One of the other board members banged the gavel on the front table. “Howard, I think it’s about time we took a vote.” The fellow glanced around the table. “Since the roll call is public record, I don’t see much point in taking this into closed session if no one objects. I’m making a motion to offer Mr. Manion a contract with tenure.”
The motion was seconded and passed almost unanimously except for one abstention from the soon to be ex-president.
Alex slapped his dad’s back and headed for the door. “If you’ll all excuse me, I have some explaining to do at home.”
Louise Harrigan, the elementary school librarian, stopped him in the hall. “Would you tell your mother-in-law not to worry about her proposal for the parents’ book club? I’ll cover for her tonight.”
“Sure thing, Mrs. Harrigan.” Assuming Emma’s mom was still speaking to him.
Jake followed him out to the parking lot. “Thank you.” He hugged Alex. “You shouldn’t have humiliated yourself that way for me.”
“I didn’t, Dad. At least, not tonight. I should’ve shoved Brandy away. I want you to know I didn’t encourage her. And I had no idea all those guys had come back. I was showering alone and all of a sudden she was there. When she—”
His father held up one hand and cut him off. “You don’t have to explain. I have a good idea of what happened. I don’t think most guys could push a girl away in that situation. Especially at your age.”
“Thanks for understanding. I just hope Em can.”
“And Maggie. She wouldn’t talk to me even before my son betrayed her little girl.”
“Dad, now that this whole thing with your job is settled, I really need to talk to you.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow, Alex? I have to see Maggie, right now.”
“I suppose.” He really needed to get home to Emma, anyway. He didn’t know what he could say to make her believe he really hadn’t wanted Brandy.
~~~
Margie stretched out alongside Emma on her twin bed and rocked her while her daughter wept in her arms. “Shhh—try to sleep, Sweetie. The baby needs you to rest.”
“I was right. Alex doesn’t really love me,” Emma sobbed. “If he did, he couldn’t have let Brandy do that to him.”
Margie squeezed her tight. Oh, God, please let my baby and my grandchild both be girls.
If she could summon up the nerve, she’d kick her son-in-law right in the family jewels so he could never produce another Manion male. Alex was no different than his father, taking his pleasure wherever he could get it.
On the other hand, she was no better. Margie had known Jake loved Roxanne, yet she’d still surrendered to his seduction, not just once, not just twice—but three times. And he’d gotten her pregnant—again.
A woman with a chimpanzee’s brain would’ve learned in her first go-round with him.
Emma blubbered hysterically into Margie’s shoulder until she finally exhausted herself and fell asleep. When the doorbell chimed, Margie jumped off the bed and dashed to the door to keep the bell from ringing a second time and waking her daughter.
She had no doubt it was either Jake or Alex, so she left the chain on the door—not as much to keep them out, but to restrain herself from strangling whichever one of them was on the other side. If she had to look at either of them right now, she might not be able to control herself.
“Go away,” she snapped at Jake through the narrow opening.
He wedged his body against the door to keep her from closing it. “Damn it. Let me in, Maggie. We need to talk.”
“Emma’s finally asleep. If you wake her, I swear I’ll—”
“You brought her here?”
“Of course. You don’t actually think I’d leave her at your house to live with that cheat. You should be very proud. Alex is a chip off the old block.”
“Don’t do this to them. You’re making things worse. Emma needs to let him explain.”
“Not tonight she doesn’t. She needs to sleep. Now leave.” She slammed her body against the door and turned the deadbolt.
“Maggie!” He pounded on the door and rattled its knob. When she didn’t answer, he laid on the buzzer.
She dragged a dining room chair over to the doorbell hanging near the ceiling and ripped the wires out of it.
He continued knocking.
“If you don’t go away,” she yelled through the door, “I’m calling the police.”
~~~
A soft tapping on the window prodded Emma awake. “Please,” Alex begged through the glass. “Let me in, Angel. You have to let me tell you what happened. It didn’t mean anything.”
