Teacher: The Final Act (A Hollywood Rock n' Romance Trilogy #3)

by R. L. Merrill

  I entered the kitchen and found Danny chewing on a fingernail, Nora angrily putting away groceries, and Jane hugging her mom weakly.

  “I need to go shower and get this shit off me.”

  Nora looked up and frowned. ”Danny! You’ve got hives all over!”

  “I know. It’s the body paint. Jesse got me some stuff. The Benadryl is already helping. I just need to get this off me.”

  Nora nodded at me and said, “You go on, then. I’m going to fix dinner. Brooke, are you staying for dinner?”

  Brooke looked hesitantly to Danny, who nodded. ”She is. Nora, after dinner, can you get the spare room made up, please?”

  Nora’s eyes shot to him in alarm. The look on his face stopped her from making any nasty remarks. ”Sure.”

  Jane looked helplessly from me, to Danny, to her mom. Danny picked up on this and said, “Jane, why don’t you go let Legs out of her dog run and play with her for a bit. I’ll be out in a few.”

  She nodded and hurried toward the slider. Legs’ happy yips sounded as Jane got to her cage. Inside, we silently waited for Danny to speak.

  Brooke excused herself to use the restroom. She must have sensed that Danny wanted to talk to us without her present. Once she was out of the room, Nora turned to Danny with her hands on her hips.

  He cleared his throat and sighed. ”Brooke left Oliver. She came here because she doesn’t want her manager to know anything yet. She wants to go to rehab and needs my help. I told her she could stay here until I can get her set up in a facility.”

  Nora cursed and turned back to her dinner preparations. Danny frowned at her and then looked to me.

  I stepped closer to him and put my hand on his arm. ”What do you need me to do?” I asked him softly.

  He leaned down and kissed me quickly. ”Can you go run me that oatmeal bath? I’ll be there in just a minute.” His eyes shot back to Nora as I left the room.

  I met Brooke in the hallway. She was looking around with a smirk at the living room. ”He finally got his house of horrors, I see.” She turned to me with an embarrassed smile. ”I’m really sorry to impose on the two of you. I don’t mean to intrude. I just didn’t have anyplace else to go.”

  I shook my head and my hand came up to push my hair out of my face, putting my new ring on display for Brooke. I really didn’t do it on purpose, but her eyes grew wide, then narrowed.

  She looked bitterly back at me and smirked. ”I’ll be out of your way soon. You can have my ex-husband and all of this,” she said, gesturing to the great room, “to yourself.”

  I could tell she was upset. I steeled myself and refused to sink to her level. ”It’s fine. Do you need anything? Clothes or anything?”

  She shook her head, irritated. ”I have a suitcase. It’s in the spare room.”

  I nodded. ”Okay. I’ll see you at dinner.”

  I turned and heard her huff. ”Jesse,” she called out. I turned around and took in her disheveled appearance, her limp hair, the bags under her eyes… I felt sorry for her. ”Thanks,” she said.

  I smiled and said, “Whatever you need, we’re here.” That made her feel worse, I could tell. She slouched off to the kitchen and I went back to the bedroom to get Danny’s bath ready.

  He came in a few minutes later looking disturbed. He stripped down and got in the shower to wash off while I sat on the counter, watching and waiting patiently for him to speak. I’d learned that sometimes Danny needed some time to work things out before he spoke. If I’d known that this past summer when we had our first blow up, I might have been able to avoid several tense moments where I almost walked away from him.

  After he washed he stepped over to me and looked to me as if he needed a hug. I opened my arms and he wrapped himself around me. He took several deep breaths before he spoke. “Damn, if she doesn’t have the worst timing. I should be making love to my fiancée right now.” I giggled and ran my fingernails over his scalp. He sucked in a breath and closed his eyes. ”Mmmmm, do that some more, all over.”

  I laughed and pushed him towards the tub. “In you go. Then you can tell me what’s going on.”

  His shoulders sagged as he climbed into his giant tub. Once he sat back, I took another packet of oatmeal and rubbed it onto his hives. They were in the bands where the black had been, including across his face. My poor baby.

