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She just sat staring at Beau.
“I’m sorry, Bec.”
She focused on Toby. “It’s okay. I understand why everyone wants me to talk to him.”
“It’s just that—”
Beau cleared his throat.
Toby sighed. “I know you get it,” he said to Becca. “I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” Becca replied.
Toby looked back and forth between Beau and Becca, then asked her, “You okay?”
She looked at Beau. He didn’t say anything. But she nodded after a second. “Yeah. I’m good.”
“Okay. Then…I’ll leave you guys to…this.” It was as if something had just occurred to Toby. He started backing away. “Sorry to interrupt. You two go back to…whatever.”
Beau sighed as Toby turned and headed back for his table with Sam and Landon.
“Of course, Toby and Sam know all about the trophy and matchmaking competition, right?” he asked Becca.
She finally smiled. “I don’t know how they could miss it.”
“Well, I’ll take consolation in the fact that he’s probably going to get scolded by someone for interrupting our ‘date’ that way,” Beau said.
Becca laughed and the tightness in Beau’s chest eased a little. “You’re probably right.”
Beau took a breath. He wanted to let this all go, but he couldn’t just yet. “They’re all expecting you to talk your dad into…what? Funding the art program somehow?”
As expected, her smile faded. “I’m not sure exactly. Dad was…less than receptive to all of us crowding into his office after we found out about the money. He really only listened for about five minutes before telling us we had to leave and could schedule meetings with him or come to the next board meeting. But he also commented about how the elementary teachers needed to take their issues up withtheirprincipal. Which is ridiculous, of course, since it’s not an elementary school issue, but…I guess that was kind of his point.”
“That you shouldn’t all have an opinion about this?” Beau asked with a frown. “That’s kind of bullshit though.”
“I know.” She sighed. “So they said, “well, you can talk to him about it at home.” I guess that’s what they want me to relay? That we all care about everything having to do with making Autre’s school great for all the kids. He shouldlikethat.”
She was frowning and Beau finally gave into the urge he’d been fighting and reached out and took her hand on top of the table, giving her fingers a squeeze.
She squeezed back.
“You know he won’t listen to me,” she said softly.
“You don’t know that. You’re a teacher in the school now. Your input matters.”
“He can’t play favorites.” She lifted a shoulder. “You know how he is. He was alwaysharderon me. I got detention twice in high school. Just twice. You know what a good kid I was.”
Beau laughed. Calling Becca Bollier a “good kid” was an understatement. “Yeah.”
“Both of those detentions werefrommy dad. One was because he caught me in the hallway without a pass. That was something that he’d let a dozen other kids get by with just a warning. But, with me, because it was school policy, he had to write me up. He said he could never let me get by with something, or people would scream favoritism. You remember Mrs. Johnson, the science teacher?”
Beau nodded.
“She was so hard on me. It was like she would always push just to see if Dad would ever come to my defense.”
“And he never did?”
“Never. Even when she was blatantly unfair. My mom went to those parent-teacher conferences. Dad would never intervene.”
