As she was cleaning up her desk and deciding what to take home with her that afternoon, she came across Jake’s essay, and she read it over again. If Jake was spending time scribbling in a notebook, like his father said he was, that meant he was writing something, and that meant he had some talents he was holding back in class. However, this essay, no matter how short, showed some real emotion, and that was something not every writer learned how to do.
She finally picked up her grading pen and wrote B in the corner. Then she wrote, Thank you for sharing a little bit of your mom with me. Next time, please remember to follow the assignment and include her birth date and place.
Considering the shortness of the essay, she probably should have given him a B-, but again, it came back to the emotion he’d shared, and that was important.
She shook her head as she gathered up her bag and tucked her reading glasses in the side pocket. Was she doing the very thing she’d said she wouldn’t? Was she cutting him slack? Had she been influenced by his pretty good-looking father?
No, that was silly. She hadn’t even noticed his father’s looks right off the bat—she’d been able to remain objective and professional through their whole meeting. And that’s what she’d keep doing. It was her job.
***
Kent sat in the driver’s seat of his car and flipped through the assignments Jake was supposed to do. They all looked pretty straightforward—if they buckled down and made it a priority, they could get caught up and turn things around before it was too late. He only wanted what was best for his son, and that meant getting more involved and making sure Jake was on top of things.
Jake also deserved to have a father who had come back to life. Kent had told Miss McClain a little of what he’d been through, but he hadn’t told her everything—about the darkness that had surrounded him, how he’d barely wanted to eat for days after the funeral, how he’d nearly lost his job because he just couldn’t bring himself to care. If it hadn’t been for Jean, Amy’s mother, stepping in to help with Jake, Kent didn’t know how they would have made it through that rough time.
“Amy would have wanted you to take care of yourself,” she told him. “She never would have wanted you to punish yourself for what happened to her.”
“But husbands are supposed to take care of their wives,” he’d insisted.
“And you did, up to the very end. But you don’t have power over life and death. I know Amy thought you hung the moon, but even you’re not powerful enough to conquer death.” She’d patted his hand. “It’s time for you to get back to living, Kent. For your son, if for no other reason.”
And then the letter from the school had come, and Kent realized he couldn’t continue to live with his head in a box, hiding away from the world. It was time. He was going to commit to his son and to giving him a better life. And that began with sitting down and having a frank talk about school, about goals, and most importantly, about how much he loved him.
Chapter Three
It had been a month since Jessica’s meeting with Kent Morgan, and she’d seen some improvements in Jake’s work. He turned in a few of the assignments from the packet every week, and he did submit the paper by the end of the month. Jessica was impressed by his new focus. However, that focus seemed limited to his homework, as he still didn’t participate in class, and she had to wonder how many of his assignments had only been done because his dad had pushed him into it. She’d hoped that Jake would show more interest and initiative on his own, but at that point, she’d take what she could get.
She hadn’t had any more strange dreams, and she’d decided that it was some sort of crazy-weird coincidence. She must have seen Kent with Jake somewhere and held on to that image in her subconscious. It didn’t mean anything.
“Hey,” she said, taking a seat at the restaurant table across from her sisters Tracy and Rebekah. “Where’s everyone else?”
“They all had work stuff,” Rebekah replied. “I guess it’s just the three of us.”
“We’ll survive,” Jessica said. She loved getting together with her sisters for lunch. They saw each other at their parents’ house every Sunday, but it was great just to sit down together and chat and not feel like Mom and Dad were overhearing every word. And if food was involved, that was even better.
“So, how are the two of you doing?” Jessica asked.
“I’m great,” Rebekah said. “Although, you might think I’m a little nuts.”
“I already think you’re nuts, so that’s not a big deal,” Jessica said. “What are you up to now?”
“I think I want to go to medical school.”
That was definitely a surprise. Rebekah had gone to nursing school and now worked at the local hospital, and Jessica had thought she was happy there. “Wow. What brought this about?”
Rebekah toyed with her fork. “I just think there’s a lot more I could be doing than I am.”
“I think that’s awesome,” Tracy replied. “You’re a great nurse, and I can totally see you being great as a doctor.”
“Thanks, Tracy.” Rebekah turned to Jessica. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s a gutsy move, but I also think you can do it,” Jessica told her. “Have you told Mom and Dad?”
“Not yet—I’m heading over there tonight. I don’t think they’ll have any objections, though. Do you?”
Jessica shook her head. “They’ll be great with it. All they’ve ever wanted is for us to be healthy and happy.”
“True. I just don’t want to disappoint them—they cheered me on so much during nursing school.”
“This will just be like, nursing school to the max,” Tracy pointed out. “You’ll still be doing medical stuff, but now you’ll have the ability to do more, like you said.”
The waitress came around and took their orders, then returned shortly with their drinks. Jessica had just taken a sip of her cherry 7-Up when she noticed Kent Morgan come in and take a seat at a table near the window. He looked a little edgy, and she wondered if he was meeting someone. Maybe a blind date?
She turned back to her sisters. It was probably inappropriate for her to be speculating about the love life of the father of one of her students. “Anything new going on with you, Tracy?”