  “I’m sorry, Jesse. I can’t turn her away.”

  I shook my head. ”No, of course not. I wouldn’t ask you to.”

  He frowned. “She’s the mother of my daughter. I can’t just throw her out on the street, although God knows she probably deserves it. I’m so sorry. I hope it will only be a couple of days. I’m going to talk to Patricia after dinner and see if she knows of a place that is good about discretion. Brooke’s worried about losing her role on this show. I guess she’s really happy with it, but the hours were killing her so she started taking crank to stay awake and edgy or some shit, and now she’s really sick. I swear, I’ll get her out of here as soon as possible, okay? I don’t really want her around Janey that much either.” He rubbed at his head and closed his eyes.

  “Shhhhh. It’ll be fine. If Nora can’t handle it, she can leave everything to me. I know she has a hard time with Brooke.”

  Danny snorted, ”That’s putting it mildly. Thanks for the offer. I may have to take you up on it. I don’t want Nora to quit, and I don’t need those two going at it in front of Jane.”

  He was so smart. I wrapped my arms around his neck from behind and kissed his shoulder and the back of his head.

  “I fucking love you, Jesse. My fiancèe. The future Mrs. Black.” I giggled. He turned and smiled deviously at me. ”You will change your name, won’t you? Jesse Black sounds so fucking sexy.”

  I stuck my chin out and smirked. ”I’ll think about it. I’ll at least hyphenate. I’m the last Martin in my father’s family. He might like it if I kept the name.”

  “Oh yeah? Whatever you want to do is fine. As long as I can call you Mrs. Black.” I whispered in his ear just what he could do with me and he started breathing heavy. ”Shit, Jesse. You can’t say things like that!”

  I heard Jane calling for me so I bit his earlobe and said, “Soak. Get the itchies taken care of, okay? I’ll go hold down the fort.”

  “Goddamn, you are incredible. And I’m pretty smart for asking you to marry me.”

  I groaned as I walked back in the bedroom. Jane was standing in the doorway and she ran to me for a hug.

  “Jesse,” she cried, pressing her face into my chest.

  I held her and stroked her hair as she cried. ”I’m sorry, sweetie. Are you going to be okay with her here? For a few days?”

  She nodded. ”As long as you are here. Daddy leaves in two days with the band and I’m afraid to be alone with her.”

  I pulled her tighter, cursing when I remembered that Danny was leaving. The band had interviews with a couple of magazines and radio shows and appearances on the Tonight Show starting Thursday. They’d be gone for a week. I really hoped Danny got something in order before he left. Otherwise, we were going to have a long-term houseguest.

  Dinner was tense, to say the least. Nora cooked, served, then fled to her house, choosing to follow the “if you don’t’ have anything nice to say” rule. I kept my mouth shut, Danny clenched his jaw, Jane’s blue eyes were huge, and Brooke chattered nervously. I cleaned up so the three of them could talk. I gathered from their stilted discussion they were choosing to leave out the rehab part of the discussion with Jane. She excused herself early to go to bed and asked me to tuck her in. Brooke was wise enough to bite her tongue and just gave a pained smile when Jane kissed her good night.

  “Jesse, it’s so weird with her here,” Jane said, sounding wrecked.

  I braided her hair and scratched her back and told her to just focus on what she had control over right now. School. ”Try to forget about it tomorrow, okay? When you come home, you’ll have time enough to deal with it.” I was really at a loss here. I couldn’t i
magine not being able to talk to my mother when I was Jane’s age.

  “Hey Jesse? Can I ask you something?”

  I kissed her forehead and pushed her a little so she’d move over and make room for me. ”You can ask me anything if I can lay down next to you. That photo shoot was pretty exhausting today!”

  Jane sat up and grabbed for my hand. “Oh, that’s right! Daddy proposed to you! Did you say yes?”

  I laughed and tickled her, causing her to lie back down, facing me. ”I did say yes, you little sneak! You knew all about it, didn’t you?”

  She beamed. ”I told him it would be romantic if he could get pictures of your face saying yes. I’m so happy!” Then her smile fell. ”I just wish…Never mind. Jesse? If you had a friend that was doing things you didn’t think were right, would you still be friends with her?”

