“Right. But your new job pays more. So why don’t you buy it back?” he challenged her.
Because seeing the car in the garage every day was too painful. And she’d been so mad at John for dying. Selling the car he’d taken such pride in had been cathartic. She couldn’t tell Myles that, though.
“There are other things we need more.”
Myles clenched his fists. “You have other things you want more. You don’t care what I need. Like you didn’t need Dad around.” His words jumbled together. “But I did. You didn’t want him around, so you could be boss of us.”
His words sliced into her heart. Her son had no idea how much she’d missed John when he’d been deployed, and how hard it was for her to be the only parent to Myles and the girls.
She gripped the steering wheel and cut a too-sharp turn onto Hazard Cove Road. “Myles! You and I talked about this before. I’m sorry you feel that way, but I always wanted your dad around.” More than you’ll ever know.
She pulled into the driveway of the camp lodge where Emily and her husband lived.
“I am not buying you the Miata.” She took a deep breath. “But I won’t stop you from buying it as long as you earn the money legally.”
He pushed his bottom lip out in a petulant expression at odds with his man-boy face. When had he gotten so old? It seemed she and John had married only a couple of years ago, not more than fifteen.
“Why should I bother without Dad here to help me restore it?” He sniffled and then glared at her as if to rebuff any sympathy she might show him.
The virtual knife he’d plunged into her heart a moment ago sliced the rest of the way through. Myles threw his door open. She’d get through this as she’d gotten through everything else. By herself. Eli Payton’s offer to call him anytime she wanted echoed in her head. Jamie mentally shook off his invitation and the engaging smile he’d given her delivering it. They were only words, like John’s last words to her that he’d be home at the end of that month. She closed her eyes against the pain. She’d learned a hard lesson not to take anyone’s word at face value.
Chapter Two
Jamie pushed the shopping cart across the Grand Union parking lot and clicked the key remote to open the back door of her crossover. One good thing about her sometimes-erratic hours at the birthing center was that she often had time during the day for errands, like grocery shopping, which left her evenings free to be with the kids.
“Hey, Jamie.”
Jamie glanced over her shoulder. Clare Thomas waved from across the parking lot, and as Clare walked toward her, Jamie recognized the woman with her. Becca Norton, Myles’s history teacher and Clare’s sister-in-law. Shouldn’t she be at school? Jamie’s mouth went dry, and she let the grocery bag she was holding drop to the cargo-area floor. She hoped Becca hadn’t been suspended from her position because of Myles.
“Hi,” she managed to say as the two women stopped beside her shopping cart.
“We won’t keep you,” Clare said.
Famous last words.
“I just wanted to tell you how glad I was when Myles said that you’d given him permission to go to youth group with Tanner on Sunday.”
Jamie lifted another bag from the cart to hide her anger. She hadn’t done any such thing, and Myles shouldn’t have lied and said she had.
When she’d been called into work Sunday afternoon for a delivery, Jamie had asked Clare if Myles could come over and hang out with Tanner. The girls had been at a friend’s house and Jamie wasn’t sure she trusted Myles not to break his grounding if she or his sisters weren’t there. And he’d managed to do it anyway. He’d known she wouldn’t want him to go to youth group. When she’d stopped taking him and the girls to church and Sunday school, she’d made it very clear to Myles that neither church nor God had anything to offer any of them.
“Does that mean we’ll be seeing you back at church?” Clare asked.
Jamie mumbled a noncommittal reply. No need to make Clare the object of her anger. She’d reserve that for Myles.
“I hope you didn’t mind that Eli drove Myles home. He’s renting a place at the lake and had to go right by your house.”
Eli. So he was behind this. When she’d texted Clare on Sunday that she was leaving the birthing center and would swing by and pick up Myles, Clare had texted back that she had to go out anyway and would drop Myles off. And he certainly hadn’t said anything about Eli bringing him home. Jamie counted to five. She’d deal with Eli later.
“No, that was fine.” She’d never told Clare that Myles couldn’t go to youth group.
Jamie turned to Becca. “I hope Myles’s antics didn’t get you in trouble with the school.”
“No, the principal was decent.” Becca hesitated. “I think she feels sorry for me.” The woman grimaced.
“I’m glad I ran into you so I could apologize for Myles. Let me know if he gives you any more trouble.”
“I will.”
Clare looked at her sister-in-law and grinned. “You’ll be seeing a lot of more of Becca over the next few months.”
“I hope not.” Jamie slapped her hand to her mouth. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounds. I’m coming down hard on Myles about his behavior. So, I hope I won’t be putting in as much time at the guidance office this year.” A point she was going to make clear to Mr. Payton.
“No!” Clare laughed. “Not at the school. You’ll be seeing Becca at the center. She’s expecting.”
Becca shot her sister-in-law a quelling look. It was clear to Jamie that she hadn’t been ready to share that news.
“Congratulations.” Jamie’s heart went out to Becca and her situation. Jamie had gone through her pregnancies with the girls alone. But at least she’d had the expectation that her husband was coming home, had been able to talk and email with him. Becca didn’t even have that. Her husband had abandoned her and their young son and, now, the new baby.
