“Tattoos.”
“A few.” He touched his forearm. “There’s one here.” Then he touched his chest. “One here.”
I started to ask what they were, but the way he spoke, especially when he touched his chest, left the impression that they were kind of personal and he really didn’t want to talk about them.
“We don’t get many teachers out here with tattoos.”
“I got that impression on the first day of school when I took off my jacket and half the class gasped and the other half stood up to get a better look.”
I smiled. I could imagine.
“This town is pretty tight. People are friendly, but they don’t let you in easily.”
“We don’t get a lot of outsiders around her.”
“Do you like living in such a small town?”
I shrugged. “It has its pros and cons, just like any other place.”
“You’ve lived here all your life?”
“No. We moved here when I was thirteen. Just in time to start junior high.”
“Must have been tough.”
“I hated it,” I admitted. “It took forever to make friends and I struggled with the curriculum for a while.”
“But you settled in.”
“Eventually.”
“Would you have come back, if not for what happened?”
“No. I was happy in my life.” I looked out at the field, watched as JT high fived a couple of his teammates following a turn over. “I mean, I would have come back to visit. But I don’t think I would have lived here again.”
He nodded. I could almost see the wheels turning in his mind. I wondered if I’d said something I shouldn’t have. After all, this was the teacher who’d threaten to have my brother taken from our home. But he seemed—
The crowd erupted into loud cheers and stomping that vibrated the metal stands under my ass. I stood up, realizing a little too late that we’d just made a touchdown and it was JT holding the ball in the in zone. I shook the cowbell and screamed his name, forcing more enthusiasm into my voice than I felt. Someone behind me patted my shoulder as though it was as much my achievement as it was JT.
The extra point kick was good. The crowd cheered again, the band playing a triumphant melody, and then everyone settled back for the next set of downs.
A couple of teenagers wandered toward us, one of the girls waving with a deep blush on her cheeks at Mr. James.
“They seemed to really like you.”
He shrugged.
“They’ll all be talking about how you sat with me at the game. By Monday, they’ll have us engaged.”
He cocked an eyebrow as he glanced at me. “You think so?”
“Oh, sure. You have to be really careful who you spend time with at these public events.”
He started to say something, but then his cellphone rang. He tugged it out of his jeans pocket and I caught sight of a woman’s name—Libby—before he muttered, “I have to take this,” and wandered off.
He had a girlfriend.
Why wasn’t I surprised?
Chapter 4
Harrison
I left the stands and wandered toward a quiet spot at the back of the stadium as I answered the phone.
“Hey, Lib. What’s up?”
“Where are you? I can barely hear you.”
“Football game.”
“Oh? How’s JT doing?”
“Just scored a touchdown.”
“Awesome.”
I stood with my back to the fence, watching the game progress through a crowd of bored teenagers and parents with small children who refused to sit still. My thoughts, though, were on Penelope, that enigmatic beauty who seemed so vulnerable and so resilient all at the same time. She was clearly suspicious of me, the way she looked at me spoke of a fear that was very basic, very instinctual. But there was something else there…and the way she engaged in casual conversation spoke of a basic kindness and charm that was beginning to make me think that maybe I didn’t want to just snatch JT from her custody as coldly as I had planned. And that made me wonder what other options I might have.
“We have a little problem here,” Libby said, breaking into my thoughts. “That contract that was supposed to go so smoothly with the lumber people didn’t go quite as well as we had hoped.”
“What’s wrong?”
“They insist that we make changes. They don’t like some of the changes you made to the original contract.”
I groaned. “We had a deal.”
“I know. And I reminded them of that. But their representative says he needs to talk to you directly. He’s going to be here for the rest of the weekend…”
A cheer drowned out all sound around me. I stepped forward a little and just caught sight of JT running down the field, yards ahead of the opponent, scoring another touchdown. The band began to play as cowbells, foghorns, and all kinds of noise filled the air around me. Pride swelled in my chest as I watched JT celebrate with his teammates.