  Uh oh. “It would depend. I’m sure I would tell them I didn’t like what they were doing, but I don’t know what I would do after that. Is the person trying to involve you in this something?”

  She shook her head. ”No. I have told her I don’t like it. She says I’m just being a baby and I should get over it.”

  I didn’t know how much to push, but I wanted her to keep talking. ”Do you want to tell me what’s happening?”

  She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. ”It has to do with boys. Some of the girls at school joined this Kik conversation and were playing like truth or dare, but the dares were really icky stuff. Stuff I don’t even know what they meant, but I know are sexual. Then there were pictures involved…” She shuddered and made a retching sound.

  “Sounds like these girls are getting in a little over their heads. I think you are wise to stay out of it. I know how persuasive friends can be, though.” I also knew a little about Kik since my students were using it. It had a photo capability similar to SnapChat, and kids were taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them to each other. They didn’t quite realize that once a picture gets sent, you have no more control of it. A student I knew even had hers posted on Facebook and shared around until even the teachers at her comprehensive high school had seen it. It ruined her hopes for a modeling career, among other things. I was really worried about Jane being involved with any of this stuff, so I shared the story with her.

  “See,” she said, “that’s exactly why I didn’t want to get involved. But one of my friends started calling me names and trashing me to everyone else on the convo. Ugh! I hate it!”

  I pulled her into a hug and kissed her hair. ”I know, honey. Technology sometimes makes it so much harder to get through your teen years. If it makes any difference, I’m proud of you for not getting involved in something like this. If it helps, use your dad as an excuse. Tell them your dad checks your phone every night and will make you take Kik off your phone if you’re misusing it. And that he reads all of your conversations. That ought to make them back off.”

  She giggled. ”It would. I hate to make Dad look like a bad guy, but that would make my life easier. Okay. Thanks, Jesse. I love you! I can’t wait until you’re my step-mom for real.”

  Damn this girl! The tears started and I sniffled a couple of times before letting her go, kissing her once more, and saying goodnight.

  I could hear Brooke’s shrill voice from the kitchen and I just didn’t know if I should intrude so I went to the bedroom to wait for Danny. I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up next, Danny was sitting on his stool in the corner playing guitar.

  “Hey,” I said quietly. He put the guitar down and came over to my side of the bed. ”Your hives look better, are you still itchy?”

  He shrugged and put his head in his hands. ”Jesse, I don’t know what to say. We should be celebrating tonight, and instead, I’ve got this fucking…”

  I sat up and crawled behind him, massaging his rock hard shoulders. I needed to call Connie tomorrow. ”Danny. We’ve been through this before. It’s just a bump. We’ll deal with this, and when we get past it, we’ll celebrate.” I kissed the side of his neck and felt him relax substantially.

  “Thank you so fucking much for saying that. I’m so afraid of losing you, honey. I don’t want to do anything to fuck this up.”

  I wrapped myself around his back and rested my head on his shoulder. ”Just keep talking to me, okay? And be cognizant of Jane. She’s really wigged out by Brooke being here. While I know she’s got to learn how to deal with her eventually, having her staying here is a strain on her. She was okay when I tucked her in, but she’s—”

  “God, I know. Poor baby. She’s been through so damn much. Fuck. All right. I called Patricia and she’s going to come over in the morning so we can get Brooke taken care of.”

  Thank God for Patricia. If anyone could fix this, she could.

  “Okay. Tomorrow’s Wednesday, so I’ve got work, then I’ll pick up Jane and take her to the ranch and meet you back here for dinner. You leave Friday, right?”

  He exhaled a stream of curses so graphic I barked out a laugh. That got me a small smile.

  “Yeah. Fucking New York. I think we’re back Monday or Tuesday, then home for a couple days and then we’re heading to London for interviews and a couple of shows, then back…” He tensed up again and I kissed his neck again.

  “Babe, we’ll get through it, okay? I love you.”

