Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
Ky
“I don’t know what magic you worked with Adrian’s parents,” Holly says, waylaying me as I’m walking to my car the following week.
Colt is on the ice with the team today, not cleared fully for practice, but he’s at least able to play with his stick again.
Heh.
We’ve been doing plenty of playing with his stick and let me say it’s been fab-u-luss.
“—but they’ve stopped threatening the superintendent with legal action and they donated the lump sum for the staff’s salaries for the year.”
I’m both relieved…
And disgusted.
The Clarks don’t owe anyone a donation, least of all the organization that tried to actively fuck over their kid.
But I’m glad our library and counseling departments will be fully staffed for the school year.
So…a lovely little tangle of emotions.
“—now if we could just get them to follow through on the remainder of their monthly donations—”
I stop. “Seriously?”
“Excuse me?” Her eyes flash, the question cold enough to wound.
“Just stop,” I say and know she can pick up the disgust in my words.
“Excuse me?” she says again, even more frostily.
“Stop. We’ve squeaked by with this and you know it. The entire district could—and should—be held responsible.”
“I—”
“You asked me to talk to them. I did. You asked me to get the money. I did. But I will not be approaching them about anything other than Adrian’s classwork from this point on—”
“You can’t—”
“I can’t?” I ask archly. “Can’t?”
She glowers at me, but doesn’t comment further—for the moment, anyway.
“You know,” I say after a long moment of us glaring at each other. “I used to think you were my friend.”
“Likewise,” she mutters.
“This isn’t right and you know it.”
She opens her mouth.
“It isn’t right.”
Her teeth click together.
“I’m out. I’m out and if you push me on this, you’ll find that I’m very, very inclined to speak to the Clarks’ attorney and share my frustrations about how this entire situation has been handled.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would, and as much as I love teaching my students, I won’t continue to work like this.”
Leaving them would be brutal…
But I won’t stay here, not like this.
“You know you don’t have tenure,” she calls as I walk away.
“And you know that’s not why I do the job,” I call back.
“So that’s going well, is it, Teach?”
Gasping, I clamp my hand to my chest and glance over to see Colt leaning against his car, arms crossed, mouth flat and eyes annoyed.
“I think I might have just put myself on the list to get pink-slipped, haven’t I?”
He closes the distance between us, touches me on the cheek. “You want the truth or for me to sugar coat it?”
“Both.” I unlock my car, toss my bag inside.
“It’ll all work out.”
Turning, I glare at him.
He tugs at a strand of my hair, eyes dancing. “You said you wanted both.”
“Okay, give me the non-unicorn and rainbows version.”
“That conversation certainly didn’t sound good.” His mouth quirks. “Though I enjoyed the part when you told her you’d sue her.”
“I didn’t say that.”
A shrug. “Close enough.”
Sighing, I drop my head against his chest. “I don’t understand her.”
“I don’t see how you would.”
The wind picks up and even though I’m pressed to him, his strong arms around me, I still shiver.
“Let’s get you home,” he says, dropping his arms and tugging open my driver’s side door. “You’re cold.”
I nod. “Yeah, I am.”
But most of that cold isn’t from the actual temperature.
It’s from the knowledge that, sometimes, as good as you want people to be…
They’ll inevitably disappoint you.
I open the door to the delicious smell of my potato soup.
It’s been cooking in the crock pot all day and the loaf of bread I snagged from the grocery store on the way home is still warm.
The only downside?
I’ll be eating dinner for one.
I’ve had almost six weeks of Colt mostly to myself and now that he’s back on the road with the team our time together is drastically decreased.
But Damon is my brother, was my only family for many years—and quite a few of those were with him playing professional hockey or working for a hockey team or now, being the head honcho when it comes to managing a different hockey team.
I’m self-sufficient.
I’m good at filling my time.
But I miss Colt.
My phone buzzes as I walk into the kitchen, and I push away the tension between Holly and me that hasn’t eased over the last few weeks, ignore the tiny hole in my heart that comes from Colt being on the road, and pretend that my apartment still feels like home even though it’s Colt’s place that I’m most comfortable in nowadays.
I set down the bread then dig out my phone as I move to my bedroom.
Jammies. Soup and carbs. Wine…and hockey.
Because my reality TV watch time has decreased severely in the face of watching my favorite hockey forward.
If the old me could see me now.
Smiling, I swipe onto the text and my mouth curves further when I see who’s messaged.
Blake: All the pieces are in place.
Kylie: How’d your mom take it?
Blake: There were threats. There was drama. But the tickets are booked and the plan’s a go.
Kylie: You’re a rock star!
Blake: Nah. I’m just a genius.
I giggle as I tug on my pajamas.
Kylie: How humble of you.
Blake:
Blake: A-man and I defeated some evil dragons today.
Kylie: So that’s why he didn’t do his homework.
Blake: I would never lead the children astray.
Kylie: Just adults?
Blake: Rude.
Kylie: Yup. Little sister energy meet little brother energy.
Blake:
Blake: You going to watch the game tonight?
Kylie: I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Blake: I knew there was a reason I liked you.
Kylie: Because I love your brother?
Blake: That…and because you actually see him when he’s spent too much of his life living in the shadows of my health shit.
My heart squeezes.
Kylie: I don’t think he ever resented it.
Blake: How could he not?
Now my heart does more than squeeze.
It hurts for these men who both went through so much—and whose parents failed them in spectacularly different ways.
Different, but still damaging.
And while I’m beginning to know Blake in all the ways that matter, I don’t understand him like I understand Colt.
Though I know enough to write—
Kylie: Because he loves you. And because he knows it wasn’t like you were taking joyrides to the hospital and talking the nurses out of their panties.
My inclination to get all sappy on him has to be tempered by humor.
There’s a long pause.
Blake: How do you know I don’t have a collection of panties tacked to my wall?
Kylie: Because you have posters of your brother in their place.
Another pause.
Blake: Kylie?
Kylie: Yeah?
Blake: I don’t just like you.
Kylie: I know—and for the record, I love you too.
Blake: Damn. And here I was going to say I abhor you.