Her throat closed up at the sound of his pleading voice. After the way they’d made love, how could he have done this? She heaved herself off the bed and jerked the blinds up. “Go away,” she said without raising the window. “That picture said it all.”
“Em, it wasn’t the way it looked.”
“Oh, that was some other guy’s penis in Brandy’s mouth?”
“No, I’m not saying that.” He pressed his face to the glass. “Please, Emmy, you have to let me tell you the whole story.”
“I don’t need to hear it. There weren’t any ropes or handcuffs on you. You were in seventh heaven and putting on a show for half the team.”
“In my head, I was in heaven. I was thinking about making love to you the whole time. Between that and the running water, I never heard those guys come into the shower room. Phil set me up and took that picture.”
It didn’t matter how it had happened. She couldn’t live her life worrying about which co-ed was coming on to her husband. “Just go away. I have a pounding headache.”
“Emmy, please. My whole freakin’ life is falling apart. I can’t take it if you don’t forgive me. I’d rather crawl in a hole and die.”
“For how long, Alex? Until the next nympho shakes her inflated boobs at you and offers you a blowjob? Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll take care of my baby alone.” She yanked the blinds back down so she wouldn’t have to look at his face in the moonlight. If she did, she’d never be able to resist letting him in.
A wave of intense nausea swept over her, and everything around her became a blur as she bolted to the bathroom to heave. Oh, dear God. The doctor had made Alex promise to take her to the ER if she developed a headache or felt sick.
Her mother tapped on the door and opened it a crack. “Sweetie? Are you okay?”
“No.” Emma retched over the toilet and slumped to her knees, clutching her right side as a sharp pain stabbed her in the ribs. “I think something’s wrong. I feel awful.” She dragged her hand across her mouth. “Go stop Alex from leaving,” she said, sobbing. “Please. I need him.”
Margie dashed out, then a few moments later, skidded back into the bathroom, gasping for air. “I couldn’t catch him, Em. The Explorer was pulling away when I got outside. What’s Alex’s cell phone number? I’ll tell him to come back.”
“You can’t. I broke his phone last night. Call his house.” Emma lay down and pressed her face to the cool ceramic tile floor. “Hurry, I’m scared.”
~~~
Margie’s hand trembled as she stabbed out 911 and asked for an ambulance before she called Jake’s number. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice. “Thank God, you’re there. When Alex gets home tell him to go right to the hospital. Emma’s sick. I think it’s serious.”
“Oh, God, no. I’ll tape a note to the door and meet you at the emergency room.”
A short time later, the paramedics arrived and loaded Emma into the back of their rig. Margie felt completely helpless, holding her daughter’s hand and stroking her hair all the way to the hospital. Blessedly, Paul Brennan had just finished delivering a baby and was waiting in the ER for them when they rolled in her daughter’s stretcher.
By the time the nurse started an IV and the doctor finished examining Emma, Jake arrived at the tiny room the triage nurse had put them in. “What’s wrong?” He panted, his gaz
e wide with terror.
Dr. Brennan gestured for him to take the other chair in the room. “Emma, the protein level in your urine is +2. It looks as if you’ve developed preeclampsia or what’s commonly called pregnancy induced hypertension.”
Margie glanced up at the numbers lit on the monitor over Emma’s stretcher—172/105. If she remembered correctly, a high reading was anything over 140/90.
The doctor’s mouth tightened as his gaze shifted between Jake and Margie. “There’s a higher risk of this complication in teen pregnancies. We’ll try to bring her blood pressure down with medication.”
“W-what if that doesn’t work?” Emma wrung the sheet in her hands.
“We’re not worrying about that right now. The important thing is for you to relax.”
“But I need to know.” Her whole body trembled as if she were lying on one of those tacky vibrating beds from a fleabag motel. Dr. Brennan stared at the floor a second, his lips pursed. Obviously, he was trying to decide which would cause Emma more stress—worrying about the unknown or hearing the worst-case scenario. He heaved a resigned sigh. “If your pressure goes much higher and the proteinuria worsens, we may have to consider delivering your baby.”
