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

by R. L. Merrill

  “Mr. Black, your daughter needs to understand that she must be respectful to her teachers, whether she agrees with them or not.”

  Danny tried very, very hard to control his temper. “Mrs. Temple, I agree with you. But at what point does the teacher show respect for the student’s privacy? Honestly, what happens between Jane and her mother is none of your business.”

  The principal, if I read her correctly, appeared to be on our side. She sat back and only spoke up to referee a couple of times.

  “Mr. Black. Students have to earn my respect and frankly, with Jane’s lack of skill and effort—”

  “Look, woman! I’ve had about enough of you bad-mouthing my fiancé’s daughter! As a teacher, I am beyond offended at your high-handed methods. Jane should be treated with respect. Period. As should all of your students. And as for her skills, I can attest to the fact that she reads way beyond grade level, and her effort? I have spent hours with her working on the asinine assignments you give out! Do you have any idea how horrifically awful they are? How boring and unchallenging? And—”

  “Ms. Martin, thank you. I think what would be best for all involved here would be to move Jane to a different English teacher. I will speak with the guidance counselor, Jane, and you can pick up your new schedule tomorrow.”

  Danny gripped my hand tightly under the table and I felt my face get hot as I stared daggers into this poor excuse for a human being.

  “Thank you, Principal DiPaulo. We appreciate your time. I promise you that Jane will be on her best behavior and will try her best in this new class.”

  Mrs. DiPaulo smiled gently at Jane. ”I’m sure she will. I look forward to reading your end of the year writing portfolio. I loved your poetry last year.” She winked at her and then turned her attention to Mrs. Temple.

  “Mrs. Temple, please remain here. I’m going to see the Blacks out.”

  I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes at the beastly woman. It was all I could do to not stick my tongue out at her. When we got to the front of the school, Mrs. DiPaulo shook hands with us and gave Jane a hug.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, young lady,” she said with a proud smile.

  I stalked towards the car, furious at that teacher’s behavior. I may have been mumbling under my breath. When I got to the passenger door of the Challenger, I turned to find Danny and Jane trying desperately to hold back their laughter.

  “What?” I hollered at them, still fuming. Jane snorted first, I think, and then they were bent at the waist, roaring with laughter until spittle flew from their lips. Jane caught a case of full-body-wracking hiccups. I put my hands on my hips and felt my teacher face coming out.

  “She said ‘ass’,” Danny snickered and Jane howled. ”Really, Jesse, is ‘assnine’ even a real word?”

  I narrowed my eyes at them both and tried to be serious. It was a losing battle. “I can’t believe you—”

  Danny held up a hand and bent further at the waist, trying to catch his breath. ”Don’t, please. I can’t take any more!”

  I rolled my eyes and a giggle slipped out. Jane rushed over and gave me a big hug.

  “Thank you, Jesse. It means a lot that you would stand up for me.”

  Righteous indignation flowed through me and I started to berate that sad sack of a teacher again, but Danny wrapped us both in his arms.

  “Can we please just go get some ice cream? Or dinner? Whichever? I’m fucking starving.”

  Chapter - Ten

  The fairytale wedding was to take place in Southern Spain near the town of Granada in four days. Roland Curtis was delighted we had chosen to have him marry us at his home. I had so many reasons to be nervous it was ridiculous. We weren’t doing this fancy, just plain and simple. I decided to just wear my other crocheted dress that I’d bought before the last wedding. Easy. No muss, no fuss. We were set to fly to Spain in two days. That was the plan anyway. Then Janey got sick with mononucleosis, Nora threw her back out, grabbing the pancake griddle off of a high shelf, Legs got into some chocolate and had to spend the night at the emergency vet, and to cap it all off, some assholes broke into the studio and stole three of Danny’s guitars. While they were trying to get away, they plowed into the Challenger and totaled it. To put it mildly, we were a mess.

  “Fuck this fucking clusterfuck! All I wanted to do was marry my fucking fiancée on Thanksgiving and all of this fucking shit gets in the way!”

