“Hello?” Her voice was scratchy, like she’d been sleeping.
“Did I wake you?”
“Jack?”
“Yeah. Is it okay to call?”
“Umm, I guess. What do you want?”
“I, ah… I needed… Ty was traded.”
“Oh, no. Where?”
“To Long Island.”
“Isn’t his whole family in Connecticut? That’s good, right?”
“His mom drives him nuts.”
“Okay, so maybe it’s not good.” Jack didn’t laugh, even though she was trying to be cute. She grew quiet and then asked, “Are you alright?”
“I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh, Jack.” Hearing the sadness in her voice, knowing he shouldn’t have called, made him feel a little sick.
“I wish it could be different.”
“Me too. Are you worried you’ll be traded?”
“It’s always something I think about, but I should be fine.”
“That’s good.”
He could hear the strain in her voice, and Jack knew this had been a mistake. “I should go. I’m sorry I woke you.”
“Okay,” she said.
He heard her take a deep breath and then it hitched a little. She was crying. He was such an ass.
He was about to say good-bye when he heard another deep breath on her end. “Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“Please don’t call me again.”
Damn, she was tough. “Okay,” he whispered.
“It’s too hard.”
“I know. I needed to talk to someone…”
“You have to find someone else to call. I know it’s all my fault, but I can’t do this.” She sniffled. “It hurts.”
He paused, not knowing what else to say. Should he tell her he loved her? That he missed her? “Laura?” He didn’t say either, because she was gone.
There was no good-bye, no hysteria, the call just ended. Jack stared at his phone, and for a minute he found himself wishing he could trade places with Ty.
Chapter 29
‡
Kate couldn’t remember feeling this displaced in a very long time. Even when Richard left, she still had the things familiar to her. Her home, her job. Her job.
She’d been teaching English at St. Andrew’s for fifteen years. She’d been in the same classroom in Larchmont Hall for the last thirteen years. She was the advisor to the literary magazine and the newspaper. But not anymore.
She’d just been fired.
She was about to leave for the day. She’d planned on going home, taking a shower, and watching David’s game, when she’d been called to the conference room and informed she was being dismissed. No notice, no request for a resignation, just goodbye.
The President of Board of Trustees rambled on about moral turpitude and the school’s high standards, and how a woman like her, with questionable morals and a life that bordered on scandalous, couldn’t be allowed to continue shaping the young minds on the St. Andrew’s campus any longer. They’d tried to be understanding about her writing career and her divorce, but her latest escapade with the athlete was the last straw.
The athlete.
Sitting at the desk in her classroom, she looked around. It didn’t seem real. Kate heard footsteps racing down the hallway and her instincts were right on when Julie appeared in the doorway.
“I just heard. Are they fucking crazy?”
“They don’t think so.” Kate walked to the closet and pulled out two shopping bags and a box from the shelf. “I’m a corrupting influence on the students here.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Julie paced around the room and watched as Kate started to put things into the bags. “What are you doing?”
“Packing. I’ve been asked to leave the premises by the end of the day.”
“Kate, you can’t just fold, you have to fight this.”
“With whom? Julie, I was booted by the Board of Trustees. There’s no one to appeal to.”
“But why? Is it your writing? What?”
“It’s because I’m with David.”
“What? I don’t…” Just then, Julie understood. “Oh, God. This wouldn’t have to do with a certain trustee named John Connor?”
Kate nodded. “Actually, I don’t think he had anything to do with it. But what happened with Chelsea was the last straw for me.”
“I can’t believe it. She goes all batshit crazy, and you have to deal with the fallout?”
“They can’t fire her.” And as the reality of what had happened swamped her, Kate found she needed the wall for some support and leaned against it. “I’ve been here forever, Jules. What am I going to do?”
“Kate, you don’t need the job.”
“Need isn’t the issue. I like my job and I’m good at it. I like teaching and the kids. All my friends are here. When everything started to fall apart, this place gave me a reason to get up every day.”
Julie walked over and slid an arm around Kate’s shoulder. “Now you have David, and Laura. You have an amazing career, and you’ll still have your friends.”
Kate looked at Julie and had to smile. “I’ll have you. Maybe one or two others will keep in touch. I mean, I knew I wouldn’t stay forever. But I wasn’t ready yet.”
“It won’t be the same here without you.”
Kate pressed her fingers to her temples before getting back to her packing. She found another box, dumped the books it held onto a table, and started filling it with files of teaching materials she’d created over the years. She wasn’t about to leave all her hard work for someone else to use. After emptying the file cabinet, they took a break.
“Are you going to call David?”
“He’s in Atlanta. He’ll call before they fly out. I’ll tell him then if he isn’t too tired.”
Julie looked at the bags and the boxes that were being filled with fifteen years of hard work. “Do you need some help with all this stuff?”
“Yeah, that would be great. Do you want to have dinner with Laura and me? I started some soup in the crockpot before I left this morning. We’re going to eat and watch the game later.”
“If you promise to tell me all the Richard and Marie gossip.”
“I promise, but be prepared. It’s a long and strange story.”
“I like long and strange. I feel like I’ve been out of the loop since I took that trip with my sister and then went right to that conference.”
Kate turned and stopped what she was doing. John Connor stood in her doorway, looking uncomfortable. He hadn’t advocated for her dismissal, but his daughter was the catalyst. It was hard to look at him as she packed up fifteen years of her life.
“Dr. Connor,” Kate said. “Can I help you with something?”
“No, uh…” He stepped into the room. “I wanted to see how you were doing.”
She paused, fighting to maintain her dignity. “I’ve been better.”
Julie grabbed two bags and walked toward the door, snarling at him as she walked by. “I’ll put these in my car.” Kate nodded and Julie left.
John circled the room and stopped by a large framed photograph of F. Scott Fitzgerald. “I tried to stop them. They wouldn’t listen to me.”
She shrugged, pushing an annoying lock of hair behind her ear.
“The gossip mill got going. Once that happened, you became a liability,” he said quietly.
“A liability?”
“St. Andrew’s has a very serious and staid reputation. You know that. You’re a celebrity and now you have a celebrity boyfriend. It’s… unseemly… according to the president of the board.”
“But I didn’t do anything, John. My biggest ‘crime’, if you want to call it that, is that I’m dating a younger man. That’s my personal life, John. I’m allowed to have a life.”
“I know. I tried to talk some sense into them and so did the headmaster. They weren’t having it. They’re invoking the morality clause in your contract. I’m sorry.”