Winning the Teacher's Heart

“They gave you a hard time? What could they have against Becca?” What could anyone have against her?

“Debbie Norton is on the board. She got some of the other members questioning whether we wanted to hire a divorcée. After Matt was the one who abandoned Becca and the kids for another woman and initiated the divorce.”

Jared pounded ahead, hitting the road so hard it sent a bolt of pain up the shin he’d broken in his accident last year.

“Sanity prevailed. We didn’t have anyone else who was as qualified as Becca, and she’s only filling in until the head teacher we hired for the fall can start.” Connor pulled ahead. “Since when have you been interested in small-town, social-political gossip?”

Jared switched gears into a full run. Forget the pain. He couldn’t believe how cruel and meddlesome Becca’s ex-in-laws were to her. “Since you became the purveyor of such information.”

Connor shrugged and matched Jared’s speed. “It comes with the territory, and I shouldn’t have shared that, even with you. All I wanted was some sympathy for having to spend two hours with a room full of two-year-olds. I certainly didn’t get any from the women.”

“That tough?” The men hit the beach with Jared a stride ahead and then slowed to a trot.

“That tough. Remind me of this morning if I ever get any ideas of having kids of my own.”

“Becca’s kids seem okay,” Jared said without thinking. “But you’re right. Us Donnelly men are not cut out to be parents.” He stopped at the camp dock, dropped the towel he’d hung around his neck and pulled off his T-shirt.

Connor followed suit. “So, that’s the way it is. Becca Norton.”

Jared answered his brother by diving into the lake. “Whoa!” he shouted when he surfaced.

“Yeah, bro, I meant to tell you. With the below-normal temperatures we’ve had at night this month, the lake’s cold.”

“No, it’s great. Just what I needed.” To cool off my reaction to your too-close taunt, little brother.

Connor shot off the dock with a cannonball.

“Way to go, Pastor Connor. That was a good one.”

Jared shook off the water Connor had splashed in his face. A small mob of kids was invading the beach, led by several women, including Becca and Jinx Hazard Stacey. “Look out, Conn. They’re coming for you.”

Connor paddled over to the dock ladder. “No, that’s the third-through sixth-grade kids,” he said over his shoulder. “They’re people. Nothing like the little darlings I got to experience down and dirty this morning.”

Jared followed him up the ladder and picked up his towel. “You were two once. I remember you being two. Mom used to make me watch you in the backyard so she could get stuff done in the house.”

“I was one kid. There was a whole herd of them at day care.”

“Sure.” Jared toweled his hair dry.

“So, this is where you ran off to,” Becca said.

Jared peered out from under the towel to see her and Jinx stepping onto the dock.

“You’ve got that right.” Connor tossed his towel over his shoulder and gave an exaggerated shudder.

“You should have seen Connor,” Becca said. “I wish I’d had my phone with me to catch his look of pure terror when I walked him into the room after he’d agreed to help the teacher’s aide.”

“I heard all about it.” Jared dried off quickly and pulled on his T-shirt, feeling inexplicably self-conscious in front of Becca and Jinx without it.

“Hey, Donnelly, it’s okay. We’ve seen men at the beach before,” Jinx teased.

Strange, the sun wasn’t that intense that his cheeks should feel so warm. “Jinx Hazard. How have you been?”

“Emily Stacey now. And I’ve been good.”

“I know, Mom and Gram have kept me up to date.”

Becca pushed her hair behind her ears and looked from him to Jinx, seemingly confused by their banter. “I hadn’t realized you two were friends.”

They weren’t really. They’d simply shared the affinity of both being students on the fringe of their high school’s cliques and an ambition to get out of Paradox Lake as soon as they’d graduated. He doubted Becca and her popular crowd had ever noticed either of them.

“I could say the same about you two.”

“When Emily returned to Paradox Lake to stay with her niece a few years ago, we connected and found we had a lot in common.”

Becca caught and held his gaze until he contemplated another dive into the lake.

“Jared.” Brendon and another boy about his size clambered onto the dock, breaking the connection. A connection that probably existed only in his wishful mind.

“Tell Ian that you are the guy in my magazine. He doesn’t believe me.”

“I am.”