  Danny was edgier than I’d ever seen him. I tried to stay out of his path the eve of our departure as he called Patricia and had her cancel everything; our flights, the car, the photographer, the pet-sitter…I felt awful for Jane. She blamed herself.

  “Janey, you can’t help being sick! You can’t travel like this, sweetie. You know? When things like this happen, I always believe there’s a reason. Who knows? Maybe our plane would have crashed, or someone would have gotten hurt, or for crying out loud, maybe I would have toppled off the cliff behind Roland’s castle and dragged your father with me to a watery grave!”

  That got Jane to laugh.

  “Nothing has changed. Your father and I still love each other and we will get married when the time is right. All right? So no more worrying.”

  If only it was that easy to calm Danny. His “dick” persona was back. He bit everyone’s heads off, with the exception of “his girls.” I took over Nora’s duties and giggled while they all ate my horrible cooking with gracious smiles over their grimaces.

  “I know it’s awful, I’m sorry. You don’t have to pretend like it’s good.”

  Danny was the first to snort. “Honey, you know I love you and I could care less if you can cook. But this? It tastes like ass. Like warmed over ass with a side of dead, rotting flesh.”

  I’d tried to pan-fry some steaks since I was less confident in my grilling abilities. Apparently the use of some sort of marinade or spices would have helped. It was all so intimidating.

  Nora wiped her mouth and washed down her steak with some milk. “Jesse, maybe you should come to cooking class with me. Never mind. I’m not sure even cooking classes could help this. Sorry, sweetie, you should stick to dancing.”

  I barked out a laugh, but then Jane slammed her hand down on the table, startling us all. “You guys are so mean! Jesse tried hard to…” she broke off into a coughing fit.

  I stood to rub her back. “Jane I’m not upset at all. I feel awful that you guys are eating this. I promise, I’ll stick to Mac ‘n’ Cheese from now on.”

  She was not convinced. She defiantly continued to eat the disgusting meat while Danny and Nora continued to come up with colorful adjectives for how bad it was.

  After dinner, Jane went to take a bath and Nora went to her cottage to take some pain medication and wait for Connie to arrive. Danny and I retired to the library and he turned on the fire. He was still angry. I could see it in his every jerky movement.

  “Baby, come sit with me. Let me rub your shoulders.”

  He stopped in the middle of the floor with his hands on his hips, his shoulders bunched up. “How can you be so calm about this? Aren’t you upset?”

  I patted the couch next to me for him to come sit down. He hesitated before finally slouching and stomping over to the couch with a pout that would have rivaled a toddler’s. I climbed up onto the back and had him sit on the cushion in front of me. I placed my hands on his shoulders, but I could barely get any purchase through his rock-hard stress.

  “I’m very disappointed, just like you. But I just feel it in my gut there must be a reason we’re here. For some reason we weren’t meant to go to Spain right now and I’m ok with that. We’ll go when we can arrange it.”

  “Yeah, but Roland is starting a new film and will be on location for the next few months. He won’t be able to get away to marry us. And then the tour… Christ, I just want to get married!” He kicked his heel back against the couch and I paused my hands.

  “I don’t want you to take this wrong, Danny, but why are you in such a hurry? Aren’t you happy jus
t being together?”

  He turned to face me and his expression was all over the place. “Of course I’m happy! I just want to prove to you that you’re it for me. I just want it official. I don’t want anything to take you away from me.”

  So that was it. He was feeling insecure. I pulled his face close to mine and kissed him with my eyes open. “Nothing is going to take me away from you. I don’t need a piece of paper, or a wedding, or even a ring to make me feel bound to you. I love you, Daniel Adam Black. You’re it for me. I’m certain of that. But it sounds like you aren’t convinced?”

  He exhaled a huge breath and dropped his head in his hands. “I guess because I felt this way before and—”

  “And she left you. I know. You have all the reason in the world to be worried, but you don’t have to. I know it will make you feel better to have that marriage license, but it doesn’t change anything for me. Does that make sense?”

