Montana Mornings (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 3)

by Kim Law

  “No.” Not even more e-mails telling her they’d love to have her, but.

  And then her phone rang from the other side of the room.

  Every one of their eyes went round, and they all stared at the kitchen island sitting in the middle of the oversize room. Erica’s phone lay plugged in on her stack of magazines, its ringtone blasting in the now-quiet room.

  “Answer it,” Maggie urged. “It could be about a job.”

  “It’s eight o’clock at night. Who would be calling me about a job?”

  But she had to know.

  No one said another word as Erica crossed the room. She suspected the ringing would stop before she even got to it, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. And when she picked up her phone, the display showed that it was a number from Silver Creek.

  Worry suddenly had her hurrying to answer. Who would be trying to get in touch with her late at night from her hometown if there wasn’t something wrong?

  “Hello?” she practically yelled into the phone.

  “Ms. Bird?” a man’s voice spoke.

  “Yes.”

  Was the man from a hospital? The police?

  A morgue?

  “This is Superintendent Miller from the Silver Creek school system. I’m sorry to be calling you so late, Ms. Bird, but the board just let out of an emergency meeting. Do you have a minute to speak with me?”

  She dropped onto one of the barstools. “I do.” And then she looked straight at Arsula.

  When she got off the phone, she explained that she’d just been offered her old job back, tenure reinstated. The teacher they’d hired to replace her hadn’t worked out, and though they admitted that they didn’t understand why Erica had left at the last minute in the first place, they’d do whatever it took to get her back.

  They needed her back. At her ex-husband’s school.

  Maggie’s jaw hit the floor. “Your dream really was about a job.”

  “I’m not just some hack,” Arsula muttered, but no one paid her any attention.

  “What are you going to do?” Maggie asked.

  She had a job if she wanted one. A permanent, full-time job.

  Or she could stay here for Gabe. Who seemed to be having the time of his life with his wife.

  She returned to the table on shaky legs, snagging another bottle of wine on the way. Then she took in her new friends and felt fresh tears begin to fall. “I have absolutely no idea.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Let me see what you’ve got so far.” Erica spoke to one of the small groups of students working together in her classroom as she pulled a seat over to their table. The kids were creating a movie storyboard today. It would be their last assignment from her before Mrs. Watts returned the following week.

  They were to come up with and describe what their main characters looked like, outline the problem the characters would have to solve within the movie and how they’d go about solving it, then draw out the scenes, one to each page. Erica intended to bind each movie script together before she left for the day and leave them for their returning teacher as a welcome-back present. This was a sharp group of students, and she’d been looking forward to seeing their ideas all week.

  She’d been making her way around the room for several minutes, checking on each three-person team, and tickled to see that many of the ideas involved teachers who’d just had a baby, while others involved a friend leaving town on her last day. Just as she began to study the plans of the team in front of her, she picked up on Jenna’s voice from the grouping behind her.

  “I heard Daddy say that he could see she was really trying,” Jenna said. “They thought I was sleeping, but I was still awake. I think that means that he doesn’t hate her as much anymore.”

  “Does that mean you don’t hate her, either?” Leslie asked.

  “I probably never should have hated her. She took me shopping last night and bought me three new dresses and the most beautiful coat I’ve ever seen. She loves me again.”

  “Did she quit loving you before?” This came from Haley, and Jenna paused before answering. Erica’s heart raced as she listened.

  “I don’t know,” Jenna finally said. Her voice lost its edge of enthusiasm. “Sometimes I think so, but then I’m not sure.”

  “Why would a momma quit loving her daughter?” Leslie asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Jenna’s answer was simple, yet a truckload of heaviness seemed to fall with the three words. All three girls fell silent, as if none knew exactly how to wade deeper into the conversation, until Leslie landed on a different route.

  “What are you doing with your mom tonight?” she asked.

  “We’re going to the football game. We’re gonna ride with Gramma and Pops, and we won’t get to sit with Daddy because he’ll be coaching, but he said we could come down to the bench before the game. We’ll get there early so we can check everything out, and we might even get to go in the locker room, too.”

  “Man,” Leslie whispered. “I’d love to go into the locker room. We’re coming to the game tonight, too. You think he’d let me see the locker room?”

  “Maybe another night. I think tonight he just wants it to be me and Momma.”

  The three girls continued talking, Jenna telling them more fun stories from the week with her mother, and Erica couldn’t bring herself to ask them to quieten down. It was all she could do to focus on the task at hand and check over the work of the three whose table she sat at.

  Jenna, Gabe, and Michelle seemed to be hitting it off quite nicely.

  She should have known. All indicators had certainly pointed that way.

  Which meant what when it came to her and Gabe? She’d been right that he’d forget to text Wednesday night, but he had sent her a message the night before. They’d talked for about ten minutes, but something in the messages had felt off. Not quite as flirty. Not as fun. She’d lain awake for hours afterward, trying to decipher what that meant, but overhearing Jenna now, she felt as if she’d been given her answer.

  It meant she had to get out of the way. She had to give Gabe and his family a chance to reconcile if that’s what was meant to be. Because a child needed two parents, if at all possible. Her years in teaching had shown her that.

