“No, thanks.” She paused in her typing. “Do you know anything about Jenny James?” she asked on impulse. She’d written down the elementary school principal’s name on her list weeks ago, but she’d added little since.
Josie unwrapped a stick of gum. “I know the family, sure. Been around Pine Point for generations.”
“I just wondered how Jenny ended up working at the school. Because the rest of her family is in business, I mean.”
Josie chewed with a thoughtful expression. “Well, she was the youngest of six, right?”
“That many?”
“Oh, yeah. And there was one after her that died young. Of that SIDS disease, I think. Where the baby just doesn’t wake up? That happened when Jenny was five or six.”
Sadness washed over Sienna. She’d had a professor in college lose a three-month-old baby girl the same way, and the grief on the man’s face when he’d told the class had knifed through her.
“She was a few years behind me in school, but she always loved kids. If anyone needed a babysitter, they hired Jenny.” Josie chewed some more. “She got married young, twenty-one or something like that.”
“Does she have any children of her own?” Sienna realized she had no idea.
“Ah, that’s the sad thing,” Josie said. “She and her husband tried for years.” Josie shook her head. “There’s women gettin’ pregnant left and right, can’t even afford to feed ’em, but they got a pack of kids running along behind ’em at church or the grocery store or wherever. Then ya got someone like Jenny, who’d give her right arm to have just one, and she can’t. Life ain’t fair sometimes, that’s for sure.”
Sienna thought of Jenny’s self-imposed sequestering each day at three o’clock. Did it have anything to do with her personal grief? With the ache of seeing kids run through her school each day and not having any of her own to go home to?
“The worst thing happened about a year ago,” Josie went on.
“There’s something worse?”
“She finally got pregnant. With twins. They’d done that fertilization thing, ya know. What’s it called, where they put the fertilized egg right in ya?”
“In vitro?”
“Yeah. They went to doctors down in Albany, the whole nine yards. The day she walked in here and told me she was carryin’ twins, I’d never seen her so happy. She was glowin’.” Josie’s face fell. “She carried ’em all the way to five months. She was at work an’ miscarried. Ambulance had to come right to the school an’ take her to the hospital.” Josie lifted her shoulders. “Wasn’t meant to be, I guess.”
“That’s terrible.” Sienna reached for her wallet and pulled out a few bills as her omelet churned in her stomach. The principal’s afternoon sadness and red eyes made sense now.
It’s odd, Sienna thought as she flipped through her yellow notepads later that night. She’d never stopped to consider what turning up secrets might mean outside her dissertation. Ella feeding stray cats. Josie writing love poems. Mac and Polly sneaking around behind closed doors. Jenny mourning the loss of her unborn children. Mike marrying, divorcing, and building a new life. There are people attached to secrets. It seemed ludicrous she hadn’t realized that before, but she hadn’t. People and feelings and motives we don’t always understand from the outside.
She put her notepad aside, curled up in the recliner, and watched as fresh snow began to fall outside.
Chapter Twenty-Six
For almost two weeks, Sienna didn’t do one ounce of research. She set her notepads on the floor beside her recliner and focused instead on school. Her students. And Mike. He came to class each Friday at two, so punctual Caleb waited for him at the door and Billy and Bailey had his books picked out and waiting by the rocker.
“You’re good with them,” she said one Friday in early March. “They like you.”
“I like them,” he said as they watched the students prepare for dismissal. Silas trotted over with papers falling out of his backpack, and Mike straightened them and zipped up the pack before helping Silas slip the straps over his shoulders. “I didn’t think I would,” he added.
“Really? What’s not to like about a bunch of eight-year-olds?”
“It’s not them.” He gestured at the chalkboard and her bulletin board. “It’s school. I was never much good at it.”
“You’re good now.”
“Reading picture books to kids who can’t? I hope I am.”
“They can read. Caleb and Dawn can anyway.”
He caught her hand in his, behind the desk so the kids wouldn’t see. “I didn’t mean that.”
“Good.” Together they walked the class out to the buses and ignored Eva Hadley’s stare as they passed the visitors’ desk.
“See you tonight at six?” Sienna asked.
“Can’t wait.” He kissed her on the cheek, and she floated into the office six inches above the ground.
“He’s been spending a lot of time here,” Hillary said.
“Mike? Yes.” She fished out a stack of progress reports she needed to complete over the weekend. “That isn’t a problem, I hope?”
“It’s no problem at all.” Jenny James stood in her open office doorway. Her eyes watered, but she smiled. “It’s nice to have people from the outside come and visit, especially our special needs kids.”
Funny. Sienna hadn’t thought about them that way in a while. Everyone had special needs of some kind, didn’t they? “Oh, I wanted to ask you about taking them to the town park later on, when the weather warms up. Can we walk there?” she asked Jenny. “It’s only a couple of blocks.”
“As long as you get permission slips from all the parents, then, yes. I think that would be wonderful.”
Sienna thought so too.
* * * * *
The following week, March surprised everyone with near-record temperatures. Mike checked the weather report three times before leaving the gym, and when it still predicted a high of sixty-five with zero precipitation, he grabbed two gloves and baseballs from his office before driving to Pine Point Elementary.