  He turned and buried his face in my lap, his arms encircling me. He held me like that for a long time while I ran my fingers over his scalp. He sighed deeply and I felt the tension ease in his back. “You never told me what happened when you saw the lady doctor,” he said against my thighs, so it came out a little muffled.

  “The lady doctor? That’s right! It’s been a little crazy.”

  He lifted his head and gazed up at me. “So what did she say?”

  I shrugged and continued lightly scratching his back. “About what?” I decided to play dumb. Danny narrowed his eyes at me.

  “You know exactly what! Wait…She said yes, didn’t she!” I tried my hardest to look innocent.

  “Yes to what?”

  Danny growled and pulled on my hips. “C’mon, Jesse. Don’t tease me. What did she say about having a baby?”

  I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. I answered him in a non-committal tone. “Oh that. Hmmm. She might have said it was okay, if I wanted to. She said you weren’t too old.” I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing.

  “Are you fucking with me? Are you? Jesse?” I couldn’t help it, a giggle slipped out. “She said yes? SHE SAID YES!!!” He buried his face in my crotch and shouted into my crotch, “SHE SAID YES! WATCH OUT, UTERUS, YOU’RE GOING TO SEE SOME ACTION!”

  “Danny!” I should have known he’d freak out.

  “Now we have even more reason to hurry the fuck up and get married!” He shoved his face back in my crotch and I fought desperately to get away from him. He yanked me off the couch and onto the floor with him. We rolled around wrestling for a bit until he had me pinned beneath him. His sly smile was making me nervous.

  “Danny, please. She said we could, that it would be safe, but I’m still nervous, okay? And all this insanity? Let’s just take some time to think about it, okay?”

  He kissed me softly until I melted into him. In my brain, I knew I shouldn’t relax, but he just had this way—

  “I’ll give you a reprieve…Until after the wedding. Then I’m throwing your fucking pills away.”

  My eyes popped open and I gawked at him. I should have known.

  “You’d seriously do that, wouldn’t you, you manipulative—”

  More kissing. When would I learn?

  I felt a yawn building up, so I tapped his shoulder. “Let’s go to bed, baby. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I know tonight’s dinner sucked, but I want to cook that turkey.”

  Danny pushed up and looked alarmed. “Please let me cook the turkey, honey. You can help with everything else, I promise. I just don’t think I can take it if the turkey tastes foul. AH HAHAHAHA get it? Fowl?” He fell apart laughing. It was so infectious that I lost it, too.

  I dragged him by the arm down the hall to the bedroom while he continued to throw bad puns at me. I shushed him. “You’re going to wake Janey, you goof!”

  The laughter subsided, however, when we got to the bedroom. He became quite intent on practicing his babymaking skills. I’ll admit it, the fact that he was so excited about it had me considering the possibilities. I had so many things to be thankful for on this holiday.

  Thanksgiving morning Danny was up before me and I heard him singing all the way in the kitchen. I hurried out there to see what I could do to help and found he had everything under control. We talked for a while before Jane trudged out. She said her throat was better and apologized again for causing us to not get married.

  Danny swept her up into his arms and spun her around. “Beautiful daughter, nothing on earth will stop me from marrying Jesse. Nothing. I’m just going to have to put on my thinking cap and find a way to sweep her off of her feet and create another magical matrimonial mission.”

  “Lord, last night was the puns, this morning it’s alliteration?”

  He wiggled his eyebrows at me. I just knew I was in trouble.

  We spent the day being lazy and watching movies in the theater. I was grateful Danny had a handle on the cooking because I was feeling pretty worn out from having to be the one in charge the past couple of days. We ate dinner early and were just sitting down to watch another movie when first my phone, then his, started buzzing. We looked at each other with concern

  “JESSE! It’s Cosmo…”

  I didn’t even hear the rest of Jinx’s words. I flew out of my seat and ran for the bedroom. I dressed quickly and was just grabbing my purse when Danny ran in behind me to get his wallet and keys.

  “Just let me tell Nora and we’re out of here.”

  Danny drove the Range Rover like he would have the Challenger, which made for a harrowing ride to the hospital. We rushed into the ER to find Jinx and Patricia waiting for us.