Brendon’s red-haired friend scrutinized him. “You sort of look like the picture.”

“That’s your motorcycle in Pastor Connor’s driveway. Right, Jared?”

“It is.”

“Ian,” Becca said, coming to his and her son’s rescue. “This is Jared Donnelly. He’s the racer in the picture in Brendon’s magazine.”

“Aunt Em. You know this guy?” Ian asked, skepticism still coloring his face.

And Connor thought two-year-olds were tough.

“Yes, Ian.” Patience laced Jinx’s face. “My brother’s oldest son,” she said as if that explained the little Doubting Thomas. “Jared is a champion racer.”

“Former racer. I’ve retired.”

“Get out!” Ian’s voice rose with excitement.

“Told you,” Brendon said, shooting Jared a triumphant look. “Wait, aren’t you and Pastor Connor going to stay and swim with us?”

“Brendon, I think Jared and Pastor Connor have finished swimming, and you and Ian are going to miss out if you don’t go and get your buddy tags.” Becca pointed to one of the other teachers on the beach handing out colored plastic bracelets.

“See you, Jared. Remember you still owe me a ride on your bike.”

“Your mom’s going to let you ride on his motorcycle?” Ian said in a loud whisper.

“Why not? Yours lets you ride with your sister Autumn’s husband, Dr. Jon.”

“Right, but he’s a doctor, not a motocross racer.”

“Brendon,” Becca said.

“Ian,” Emily echoed.

“Go,” they both ordered.

Connor laughed. “We’ll leave you to your charges.”

Jared hesitated. He didn’t have anything else planned for the rest of the afternoon. “I can stay if you need another person to watch the kids swim.”

“No, we’re good.” Becca quickly dismissed him.

Too quickly for the adolescent longing to feel like he belonged—that he was wanted—here in Paradox Lake. A longing that seemed to surface all too often when she was around. He’d earned that sense of belonging on the motocross circuit where no one knew him as Jerry Donnelly’s delinquent kid, and hoped to achieve it here with his racing school.

Chapter Three

“What was that?” Emily asked.

“What was what?” Becca pulled her beach bag up more firmly on her shoulder.

“You and our town celebrity, Jared. Brendon and him being best buddies. Ari talking about him at Sunday school.”

Becca scanned the beach for a good spot for them to sit and watch the kids swim.

“The current between you and Jared,” Emily prodded.

Becca frowned at her friend. “I ran into him at his grandmother’s house when the kids and I stopped there to drop off something for Edna. Brendon recognized Jared from his magazine and asked him to autograph it. Not to be outdone, Ari insisted Jared read her storybook while I went out to the garden with Edna. That’s all there is to it. This spot look good to you?” Becca slipped her bag from her shoulder and rummaged in it for the blanket she’d packed. She wasn’t going to mention the run-in with Debbie and the Sheriff the next day.

“Ari stayed with him while you went out to the garden. Your Ari? The little girl who insisted you wait on a chair outside her Sunday school room where she could see you for most of last school year? That Ari?”

“She’s getting better.” Becca had been surprised how her daughter had latched on to Jared. She shook the blanket out hard and let it settle on the ground. Unfortunately, Ari was still asking daily when Jared was going to come and read to her. She pressed her lips together. Ari got enough broken promises from her father.

“What’s that sour face about?” Emily dropped to the blanket and sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, scanning the kids swimming in the lake.

“Nothing. I was just thinking.”

“About Jared? Not all men are like Matt.”

Mentally, Becca knew that was true. Emotionally, it was another story. She and Matt had dated for most of high school and, except for a short breakup, through college. He’d left her when Brendon was a toddler, and she hadn’t even realized yet that she was expecting Ari.

Becca sat down next to Emily. “Now, my turn for questions. You and Jared were...are friends?”

“Jealous?”

“No. Maybe. Yes. But not how you think. I would have liked to have known him in high school.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. You were too busy being pretty and smart and popular. As a teenager, Jared had too much baggage for you to handle. I’m not sure he ever was a teenager.”

That had been one of the things that had attracted her to Jared as a teen. He seemed more responsible, mature, even though he was a year younger than her crowd. “I wasn’t that superficial.”