“Thought we might do a little preseason training,” he said when he walked into Room Eighteen. He held up the gloves. Silas almost fell out of the rocking chair, and his eyes lit up. He ran to Mike and took one of the gloves, stroking the soft leather, and laying it next to his cheek.
“Mr. Mike, we always do read-alongs on Fridays at two o’clock,” Caleb informed him with a worried expression. He turned to Sienna. “Miss Cruz, we always—”
“I know,” she said. She put one hand on his shoulder and steered him to a seat at the table. “But since the weather’s so nice today, how about we read two books instead of three, and then if there’s time, we’ll go outside and play catch.”
Caleb eyed her with doubt, but he didn’t say anything else. After Mike had finished Where the Wild Things Are and I’m Going to the World Series!, he picked up a glove again. “Who can tell me what this part is?” he asked as he ran his fingers over the inside.
“Pocket!” Silas called out. He clapped and beamed.
“You’re right. That’s where we always want to catch the ball.” Mike picked up a ball in his other hand. “Now, does anyone know why baseballs have stitches on them?”
Silas grew sober. Caleb’s face screwed up in concentration. No one answered.
“Well, one thing the stitches do is keep the inside part where it’s supposed to be. There’s a center of rubber inside this leather, but the rubber has to stay on the inside.”
“Can you imagine if our insides were on the outside?” Sienna asked the class.
“Ewww!” said one of the twins.
“We don’t have stitches, but what do we have?” she asked.
“Skin,” Caleb answered. “Lots of it.”
“Right.” Mike said with a grin and tried not to think about Sienna’s
perfect skin, or how it tasted after a shower. “The second thing the stitches do is give the pitcher control when he’s throwing the ball. He can hold the ball a certain way, and spin the ball a certain way, to make the stitches catch the air and move.”
The boys stared without speaking.
“Too much?” Mike asked in a low voice.
Sienna smiled. “Maybe. Let’s skip the mechanics for today and just take advantage of this sunshine.” She clapped her hands three times. “I want everyone to put on their coats and line up at the door. We have fifteen minutes before dismissal, and Mr. Mike is going to go outside with us and show us how to throw and catch a baseball.”
The boys tumbled over each other in their eagerness. Dawn moved at a slower pace. By the time she joined them at the door, the others had already inched their way into the hall and toward the back door.
They were the only ones on the playground, which made it easy to pair up and practice throwing. Silas took one glove, Mike kept the other, and the twins and Caleb took turns throwing the ball to them both.
“Not bad,” Mike said. He struggled to keep from laughing every time a toss went wild. Billy had the least control of them all. Most of his throws ended up in the weeds or under a tree ten feet behind Mike. But no one seemed to care. Bailey retrieved them, and sometimes Caleb measured the distance of the errant throw by striding to the tree and back, doing calculations in his head.
“They’re a funny bunch, aren’t they?” he said to Sienna as she reined them in after ten minutes. “I don’t mean funny bad.” He wasn’t sure what he meant.
“Yes, they are,” she agreed. “But they’re my funny bunch.” She took his arm. “And yours too, now that you’re spending so much time with them.”
He smiled, the sun warm on his face. The boys lined up at the back door, waiting for Sienna to let them back inside. “Where’s Dawn?” he asked suddenly. He looked around, but she’d disappeared.
Sienna puffed out a breath. “She does this a lot.” She shaded her eyes. “Dawn! Honey, it’s time for dismissal. Time to come inside.”
Mike scanned the edge of the playground, the swings, the slides, the thick trees at the border. A chain-link fence circled the whole space, so she couldn’t have wandered off completely. He stuck the gloves under one arm and dropped the balls to his feet. “Go ahead,” he said to Sienna. “I’ll look for her.”
Sienna hesitated, but when Caleb tugged at her sleeve to inform her they had two minutes until dismissal, she hurried the boys inside.
“Dawn?” He traced a path from the open grassy area where they’d been playing to the edge of the school building. When he turned the corner, he saw her. “Hey, buddy.”
She looked at him with huge brown eyes and said nothing.
“Whatcha doing over here?” Inside, the bell rang, and he could hear the roar of bus engines on the other side of the building. Dawn’s gaze cut to the driveway, and fear flicked across her face.
Mike settled himself on the ground, thinking six feet of adult male might be a little intimidating for the little girl. “Ah, don’t worry about the buses. You know Miss Cruz will make sure they wait for you.” He had no idea if that was true. He hoped it was.
She dragged her fingers along the side of the brick building.
“You ever play baseball before?” he asked, more to hear himself talk than anything. “Or go to a baseball game? They’re a lot of fun.” An idea struck him. “Maybe we could all go to a game in the spring. There’s a minor league team over in Silver Valley. The Panthers.”
The back door opened, and Sienna stepped outside. She lifted her brows in a silent question, and Mike nodded. Sienna walked over to join them.
“Dawn, your bus driver is waiting for you. Are you ready to go home?”
Her gaze slid over Mike before she looked at Sienna and nodded. Sienna held out her hand, but the little girl didn’t take it. She took a wide berth past both of them and walked back to the school on her own.