“I’m available to talk if you want. One thing I have a lot of practice doing is being a single parent.”
“Thanks,” Becca said. “I might take you up on that.”
“We’d better let you go,” Clare said. “Think about coming back to church. We miss you and the kids.”
Jamie pasted a smile on her face and waved goodbye. No sense in causing hard feelings by telling Clare she had no desire to rejoin the Community Church fellowship or any church fellowship. It was a waste of time. She’d learned the hard way that the only person or thing she could depend on was herself. Jamie slammed the back door of the vehicle shut and climbed in the driver’s seat to head to her next, unplanned stop—the school. More specifically, Eli Payton’s office.
* * *
Eli hadn’t been able to get Jamie Glasser off his mind all week, and the daily one-on-one with Myles hadn’t helped. He glanced at the teen, his dark head bent over the history book he was reading. While Eli was sure Myles wouldn’t appreciate the observation, he looked a lot like his mother. Granted, a masculine version of his mother.
“All done.” Myles slammed the book shut and started drumming his fingers on the student desk Eli had asked maintenance to move into his office Monday morning. The teen’s dark-lashed eyes—his mother’s eyes—fixed on the clock slowly ticking away the hour remaining in the school day.
“Stop.” Eli shot Myles The Look, the one he had honed training airmen at Maxwell Air Force Base.
The teen’s fingers stilled.
“Good. I won’t have to make you drop and give me twenty.”
“You can’t do that.” Myles’s voice wasn’t anywhere near as strong as his words.
“Try me.” The teen was right. In the months since he’d returned to Paradox Lake, Eli had found—often, the hard way—that the mindset and actions that had served him well in the Air Force didn’t translate well to civilian life. But he wasn’t alone. Some of the guys in the Air National Guard unit he’d recently joined had said they’d had the same problem after leaving active duty.
The guidanc
e office door swung open, giving Myles a reprieve and excuse to turn away.
Jamie strode in. “Myles, go to the main office and wait for me.”
Despite the menace in his mother’s voice, Myles turned to Eli for confirmation before he rose to leave.
“Tell Mrs. Woods that I said to wait for your mother in the office.”
Jamie pinched her lips together. Eli could sympathize with her frustration, but she should have established control over her son long before he hit high school age.
Jamie placed her hands palms down on the other side of his desk and leaned across. “Where do you get off undermining my authority and encouraging Myles to disobey me? I didn’t tell him he could go to youth group. And I certainly didn’t give you permission to drive him home.”
“Whoa! Please sit, and lower your voice. Classes are still in session.”
Eli stood and moved a chair beside the desk. She sat and grasped her purse in her lap. The flush of her anger accented her cheekbones in an attractive, natural way that no amount of makeup, no matter how carefully applied, could have.
“I did not intentionally undermine you,” he said. “Mrs. Thomas accepted my offer to drive Myles home. I was dropping off a couple of other kids, too. Since she’d brought Myles, I assumed her okay was enough.”
Jamie’s grip on her purse relaxed. “Are you telling me that you didn’t mention youth group to him on Friday, invite him to the meeting on Sunday?”
Eli had to walk a fine line talking about church activities. He understood why the school had the policy, but he didn’t have to like it. “I didn’t say anything to Myles about the meeting, even though it could do him a lot of good to get involved.”
Her dark-lashed eyes widened.
“He’s looking for some direction, guidance, and I think he could find it at youth group or some other organized activity.”
“Guidance that I’m not providing him.” She gripped her purse again until her knuckles were white.
That was exactly what he thought, but he knew better as a man and an educator to not say that outright. “We’ve been talking this week, and Myles said that all he does is go to school and watch his sisters after school and weekends when you work. I’m sure—”
“He watches Rose and Opal the two afternoons I’m scheduled in the practice’s office and if there’s a delivery, not every day after school and weekends.”
“If you’d let me finish, I was going to say that I knew Myles was exaggerating. But you must see the inconsistency in your work schedule and how that might affect Myles. He needs consistency, some time to chill, to just hang out with the guys and not be on constant call.”
“Hanging out with the guys, the wrong guys, is what got him in trouble in the first place. I’m sure you read all about the trouble he got himself into last school year.” She paused and cleared her throat. “Things were going better this year.”
Until he started talking with me. Eli tented his fingers and rested his chin on his pointer fingers, waiting for her to say it. Somehow, she’d made him into the enemy. It was the easiest way out, to find someone else to blame. He’d done it himself. Not that he thought she was intentionally to blame—just a little scattered as pretty women often were. Like his mother. But Jamie obviously had her son’s best interests at heart.
“Myles ran cross-country this past fall,” she said as if to disprove what Eli had said.
“With Tanner Thomas. Myles told me.”
One corner of Jamie’s mouth quirked down. “He made the team when he was in seventh grade, but he didn’t run last school year.”
“That’s what I’m saying about hanging out with the guys in an organized activity being good for Myles.”
She pushed a thick black curl from her forehead. “And how many groups, clubs and sports teams did you belong to when you were in high school?”
