by Alice Ward
I spoke with Principal Matthews, who was delighted to hear that the charges were dropped. He promised to schedule the hearing with the school board and to put in a good word for me with the members. He warned that I may be put on probation, but assured me that there was an excellent chance I’d be allowed back at work when school resumed after the new year. When I ended the call, I felt on top of the world. And I had seven hours before I had to be anywhere.
I’m sick of being behind closed doors. I’m going shopping. And I’m going to get my hair and nails done. And if I happen upon a reporter, I’ll tell them all about how my name’s been cleared.
I grabbed my purse, pulled on my overcoat, and headed back into the world. I drove to NoBu, a neighborhood a little south of me known for its boutiques, restaurants, and nightlife. For the first time in my life, I shopped like money was no object. Ethan and I were finally going to be free and I wanted to look my best when we were out together. In three hours, I put a two-thousand-dollar dent in my savings.
My spending spree didn’t end at the clothing stores. I found a salon with open appointments and proceeded to get caramel highlights in my chestnut brown hair. A mani-pedi and a quick change later, I walked into Vinicio’s feeling like an entirely new person.
“Good evening,” the hostess greeted me from behind the polished mahogany station. “Table for one?” She spoke with a thick Italian accent and looked like a grandma from a pasta commercial.
“I’m actually meeting a group. I believe the reservation is under Kinkaid,” I replied.
Recognition flashed across her face and she gave me a full smile. “You must be Miss Emily. Yes, follow me. I believe you’re the last one here. It’s so nice to finally meet you. Your uncle talks about you all the time. He called today and said he needed our best table for you.”
I followed her through the dim, elegant dining room to a circular booth in a far, private corner. Uncle Walt, Claudia, Linda, and Melissa were already arranged around the table. I hugged them all and sat down, checking my phone again to see if Ethan had called. I hadn’t heard from him all day, and I was starting to worry.
I’m sure he got caught up in a late practice. They are playing a bowl game in a few days, after all. He’ll call when he can.
“Emily, you look fantastic,” Melissa gushed. “I almost bought those exact pants last week.”
I smoothed the legs of my new grey linen slacks and smiled back at her. “Great minds think alike. Uncle Walt told me to pamper myself, so I took his advice. I may have gotten a little carried away.”
“You deserve it, sweetheart. Did you talk to your boss? Any idea when you get to go back to work?” he asked.
“Principal Matthews is scheduling a hearing with the school board. They’ll review the details of the incident, and then rule whether to reinstate me or recommend to the state board that my license be revoked. He seems to think the worst I’m looking at is probation.”
“Why is probation necessary?” Claudia asked. “I’d think they’d reinstate you immediately and apologize.”
“I didn’t tamper with the trail mix, but I wasn’t paying as close attention to the kids as I should have,” I explained. “I was actually on the phone with Ethan when Alfie collapsed.”
“It’s not like you turned your back and left them completely unattended,” Linda interjected. “Mrs. Carver was there doling out cupcakes. It’s understandable that you relaxed a little, knowing there was an extra set of adult eyes in the room.”
“I’m fine with serving out a probation,” I assured them. “I think it’s incredibly fair.”
A short, jovial man approached our table and reached for Walt’s hand.
“Walter, it’s so nice to see you. It makes me so happy that you came here for your special dinner. I trust my wife is taking good care of you?”
Walt shook the man’s hand and smiled back at him. “Marie has been wonderful, as usual. I’d like to introduce you to my niece and her friends. Emily, this is my good friend Mario Vinicio. His wife Marie brought you to the table. Mario, this is Emily, and her friends Melissa and Linda.”
“It’s so nice to meet you all,” he replied with a nod. “I apologize for not shaking your hands. It’s okay for Walter to smell like garlic and onion, but not you beautiful ladies. Claudia, it’s nice to see you again.”
“You too, Mario.”
He smoothed the front of his white, tomato-stained apron and turned back to the kitchen. “Your first course will be out in just a second,” he promised. “I’ll check on you again after dessert.”
“Thanks, Mario,” Walt called after him.
“Did you order before I got here?” I asked.
“Sort of. I gave Mario permission to plan our meal. Don’t worry, everything he makes is delicious,” Walt assured me. “Now back to what we were talking about. Did Principal Matthews have any idea when this hearing will take place?”
I shook my head. “He’s supposed to call me when the board gets back to him with an exact time. But he thinks they’ll be able to fit me in before school resumes on the eighth.”
“It’ll be so nice to have you back again,” Linda told me. “Sheryl Harper has been covering your class. She’s capable enough, but she isn’t exactly friendly. Your kids asked me when you were coming back every day.”
I cringed to hear that my class had been left with a teacher they didn’t like.
“She wasn’t that bad,” Linda assured me. “But she wasn’t you.”
“Are you nervous about being in the classroom again?” Claudia asked.
I shook my head quickly. “I’m thrilled with the idea of being with the kids again, but I’m afraid I’ll be a little jumpy. When I watched that footage… it made my skin crawl. And Nelson seems to think we should be on high alert for another incident.”
