Winning the Teacher's Heart
She closed the cupboard and walked out to the deck to call the kids in to get their things ready to go to their other grandparents’ for the night.
“Hey, Mom, watch.” Brendon rode his bike up a small rise behind the jungle gym and sped down, yanking on the bike’s handle bars and doing a wheelie for several feet across the yard. She stifled a screech as he circled around and laid the bike down on the grass in front of the deck steps.
“What do you think?” He beamed.
What she thought was she was likely to be completely gray by the time she was thirty-five. “Impressive,” she said.
“Do you think if I asked Dad, he would buy me a dirt bike for my birthday?”
Becca closed her eyes and breathed in and out. If her ex-husband knew how much that thought terrorized her, he probably would and count the cost as child support. She’d never shared it with Matt, but her parents had instilled a fear of motorcycles in her when she was a child after a close friend of theirs had died in a bike accident.
“I think you should wait a few more years on that one.” Brendon was only nine going on ten.
“Aw, Jared could teach me how to ride. The story in the magazine said that he’s going to start a school to teach kids like me how to race motocross, with a real motocross racetrack and everything.”
“I don’t think he’s building his racetrack here.” Jared Donnelly hadn’t been back to Paradox Lake for more than an occasional short visit since he’d left fifteen years ago. Even if he were in town for an extended visit, she doubted he’d build his motocross school here in the North Country where he could only operate it part of the year.
The disappointment on Brendon’s face made her chest tighten. He was just a little boy, even though he often seemed older because of his self-appointed role as the man of the family since her ex had left them.
She draped her arm over his shoulder, expecting him to duck out of her loose embrace, and her heart warmed when he didn’t. “You and Ari need to get ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s. They’ll be here soon to pick you guys up for the pizza movie night at church. Is Ian going?”
“Yeah.” Brendon shrugged away. “His parents would probably let him get a dirt bike.”
Back to that. Becca was pretty certain her son’s best friend’s parents would no more buy Ian a dirt bike than she’d let Brendon have one. “Go on and get your sleepover stuff ready. I’ll be right in with Ari.”
Brendon stomped off.
“Ari, we need to pack your things for Grandma’s.”
“Okay, Mom.” She jumped off the swing and skipped up the stairs to the deck.
A few minutes later, Becca watched her former in-laws and her kids drive away. Fortunately, they’d been running late, so she hadn’t had to talk with them much beyond finding out when they’d be bringing the kids back tomorrow. She walked to the kitchen, poured a glass of ice tea and took a carton of yogurt from the refrigerator before going back out onto the deck. Brendon had left his magazine on the umbrella table. She sat on the matching chair and leafed through the magazine to a page with a picture of Jared standing beside a racing bike with his helmet tucked under his arm. His hair was tousled as if he’d just taken off the helmet, and he oozed masculine bravado. In the accompanying article, Jared talked about starting a motocross school for kids, particularly underprivileged and fatherless kids.
She closed the publication and placed it on the table. Brendon wasn’t underprivileged, but she often felt he was growing up fatherless. She’d taken her wedding vows seriously. Tried and prayed so hard to keep her marriage together, and, despite knowing better, couldn’t shake the final remnants of failure that she hadn’t been able to. As if to block out the pain, her mind went to Ari and Brendon sitting on either side of Jared on his grandmother’s couch looking at Ari’s storybook. A perfect family picture. Something beyond her reach. Obviously, she wasn’t cut out for marriage if she couldn’t make a go of it with someone she’d grown up with and had known as well as Matt. Or thought she’d known.
The picture of Jared with her kids popped back into her head. She had no idea why her mind was flitting from him to marriage and back to him. Regardless of what he’d said at his grandmother’s about getting used to Adirondack winters again, she couldn’t imagine he was back to stay. What attraction, besides his family, could Paradox Lake hold for someone who’d traveled all around the world?
