Except he still believed it was best—he just hadn’t expected to lose half his team in one shot. “My boys all know the consequences,” he said after sucking in a breath. “They’re off the team.”

  “Now, don’t you think that’s a little harsh?” Rex protested. “How are we going to win state without these boys?”

  “We won’t, but they knew what would happen. We can’t backpedal now.” Marsh rubbed his face and looked down at the table. “And I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “I know you had them sign those contracts,” Rex said. “But don’t you think it’s going overboard to dump them all? It was one infraction.”

  Marsh slammed a fist on the table, irritated that Rex would fight about this with him when he had to have known what would happen. “They signed a contract saying that they knew they’d be booted. I can’t go back on that. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. District rules are clear. The wrestler smoking weed might earn his way back, if Jeff wants to give him a chance, but steroid use is an automatic out.” When Rex looked like he wanted to argue more, Marsh held up a hand to stop him. “You think I like it? You think I wasn’t excited about where our team was headed? This sucks, but we’re the adults here, and we have to act like it.”

  Silence reigned for a long moment. “You’re right, of course.” Rex sounded resigned, but his mouth tightened in anger.

  “The wrestlers are all off the team for the year too,” Jeff said finally. “Even the pothead. Looks like we both have some juggling to do.”

  “I’m glad we all agree about that. It’s what the school board wanted as well. It makes this a lot easier that we’re on the same page.” Principal Harmer nodded and stood from the table again. “The boys should be in the gym by now. Time to go dish out the consequences. I’ll do all of the talking, but I’d appreciate it if you came along as a show of solidarity.”

  “Right behind you.” Marsh stood and rubbed his stomach. He hadn’t been joking about feeling sick over what was coming. He’d never hated the thought of facing his kids before and hoped he never had to face anything like this again.

  The school was remarkably free of rumors for the remainder of the day, though Marsh didn’t expect that to last long. The boys had been escorted from the school, and while the other kids were in the final class, two small contingents of sheriff’s deputies, accompanied by drug dogs, strolled through the school halls pulling drugs from lockers, and those students caught breaking the rules were removed from class and suspended as well.

  The school board was determined to leave no stone unturned. They were sending a message to everyone.

  The basketball team went to the locker room to change after school—what was left of them—and Marsh was waiting. When the last one arrived, the boys looked at each other, then snuck glances at him, but he wasn’t ready to talk.

  When they were changed and had filed into the gym, far less boisterous than usual, Marsh sat them on the bottom bench of the bleachers and faced them. He’d wondered how much to tell them, not wanting to ruin the other boys’ privacy, but it wasn’t like everyone wouldn’t know by the
end of the day anyway. If they didn’t know already. “I’m sure you noticed that half of our team is missing. The others tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. They have been suspended and dropped from the team.”

  He let them claim shock and dismay for a long moment while he studied their faces. Eventually, he waved to capture their attention again, motioning them to be quiet. “I know this is a major shock.”

  “We can’t play with only five guys, Coach,” Chris said. His face was pale, though he hadn’t seemed entirely surprised by the news. Marsh was just glad that Chris hadn't been among the users, especially after being caught drinking. Chris had lived up to his promises to stay clean, on all accounts.

  “No, Chris, we can’t. I’ve already spoken with the JV coach. We’re getting together tonight with the freshman coach, and we’ll shuffle things around. Our chances at the state championship are probably over. But we’re not giving up. I want to commend you boys for following the rules and being here today. There are no shortcuts in athletics, or none that are worthwhile anyway. You’re all hard workers and I know I can count on you. We’re going to have to hold extra practices with the guys we bring in from JV so we can re-mesh as a team. And there are going to be tryouts to add a few extra guys if we can. Now, more than ever, I need your dedication.”

  “So there’s no chance any of the other guys will come back this season?” Jerry asked.

  “No. Craig and Gavin are seniors. Their chances for college ball are over now. The rest of them will have the chance to try out again next year. But there will be more drug tests. At least one before the basketball season is over, possibly more. And I don’t see the district foregoing the extra expense anytime in the next few years.” Marsh wanted to send a clear message that no one could give in to temptation now.

  “But isn’t that going to cost a lot?” Chris asked. “We already had to do a fundraiser just to travel to all of our games this year.”

  “Yeah, which means some of the extras and new equipment everyone’s been wanting is not going to happen.” Marsh fought to keep his face impassive, not wanting the boys to know how much it was killing him. “We can’t help it. Those are the breaks.”

  There were a few other questions, which Marsh handled while Rex hung out behind him, hopefully showing support.

  The boys barely spoke during the remaining practice time, but they worked hard and seemed to be focused. Marsh kept active as he watched and worked with them. His mind wouldn’t stop as he thought about the JV players, which ones he would make a permanent part of his roster and which he would try to rotate in. The rest of the season was going to be interesting.

  Merry Christmas to them all. They only had a week of class before the holiday break, and he had to make it count.

  Though Karissa had the day off work, she heard about the suspensions when she was in the grocery store picking up a few supplies that afternoon. She’d wanted to go talk to Marsh right away but knew he was in practice, and she didn’t want to get in the way. They had a date the next night, so if he didn’t call, she would have to wait. It wouldn’t kill her. Probably.

  She was relieved when her phone rang that night though, and she saw Marsh’s name on the caller ID. “Hey, I hear you had a tough day,” she greeted him.

  “The toughest. Half of my team, Karissa. It’s going to be like starting all over again.”

  She sat hard in the nearby chair, stunned. “I hadn’t heard how many. I just knew some of the guys had been kicked off. What are you going to do?”