Emily shook her head. “You were that untried, sheltered. You’ve lived some now.”

“Thank you, Dr. Stacey. I hadn’t realized you’d given up graphic arts for psychology. And you weren’t sheltered?”

Emily grinned. “Dad certainly tried. But it didn’t carry over to school. Remember, I was the tall, clumsy kid everyone called Jinx. My brother, Neal, is eight years older than I am. He wasn’t around school to shelter me after fourth grade.”

“And you and Jared?”

“Used to talk sometimes about our misfit lives and how we were going to leave Paradox Lake at our first opportunity. Strictly platonic.”

Jared hadn’t struck Becca as a misfit then—and certainly didn’t now.

Becca’s cell phone buzzed that she had a text, giving her a welcome break from the conversation. She checked the screen. Maybe not.

“Go ahead and answer,” Emily said.

“It’s the Sheriff. He recently got a smartphone and has gone text crazy. It’s probably nothing.” She dropped the phone to the blanket.

“Are he and Debbie still dogging your every move?”

Becca sighed. “Almost more so since he got his new phone. I have an unsettled feeling it has something to do with Matt and my custody agreement. Debbie and the Sheriff are planning to move to Florida now that he’s retired. It’s making me a wreck. I’ve prayed, but I can’t seem to find the peace I normally would.”

“I have just the thing. The Singles Group is challenging the Couples Group in ‘Bible Jeopardy’ tomorrow night. I don’t know how peaceful it will be, but we’ll have fellowship, inspiration and food. I’m making my cheesecake brownies. Maybe Connor will bring his big brother.”

Jared’s presence didn’t exactly shout peaceful to Becca. “I can’t.”

“Mom’s watching Isabelle and Ryan. I know she wouldn’t mind watching Ari and Brendon, if that’s the problem. Ari would stay with her, wouldn’t she?”

“Probably, but I have something else going on.”

“With Jared? Are you holding out on me?”

“Not with Jared. I have to go to the Town Zoning Board meeting in Schroon Lake.”

“Why?”

Becca laughed. “The expression on your face. I’m the newest board member.”

“I ask again, why?”

“I was teaching civics and thought I should be more involved. Edna’s husband, Harry, mentioned the opening.”

Emily shook her head. “Will you ever learn? You don’t have to be involved in everything.”

“I know. It seemed like a good idea at the time, even after the Sheriff encouraged me to take the seat.” Becca’s phone rang. She picked it up. “Speaking of the Sheriff, he’s probably calling to find out why I didn’t text him back.”

“I think I’ll walk down to the water and test the temperature.” Emily stood and slipped off her shoes.

“That’s right. Desert me in my time of need.” Becca pressed the phone screen to answer the call. “Hello.”

“Have you read the agenda for the Zoning Board meeting?”

“No.”

“I texted it to you.”

“Ken, I’m working.”

“Then I’ll give you the short version. Your boyfriend wants to build a motocross track on Bert Miller’s property.”

That was what Jared wanted to use Bert’s land for? To build his racetrack? Here in Paradox Lake? She should have made the connection. Her breath caught. A racetrack could be almost as bad as a resort casino. In some ways, worse, considering Brendon’s current obsession with motorcycles.

“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“No, but I know how much you hate Family Court.” He hung up.

Becca stared at her phone for a moment before touching the text button. She viewed the agenda Ken had photographed and texted her, the sinking feeling in her stomach bottoming out when she reached the fourth bullet point: Jared Donnelly—request for a recreational development zoning exception to construct a motocross track on parcel 87268 on Conifer Road.

“What’s wrong?” Emily had returned and was standing over her.

“It looks like I will be spending tomorrow evening with Jared after all.”

Confusion spread across Emily’s face. “You said the call was from Sheriff Norton.”

“It was. Apparently, Jared wants to build a motocross track on the land he inherited from Bert Miller. And the Sheriff wants me to stop him.”

* * *

Jared climbed from the cab of his pickup truck and stood in the newly paved parking lot, taking in the sprawling two-story, redbrick building with its white-columned entrance. The Schroon Town Hall. He slammed the door shut. The smell of the blacktop made his nose twitch. The last time he’d been here had been for court when he was eighteen, to answer his driving-while-impaired charge. The parking lot had been newly tarred that day, too.