Margie gasped. “But she’s only twenty-two weeks! The baby won’t—” She covered her mouth. Oh, dear God. She couldn’t lose her grandchild, too. How much heartbreak could her daughter take in one night?
“No!” Emma shrieked, backing up on the stretcher. “I won’t let you. It’s too early.”
“Calm down.” Dr. Brennan squeezed Emma’s hand. “That’s not even a consideration right now. We’ll do everything we can to avoid it. Your job is to relax.”
Margie held her daughter’s face between her hands. “Emma, if you don’t, it’ll just make your blood pressure go even higher.” And, if God forbid it did, her daughter could die. Despite the advances of modern medicine, eclampsia was one of the few complications that still cost pregnant women their lives.
The doctor turned to leave, and Jake stopped his neighbor. “Paul, would you make sure Emma gets a private room?”
“Sure.”
“Jake,”—Margie grabbed his arm—“the kids can’t affor—”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m picking up the tab. If she hasn’t got a roommate for you to disturb, they’ll let you stay with Emma.”
Sometimes he could be so thoughtful. And at others….
“I want Alex,” Emma cried. “Where is he?”
Jake pulled out his cell phone and dialed it. A few moments later, he shook his head. “He hasn’t gotten home yet. In my note, I told him to call my cell to let me know he’s on his way. I haven’t heard from him.”
“It’s been over an hour since he left my condo.” Margie frowned. “Where would he have gone at eleven-thirty at night?”
“Maybe he went for a drive to sort things out.”
“Or he went to pay Brandy a visit,” Emma echoed Margie’s thoughts. Her face twisted in grief as tears streamed down her cheeks.
Jake pulled his chair to the head of the stretcher and took Emma’s hand. “Em, my son loves you very much.”
“If that’s the case, how could he let that—” She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “I can’t even say it.”
“I don’t know if you noticed it, but in that picture, Alex had a couple of butterfly strips on his forehead.”
“So what?” She wiped her eyes.
“That means the picture must’ve been taken at the beginning of October after his chair broke in homeroom. It proves what happened in the locker room was right after he met you. He wasn’t in love with you yet, Emma.”
Margie wanted to tell him to leave her daughter alone, but she kept silent. He was distracting Emma and, oddly enough, having a soothing effect on her. Even though Margie couldn’t trust Jake with her heart, the man practically had his doctorate as a clinical psychologist and knew a lot better than she did what her daughter needed to hear. It was just a shame he hadn’t noticed how troubled his own child was.
“So you’re saying Alex wasn’t in love with me when he let Brandy do that? He was telling the truth when he said it didn’t mean anything to him?”
He stroked the back of Emma’s hand. “That’s precisely what I’m saying. My son assured me Brandy came on to him while he was showering. I’m not excusing what he did. It was wrong no matter how you slice it. But his heart wasn’t committed to you at that point.”
Emma stared down at the sheet and sniffled. “Do you think he would ever do something like that again?”
“No, Em, I don’t. You married a very honorable guy. If you’d seen the way he humiliated himself for me tonight, you would’ve been as proud of him as I was. And there wouldn’t be a doubt in your mind about his feelings for you.”
The nurse bustled in to check on the IV, and Emma’s lower lip quivered. The dam burst inside her as she flung herself at Jake and sobbed into his shoulder. “I don’t want our baby to die.”
He rocked her and stared over her head at Margie, his eyes turning glassy. “I know. I don’t want to lose my grandchild, either.” Or my child, his watery gaze added in an unspoken message. “Let’s think positively, okay, Princess?”
Margie stiffened at his endearment for her daughter.
“My dad used to call me that.” Emma sniffled and dried her eyes with the sheet.
He stepped back, and the tension in his jaw said he was afraid he’d just destroyed any headway he’d made in his relationship with Emma. “I guess that’s because we could both see how special you are.”