Uncle Walt’s ears perked up. “What? He thinks you’re in danger?”
Damn it. I shouldn’t have said that. But if Walt didn’t hear it from me, he was bound to hear it from Frank.
I laid a calming hand on his arm. “He thinks there’s a chance. But he expects it to be similar to what happened with the trail mix, not a direct attack. And that’s if I was the intended target in the first place, which I wasn’t.”
“You sound awfully sure about that,” Walt replied, his brow furrowed.
“Who would want to hurt me, Uncle Walt? Your investigator already cleared Ben. No one else has motive to want me in trouble. And Frank told me your PI has files on people linked to the Hollis family.”
“Still, I think it’s best that you stay at my place until this investigation is over. Or if you must, stay with Ethan. But I don’t want you alone at your place if the ADA has warned you’re in danger.”
Damn it, Uncle Walt.
“Ethan’s place?” Melissa asked, lifting one eyebrow with curiosity.
Uncle Walt turned beet red as he realized he’d spilled my secret. I opened my mouth to defend myself, but Mario chose that moment to reappear at our table.
“For your first course, I prepared all of my favorite appetizers. We have muscles steamed in white wine and herbs, hand tossed flatbread with assorted dipping oils, and, of course, some antipasti.”
He arranged the dishes on the table, then left again with a bow. The food remained untouched, all eyes on me.
“Why would you stay at Ethan’s house, Emily?” Melissa pressed.
I may as well tell them. This part was always going to suck. I just need to get it over with.
“Ethan and I have been back together for weeks,” I confessed.
“How did this happen?” Linda asked, excitement dancing across her face. Melissa was much less impressed by my news.
“You’ve been lying to us?” she asked.
I sagged in my seat and gripped my wine glass for support. “Ethan came to my place about a week after we broke up. He apologized. He explained things the way you did, Mel. I forgave him, and he offered to leave the team so Victor wouldn’t have anything to ho
ld over him. But I couldn’t let him do that. Not once I understood how many people it would affect.”
“But you didn’t tell us,” Melissa said again.
“I know. And I’m sorry. It’s not that I didn’t trust you—”
She held up a hand. “That’s exactly what it’s like. Listen, Emily, I’m sure you had your reasons. And I’m thrilled you’re not in trouble anymore. I don’t want to ruin your night, so I’m just going to leave.” She slid down the booth, forcing Linda onto her feet and out of the way.
“Melissa, please—”
“We’ll talk about this later, Emily.”
She rushed from the restaurant without another word. I moved to follow her, but Walt grabbed my arm.
“She’ll calm down,” he promised. “Just give her some time.”
Linda sat back down and we locked eyes.
“Are you mad at me?” I asked, pressing my hand to my stomach.
She shook her head. “No. But I haven’t known you as long as Melissa. Her feelings are hurt. But Walt’s right, she’ll calm down. Now tell me what you’ve been up to with Ethan.”
***
I tried to enjoy the rest of dinner, but between Melissa storming away angry and Ethan being MIA, I was too distracted. I did my best to stay engaged in the conversations, but the moment the dessert plates were cleared, I made my escape.
I didn’t check my phone until I was safely in my car. Ethan had sent a single text asking me to stop by his place when I was finished at the restaurant. My heart sank and knots formed in my stomach as I navigated toward his neighborhood.
He didn’t say anything about the charges being dropped, not so much as a congratulations. And he didn’t apologize for missing dinner. Something else is on his mind. This can’t be good.
I pulled up to Ethan’s front door, my entire body shaking as I got out of my Prius. He opened the door before I reached it and wordlessly escorted me inside. His jaw was clenched, and he looked angrier than I’d ever seen him.
“Ethan, what’s going on?” I demanded, my words choked with worry. “Did you get my message about my meeting?”
He nodded and pulled me into his arms. “I’m glad the charges were dropped,” he said, his voice almost lifeless. “You look fantastic, Emily. I love your hair.”
I gripped his arms, needing his strength to hold on to. “Thank you, but don’t change the subject. You’re scaring me, Ethan. What’s going on?”
“Come on. Let’s go sit down,” he insisted, leading me to the sofa. I perched beside him on the edge of a cushion and searched his face, desperate for any sign of what had him so upset.
“When practice was over this afternoon, I saw your text,” he began slowly. “I came home to shower and get ready for the dinner.”
That explains why he’s wearing slacks and a button-up.
“My plan was to stop by my parents, tell them the news, and then meet you at Vinicio’s.”
My heart sank. “I take it they didn’t react the way you expected them to?”
He shook his head. “They don’t like you, Em. If I were you, I’d take that as a compliment. But it does present us with a problem.”
“How?” I demanded. “My name has been cleared. Victor has no grounds to release you from the team.”
“He made it clear that he’ll create grounds, if he has to. It wouldn’t be the first time. In a meeting I sat in on as a kid, Victor was trying to force one of his partners out of a casino. The guy wouldn’t play ball. A few days later, he was arrested with twenty kilos of coke in his trunk. He tested clean, mind you, and swore his innocence. But I’d bet every dime I have that Victor planted those drugs.”
