Winning the Teacher's Heart

“Sure,” Tom said. “That’s all the business we had for tonight. Glad to have you on board.” He chuckled at his pun and looked to the other members for affirmation. “We need more younger people to be involved in town government.”

She smiled while inwardly chaffing at the extra minute his short speech added to the head start Jared had on her. “Thanks. It’s my community. I want to do what I can.” And not alienate Jared Donnelly doing it.

Becca crossed the room as quickly as she could without looking as though she was running from the hall. Stepping into the warm cloudy night, she scanned the parking lot for Jared. There were four cars besides hers and four board members still in the hall. Her heart sank. He was gone. A cloud passed in front of the full moon casting shadows on the car. Gray shadows. Like her mood.

She unlocked her car and started it. Her concerns about having a motocross track almost in her backyard were real, although the magazine article and Tom Hill had called it a motocross school, not a track. She shouldn’t feel so agitated about having brought those concerns up to the board. She and other people in the community who would be affected by Jared’s proposed project deserved to learn more. Except Jared’s stony expression when Tom had told him about the public hearing kept flashing in her mind. The expression had made Jared look incredibly attractive and threatening at the same time.

Becca slowed the car in front of the Paradox Lake General Store. Brendon had finished the last of the milk at dinner. As she pulled in to stop to get some more, a motorcycle parked in the lot grabbed her attention. She replayed her son’s chatter about Jared’s bike in her head. She tilted her chin down and frowned at the vehicle. Brendon had said Jared’s bike was lime green. This one was dark blue, and the middle-aged man who was walking toward it definitely wasn’t Jared. She went into the store and headed directly to the coolers at the far right where the dairy products were.

Pulling the glass door open with her left hand, she reached in for one of the gallon containers of milk in the back of the cooler, releasing the door to close gently against her so she could bend in far enough to grab it. She sensed someone behind her and stiffened even before she felt the person grasp the door to hold it open for her. Not to be unfriendly, but she hoped it was a helpful tourist rather than anyone she knew. She wasn’t in a mood for idle chat.

“Thanks,” she said without looking as she turned to walk to the checkout.

“No problem,” said the one person she did want to talk to.

Looking back at Jared and his controlled features, she swallowed. Or the one person she’d thought she wanted to talk to.

* * *

Jared’s heart twisted in unison with Becca’s scowl. He should have known things were going too smoothly. Although he’d done all his prep work carefully, he’d expected some opposition to his plans. But Becca Norton wasn’t the person he’d pictured spearheading it.

“Thanks,” she said again, her expression looking more pensive now that she’d turned fully toward him. “I didn’t realize it was you.”

“Like I didn’t realize you were on the Zoning Board.”

Becca’s hint of a smile disappeared. He could have kicked himself for not guarding his words. He needed to woo, not alienate Becca. Woo her in the sense of convincing her of the good his motocross school would do. Any other wooing was out of the question. He studied her heart-shaped face for a moment. As if he, a Donnelly, would have any chance with a woman like Becca. He shook off his pity trip back in time. “That didn’t come out quite right.”

“It’s okay. Do you have a couple of minutes to talk? I’ll check this out.” She raised the gallon of milk she held. “And we can get a cup of coffee or something.”

“Sure. I need to pick up some coffee for the morning, too.” Jared walked to the grocery shelf and grabbed a large can of coffee, then put it back in favor of a smaller bag of a special dark roast. He made his way to the checkout at the front of the store and looked around.

Becca motioned to him from one of the tables in the deli area. “Over here. You did want coffee, right? I have it covered.” A waitress who looked vaguely familiar placed two heavy mugs on the table in front of her.

He ground his teeth. Not that he was a chauvinist. But he was used to being the one who picked up the tab, did for others. What she was earning at the day-care center, or as a high school teacher, for that matter, couldn’t come close to the income from his invested race winnings. His fingers tightened around the bag of coffee. That sounded too much like his money-obsessed brother Josh.

“You remember Lori Lyons.” Becca smiled at the waitress.

“Sure, I do.” Lori had been another one of the untouchables on the cheerleading squad with Becca. “I was sorry to hear about Stan.”

“Thank you,” Lori said. “I appreciated your card.”

Becca knitted her brows in question.

When Jared had heard about Lori’s husband Stan’s death in a NASCAR accident shortly after he’d lost a close friend on the motocross circuit, he’d felt a connection to Lori and had shot her off a sympathy card. “My grandmother told me about Stan’s accident,” he said in explanation.

Becca’s expression turned thoughtful. He’d have to be careful or he’d lose his tough-guy image.

“I’d love to catch up,” Lori said. “But my shift is done and I need to pick the girls up from Stan’s mother’s house. She babysits for me when I have to work during the evening.” She turned to Jared. “I have ten-year-old twins. I usually work days, so I have to get them up early for day care tomorrow.”

Jared scuffed his toe against the table leg. Lori was being a little too friendly for him. They hadn’t been friends in school and, as callous as it sounded, he’d sent her the sympathy card as much as a way to work through his own grief as a true condolence.

“I’ll see you in the morning, Becca,” Lori said. “And why don’t you—” she pointed at Jared “—stop by after the lunch rush some afternoon this week. I’d love to hear about your time on the circuit.” She shot a dazzling smile his way and gave him a flirty wave before walking back behind the counter and into the kitchen.