  And she needed to not be the other woman in the middle of someone else’s relationship.

  “What about this, Ms. Bird?” Nikki asked. The group had flipped through the big book of ideas Erica had passed out, and come up with additional characteristics for their protagonist.

  Erica read over them, her heart breaking into tiny pieces as she did, because she knew what she had to do. And that meant that she wouldn’t just be losing her classroom of students she’d come to love over the last two weeks when she walked out of the school for the last time that day. She’d quite likely be losing the man she loved, too.

  Mark Mann, Gabe’s assistant coach, stood next to a scratched, burgundy file cabinet topped with a stack of papers ten inches high, with a box of game tapes perched on top of the papers. His elbow was propped on the only cleared space on the metal top, and the pencil in his hand beat out a rapid staccato against the side of the cabinet.

  “We can’t let him play tonight,” Mark was saying to Gabe. “You know that. The kid failed three tests today.”

  Gabe cringed. “I know.” Their best wide receiver had been having issues in school for the last few weeks, but today had done him in. And they needed him in the game tonight. They needed this win. “He say anything to you about what went wrong?”

  “‘Didn’t study’ was all he said.”

  That was pretty much all Gabe had been able to get out of him as well. He’d brought Kevin in several times over the last few weeks, trying to let the kid know that he was more than just a coach. He was also an ear if the boy needed someone to talk to. But so far, little talk had happened.

  “So who do you want to play?” Mark asked. “I think we go with Vinny.”

  “Vinny hasn’t caugh
t a pass all week.”

  “But until this week, he was catching everything put up.”

  “True. So what’s been his problem this week?” They had to make this decision, and soon. They had a bus to board.

  “His girl broke up with him over the weekend.”

  Ah, Christ. How had he missed that? “And you think that suddenly won’t be a problem tonight?”

  “Not if my sources are right.” Mark angled his head with a knowing look. “Word is that she planned to be waiting on him after school.”

  Gabe lifted a brow.

  “And she’s going to get back with him.”

  “So he’ll be able to catch again,” Gabe said, understanding all too well the male brain. He’d had plenty of weeks where he hadn’t been able to “catch” throughout his life. One specifically, a couple of weeks ago when he’d been on the outs with Erica. He’d barely been able to think straight all week for missing her.

  This week hadn’t been much better, but at least he knew she’d be there waiting for him after Michelle left. If she ever left.

  At the thought of his wife, he realized what was going on with Vinny’s girlfriend. “She’s just getting back with him so Vinny will be able to catch tonight, isn’t she?” The girlfriend was a cheerleader, and she wanted to go to the state championship as well as the rest of them.

  “That would be my guess.”

  Gabe shook his head. Some days he wondered why he’d chosen this path. Teenagers could drive a man to drink.

  But then he saw Chase peeking through his door, and he remembered exactly why he did this. Because of kids like Chase. Gabe motioned for the boy to come in. Chase had become a regular over the last few weeks. He’d shared some details about his parents’ divorce that Gabe suspected the kid’s mother didn’t even know about, and then they’d had multiple discussions about what was right and wrong for a man to be doing when he was in a committed relationship.

  They’d also delved into lengthy conversations on Chase’s college plans and the schools showing interest in him. The team had put together an online fundraising account to help get Chase a visit to each school, and now it was down to the decision. The boy had to choose.

  “Hey, Coach,” Chase said as he came in. Then he nodded to the other man. “Coach Mann.”

  “You make that decision yet?” Mark asked him.

  Gabe held his breath. He would have at least greeted the kid first, but now that the question was out, he wanted to hear the answer. He understood the pressure of selecting a school, though his experience had come secondhand. He’d gone on visits with Cord back when Cord had been considering his possibilities. In the end, his brother had chosen Boise State, and Gabe couldn’t help but hope Chase did the same.

  “I talked to Oregon again last night,” Chase told them.

  Mark leaned forward from the cabinet, as anxious to hear as Gabe.

  “But my mom and I talked afterward . . . and we decided definitely Boise,” the player finished in a rush. Then a wide smile broke across his freckled face.

  Gabe stood. “It’s done? It’s Boise?”

  “It’s done.” Chase reached out a hand. “Thanks, Coach. I wouldn’t be here without you.”

  Gabe shook the boy’s hand, and a lump formed in his throat. He didn’t necessarily believe the words were true, but he did know he’d been an influence over the last weeks. “Congratulations, Chase.” He slapped the kid on the back and pulled him in. “You’re going to kill it with Boise.”

  Chase shook Mark’s hand, and then Gabe realized that someone else had stepped to his door. Mark and Chase followed his gaze to Michelle’s. She flashed a hundred-watt smile around the room before landing on Gabe, and Gabe found himself anxious about what the look might mean. They’d had a surprisingly good week, and even he had to admit that she’d been so amiable that he’d had less harsh feelings toward her than he had in years. But that didn’t mean he’d completely bought into her act.

  “Men.” He nodded toward the door without looking at the other two in the room. “I’ll see you on the bus. Coach Mann, make the call, will you? Let the players know before we pull away.”