“Not a lot right now, no. I’ll just have to live vicariously through Rebekah and her new dream.”
The waitress brought their food, and Jessica thanked her for being so quick. She’d asked for the fastest thing on the menu because she had to get back to school. She had a student teacher working with her that day, but she wasn’t going to leave anything to chance, or feed the student to the lions on her first day.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a man in a dark suit joining Kent at his table. They shook hands, and then Kent pulled some papers from a folder and handed them over. Looked like a business lunch. Well, that ruined Jessica’s theory about a blind date, but in a crazy way, she was a little relieved, and then she felt silly for feeling a little relieved. Again, she had no right to speculate, and no right to care one way or the other.
She and her sisters kept chatting while they ate, but her attention kept drifting over to Kent’s table. He signed something that looked like it might be a contract, and he ate lasagna for lunch. With garlic bread. She couldn’t tell if it was Coke, Pepsi, or root beer in his glass, but it was definitely a dark brown soda, and he didn’t use a straw.
“I think we’ve lost her,” Tracy said. “Earth to Jessica!”
Jessica blinked. “Sorry. I was just zoning out there for a second.”
“We noticed,” Rebekah replied. “You’ve spent more time at that table than you have at ours. Who are those guys?”
“The one on the right is the father of one of my students. I don’t know who the other one is.”
“I didn’t know fathers of students could look like that,” Tracy said. “Almost makes me want to go into teaching.”
“But he’s married, right?” Rebekah said. “He has a kid in Jessica’
s class.”
“If he were married, I don’t think Jessica would be staring at him the way she is,” Tracy replied.
“I’m not staring at him,” Jessica protested. “I’m just curious because he looks a little stressed out.” She glanced at her watch. “And I’d better go—lunch period’s almost over. Tell your sisters that they’re party poopers for not coming.”
“They’re your sisters too—you tell them,” Rebekah said. “Hang on a sec.” She dug in her purse, pulled out a bottle of aspirin, and handed it to Jessica. “Here you go.”
Jessica looked at the bottle. “What’s this for?”
“Your headache.”
“I don’t have a headache.” Although, now that Rebekah mentioned it, she did feel some pressure in the center of her forehead.
“Sure you do. You mentioned it when you got here,” Rebekah said, her cheeks going a little pink.
Huh. Kind of weird. “Maybe I did,” Jessica replied, even though she had no memory of it whatsoever. “Thanks for the aspirin—you’ll make a great doctor.”
She waited until she was back at the school to take the pills, and then she was more than glad she had them. The kids in her class were acting up a little bit, and as the afternoon wore on, her headache definitely grew worse. She’d be taking a nap when she got home—no doubt about it.
***
Kent glanced up from the table and saw Miss McClain leaving the restaurant. Funny seeing her here. His reaction was more than curiosity, though—his heart had started to thump harder, as though she had ignited something inside him.
If he was honest with himself, he’d thought about her several times since he’d met her at the school. She was pretty—no, she was beautiful. There was more to her than that, though. Lots of women were beautiful. She had a way of listening like she was really interested in what he had to say. She must deal with dozens of anxious parents every year, and yet she didn’t make him feel like a project or a duty. Instead, she’d honed in on him and what he was trying to say, and he felt as though she had truly understood.
That didn’t mean that his heart needed to go all weird just because he’d seen her again. He took a deep breath. Mr. Gilbert was saying something about the contract. Kent nodded and listened more carefully. All his dreams were about to come true, and if he didn’t stop mooning over a pretty girl and start paying attention, he could blow it.
***
Kent Morgan sat on the edge of a bed, a guitar on his lap and a pad of paper next to him. He’d strum a few chords, then jot something down on the paper. After a few minutes, he shook his head and put the guitar on a stand in the corner of the room, then lay down on the bed with his arm across his eyes.
He sat up when Jake came in the room. “How was school?”
“It was fine, I guess. We have a new student teacher—I don’t like her.”
“Why not?”
Jake shrugged. “She’s kind of mean.”
“She’s probably just nervous, since she’s new. What do you want for dinner?”
“Grilled cheese?”
“Sure. I need to run over to the store for some bread and things. Want to come?”
Jake shook his head and wandered off to his room.
***
Jessica opened her eyes and blinked at the ceiling. She’d fallen asleep on the couch, and that definitely hadn’t been a good idea—she had a kink in her neck now, not to mention another weird dream. She must have it pretty bad for Kent if all it took was seeing him at a restaurant to trigger another dream. And she wasn’t supposed to develop crushes on her students’ fathers anyway. She couldn’t remember if that was officially against policy, but if it wasn’t, it should be—there were all kinds of complications that could take place otherwise.
Complications like dreaming about a man she’d only met once.
She stood up and stretched, then rotated her neck around to try to loosen the knot. Her dream reminded her that she needed to hit the store too—she was out of almost everything because she’d been too busy to stock up. She didn’t have tests to grade that night, so she grabbed her keys and headed off to the store, thinking she’d better take advantage of this free night and keep her fridge from looking so abandoned.