  He turned and pulled me to him to kiss me sweetly. ”I fucking love you, you fucking gorgeous woman. It’s killing me to not be inside you right now, but I just… Dammit. I don’t know what’s more of a boner-killer…These damn hives or having my fucking ex-wife down the hall! This whole situation sucks big hairy donkey balls.” He pouted so adorably. I couldn’t be upset.

  “Well, I hate to be more of a boner-killer, but I have an OB-GYN appointment on Friday and I wanted to talk to her about permanent birth control.”

  Danny’s face fell. He cradled my jaw in his hands. ”Oh, honey. But you’re feeling so much better! Can you wait? Like, see how you’re doing? You’re so young and…”

  I smiled at him. ”I’ll just ask her about it, okay? I won’t make any decisions yet.”

  He knew me so well now. He knew to not push me, but I could also tell that he wasn’t ready to be done with this conversation. I couldn’t imagine adding a baby to this mix!

  We talked for a bit more and fell asleep in each other’s arms. He felt so good there, I was beginning to dread the part of his life that was going to have him travelling and being away from me.

  Chapter - Eight

  I was in such a hurry the next morning to leave for work that I forgot to take my medication. I knew I’d have enough time if I jammed home on my lunch hour, so I let Gloria know that I was going to be gone. When I pulled up, I was surprised to not see Patricia’s car. I figured she must have already left. I went in and checked the kitchen first and found no one, so I figured they must be outside. I hurried down the hall, checking my watch to be sure I had enough time. And I heard giggling. Female giggling. Then I heard Danny’s voice. What the—

  “Come on, Danny! You can’t tell me you don’t miss it.”

  My stomach turned to acid. I couldn’t make my feet move.

  “I do, Brooke. But things are different-”

  I came around the corner to see Danny in a towel in the doorway of the bathroom. He must have caught the motion out of the corner of his eye.

  “Jesse! What are you doing here, honey?” He acted completely innocent, just confused. I tried not to hyperventilate.

  I stepped further into the room and saw Brooke sitting on the settee next to the closet, thank God, and fully clothed. She, however, had a knowing smirk, as if she knew exactly what I was going to think of this scenario.

  I pushed past Danny and into the bathroom. ”I forgot my medication,” I muttered and grabbed for my pill tray. Danny stepped up behind me and tried to pull me into a hug, which I resisted. ”I’m going to be late getting back. I’ll see you later.” I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

  Danny was
faster. “Hey,” he called out from the doorway. I turned and glanced back down the hall. ”I love you,” he said, sounding a little unsure. I shook my head and raised an eyebrow. ”What?” he asked.

  I rolled my eyes. ”I’ll see you tonight.” I slammed the door behind me and ran to my car, running out of time. I dialed Nora and put it on speaker.

  “Jesse, what’s up?” she answered, sounding concerned.

  I groaned. ”It’s probably nothing, but I just ran in to grab my meds and found Danny in a fucking towel and Brooke sitting in the room with him. Does he not get it!?”

  Nora cursed. “No, he most certainly does not. Don’t worry. I’ll head in there and create a diversion. I’ll let him know in no uncertain terms that he’s being a jackass.”

  I thanked her and downshifted as I hung up and flew back down Sunset. I prayed for no traffic. My phone started buzzing as I pulled into the lot at school.

  you ok?

  There were so many reasons I wasn’t okay. Texting was only going to make things worse. I went into my classroom. I dropped my phone into my file cabinet so I wouldn’t be distracted, and had only seconds before my first afternoon student arrived.

  Two hours later school was over and I grabbed my things. On my way out I felt buzzing in my purse, so I pulled out my phone. Danny had texted me ten times. The messages ranged from ‘are you mad’ to ‘I’m sorry’ to ‘please fucking answer me, I’m freaking out,’ to finally ‘Jesse, you’re scaring me, fucking answer me!’

  I drove over to Jane’s school and arrived in time for her to get out of her after school music club. She’d decided to join this year and was playing her guitar with some other kids. I texted her that I’d arrived. She came out moments later, smiling, with two other kids. She waved to them as she neared the car. She seemed so grown up. She’d changed so much since I’d met her just a few months ago. She put her bag and guitar case in the trunk of my car and hopped in.