The Loner's Thanksgiving Wish (Love Inspired)

by Rustand, Roxanne

  Mei nodded. “My mother can barely tolerate any of them.”

  “You do know about the big romance, right? Jasmine and Cade?”

  “I saw them on a hiking trail yesterday and went to the hospital with them after they took a bad fall into a ravine.”

  Vivienne gasped. “Are they all right?”

  “Jasmine is back at Arabella’s already. Cade had a concussion, and the doctor is keeping him a day or two.” Mei closed the canister. “Jasmine told me about their wedding plans.”

  “Arabella has tried to dissuade them, believe me. To be honest, I have never trusted Pauley, Charley or their kids. But Cade has turned out to be a pretty decent guy, and his brother, Jack, has actually tried really hard to talk Cade into waiting, too.” Vivienne pursed her lips. “Maybe there’s even a glimmer of good in Jack…though I seriously doubt it. He ran with Vincent back in high school, and in that family, anything they do is self-serving. Vincent is despicable.”

  Jack hadn’t seemed that way to her, but Mei bit back a retort. Vivienne’s unexpected friendliness was a precious beginning, a step toward the acceptance Mei had craved all her life. The last thing she wanted now was to start a disagreement. “Why don’t Cade and Jasmine listen to reason?”

  “They’re both of legal age and you’ve never seen a couple more determined to tie the knot. The only thing we can do now is try to be supportive of them and pray that they’ll be happy.”

  “It’s too bad that they won’t at least wait until after college.”

  “I know.” Vivienne sighed. “But Jasmine does plan on culinary school, and Cade wants to be a physician. I just hope it all happens.”

  “Can you imagine the debt they’ll incur if Cade does go to medical school?”

  “Jasmine’s uncle—Dr. Turner—plans to help them with tuition and a place to live. And with Cade’s low income as a ranch hand, he should qualify for financial aid as an undergrad. They seem motivated to make their dreams happen.”

  Mei sighed as she poured a five-pound bag of flour into a canister and snapped on the lid. So there would be a family wedding, after all, and everyone would surely attend—especially Cade’s brother, Jack.

  While driving to Colorado she’d had hours and hours to mull over the past and think of all the reasons why she didn’t want to move back.

  Somehow she hadn’t even considered the fact that Jack McCord might be in town. But as a search-and-rescue worker, he probably spent his time in the mountains, and she’d be at the high school every day. Because their paths would rarely cross, she wouldn’t have to contend with the stirring of old, foolish feelings.

  All would be well. She would teach school. Spend time with her mother. Guard her heart. And then surely, the year ahead would be no trouble at all.

  Chapter Six

  Mei’s first day of school passed in a blur.

  Now, as a final group of students streamed through the door for her two o’clock environmental science class, Mei sent up a silent prayer of thanks for the absent Mrs. Sanders, who had written out lesson plans through May.

  Preparation for her biology and geology classes had kept Mei busy until eleven last night, but luckily Mrs. Sanders had scheduled a guest speaker in environmental science today. Frederick Miller, a local wildlife biologist, would be visiting for five lectures, a field trip and an evening parent program during November.

  A shrill bell sounded out in the hallway. The final stragglers shuffled into the classroom and slumped into the remaining open seats with a thud of backpacks on the polished hardwood floor.

  Mei leaned against the front of her desk with a clipboard and attendance roster cradled in the crook of her arm. “I’m Ms. Clayton, and I’ll be your substitute teacher until the end of the year.”

  She took attendance, then made a quick call on the intercom to report two absences.

  “I grew up here, but I’ve been away since high school.” She smiled, knowing it was best to set aside curiosity at the very start. “I don’t look quite like the rest of the Claytons because I was adopted from China as a baby. Since I was curious about my heritage, I spent a year teaching in China, then I moved to San Francisco and have been teaching there until now.”

  A girl in the front row—Ashley—looked up from picking at the bright red polish on her nails. “Why would anyone leave California to live here?”

  The frizzy blonde next to her—Gina Meier—rolled her eyes. “I heard a bunch of you Claytons were forced to come back, ’cause nasty ole George Clayton croaked and you all want to get your hands on his stupid inheritance.”

  Mei felt the blood drain from her face at the girl’s snide tone. “Excuse me?”

  Gina turned to her classmates with a look of triumph. “My mom is Vincent Clayton’s second cousin, and he told her so. He oughta know.”

  “That’s hardly a topic for discussion here,” Mei chided.

  An ugly crimson flush of anger worked up Gina’s neck, but she didn’t respond.

  A Latino boy raised his hand. “When is our class field trip?”

  “Good question, Ricardo. It’ll be Friday, November 14. Our speaker should be here any minute, and he’ll discuss the details, I believe.” She looked down at the notepad in her hand. “All right, then—”

  When all of the faces in the room swiveled toward the door, Mei faltered to a halt.

  From what the chemistry teacher next door had told her over lunch, Frederick Miller was a kindly old fellow, long past retirement and prone to wandering off topic. She’d been hoping the class wouldn’t decimate his good spirits. But the man in the doorway was definitely no stooped, white-haired gentleman.