She had just turned her cart onto the bread aisle when she noticed Kent Morgan up ahead, putting a couple of loaves into his cart. She stopped short and couldn’t seem to breathe for a moment. He was wearing exactly the same clothing he’d been wearing in her dream, which wasn’t the nice outfit she’d seen him in earlier. No, he was wearing a red plaid flannel shirt now, and it was a distinctive pattern of plaid, too.
No way.
Yes, it was normal to dream about someone after you’d just seen them. But it wasn’t normal to dream about them wearing a specific item and then to find out an hour later that yes, that’s what they were really wearing that day.
And he was buying bread, the very thing he’d talked about buying in her dream.
Okay, lots of people bought bread, but to be buying bread and wearing a red flannel shirt at the same time . . .
“Excuse me.” An older gentleman maneuvered his cart around hers, and she realized that she’d been standing there gawking in the center of the aisle and was blocking traffic. She steered off to the side where she wouldn’t be as much in the way and pretended to examine the shelves for something specific while she forced her mind to calm down. Men wore red flannel shirts. They also shopped for bread. This wasn’t a thing . . . it wasn’t a thing. It was just a coincidence.
“Hello, Miss McClain. This is quite the coincidence.”
She whipped her head around to see that Kent had come up alongside her. “A . . . coincidence?” she whispered.
“Yeah. I noticed you earlier at the restaurant, and now you’re here.”
“Yea, that’s definitely a coincidence. That’s all it is.” She gave a shaky laugh. “I see that you’re buying bread.”
He glanced down at his cart and then back up. “We go through a lot at my house.”
“Grilled cheese?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“One of Jake’s favorites.” He paused. “How did you know?”
She pasted on a smile. “Just a guess—that’s what I’ve been craving lately.” She reached out and grabbed a loaf off the shelf. “Yum, yum.”
“Pumpernickle? For grilled cheese?”
Shoot. She hadn’t been looking—she’d just grabbed. “It’s an acquired taste.” She wished this was a dream—everything that had come out of her mouth was a disaster.
“I’ll have to try it sometime.” He gave her a nod. “See you later.”
“Tell Jake hi.”
She waited until Kent was on the next aisle before she put the pumpernickel back and grabbed something else. Her hands trembled as she moved down the row and picked up some bagels. She wasn’t losing her mind—coincidences. Just a long string of coincidences. That’s all.
Chapter Four
Kent pulled up in front of his house and noticed an envelope sticking out of the mailbox. Instead of going straight inside, he opened the box and removed everything inside. Right on top was an envelope from Gold Leaf Music, and he grinned.
“Hey, Jake!” he called out as he entered the house. “Jake! Get down here!”
Jake came out of his room and trotted down the stairs. “Yeah?”
Kent tossed the envelope at his son. “Open that.”
Jake slid his finger beneath the flap and pulled out a letter. A check fluttered to the floor, but Jake didn’t seem to notice it as he read.
“Dad, this said they’re including payment for a song you wrote as per your contract,” Jake said, looking up at Kent with a confused expression. “What are they talking about?”
“Surprise. I sold a song.”
“You sold a song?”
“That’s right! Your old man is a country music songwriter.” Kent picked up the check and handed it to Jake. “See that? Real money for something
I wrote.”
“Well, actually, it’s not real money,” Jake said. “Our math teacher explained how money works. That check is only valuable because both you and the sender agree that it is. In reality, it’s only a piece of paper.”
Kent grinned, glad to have some evidence that Jake was listening in school and no longer just drifting by. “True, but it’s a very important piece of paper. Now, change your clothes. We’re going out to dinner to celebrate.”
***
Jessica had been teaching for five years, and every year on the last day of school, the kids in her class were almost out of control with their eagerness to be done. She gave them some busywork that afternoon, knowing that she couldn’t expect their best work that day anyway, and she sat quietly at her desk and watched each of them in turn.
She pretty much knew which kids would end up doing well in college and which would struggle—after a year with them, their study habits and attitudes were familiar to her. She also knew which kids wouldn’t end up going to college at all, either because of finances or a lack of interest. A few of the kids were mysteries to her in other ways, though. Andy occasionally caught her eye—he seemed troubled, and she felt a little bit of personal responsibility for him because he was one of her uncle’s boys. He’d never spoken to her about any troubles in particular, but that didn’t mean he was fine—it was easy to lie.
Jake was staying on top of all his homework now, but he still walked around with a cloud over his head. She didn’t know what it would take for that cloud to go away, but she didn’t worry about his school performance anymore. Kent had taken the situation in hand and was really making a difference in Jake’s life—she’d decided on an A- for his final grade, based on how much he’d stepped up to the plate since March.
March . . . had it really been that long? The year had been flying by. Maybe that’s because she’d been keeping herself extra busy. With too much spare time on her hands, she sometimes found herself brooding, and that wasn’t good for her. Or anyone. And the busier she kept herself, the less she thought about her strange dreams. She’d only had a few that fell into the Twilight Zone category, and the rest were normal things like, her teeth falling out, but just those few were enough to give her the heebie-jeebies.
Jessica (Seven Sisters Book 2) Page 2