“Dad?” She hiccupped and grabbed his hand. “Would you please do something for me?”
Margie’s eyes swam with tears when Jake’s face lit up as if Emma had given him a precious gift.
“Anything, Em,” he choked out.
“Find Alex and tell him I need him,” she begged.
Nodding, he reached over and cupped Margie’s chin in his hand. “Will you be all right?”
Margie squeezed her eyes shut. “Yes. I’ll take care of Emma. Go find Alex for her.” As he turned to leave, she called to him, “And Jake?”
He froze in his tracks. “Yeah?”
“Your son has other problems besides this.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, no.” She raised her hands. “That’s something you need to discuss with him. He told me he’s been trying to talk to you, but you’ve been distracted.”
“Gee.” He snorted. “I wonder what I could’ve had on my mind?”
Chapter 18
Alex had been driving aimlessly around town for forty-five minutes while he did something he hadn’t done since his mother left seven years ago. He bawled like a baby.
Of course, never in the last seven years had his life been so deep in the crapper. If he had a fake ID, he’d buy a cold six-pack and get wasted. After all, if his dad couldn’t find the time to talk to him, why should Alex give a shit about his father’s feelings toward underage drinking?
He grabbed a leftover napkin he’d stuffed in the SUV’s center console to dry his eyes and wipe the snot from his nose. After several minutes of deep breathing to compose himself, he spun the Explorer into the 7-Eleven parking lot.
Inside the convenience store, he filled a large cup with a Slurpee and stopped short at the counter, staring at the zit-faced clerk behind the register. When did that dickhead get a job here?
“Have a nice evening at the board meeting, Alex?” Phil Carmichael snickered.
“As a matter of fact, yeah. Obviously, you haven’t heard the outcome. My dad still has his job. And needless to say, your old man won’t be presiding over the board much longer.”
Phil’s ruddy complexion paled two shades.
“What I’d be interested to know”—Alex paused to sip his drink—“is why you waited all this time to try to fuck my dad and me with that picture?”
The jerk had taken the photo way back in October and could’ve used it at any time to blackmail Al
ex into faking an injury to give Phil more game time.
Pain flickered in Carmichael’s eyes as he stared at Alex for several seconds before he finally answered, “Because even though we might’ve always hassled each other, I thought we were friends. But you proved we weren’t when you invited everyone except me to your wedding.”
“No, you proved that yourself, Pal.” Alex tossed the money for his drink on the counter and headed for the door. “A real friend never would’ve set me up that day in the field house.”
“Yeah, and a real friend wouldn’t have let his daddy steal game time from his teammate just so he could get a full ride at Penn State,” Phil called after him. “I can’t wait to see you fall on your face when you have some real competition, Manion.”
“You and a million other people,” Alex muttered, dragging his feet back to the SUV and climbing into it. He slammed the door of the vehicle. Telling Phil off should’ve made him feel better, but it hadn’t. All at once, he had a good understanding of how his mother felt when she overdosed on the sleeping pills. He couldn’t bear to disappoint his dad. And more importantly, he didn’t want to live without Em and his baby.
~~~
Jake stopped at home to make sure his son hadn’t returned and somehow missed seeing the note. He didn’t have the vaguest idea of where to begin looking for him. He started by driving past each of Alex’s friend’s houses to look for the Explorer, and when that proved fruitless, he cruised by every 24-hour business.
Even though the evening had turned into a nightmare, he took comfort, knowing Maggie was with him through it all. When he’d been forced to publicly admit she’d terminated her pregnancy, for the first time, he’d simply felt a deep sorrow rather than angry and bitter. Could it be he’d finally managed to forgive Maggie for the past? If he couldn’t, he didn’t have a prayer of a future with her. Maybe the events of the evening would convince her to have his baby this time.
At one a.m. he called John Gilbert, Redemption’s police chief and one of the booster club’s biggest contributors.
A Little Bit of Déjà Vu Page 26