Becca pushed Jared and her failed marriage out of her head. Looking past her yard beyond her property to the meadow and woods that Bert Miller had owned, she wondered what would become of the acreage. Her ex-mother-in-law had been sure Bert would leave it to her, his only relative. But that didn’t seem to be the case. She placed her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her entwined fingers. Last year, she and the two other families on Conifer Road had heard Bert was considering selling it to a resort syndicate that was vying for one of the gambling casino licenses New York State had up for grabs at the time. They’d banded together in an informal homeowners association, ready to oppose that project or any other undesirable one that might endanger the quality of life they wanted for their families.
She hoped it wouldn’t come to anything like that. Recently, hanging on to her property had become enough of a fight for her. She didn’t need another one. Raising two kids and paying the mortgage on the dream house she and her ex-husband had built was tough on a teacher’s salary, especially a teacher’s salary at a small school such as Schroon Lake. She nudged a stone under the table with her toe. Getting the job she’d applied for running The Kids’ Place at church for the summer would really help. Disappointment welled inside her. She’d thought she would have heard back by now. The only other jobs available were in the tourist trade and wouldn’t pay enough for her to make any money once she’d paid for day care. Unless she asked her ex-mother-in-law to watch them, which she wasn’t about to do. Ari and Brendon could come with her to The Kids’ Place. She kicked the stone and watched it arch up and hit the deck rail before landing on the grass several feet away.
She rose to go inside. Why did she always have to second-guess herself and overthink everything? Why couldn’t she simply accept God’s plan for her? Her mind flashed back once more to Jared reading to her kids and she halted midstep. That couldn’t possibly be what He had in mind for her.
Chapter Two
The summer breeze ruffled Becca’s hair. She pushed a stray strand behind her ear and adjusted her seat on a boulder left courtesy of the advance or retreat of a prehistoric glacier. Science had never been her subject. A motion to her left caught her attention. Someone, a man, was walking toward her. She tensed. There was no place for her to go. This wasn’t even her property. She looked at her house in the distance on the other side of the meadow.
“Becca?” The figure called.
She shielded her eyes from the late-morning sun. Jared. His smooth, cocky gait was a dead giveaway if she hadn’t recognized his voice. “Hi,” she called back with a wave.
“What brings you out here?” he asked when he reached her.
“I could ask you the same.” She smiled. “I often walk the meadow. That’s my house over there.” She pointed to the colonial on a rise framed by tall pines.
“And you’re sitting on my rock.” He grinned back.
“Your rock?”
“Yep, Bert Miller left me this property. So, we’re neighbors.”
“Oh.” She dropped her gaze. That sounded brilliant.
He looked around behind her. “No kids?”
“They stayed overnight with their grandparents, Matt’s parents, last night. Under our custody agreement, Matt’s supposed to have them every other weekend. But he’s in Connecticut and works a lot of weekends. Ken and Debbie often take his time.” Too often. She clamped her hand over her mouth. Why was she running on about the Nortons again, making excuses for the kids’ father? Matt had made enough excuses before and after he’d left them. She didn’t need to make more for him.
Jared’s mouth tightened, then relaxed. “Nice day. I’d almost forgotten what mountain summers are like.”
“So, how long are you staying? Your grandmother’s really been looking forward to your visit.” She pushed away from the boulder and stood.
“Indefinitely. I guess Gram didn’t tell you I’m moving here.”
“Here?” She motioned toward the meadow. Jared Donnelly was going to be her neighbor? Brendon would be thrilled. Her heart tripped as if to deny her first thought that having Jared so close wouldn’t be a good idea.
“Not right here. I have other plans for this property. For now, I’m staying with Connor.”
The guarded look in his eyes stopped her from asking about his plans. She checked her watch. “I’d better get back to the house. The Nortons will be bringing the kids home soon.” And if I’m not there, it’ll be one more strike against me in their virtual book of reasons I’m not a good mother.
“I’ll walk back with you. I’ve seen all I need to see, and I’m going that direction anyway. I parked my bike in the gravel pull-in up the road from your house.”
“That would be a pretty spot to build a house.” What was with her? One minute she was concerned about Jared owning the property adjacent to hers. The next she sounded as if she was encouraging him to build a house there.
“True.” He fell into step with her.
After a few yards of uncomfortable silence, she asked. “Have you really retired from motocross? That’s what Brendon’s magazine said.”
“You read the feature about me.”
