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“Well, her mom and I thought we’d get you two kids together. It seems like the perfect match, the reference librarian and the historian.”
“Why? So she can kick me when I ask for a historic document she thought I shouldn’t see?”
“Oh, honey, she’s an adult now, she wouldn’t kick you. Get over it.”
“I’ll pass on Sofie.”
Mrs. Cooper continued to protest. Kenn, though, was in no mood to humor his mother’s misplaced zeal.
“Mom, why do you continue to do this to me?” he asked, exasperated with his mother’s continuous attempts at finding him the right woman.
“Do what?”
“You know what. This.” He waved his hand, even though he knew his mother couldn’t see the motion.
“If you really want to know, I’ll tell you,” she said, “but you won’t like the answer.”
“Tell me, anyway,” he sighed.
“Honey, the last couple of women you chose really weren’t suited for you. Yes, they were beautiful, but they weren’t women you could make a lasting relationship with.” She paused, but for only a split second.
“Take that last one, for instance. What was her name, Shower, Breeze—”
“Rain. Her name was Rain.” He felt his muscles tighten.
“Now, really, what kind of name is that?”
“Mom, stop. I get the idea. I haven’t made good choices. But it’s my life and my mistakes.” He could tell by the silence at the other end that he had wounded his mother.
“Mom, I really didn’t have a good weekend. And I’m running late to class.”Okay, so that last part was a lie—she was in Boston, she didn’t know the term hadn’t started yet.
“You know I love you, Mom. I’ll try to make it home for at least a weekend soon. Bye.” He clicked down the receiver as quickly as he could.
Damn. She’s irritating as all hell. But the woman is right. My choices in women have been disastrous. And Rain. She left me for some old fogey on a motorcycle on the pretense of doing research for her sociological doctorate. Yeah, right.
So, what’s wrong with me, he thought.I finally find someone who I have something in common with and I push her away because of a difference of opinion on her taste in literature. Why would I do that? What kind of self-sabotaging jerk am I?
****
“But Deb, I’ve already said no. There’s no possible way I can teach right now.” JJ was in her home office struggling with a paragraph. Ever since the arrival of her characters, she found it difficult to work on their book. Especially when they would sit on the loveseat across from her, like they were at the moment.
“I’m working on this novel and it’s just not moving forward as quickly as I had planned.”And then there’s the issue of that idiot of a professor you have in the department. And I have two unexpected characters staying with me. But let’s not go there.
“You cannot tell me that there is no other person who can teach this term.” She rubbed the back of her neck.
“Two classes. That’s all you have to teach. A few hours out of a day. The rest of the day is yours. The chair’s desperate. He’s depending on you to say yes.” Deb paused. “And you know, he was there for you when you needed an ally in the department.”
“Dammit, don’t remind me. That’s just not fair of you to bring that up.” Deb didn’t reply. The silence hung in the air.
Inhaling deeply and audibly exhaling, she recognized when she was beaten. “All right. What times are the classes?”
She shook her head in disbelief as she wrote the class times down. Hanging up the phone, she worried what she had gotten herself into. “Dammit.”
What Deb said was true. She knew she owed Dr. Chare. He was one of the few in the department who believed she could research and write to academic standards on conspiracy theories. He had given her every advantage possible. But more than that he had fought hard and persuaded the others on her panel to accept the final dissertation. It was because of him she had her doctorate.
He had been a second father to her through that entire process. Not only was he a staunch defender of her abilities, he also displayed a sincere interest in her as a person. How many times did they talk when she thought the pressures were trapping her in an emotional cage? He knew how to put the situation, whatever it was, in perspective. That encouragement allowed her to refocus her efforts on the important work of research and writing.
If it weren’t for the chair, she knew that she would not be where she was today. Yeah, she decided that facing the possibility of running into Cooper was worth the price of helping him. It was the least she could do.