“You really think he’d do something like that to you, just because he doesn’t like me? And how can he not like me? He and I haven’t even met. And your mother has spent all of five minutes with me. I don’t understand this, Ethan. Do they still think I’m guilty?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I think it has more to do more with Victor’s will than anything, to be honest. He has twenty years on her. And if I’m still single when he passes, the inheritance is split twenty-eighty in her favor. But if I have a family, it goes to sixty-forty to me.”
The information was shocking. “You think she’s sabotaging our relationship over money?”
“That’s her motivation for everything else she does,” he replied grimly.
“So let me get this straight. If we keep seeing each other, your stepfather will probably set you up to take a fall for something you didn’t do so he can force you off the team because your mother is worried about how much of his money she’ll inherit?”
“That’s basically the gist of it,” he agreed. “It’s disgusting, I know.”
“Does Victor know that’s why she doesn’t want us together?”
“I doubt it. Victor gives her what she wants and doesn’t ask any questions. The ironic part is I don’t even want his fucking money. I paid enough attention growing up to know that a lot of it is dirty. And I’ve already earned more than half of his net worth all on my own.”
“What?”
I knew Ethan had his own money. He’d mentioned his investments and business deals before. But he’d never given me a dollar figure, and I’d never asked. But I knew Victor Montez was worth roughly three billion dollars.
He gave me an amused smile. “I told you I could afford to give you whatever kind of life you wanted. Did you think we’d be using my parents’ money?”
“No… I… you never. More than half of Victor’s net worth? How?”
“You know how you send out announcements when you graduate high school and college?”
“Yes. I wish I could graduate twice a year. My uncle sent announcements to practically everyone we’d ever met. I think I raked in about two grand when I graduated high school, and five after college.”
“Exactly. Now imagine you’d sent your announcements to five hundred of the wealthiest people in the world.”
“Oh my God. How much did you get?”
“High school and college put together, I got half a million dollars in graduation money.”
My mouth fell open.
“I know… that’s kind of disgusting too. But I saw the money as my way to break away from my parents. I started investing in the stock market. When that started getting a little too risky, I cashed out and began investing in startups. I now own modest pieces in an extensive portfolio of worldwide businesses.”
I squinted, trying to understand. “What type of businesses?”
“All kinds. Restaurants, e-commerce companies. My EnvisonTech stock is probably worth the most. I bought low when they first went public and held out when they went through all that trouble last year. But those are just a few of the dozen investments I’ve made. We’ll go over them later; we’ve got more important things to think about at the moment.”
“Your parents.” The words came out half cringe, half sigh. “I don’t see what there is to think about, Ethan. If they don’t want us together, there’s not much we can do to change that. We’ll just have to keep hiding until the end of your season. And I guess this means we’re moving.”
Ethan nodded. “If I’m right about why my mother doesn’t want us together, there’s no way I can play for the Stallions next season.”
I gripped his hand, running my thumb softly over his thumb. “And you aren’t ready to retire… even though you can already afford to live another hundred lifetimes without ever working again.”
“I’m not ready to retire,” he agreed. “I still have four or five good years in me. And I definitely don’t want this nightmarish season to be my last. But I’ll retire now with a smile on my face if you tell me Portland is home.”
I leaned into him. “I’ve been here longer than anywhere else. But home has never been a particular place for me. Wherever the people you love are, that’s home. And I love you, Ethan.”
“Everyone else you love is here,” he reminded me. “I feel self
ish for asking you to leave them.”
“No law says we can’t move back when you finally do retire,” I pointed out.
Ethan relaxed against the back of the couch and pulled me to his chest. “You know we’ve spent a lot of time talking about the future, but we’ve been dancing around one particular topic.”
“What topic is that?” I asked, already knowing exactly what he was talking about.
“Well, you’re willing to move away with me. You’re talking about moving back together years down the road… but neither of us have ever mentioned the ‘m’ word.”
I snuggled closer. “I just assumed we were on the same page about that.”
“Oh yeah? What page are you on?” he asked playfully, squeezing me a little tighter.
“The page where we get married and live happily ever after. What page are you on?” I leaned back and stared at him, pretending to be worried.
“That page, baby. Definitely that page.” My stomach twisted as he cupped my cheeks in his hands and kissed me hard on the lips. He pulled away, suddenly giddy with excitement. “Did we just get engaged?”
“I think so,” I agreed with a grin, happiness coming out of every pore.
“Do you want me to get down on one knee and do this the right way?”
I shook my head. The corners of my mouth ached from smiling so hard, but I couldn’t stop.
“I think the way it happened is perfect, thank you very much. It was exactly like the way we met… unplanned, unexpected, and exactly what was supposed to happen.” I kissed him again, slowly this time, reveling in the way his body felt against mine and the knowledge we’d be together forever. Ethan kissed me back just as passionately before pulling away in a sudden panic.
“Shit, was I supposed to ask for Walt’s permission?”
“No,” I assured him with an amused grin. “He’d see that as archaic. He won’t be ‘giving me away’ either, though I’m sure he’ll walk me down the aisle.”