Yep, way too friendly, which he couldn’t say about Becca, given her dark frown. Unless she was jealous of Lori. They had been rivals in school. He yanked out the chair across the table from Becca. Only in his mind. The source of Becca’s frown more likely could be chalked up to his plans for the racing school and Lori getting in the way of Becca speaking her mind about it.

He slid into the chair and wrapped his hands around the coffee mug. “I take it you want to talk about the track.”

“I do.” The sip of coffee she took sweetened her frown into what could almost be called a smile. “I hope you don’t mind that I ordered your coffee. It’s a regular.” She glanced at the specialty coffee he’d bought. “But maybe you’d like something different.”

He lifted the bag of coffee. “This is for Connor. I’m good with anything black that doesn’t taste like motor oil.”

She took another sip of her coffee and gazed at him over the rim of the cup, her brown eyes colored with apprehension. “The Zoning Board’s decision surprised you.”

He bit his tongue before he said something he’d regret. “Right. The town attorney had told my attorney everything looked like a go. That there wouldn’t be a need for a public hearing.”

“That’s my fault.”

He took a healthy draw of his coffee and waited.

“I didn’t get the agenda for the meeting until yesterday afternoon, and what I got didn’t have a lot of details. With work and the kids, I didn’t have time to do any research. Evidently, the other board members and the town attorney already had discussed it. Tonight was my first board meeting.”

“Yeah. Dan, my attorney, and I had felt out the town building inspector about the project a while ago, before I’d decided on a spot to build it.”

“That spot being my backyard.”

“Not exactly your backyard.” He’d made a tactical error not sounding out the property owners on Conifer Road about his idea when Bert had first written him about his intention to leave him the acreage. But it had seemed like everything was coming together for him. He looked across the table. Until now.

“Close enough for me and some of my neighbors to have some questions.”

“Ask away.” He leaned back in his seat.

“Why? Why come back here when you could go anywhere?”

He worked to maintain his casual pose, while a small blaze lit inside him. From her words, it sounded to him as if she was as opposed to him being in Paradox Lake as she was to him building his racing school here. He’d thought better of her. Correction. He’d thought better of the image of Becca he held in his head from high school. An image that could be all wrong.

“Yes, I could go anywhere. I could build the school and motocross track here and run it from somewhere else. Let me ask you a question. Is it the racing school or me you have a problem with?”

Becca blanched and he slunk down in his chair. What had gotten into him, jumping to a dumb conclusion like that? He knew. He wanted this project to succeed with the same competitive hunger that had made him a champion racer. And the stakes here were greater than any race’s.

“I’m sorry if that’s how I sounded.”

The contrition in her voice tore at him worse than her misinterpreted question.

“I’ll start over. My neighbors and I have some valid concerns about a motocross track near our homes, some of the same concerns we had when Bert Miller was considering selling his property to a syndicate bidding on a state gambling license.”

Becca was equating his racing school for needy kids to a gambling casino? The banked flame in his belly reignited.

“Other people in the community may have issues, too. I thought it would help me if I knew why you wanted to build it here.”

“Understandable. I...”

The ring of her cell phone interrupted him.

She pulled the phone from her pocket and glanced at it. “I have to take it. It could be about the kids.”

Jared finished his coffee while Becca listened to the person at the other end of the call.

“That was Debbie. My daughter’s running a temperature. I have to go.”

“I hope Ari’s okay.”

Becca stood and scooped up her purse. “It’s probably just a summer cold.”

He pushed his chair back. “Let me know if you want to get together to talk about your concerns before the public forum. I can show you the plans and tell you more about them.”

“Okay. I’ll call you at Connor’s. You do understand that it’s not personal.”

“Of course.” He walked her out and they parted at her car. The problem was that it was personal for him—both his reasons for wanting to build the school and track in Paradox Lake and the urge he’d had earlier to pull Becca into his arms and comfort her when she’d blanched at his sharp question.

Chapter Four

Jared flung the Times of Ti on the couch. So that’s why Becca hadn’t called. She’d had no intention of hearing more about the motocross school from him before launching her campaign against it. The news article didn’t mention names, but it said a group of Conifer Road residents had organized against the project. That had to include her. Only three families lived on Conifer Road. Jared didn’t know the other two. He’d hoped that after he and Becca had talked, she’d be his in with the other families to calm any objections they might have.

“Hey, big bro, what’s with the face?” Connor crossed the living room, picked up the weekly newspaper and skimmed the lead article. “I see.”

“No, I don’t think you do.”

“Come on. You grew up here. You had to expect some opposition. Some people don’t want any changes, even those for the better.”

Jared grabbed the paper from him. “But no one has given me a chance to tell them it’s for the better, to explain how it’ll benefit the community. I figured I’d get that at the public hearing next week. The project could be dead by then.” He jabbed a finger at the front page. “Look at the headline, ‘Conifer Road Residents Rise Up Against Motocross Track.’”

Connor shrugged. “Okay, the headline is a little sensationalized. From what I saw, all the article says is that the residents have questions to raise at the public hearing.”

Jared ignored his brother’s placating. “And the photo of the No Racetrack bumper sticker with the X through a silhouette of a bike racer is a nice touch. She must have rushed right out the day after the Zoning Board meeting and had them printed.”

“By she, I take it you mean Becca. Can you blame her or her neighbors? You’re planning to build something big in their neighborhood.”

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