He had her here. “None, after I was booted from the football team junior year for failing grades.” Among other things. “You wouldn’t want to read my school record for the last two years of high school. I would have been a lot better off if I had been involved in something.”
“My son is not you.” She enunciated each word separately.
“No, he’s not. But he may be headed down the same road. It’s my job to help him make better choices than I did. I don’t want to think about where I’d be today if the armed forces hadn’t saved me.”
Jamie blanched. “Don’t get any ideas about the military saving Myles. It didn’t save Myles’s father. It killed him.”
His chest tightened. Granted, he hadn’t lost a spouse, but he’d lost close friends in the Middle East, including his former fiancee. “I understand how you might feel like that.”
Her frown told him that she didn’t believe him. But the service hadn’t hardened him so much that he couldn’t feel some of her pain. He held her gaze with his for a moment. No way could he miss the spark of anger in her coffee-brown eyes.
“Okay,” he conceded. “I may not fully understand, but I still have to do what I believe is best for Myles. It’s my job.”
* * *
The bell signaling the end of the school day rang and stopped Jamie from verbally drawing her line between Eli’s job as guidance counselor and her job as Myles’s mother. And it was for the better. Right now, she couldn’t trust herself not to say things she might regret later. How could he understand? Sure, he’d served his country, just like John, and most likely he’d seen comrades fall. But had he lost a spouse? Did he have children? The lack of any family photos in his office seemed to say no.
She rose. “I should go. I want to catch the girls before they get on the bus so they can ride home with Myles and me.”
“I’ll call their teachers.”
Jamie gave Eli the girls’ teachers’ names reluctantly. It was peevish on her part. She didn’t want Eli to be right about anything. But he was right. Calling the teachers would be a better way of catching Rose and Opal.
Eli replaced the phone receiver. “Sorry. Both of their classes have been dismissed.”
“Thanks. I have time to get Myles and be home before the bus drops the girls off.”
“I’ll walk you to the office.”
Jamie bit her tongue to stop herself from saying the first thing that had come to mind, that she knew her way to the office. Eli was being polite. And she had to admit that he seemed to be doing what he thought was best for her son. She just didn’t happen to agree with him.
He opened the door, and they stepped into the hall and the onslaught of one hundred and fifty high school and middle school students set loose for the day.
Eli took Jamie’s elbow and guided her to the side of the rush, raising her awareness of how close the crush of students had pressed her to him.
“Has Myles shown any interest in running track in the spring?” he asked. “Since he’s run cross-country, he might want to do long-distance.”
Back to that? She sighed. “He hasn’t said anything.” Not that Myles shared much with her anymore. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt if you broached it with him, if he comes in to talk with you.”
Eli nodded and held the office door open for her. She couldn’t fault his manners.
“Hello, Jamie, Eli.” Thelma Woods’s voice softened on his name. “If you’re looking for Myles, he left with Liam Russell and one of the other seniors after the final bell.”
Jamie tensed. If Eli needed another example of her lack of control over her defiant son, Myles had just provided it.
“He was supposed to wait here for his mother.” Eli spoke before she could, his voice low and curt.
She warmed at his including her. Maybe they could be in this together, as long as he respected her parental authority.
Thelma gave Eli a little shrug. “He said you told him to wait here until school was over.”
“I’d better go while I still have time to get home before the kids,” Jamie said.
“Call me if you need to. Anytime,” Eli said.
Jamie smiled and ignored Thelma’s raised eyebrow. The woman had an overactive imagination when it came to the personal lives of the school staff. Jamie did not need her speculating that anything was going on between her and Eli except Myles.
Jamie hurried down the hall, passing the high school sports trophy case on her way to the main door. She hadn’t been into sports much in high school, except for intramural bowling. But her late husband had been cocaptain of their high school wrestling team and a state champion their senior year. Eli might be right about encouraging Myles to join the track team in the spring.
She pushed open the door, and the bitter north wind hit her face with full force. But for the immediate future, the only running Myles might be doing was running for cover from her.
Ten minutes later, Jamie pulled into her driveway seconds ahead of the school bus. She stepped from her crossover and waited while the bus doors opened.
“Mommy!” Seven-year-old Opal jumped down and skipped over to her while Rose followed at a more dignified nine-year-old pace. Jamie kept her gaze on the door. It closed and the bus engine roared to life, leaving a cloud of diesel fumes as it pulled away.
“Mommy,” Opal repeated. “I got a hundred on my spelling test. Can we go in and have some ice cream to celebrate?”
“After dinner.”
The little girl’s smile dimmed.
“With whipped cream and sprinkles,” Jamie added. No need to take her bad day out on the girls.
“All right!” Opal skipped off to the house.
“Myles wasn’t on the bus,” Rose said before Jamie could ask. “I saw him walk by with Scott and Liam, my friend Katy’s brother. Liam has a really loud car. They used to come over all of the time when you were working, but they haven’t in a while, not since you told Myles he couldn’t have anyone over without your permission when you’re at work. He knows I’ll tell on him.”
Small-Town Mom Page 2