  “Will do, Coach.” Mark touched a finger to his forehead as he passed Michelle, as if he wore a cowboy hat and were leaving on his horse, then Chase walked silently out behind him.

  Only after the room had emptied of testosterone did his wife step inside. She kept a smile on her face as she picked her way across the floor, but Gabe could see she thought the small, cluttered space was beneath her.

  “Where’s Jenna?” He rose.

  “She’s with Hannah.”

  Things might have been going well that week, but he’d kept his daughter’s babysitter on hand. He wasn’t ready to leave Jenna alone with her mother anytime soon.

  When Michelle made it to the other side of the desk, she lowered to the chair and set her purse at her feet, then turned her smile back up to him. Only this time, the curve of her lips was tinged with an edge of hardness.

  “Have a seat, Gabe.”

  He sat, then wanted to kick himself for doing as she’d said. “What can I do for you, Michelle?”

  He didn’t want to believe that the last week had all been lies. For his daughter’s sake, he truly did not want to entertain that option. But the cold eyes now peering back at him told a different story. And it was a story he’d heard several times before.

  “I need a new car,” she finally said.

  Had all of this been about a car? He kept his expression neutral. “And?”

  “And I want you to buy it for me.”

  “I’m not buying you a car.” Even if he were sitting on a stash of money, he wouldn’t do that for her. “What’s wrong with your old one?” Last he’d seen, she’d had a shiny new Mercedes.

  “I need a better one.”

  He frowned. She’d always had expensive taste. “Then get your boyfriend to buy you another one.”

  He glanced at the clock over the door, knowing he had only a few minutes before he had to get to the bus, then fidgeted with a pencil as he wondered if his refusal would send her packing before he got home from the game.

  But she didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Instead, she scooted back in her chair, straightened her spine, and crossed her legs at the knees. Her lips pursed just slightly before she said, “You’re not hearing me, Gabe. I want you to buy me a new car.”

  “And you’re not hearing me. I am not buying you a car. Plus, even if I were willing, where do you think I’d get the money? I’m a school teacher now, remember? You certainly lamented the fact that I’d be making little to nothing often enough.”

  “Yet you are part owner of an orchard.”

  He snapped the pencil in two. She couldn’t be . . .

  No.

  A weight settled in his chest. He couldn’t believe this was where the conversation had gone. “And you’re suggesting what?” he asked, forcing a calmness that he didn’t feel. “That I should sell my part of the orchard?”

  She stared at him, unblinking, her eyelashes so thick they made him think of the pinup girl calendar one of his brothers had as a kid. “It is a profitable orchard,” she finally responded. “Not to mention, it comes with a house and sits on lakefront property.”

  “You’re full of shit.” Anger enflamed him. “No way am I selling.”

  Not for her.

  Not for anyone, unless he did it for himself.

  He forced his muscles to relax, to remain seated in his chair when what he really wanted to do was storm to the other side of his desk and drag her from his office. They had to get through this conversation, and that would be more easily accomplished if he didn’t lose control. If he remained in control. But then her gaze landed on the framed photo he had of Jenna on his desk, and the contents of his stomach pitched. And he suddenly knew exactly what would come out of his ex’s mouth next.

  Crossing her hands in her lap, she smiled once again. The look was pure evil. “Then I’m fili
ng for custody.”

  He was on his feet. “You’ll lose. You left our daughter alone, have you forgotten that? I’ll claim abandonment.”

  Her level of calm doused him with icy fear. “Prove it.”

  Fuck.

  Double fuck.

  He’d known she’d go there. He’d never once mentioned her actions to the police.

  “Plus,” Michelle continued, now taking on a woe-is-me look, “you haven’t let me see our daughter in months.”

  “I haven’t . . .” He stared at her. What the hell? “You haven’t asked to see her in months.”

  She bent forward and reached into her bag then, and pulled out a small object, and after she set it on his desk, she pushed “Play.”

  “I want to see my daughter, Gabe.”

  “No.”

  He gulped as she clicked off the tiny recorder. Then he dropped back to his seat. So that had been the reason for the earlier call.

  “I’ve phoned you every week since you kicked me out of the house,” she said now. “And I have a cop friend who’ll testify to that very thing on my behalf. He’ll say that he heard multiple of those very calls personally. And that he was there the day you kicked me out.”

  “But I didn’t kick you out.” Gabe spoke through gritted teeth as panic placed a stranglehold around his throat. “So all of this—your coming here, pretending to care about our daughter—this was for money?” She made him sick. “Why? Why would you do that to Jenna?”

  “A girl’s gotta eat.”

  “And if you have custody—” He quit talking as the answer to his own question clicked into place. Of course.

  “Then my daughter has to eat.” She enunciated the words very clearly. This was about child support. The very thing that she hadn’t been paying to him.

  Could he use that in his favor to fight her on this? With his temporary custody, she’d been ordered to pay child support, though not a single dollar had filtered his way. Would her lack of sending money prove that she didn’t care?

  “Don’t do this, Michelle.” It would be better not to have to fight at all. “You know she’s happier with me. And you know you don’t want her.”