“Some of it,” she admitted. He grinned and her stomach fluttered. She should have had more for breakfast than toast and coffee.
“Yep, at thirty-three I’m the old man of the circuit, and I thought it was best to go out while I’m still at the top. If you asked some of my rivals, they’d say about time. Mom and Gram say past time.”
Becca nodded. “I know how worried your grandmother was about you when you had that accident last year.”
He shrugged. “Part of the business. It wasn’t that bad. I’d had worse. But I’m ready to move on and give some of the younger guys a shot at the winner’s circle.”
From someone else, Jared’s words would have sounded boastful. And she knew about boastful from being married to Matt Norton. But from Jared they sounded matter-of-fact.
“It’s going to be quite a change for you, going from the life of a national motocross champion to living back here in Paradox Lake.”
“Not so much as you might think. The circuit isn’t all glitter and parties like the magazines make it look. I will miss the rush of crossing the finish line. But I have something in mind to do that could be even more satisfying. I’d like to—”
“Oh, no!” Becca interrupted him as they crested the rise.
He stopped.
“Sorry,” she said. “That’s the Nortons’ car.” Her heart pounded as she pointed toward the highway. “I’ve got to be at the house before they are.”
She had enough stress in her life with her car on its last legs and no summer job in sight. She didn’t need the Nortons complaining about her not being there for the kids to anyone who would listen and talking Matt into taking her to Family Court again for more visitation time—at the expense of less child support. Time the kids most likely would end up spending with their grandparents, not their father. Thankfully, she’d put on her athletic shoes this morning rather than a pair of sandals.
She took off with Jared easily keeping up with her. They reached Becca’s backyard before the Nortons pulled into her driveway. She bent over to catch her breath. When she straightened, Jared was pressing buttons on his cell phone.
“Forty-five seconds flat,” he said.
Despite her agitation, she laughed. “You did not time me.”
“No, but you worked up some speed there. I don’t remember you running track.”
She shook the tingle from her hands. Jared remembered what sports she’d played in high school. “I didn’t take up running until I had Brendon and Ari.” And ex-in-laws who seem to keep tabs on my every move when the kids are involved.
“I’m sure the two of them keep you hopping, and I don’t just mean physically.”
“You’re right there. Keeping ahead of them mentally is as much of a race as chasing them around when they were toddlers.”
The Nortons’ car pulled into the driveway as she and Jared rounded the corner of the house. The Sheriff—she always thought of her ex-father-in-law that way, rather than by his first name—threw open his door and got out. His wife, Debbie, took her time, turning to say something to Brendon and Ari in the backseat before stepping out and opening their door.
“Mommy!” Ari propelled herself out of the car. “We saw The Lego Movie last night and had popcorn and soda and everything.”
“I thought we might see you there,” Debbie said with obvious disapproval. “Emily Stacey and her brother, Neal, brought their families.”
She would not let her ex-mother-in-law make her feel guilty for having an evening to herself. “I didn’t want to intrude on your time with the kids,” Becca said, very aware of Jared standing behind her.
“Jared, Mom didn’t say you were going to come over today.” The boy looked around. “Did you ride your bike? Remember, you said you’d take me for a ride if it was okay with Mom.”
Becca closed her eyes. Not the thing to say. The spillover from the annual Americade motorcycle rally in Lake George had not endeared bikers to the Sheriff. That he’d bought Brendon the motocross magazine only attested to her son’s power of persuasion.
“Grandpa.” Brendon grabbed the older man’s hand and pulled him toward her and Jared. “This is Jared, the guy in my magazine. I told you he was at Mrs. Stowe’s.”
Ken Norton glared at Jared. “Donnelly, I heard you were back.”
Tension radiated from Jared.
“Sheriff.”
“Interesting to run into you here at my daughter-in-law’s this morning.” Ken looked from Jared to her and back. “Where’s your vehicle? Hidden out back so the neighbors can’t see it?”
Becca gasped. She couldn’t believe Ken would think such a thing, let alone say it. She sensed, rather than saw, Jared move to her defense and shook her head.
Dear Lord, she prayed silently. Please help me. I don’t have the fortitude for this.