  “Poach some from JV, rotate some of the others in so they don’t all get burned out. Two game days a week will really cut into homework time for them, and we can’t have them failing classes. The JV and freshman coaches are going to do another set of tryouts, see if they can boost their team rosters. It’ll take some fancy shifting around, but we’ll survive.”

  “Good. Glad you have the chance to make things work. How about you, how are you doing?” Karissa tried to imagine how difficult it must be for him. He was so proud of what he had been building, of how great the kids were coming along.

  “Is it stupid to feel so betrayed?” he asked, his voice weary. “How could they do that, Karissa? What were they thinking? And how did I convince myself that their improved performances were just due to hard work during the off season?”

  “This is not your fault. You made the rules and your expectations clear. They wanted to be the best. And someone showed them how without all the hassle of hard work and dedication.”

  “Except they were working hard. They just wanted an extra shortcut. Man, it just kills me. Why didn’t I see the signs?”

  “Look.” Karissa had had enough of him blaming himself. “It sucks. Big time. I know. You couldn’t have expected this, though, so let it go. What now?”

  His sigh was heavy. “Now, we redouble our efforts and try to move forward.”

  He sounded so discouraged, Karissa just wanted to pull him close and give him a big hug. But it wasn’t easy to do that over the phone. “You should have joined us for dinner instead of eating alone tonight.”

  “Thanks, but after practice I met with the other coaches so we could hash out a few things and make plans. Then I grabbed dinner with Hank. You’re much prettier than he is, though. I should have taken you out instead.”

  Karissa smiled. “I’m sure he’d agree with you. Are you feeling any better yet?”

  “Yeah. Thanks for listening.”

  “Thanks for thinking of me. I didn’t want to call and intrude if you were trying to deal with everything.”

  “You’ve never been an intrusion, Karissa. You’re always welcome, any time.”

  Her heart fluttered. “Thanks. You too, Marsh. I mean that.” She surprised herself when she realized she did mean it. When had that happened?

  “We still on for our date tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Yes. See you then.”

  When Karissa hung up, she still felt terrible about what Marsh was going through, but she knew he’d handle it, and she was looking forward to seeing how he dealt with this trial.

  Marsh was a few minutes early, and Karissa wasn’t ready to leave yet when she heard his voice downstairs. She looked at her reflection in her bedroom mirror and finished her right eye. No way was she going down half made up and without mascara on, even if just the sound of his voice made her feel like a young teen in the first stages of a crush.

  When she did make it down the stairs a few minutes later, she found Marsh reading a book to her pajama-clad son. They made a nice tableau, and her heart leaped in her chest when Marsh looked up and smiled at her. He and Paul seemed so natural together. Perfect really. And she could see her life with him, see him and her son growing closer every day.

  She wanted it with a strength that scared her. Was she in love with Marsh? She wasn’t sure. There was something between them, something growing every day, but she wasn’t ready to fully let herself go. She hadn’t been good enough for Dennis. What if Marsh dated her for a while and then saw her deficiencies, saw what had driven Dennis from her bed to Sheryl’s?

  Karissa finished her trek down the stairs, carefully making her way toward the pair in her pumps and a flirty floral dress that showed off her calves, and had a neckline that hinted at cleavage without actually baring it.

  “You look gorgeous.” Marsh looked like he wanted to stand, but his lap was still full of little boy.

  “Thank you. Don’t get up. Finish your story. I’m going to say goodnight to Mom. I’ll be back in a minute.” Ants started to race through Karissa's stomach as she held his gaze.

  “Okay.” His eyes lingered on her for a moment longer, appreciation in his expression, before he sucked in a breath and turned back to her son and the book they’d been reading.

  Karissa smiled, pleased with his reaction, and headed to check on her mom. Beth had been doing better the past few days and the doctor seemed to think she was going to recover this time. It was a relief to all of them, as watching h
er mother’s illness was hard. They were doing their best to control the lupus, and Karissa hoped with continued monitoring, it would eventually become just a very bad memory.

  “How are you, Mom?” Karissa asked when she found her in the kitchen.

  “Just fine,” Beth said from where she was slicing apples. “Don’t worry about me. I’m going to make some apple crisp and sugar that little boy of yours up before we put him to bed. Your dad has been craving it.”

  “He should have told me; I would have made it.” Karissa felt bad for taking off when her family obviously needed her around. Though her mom was doing better, she looked a little pale now.

  “You do more than enough around here,” Beth said, putting the back of her hand on her hip. “We’re capable of taking care of ourselves for one evening. You need an evening out. Go, enjoy yourself.”

  “You don’t mind taking care of Paul again?” Karissa felt like she left her son with her parents far too much. “At least next year he’ll be in school all day, so you won’t have to watch him so much.”

  Beth touched her daughter’s shoulder. “Honey, we love having you here. We’re your family. We love to help you, and we’re proud of what you’re doing. It takes a lot of guts to step up and do what needs to be done. And your help here has been invaluable. I don’t know how we would have gotten through this without you.”

  Karissa’s flutters turned all gooey at the praise. “Thank you, Mom.”

  Beth waved it away. “I’m not saying anything that isn’t true. Now, go eat, you must be starved.”

  “I will.” Karissa leaned in and kissed her mother’s cheek. “Don’t let my son run you ragged.”

  “We’ll be fine.” Beth turned back to her chopping block and started to hum along with the radio.

  Karissa grabbed her coat and headed for the front room where she could hear her son giggling and talking to Marsh.

  The book was done, and Marsh stood when Karissa entered, sliding Paul onto his feet on the floor. “You ready to go then?” he asked.