“How did you respond to Miss Pratt’s threat?”
“I told her that if she wanted to continue the conversation, we could do it here, this morning.” I shake my head. “That’s why I thought Principal Monroe wanted me here.”
“So you’re contending that it was Miss Pratt who made the inappropriate advance?”
I nod. “Since I started coaching at the beginning of her junior year, she’s been laying the innuendo on pretty thick. I never really thought she’d cross that line, though.”
“Are you denying having any sexual contact with Miss Pratt?” she asks.
“I never touched her, and the times she’s tried to touch me, I’ve dodged her.”
She looks back at her phone and scratches the top of her head. “So, would you like to explain what you were doing grabbing another student’s arm, and why you were parked at her house?”
At this point, I’ve got nothing to lose by telling the truth, more or less, on both counts. “The student is Addaline Grace. She tried to quit the team and I got a little…upset. She’s incredibly talented and I feel strongly that staying on this team is in her best interest. Should I have grabbed her? Of course not. But I know the reasons she quit and I had issues with them.”
“What were those reasons?”
“She has some medical bills. She quit to get a job to pay them because her father let their health insurance lapse. Which is the reason I was at her house. I’ve got a drunk dad too, so I guess I empathize. I like to know things are okay there.”
“So your interest in Addaline Grace is purely altruistic?”
I shake my head. “Hell, no. I need her in the pool to win the State Championship. It’s purely selfish.”
She looks again at her phone and stands. “Thank you for your cooperation. That’s all I need for now.” She turns toward the door and pulls it open. “If I need anything else, I’ll be in touch.”
I sit here staring after her, then drop my head onto the back of the armchair, trying to wrap my mind around how it’s the thing I didn’t do that’s going to lose me my job and possibly land me in jail. It’s a long time before I can move, and when I finally stand and walk through the outer office, Principal Monroe is nowhere in sight.
When you live in a small town, scandal spreads like wildfire. It’s been two days since my interview with Detective Diaz, and I got the warning call from Principal Monroe this morning that the school board had called a special session to discuss how to handle my “situation.”
Which means this is the last place I should be.
Part of me knows I deserve everything that’s happening to me, but, Christ. I’ve held back with Addie. Did I cross lines? Absolutely. But not with Corinne. It feels like the universe is shitting on me.
I sit at the bar and watch Addie move around Vicky’s kitchen through the tiny porthole in the swinging kitchen door. I can’t see as much as I want to, but here and there, I catch glimpses. And when she passes the small window and looks my way, her smile is so sad and beautiful it devastates me.
“Something in there you like, bro?” Bran asks, topping off my beer.
I realize I’m still staring at the place she was with my jaw dangling long after she’s gone.
“Yeah. Another burger,” I say, turning back to him.
He pulls his head back in surprise. “You’ve already had two, man.”
“There a point you’re trying to make?”
“Mom’s gonna be sorry she decided you were one of hers,” he says, jotting the order on his pad.
“I’ll pay for this one,” I say, pulling a ten from my pocket.
He scowls at it. “Put it away, man.”
Carol swoops past on her way to the kitchen and Bran holds out the slip with my order on it.
She grabs it on her way by and when the door swings open, I see Addie at the counter in the back. It’s her first week of work, but she looks like a pro, moving from one task to the next like she’s worked here for years. She’s way too smart for something like this, and it occurs to me that in all our talk about a bucket list, I’ve never gotten a sense of what she wants to do with her life.
I’m trying not to be obvious, but I realize I’m failing miserably when Bran nudges my arm. “So, looks like you’re over that blonde from the gym?”
I pull my eyes away from Addie and find Bran has followed my gaze.
“It’s complicated, but, yeah.”
He gives me a pensive nod. “Why is it Mom insists on hiring all this jail bait?”
My finger is in his chest in a heartbeat. “You keep your fucking hands off her.”
“Sorry, man,” he says, holding his hands up in surrender. “How do you know Bruce’s daughter, anyway?”
“Because your mom hired her right off my water polo team, which blows because with her in the pool I think we had a legit shot at a State Championship.”
His eyes widen. “She’s the one who reported you?”