* * *
It took every ounce of strength Jared had not to punch the smirk off Sheriff Norton’s face. The jerk. Jared didn’t know what had gone on between Becca and Matt Norton beyond hearing that Matt had left Becca for another woman. Nor did he know what kind of woman Becca was now, except that his grandmother thought highly of her. None of it was his business. But he wasn’t going to stand here and let the man insult Becca like that in front of her children, even if they were too young to get their grandfather’s implied meaning.
Jared fisted and unfisted his hands—twice. “My motorcycle is up the road in the pull-in.” He ground out each word. “I drove over this morning to walk my new property.”
“You didn’t come to read me another story?” Ari asked. “You said yesterday that you would sometime.”
“No, sweetie,” Becca said. “Mr. Donnelly didn’t come to read to you today.”
Jared admired how calm and collected Becca was. He smiled down at the little girl. “But I will another time. I promise.”
The Nortons exchanged a glance.
Let them think what they liked. Jared stepped forward and positioned himself to one side of Becca, between her and the Nortons. As long as their evil thoughts didn’t go beyond the two of them.
“Brendon, take Ari in, and you two put away your overnight things. Yesterday’s clothes can go in the clothes hamper. I’ll be in in a minute.”
“Jared, too?” Brendon looked at him expectantly.
“No, Mr. Donnelly won’t be coming in.”
Becca’s tone brooked no argument from Brendon or him. But Becca wasn’t the person he itched to argue with.
“When you finish, you can each have one of the brownies I made this morning. They’re on the counter.” She softened her tone.
“That may not be a good idea,” their grandmother said. “I made them chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast. You don’t want them to have too much sugar.”
To Jared, it sounded as though that ship had already sailed.
The kids looked from their grandmother to their mother.
“It’s okay,” Becca said. “You can have a brownie. But only one each.”
Debbie Norton pasted a smile over the frown that creased her face and held out her arms. “Give Grandma a kiss goodbye.”
The kids took their time walking over to her. They each pecked her cheek.
“Come on, Ari,” Brendon said. “Let’s go get our brownie.”
“Clothes first,” Becca reminded them.
“Yeah, clothes first. Bye, Jared.”
“Bye,” his sister echoed.
“See you guys.”
Brendon stopped. “Tomorrow? Maybe you could give me a bike ride?”
“And read me another story,” Ari said. “You could come to Sunday school tomorrow and read the story. I’m sure Mrs. Stacey wouldn’t mind.”
Jared pictured himself surrounded by a class of five-year-olds with only his former classmate Emily “Jinx” Hazard Stacey as his backup defense and suppressed a shudder.
“Inside,” Becca said, rescuing him from the thought.
“Okay! Come on Ari,” Brendon said. The two trooped off to the house.
Once they were out of hearing range, Jared faced Sheriff Norton and waited for Becca to say something about his insinuations. She didn’t. Jared looked from the Sheriff to her, and she dropped her gaze.
“So, Donnelly,” the Sheriff said before Jared could mentally fit together even one piece of the puzzle that was Becca. “I take it Bert carried through with his foolish idea of penance.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Becca put an extra step between them, the icy edge of his reply seeming to have caught her more than his intended target.
The Sheriff transferred his glare from Jared to her. “Shouldn’t you be in the house with the kids?”
“No, I’m sure they’re fine.”
Jared raised his head to the sky. Now Becca decided to stand her ground, over his business, rather than standing up for herself.
Ken dismissed her with a shake of his head and drilled his gaze into Jared’s. “Bert ignored his family and went ahead and left you this property. I suppose he gave your brothers something, too.”
“Yes, he gave me the acreage here. You’ll have to check the county records for any other information you feel you need to know.”
Ken pursed his lips. “Hope you guys enjoy your blood money.” He jerked his head toward his car and his wife started walking toward it.
She stopped at the door and turned to Becca. “See you at church tomorrow.” She climbed in the car and her husband gunned the engine and roared out of the driveway.
“She almost makes me want to skip service,” Becca said. “But your brother gives some of the most thought-provoking sermons. I’d hate to miss one just to spite them.”