  “He’s still in surgery. When the ceiling collapsed, it trapped his leg. They said he should heal from that just fine, but they’re concerned about the burns and the amount of smoke he inhaled.”

  Slowly the story unraveled that the guys had been partying pretty hard the night before and Sam and Johnny hadn’t slept. They’d been hanging out with a new group of guys who had them experimenting with stimulants of some kind. They’d been up all night and got the brilliant idea to try to cook a turkey. They put it in the oven without covering it and turned it on high. They left while Cosmo was in his room sleeping off his alcohol stupor from the night before. He didn’t wake when the fire started. The alarm malfunctioned. Jinx was in my old apartment and his alarm went off just as the fire broke through the wall of the two units. Jinx barely got out with his life. He ran into Cosmo’s apartment without thinking and was dragging him, unconscious, from his bed when the bedroom ceilings collapsed on both units.

  I hugged Jinx tight while sobs wracked my body. I couldn’t believe my worst fear about that place came true. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I whispered to him.

  He had burns on his arms and face, but other than some mild smoke inhalation, he would be fine. Cosmo? They just couldn’t tell us yet.

  Danny sat with me and held me while I cried. Jinx held my hand and Patricia did her best to find out what was going on with Cosmo. She made sure Cosmo’s family was contacted, so shortly after we arrived, the room was filled to the brim with shouting, crying Greek relatives.

  “You must be Jesse,” a striking woman in her fifties approached me with a sad smile. “I am Sofia Grammatica, Cosmo’s mother.”

  My heart dropped. She looked like a shorter, more feminine version of her son. I pulled her into a tight hug.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

  “He’s a grown man, my dear. He made his choices. I just hope my son recovers from this.”

  She introduced me to several other family members who were alternately shouting angrily at each other and the hospital staff. I got the gist of what they were saying: It was time for Cosmo to get rid of that place, they should have let it burn to the ground, he needed to give up his nonsensical dream of this rock n’ roll business…

  I wanted to tell them all to go fuck themselves, that my best friend was in there and they needed to back the fuck off, but Danny h
eld me to him and wordlessly warned me to bite my tongue.

  “Jinx, do you have a place to stay,” Danny asked quietly.

  He shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”

  Danny put his arm around him and told him he’d be coming home with us. Jinx, I had told Danny earlier, had no family in the area. He was a runaway, just like Danny had been all those years ago. He was a hard worker, driving the delivery van for Cosmo’s uncle’s florist and gourmet food business. For the past four out of the five years I’d known Cosmo, Jinx had been part of the family, my little family. Now I was feeling even guiltier about leaving them.

  Danny gave me a squeeze when the doctor came in to let everyone know Cosmo’s status.

  “He’s going to be fine. He’s waking up now. His lower leg was broken in two places and we had to set it with pins and rods, but it will heal fine. The burns on his back and neck should heal well. Most were only second degree. He’s going to probably be the most angry about us having to cut his hair,” the doctor joked.

  “His hair? “ I squeaked out. Oh no! That was so much a part of Cosmo.

  “He’ll be here for a few days so we can monitor him for infection, but he should be fine to go home soon.”

  Cosmo’s mother thanked the doctor and followed him out into the hall. Jinx and I hugged each other.

  “I don’t know what I would do if he didn’t make it,” Jinx said, trying to hold back his tears. Jinx was normally such a joker. I knew he didn’t handle this kind of stuff well.

  “You’ll stay with us,” I reminded him. “We’ll go over and get anything we can out of the apartments when you’re well enough.”

  We waited until Cosmo’s family had a chance to see him and then his mother approached us again. “He would like to see you, Jesse.” She took my hand and I let her pull me up.

  Danny motioned for me to go ahead. He was kind of supporting Jinx, who had fallen asleep against him. Poor kid. I followed Mrs. Grammatica down the hall and into the last room. Tears burned my eyes along with the many hospital’s smells. Cosmo’s eyes were closed as we approached. He coughed a couple of times and looked as though he was in pain. I took his hand gently in mine.