His stomach churned. After his arrest, his dad had made a big show about how he was going to be there for Jared. He didn’t need a lawyer. Jared still had been naive enough to believe him—or at least to want to believe him. Then, when he and his brothers had gotten home from school the day of his court appearance, he’d found their father passed out in the bedroom, an empty vodka bottle on the bed stand. That was the last time he’d believed his father.

That night, Jared had made burgers and fries for his brothers and him for supper. For whatever reason, he remembered that clearly. But he hadn’t been able to choke down more than a bite or two. He’d considered chugging one of the beers his dad had in the refrigerator for courage before remembering that had been what had gotten him in trouble in the first place. Instead, he’d told Josh to help Connor with his homework, and he’d driven illegally to the town hall for court. Keeping his eyes focused forward, he’d walked to the front of the room where court was held, signed in and had taken a seat at the far side, determined to handle whatever happened like a real man. His mother had slipped in beside him just before the public defender had motioned him up to the desk to talk. The scent of the diner lingering on his mother’s uniform had somehow reassured him. She’d had no illusions about Jared’s father coming through for him.

“Jared.”

The sound of his name jerked him back to the present. A light-haired man about his age stepped from a sleek navy blue Mercedes parked near the building.

“Dan, thanks for coming.” Jared strode across the parking lot and shook hands with the Albany lawyer he’d hired. Jinx Stacey’s sister-in-law, Anne Hazard, had recommended him. Her environmental engineering firm had used Dan on several projects.

“I spoke with the town attorney this afternoon,” Dan said. “He saw no problem with your building permit being approved without a public hearing for a variance. It should fall under the recreational development exception to the residential-agriculture zoning classification.”

“Great,” Jared said with more confidence than he felt. It must have been the lingering bad memories. He glanced at the hall. Neither of them had to be here. Tonight was an ordinary meeting of the Zoning Board. He could wait and call the building inspector in the morning. “In that case, it might better be to let the board go ahead and make their decision without us. The less said the better.”

“You don’t get off that easy.” Dan pressed his key fob to lock his car. “As I told you on the phone, it’ll look good to be here to answer any questions the board members may have. The meeting is open, even though it’s not an official public hearing.”

“Let’s get it over with, then.”

The two men went inside and entered the nearly empty main meeting room. Not much had changed since the last time he’d been here. He swallowed. He hoped that wasn’t indicative of today’s outcome. No. This time he wasn’t a kid, and he wasn’t going to let anyone drive him or his project out of town.

“An empty room.” Dan nodded. “Just what I was hoping to see. You’ve done a good job of keeping your plans for building here under the local radar. These things go better when the public doesn’t get involved.”

Jared tensed. “My idea is for the track and school to be a community project, not a secret strike on the town.” He shifted his weight. Dan had come highly recommended by Anne Hazard. From working with Anne and her staff on the environmental studies for the project, he’d found her very open and up-front. He’d assumed Dan was the same.

“Right. Do you know Steve Monti, the town attorney? We went to law school together.”

If the attorney was Dan’s age, it couldn’t be the same attorney who had orchestrated the Driving While Ability Impaired resolution that had pulled his license for six months and required him to pay restitution to Sheriff Norton. His agreement to leave town quietly right after high school graduation had been unstated—at least in the actual plea bargain.

“No, the name isn’t familiar.”

“I’ll introduce you.” Dan raised his hand to catch the attention of a man in a dark suit standing at one end of the dais. He met them halfway across the room.

“Steve Monti. This is Jared Donnelly.”

He and the town attorney shook hands.

The attorney stepped away to the other side of Dan. “I may have spoken too soon this afternoon.” The town attorney said something else in a low voice that Jared didn’t catch.

“The paperwork is all in order.”

Despite Dan’s assertion, Jared’s throat tightened.

“It is, but one of the board members lives near the development site. She’s insisting on a public hearing before the building permit is approved.”

“Becca.”

The other two men looked at Jared. He hadn’t realized he’d spoken his thought. But it couldn’t be. With her job and the kids, she had more than enough to keep her busy. It must be one of the other Conifer Road residents.