Becca’s enthusiasm for his brother brought back a little of the sting he’d felt yesterday when his grandmother’s words had made him think Connor was interested in Becca. He shook it off. “I wouldn’t waste perfectly good spite on Sheriff Norton. What’s with him anyway?”
Becca hesitated. “I...we...you mean, about the land.”
“Yeah.” As much as he’d wanted to light into Ken for what he’d said to Becca, he had no desire to get involved in whatever was between her and her ex-in-laws.
“Debbie is, was, Bert’s cousin, his only living relative. From what she said to me when he was first diagnosed, she’d expected to inherit everything. She and Ken were looking at it as a nice addition to their retirement assets.”
She shivered in the warm breeze and he checked himself from putting his arm around her shoulder.
“Debbie made a big show of going to visit him when he went into hospice. I don’t know that she talked to him three times a year before that.”
“She didn’t get his house, either.”
“Pardon?”
“Bert didn’t leave her his house either. He left that to one of the county home health aides he particularly liked. She told us at the reading of the will that when she told Bert her rent had gone up and she was going to have to move, he’d said he’d leave her his house. She never dreamed he’d been serious. Everything else went to the hospice organization and us.”
She touched her fingertip to her lips. “Strange. I had no idea you were close to him.”
“We weren’t. I worked for him some when I was a teenager.”
“Not to pry, but I’m curious about what Ken meant about blood money.”
“You caught that, too. I don’t know.”
“As a friend—” Jared was so focused on Becca considering him a friend that he almost missed the rest “—let me tell you that you don’t want to do anything to make an enemy out of Sheriff Norton, or Debbie, for that matter.”
Too late for that. It appeared he’d already made it back on the Sheriff’s enemy list without even trying. He looked at her solemn face. From her warning, at least Becca seemed to be on his side.
* * *
Jared hung up from the call with his financial adviser and dropped his cell phone next to him on the futon. Things were coming together. The contingent financing approval he’d applied for before returning to Paradox Lake had gone through. He glanced around the spare room Connor was letting him use. A basic twentysomething male room, from the garage-sale dresser to the footlocker at the end of the futon. Grandpa Donnelly’s antique polished-wood rolltop desk stuck out like a bicycle in a motocross race. Because Jared had loved the desk as a kid, loved rolling it shut and open, Grandma Donnelly had given it to him for his twentieth birthday and first major motocross win. He’d retrieved it from Gram’s the day after he’d run into Becca and the Nortons.
He locked his fingers behind his head and leaned back into the lumpy cushions. He should start thinking about a permanent residence. Permanent. He liked the sound of that. Becca was right that the land fronting the road by the pull-in would make a nice house lot. But after nearly fifteen years on the circuit living, breathing, sleeping work, he wanted to put some space between his home and his work. Not that he’d mind having Becca as a neighbor. He crossed his legs at his ankles and jiggled his foot. He hoped she and the other two residents of Conifer Road wouldn’t mind having him building his track and racing school there. Jared was expecting some opposition, but he was prepared.
“Hey, big brother.” Connor appeared in the doorway. “I figured I’d find you here goofing off.”
“This from a man who works for an hour one day a week?”
“Right.”
Jared swung off the futon. “What’s up?”
“I’m going for a swim down at the Camp Sonrise beach, one of the perks of having the Hazard family as parishioners. Want to come?”
“Sure. Give me a minute to change.”
“I’ll be out front.”
Jared bounded down the steps two minutes later. “We can take my bike.”
“No, let’s jog down to the lake. I need as much physical activity as possible to work off my morning.”
Jared studied his brother. “You had office hours this morning. Bad news?”
Connor waved him off. “No. The toddler room teacher at The Kids’ Place called in sick. Becca had trouble finding a substitute.”
“I take that to mean you hired Becca.” That would explain why he hadn’t seen her car in her driveway either of the times he’d been back over to his property.
“Yeah. Didn’t I tell you?” Connor picked up his pace. “Becca had me cover with the teacher’s aide until she could find someone else.”
“Gram said something about your dragging your feet about hiring her.”
“Hey, it wasn’t me. It was the day-care board.”