“Boy, she’s a tough one, isn’t she?” Mike said as he hauled himself up to stand.
“You have no idea. My biggest fear is she’s going to do that, just disappear one day, and I won’t be able to find her.”
“You know why she does it?”
Sienna shook her head as they followed Dawn to Room Eighteen and watched her pack her backpack. “Maybe a safety thing? If no one can see her, no one can hurt her? It’s my best guess. I have a meeting scheduled with her foster parents next week, but to be honest, they haven’t shed much light on anything so far.”
Mike rubbed the back of his neck. It made sense. He knew as well as anyone that trusting people could end in a world of hurt. It was just too bad an eight-year-old felt the same way. Dawn walked to the door and stopped.
“Honey, your bus is waiting,” Sienna said. She gave Dawn a gentle nudge.
The little girl stood in the hallway for a long moment, studying Mike. She didn’t say a word. Her expression didn’t change. But she lifted a hand and waved at him in a stiff, awkward motion.
Then she was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Can you believe it? I can’t. She’s never done that for anyone. Not me, not the principal, not Loni…” Sienna hadn’t come down from the high of Dawn’s brief wave at Mike.
Mike looked over from the driver’s side of his pickup. “Clearly, she knows a good guy when she sees one.”
“You are a good guy.” Sienna leaned her head against the back of the seat. “I don’t know what you did, or how, but you got to her.” She reached over and took his hand. “You have no idea how big that is.”
“I have kind of an idea. Since you’ve been talking about it nonstop since it happened.”
She squeezed his fingers and stuck out her tongue.
He lifted a brow as he pulled into the parking lot behind Jimmy’s. “Don’t tease me.”
She unfastened her seat belt and crawled onto his lap. “Are you sure? I thought you liked being teased.” Her hand went to the button on his jeans while she ran her lips along his neck. He let out a sigh and curved one arm around her. He tugged her hair gently and slid one hand underneath her coat.
“I do,” he murmured in the quiet chill. “I like teasing you even more.”
She buried her face in the warmth of his jacket, which smelled like soap and faint cologne. She knew at least in part why Dawn had warmed to Mike. He made a girl feel safe. Cared for. Like he would take the world head-on if he needed to and rip it in half before it hurt anyone he cared about.
“We should probably get some dinner,” he whispered into her hair.
She lifted her head. “Okay. But we’re picking up where we left off when we get back in this truck.” She slid her hand down his leg, and he grinned.
“It’s a deal.”
Nate Hunter waved them over to two stools at the bar when they walked in. He squeezed Mike’s hand in hello and winked at Sienna. “Hello, beautiful. Good to see you.” He tossed down coasters and produced two wrinkled paper menus. “Got a local band coming in at nine, if you like alternative rock.”
“I’m hoping we’ll be making our own kind of music by then,” Mike murmured into Sienna’s ear, and she smiled despite the corny comment. She felt shaken up, fizzy and fine and happy with everything.
Mike took their coats and carried them to the rack in the corner, stopping on his way back to talk to some guys Sienna didn’t know. She studied the menu and sipped the martini Nate brought her. “Yum. This is perfect.”
“Thank you.” He turned his Yankees baseball cap backwards. “So I hear you’re almost a professor.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“You’re working on your dissertation, right?”
She nodded. Nate took two empty beer mugs from a customer and sloshed them into a sink filled with soapy water. “What’s it on? If you don’t
mind my asking?”
“Personality psychology.”
He squinted in puzzlement.
“I’m trying to show how environment shapes the way people develop.”
“Ah.” He set the glasses on a drying rack and refilled the wine glass of the woman beside her. “And you’re here because you think small-town environments shape people in significant ways? A case study on good ol’ Pine Point?”
“Something like that.”
Nate whistled. “You should stand on this side of the bar for a night. You’d find out everything you need to know about the people here and then some.” He shook his head. “Half the stuff I hear and know, I don’t want to.”
Sienna could believe that. She scanned the pub, growing more crowded by the minute. Polly and Harmony stood near the door. No big surprise there. They hadn’t even gotten their coats off, and Harmony was flirting with a guy with a graying beard and temples. Polly checked her phone and looked miserable.
“Nate, I’ll have a plate of nachos to start,” Sienna said. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She shrugged off her sweater and left it draped over her stool.
“Sure thing.”
She wound her way through the crowd until she reached Polly and Harmony, surprised to see they’d dressed completely different from each other. Harmony wore winter-white jeans and a pale blue sweater cut halfway down to her navel, while Polly wore the same clothes she’d had on at school, maroon corduroys and a black T-shirt. Her mascara was smudged, and her bottom lip chapped. Sienna took her elbow and steered her away from her friend.
“Can I give you some advice?”
Polly looked startled. “About what?”
“Don’t listen to your friend when it comes to men.”
Polly crossed her arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Please. “Listen. We both know Harmony’s got this whole I-have-to-find-the-perfect-rich-husband-or-I’ll-die thing going on.” She looked over her shoulder. Harmony tossed her hair and reapplied lipstick as she cooed up at whoever the guy of the night was.
Spring Secrets: Pine Point, Book 3 Page 16