“Yes, Becca Norton. She’s new to the board. You know her?” Steve asked.

He cleared his throat. “Yes, but not like we’re close friends or anything.” That sounded lame.

“It might be more to your benefit if she were. She has connections. Her father-in-law was the county Sheriff.”

“Ex-father-in-law.”

Dan silently scrutinized him.

“I know the Sheriff, too.” And he has to be behind this somehow.

“Steve, we’re ready to start.” Jared recognized the man speaking as the owner of the diner where his mother used to work. For a moment, he was eighteen again, alone against the world.

“Time to make our case.” Dan slapped him on the back, reminding him he wasn’t alone. This time, he had a team behind him. A team he’d put together. And the resources to back that team.

Jared turned to Dan. “Did you get a copy of the meeting agenda?”

Since they appeared to be the only permit applicants here, he hoped the board would get to them first. He’d just as soon get this over with and get out of here.

“Yeah.” He grinned. “You are the agenda.”

* * *

“Come on down,” Tom Hill, the chair of the Zoning Board boomed, reminiscent of The Price Is Right. “Take a seat. We’re not formal here.”

Becca kept her gaze lowered as the men approached the dais. She placed the paper she held in her hands on the flat surface in front of her and smoothed it. Anger at herself for caving in to the Sheriff’s demand warred with concern for her kids and the life she was trying to build for them. She flicked the corner of the sheet with her index finger. The uneasiness she felt about Jared’s project wasn’t limited to her. She’d run into one of her two neighbors at the gas station convenience store. When Becca had mentioned that she was on her way to the Zoning Board meeting, he’d asked her what she knew about Jared wanting to build a motocross track on their road and then shared his apprehensions about the potential noise, traffic and strangers. He’d also reminded her how the Conifer Road residents had banded together to oppose the casino if it had been proposed.

“And this is our newest board member, Rebecca Norton,” Tom said.

She looked up into Jared’s deep blue eyes. They darkened, almost as if he’d read her thoughts about the track. But that was ridiculous.

“Hi, Jared.”

“Becca. What a pleasant surprise.”

He wouldn’t think so for long. Her pulse quickened. Or maybe he was being sarcastic and didn’t think that now, either. Although his tone wasn’t sarcastic, she didn’t know him well enough to read the real meaning of his words any more than he’d been reading her thoughts a moment ago.

Tom cleared his throat. “Now that introductions are over, I think we can get this done in quick order.”

Jared relaxed his stance. “We brought updated plans and the preliminary environmental studies from GreenSpaces for you to look over.” He stepped to the dais to hand a cardboard tube holding the plans to the board members.

Tom took the tube and waved him off. “That won’t be necessary tonight. I don’t know what Steve told your guy.” He nodded at Dan. “But Ms. Norton has raised new questions from her and one of the other property owners on Conifer Road. We’ve decided a public hearing is necessary. Your development may not fall under the recreational facility exception, after all—it being a racing school rather than a resort or simply a racetrack open to the public.”

The town attorney shuffled his feet while Jared’s attorney glared at her. But their actions barely registered. She was focused on Jared. He seemed to be looking past her to something on the wall behind the dais. She resisted the urge to turn and see what he was looking at, only to regret that decision. If she had, she would have missed the gut-wrenching hardening of his features. She started to slump in her seat, then straightened and crossed her arms. Even if she felt bad for Jared, who obviously wanted to get started on his project, she had valid reasons for pushing the public hearing. And for him, it could deflect opposition later, after he’d already sunk money into the motocross track.

“The hearing will be two weeks from Tuesday, our usual meeting night,” the board chair said. “Same time as tonight. That’ll let us get the required notices in the Times of Ti. You’ll get a letter in the mail.”

“Thank you,” Jared’s attorney said. “We’ll see you in two weeks.”

Jared jerked a nod in the direction of the board before he strode from the room.

Becca watched him until he reached the doorway. She pulled her shoulder bag from the back of her chair and rose as he disappeared into the hall. “If we’re done, I need to get home. The kids, you know.”

Becca hated to use the kids as an excuse. She rarely did. But she needed to speak with Jared, to explain her concerns about the motocross track. She could only hope that he and his lawyer might be talking outside.