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As Jeff stiffened in his chair, Janet gave her attention to Zach. “You’re not going to hurt my feelings, kiddo. What is it?”
“Well … I just want to mention that I’m not in elementary anymore. You can bring me lunch and drop it off, but you know, I’d rather you not stay and sit in the cafeteria with me. I’m too old for that.”
Oh, wow. Yeah, it was a good thing he explained that or Janet might have embarrassed him without trying. “Of course not! No, I get it. You’re in junior high—I have no intention of embarrassing you in front of your friends.” When he looked relieved, she added, “And you didn’t hurt my feelings.”
He gave her a sheepish look of thanks and turned his attention back to his meal.
****
The next morning after the school bus left, Jeff told her to get ready to go to town. When she merely looked at him in question, he said, “We’re going to the school.”
She made no reply because she could tell that there would be no arguing with him. An hour later, they were standing in the school office. Jeff leaned on the counter, practically swamping the space as Janet stood to the side with Hannah on her hip.
He had that aggrieved look on his face that said someone had better not piss him off, and she bit her tongue, letting him handle the problem his way—after all, Zach was his son.
When the same woman walked from the back office and saw them, Janet was secretly pleased to see a red stain of mortification cross her face.
If the woman hadn’t wanted Jeffrey McIntyre to show up with pissed impatience and about to detonate, then she probably shouldn’t have been such a bitch to his wife.
****
Jeff really didn’t like having to throw his weight around. But if Susan Nelson thought that she was going to treat his wife like an outsider with no repercussions, she thought wrong. And why, exactly? It wasn’t as if she were one of the women who’d chased him after Zach’s mother had died. He’d had very little interaction with the woman. He didn’t plan on embarrassing her if he could help it, but he would take care of the problem his wife had had the previous day.
As she walked forward to greet them, he had the piece of paper she’d given to Janet the day before, signed and ready to go. He handed it over with the same two forms of identification that Janet had previously tried to get her to take. “These will work for a while, won’t they?”
“I don’t know,” the woman prevaricated as she slowly unfolded the sheet of paper with his signature on it.
As she glanced over it, he eyed the state-of-the-art computer system and television monitors dotted around the office, equipment that his large donations were probably at least partly responsible for. “School’s still getting my check every month, right?” He knew they were getting his money; it came out of his account like clockwork every month.
“I’m not sure,” she mumbled, shifting her feet.
“How’s Ted doing?” he asked, referring to the new superintendent of the school, a man he’d known since grade school.
“He’s fine.”
“Good, good. So, look. Here’s the deal. I want my wife on whatever lists she needs to be on, okay? I want her to be able to visit our son whenever she wants and I for sure want her to be able to pick him up if he’s sick or something like that. She needs to have the same access to him as I do, now that she’s my wife. So, whatever I need to sign to make that happen, then let’s do it now. Unless you have a problem with that? I can talk to Ted if you’d like.”
“No, I’m sure it won’t be a problem, Mr. McIntyre.”
“Well, good. Let’s get the ball rolling, okay?”
Five minutes later, they walked from the building, Janet holding onto his hand and giving him such a huge smile that it twisted his insides into pure mush.
****
Janet walked beside Jeff through the parking lot, happiness exploding in her heart. When he stalled and held out his hands for Hannah, for no apparent reason other than he wanted to carry her, Janet’s heart twisted crazily.
As she climbed into the truck while Jeff buckled Hannah in the car seat, her heart only pounded more forcefully. Why it was beating so hard, she didn’t exactly understand. Even though Jeff’s reason for visiting the school had been to ensure that she could be there for Zach if he needed her, she knew that it was so much more than that.
Jeff wasn’t protecting his son, he was protecting her. He was willing to take the school on for her benefit, to make sure no one was mistreating her. Even though she knew that the haters were going to hate no matter what, it didn’t change the fact that Jeff had jumped to her defense the very second the matter had been brought to his attention.
And even though she knew it probably wouldn’t help her in the long run, he thought it would solve her problems and that’s all that really mattered.
The town could hate her all it wanted. She didn’t care. She was a grown woman and sticks and stones and all that bullshit.
What really mattered was Jeff and the fact that he’d jumped to her defense.
Her tummy got squishy just thinking about it. Needing nothing more than to touch him in that moment, she reached over and softly squeezed his right hand.
He responded by entwining her fingers through his, rubbing his thumb over her palm and giving her a searching look that seemed to make sure she was okay.
Well, yeah. She was more than okay. Even though she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, it was damn nice to have a man who wanted to do it for her. Because really, she wanted to take care of him, too.
She looked at him and smiled while she waited for her heart rate to go down—something that took a lot longer than normal for some crazy reason.
****
A few weeks later, Jeff was taking his dirty boots off in the mudroom when he heard footsteps come from the living room into the kitchen—and then another set following the first.
And then he heard his son’s voice complaining, “I don’t know what the hell she wants from me. She asked a question, I gave her an answer—the correct one, by the way, but she shook her head and said I wasn’t ‘getting it.’”
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry,” he heard Janet soothe while simultaneously hearing a cabinet door open and close. “You know how to play the game, right?” she asked his boy.
“What game?” Zach questioned in a confused tone.
“Listen,” his wife said as he heard what sounded like cutlery being placed on the table. “Let me give you a little life lesson, okay?” Jeff was just about to walk into the kitchen and make his presence known when Janet’s words stopped him, his curiosity roused.
“Okay,” his son agreed somewhat cautiously. Jeff could almost see Zach in his mind’s eye raising his eyebrow, crossing one foot over the other as he leaned back to listen to Janet.
“In life, you’re going to run into all sorts of people.” Janet stopped talking for a moment and Jeff figured she was watching his son with that penetrating look of hers. He really shouldn’t be listening to this. Eavesdropping was never a good thing. But when she continued, his attention was caught again. “Honey, surely you’ve figured out that everyone isn’t as smart as you?”
His son made no reply for a moment but finally asked, “Yeah, so?”
“Well, it means that you have to be patient—especially when the other person is in a position of authority over you. It’s a game you have to play. School can be hard on different people in different ways.”
“Yeah, I know that,” Zach said.
“Well, be thankful your only problem is that your level of intelligence makes you question everyone around you. It could be worse—trust me on that.”
“So, what’s the damn game?” As his son asked that question with that word in that tone of voice, Jeff winced.
There was a moment of silence and there was no question that Janet probably hadn’t cared for the word either. Jeff knew that Hannah was probably in her high chair as she usually was at this time of the evening and there was no
doubt that Janet probably wasn’t thrilled with his kid at this moment in time. He really needed to show himself. But then she continued, “To a certain extent, instead of fighting everyone, give them what they want and move on.”
“Even though I know I’m right?” Zach exclaimed.
“Your teacher thinks she’s right, doesn’t she? Can you change that? Can’t you just go with the flow, give her the kind of essay she wants from you and get the A you deserve? What would be wrong with that?”
“She’d be winning,” his boy argued.
“No, honey. You’d be winning. You’ve got your entire life to succeed in the manner you want—but first you need to prove that you can succeed in the classroom, under somebody else’s rules.”
“Well, that sucks shit.”
Ouch. Goddamnit. He really should have done something about Zach’s language before now—he actually heard Janet let out a pent-up breath. Hannah was going to grow up with a colorful vocabulary, no question about it. He was beginning to feel guilty for listening, so he moved just enough that he could see inside the room. If they saw him, fine. If not, he’d continue to listen for a bit.