  Silhouetted by the November sunshine beaming through the row of windows along the opposite side of the corridor, she could see he had to be a good six feet or more, with broad shoulders and an upright, military bearing suggesting that he wouldn’t suffer fools or difficult teens gladly.

  She sighed with relief…until he strode into the room. And then her wayward heart dropped straight to the floor.

  The look of shock on Mei’s face had to echo his own.

  The incident up on the trail with Jasmine and Cade had been surprising enough. Who would ever guess that he’d encounter the likes of Mei Clayton during a rescue on some mountain trail? And now, what was she doing here?

  Jack tipped his head to acknowledge the students as he strolled to the front of the class. “Hey there, stranger,” he said in a low tone. “I never expected to see you here.”

  “I-I’m a substitute teacher.” Her dubious gaze dropped to the Clayton County Forest Service badge on the pocket of his dark green shirt, then back up to his face. “Wh-where’s Fred?”

  “He transferred to Denver two weeks ago.”

  “Y-you’re sure?”

  He nearly chuckled at her flustered response. “My office is a cabin roughly the size of a double garage, so I can safely say that he’s not here any longer.”

  “You’re here to speak?”

  Her obvious doubt about him was clear, calling back once again a time he’d tried to forget. Mom’s short-lived marriage to Charley Clayton had been just another one of her desperate, brief bids for marital security, but he and Cade had been branded forever by that association—and not in a good way. Mei’s obvious reaction made that plain even now.

  He swept the old memories aside. “This is the environmental science class, right?”

  “Yes…”

  “And Fred was scheduled five times during the next three weeks.”

  She nodded.

  “So I’m taking his place. Is that a problem?”

  “I—I thought you did search and rescue.” A pretty pink flush tinted her delicate face, just as it had at the hospital. “Or that you were…some sort of high-country guide.”

  “I do both at times. But this has been my real job for the past six years. I worked out of an office at the other end of the county until a few weeks ago.”

  From her expression he could see more questio
ns were forming in her mind, but they were still standing in front of a class of curious teenagers and this wasn’t the best place to answer them. “Those kids are probably wondering what’s going on,” he added. “So maybe I should get started.”

  “But have you ever…” She hesitated, then cleared her throat and turned toward the class. “Our speaker is here, and I think I’d better let him do his own introduction so he gets it exactly right.”

  Smooth save.

  “I’m Jack McCord, Clayton County Wildlife Biologist. Most of you have probably seen the local office on Bluebird Lane. It’s a set of two cabins, actually—the second one houses whatever biologist works here.”

  His peripheral vision caught the look of surprise on Mei’s face. Apparently she hadn’t paid any attention to the cabins across the creek from her mother’s rental cottages, but he’d certainly noticed Mei the day she moved in.

  “Some of your faces are familiar,” he continued. “Jon and Tom, you did a fine job with your Eagle Scout projects restoring the trail leading to Lily Lake. I’ve seen others on the trails. I hope that by the end of this unit you’ll all want to become even more involved in the preservation of our beautiful Rockies.”

  “Maybe you could tell them how you became a biologist,” Mei whispered.

  Jack nodded. “I started out like a lot of you—I loved hiking, fly fishing and mountain biking. Anything that kept me outside. As a high school senior, I worked as a fishing guide and later became a high-country hunting guide. Only I found I was more interested in studying wildlife than shooting at it. Guiding is how I paid for college. Can any of you name some endangered species in Colorado?”

  A girl in the front row looked up from the doodles she’d been drawing in her notebook. “Whooping crane.”

  “Yes.”

  Jon leaned back in his chair and grinned. “Black-footed ferrets.”

  “Exactly right. They were the topic of my Master’s thesis, as Jon knows, because he spent last summer working with me as an intern. Anyone want to guess how many species in Colorado are endangered?” Silence.

  “The number varies as some species are added and others are taken off.” He reached into the leather briefcase he’d laid on the front desk and withdrew a stack of handouts. “That question is number one on the assignment I have for you.”

  He handed them to Mei, and she distributed them as he continued to talk. “You’ll be picking an endangered species and then studying the preservation of its habitat.”

  A collective round of groans rose from the class.

  He grinned. “Hold on, it’s going to be cool. We’re even going up into the mountains to collect data for your paper. I want this project to inspire all of you to want to care more about your environment.”

  Roughly half the class was paying attention. Others were affecting extreme boredom, and some were doodling on the handout. That was nothing new. He’d been one of those doodlers himself back in high school.

  Then Jack reached into his front pocket and gently lifted Maxwell up so the little sugar glider could hook its paws on the upper rim of Jack’s pocket and sleepily look out into the classroom.

  It took less than five seconds for an electrified response to sweep through the class, and now everyone was at rapt attention, whispering and pointing.

  “What is it, Mr. McCord?”

  “Does it bite?”

  “Is it a hamster?”

  “A baby squirrel?”

  “No, stupid,” someone hissed. “It’s a gerbil.”

  “Look at the black-and-white stripes on its face. It’s a baby badger.”

  He ignored them all and started circulating through the room. “After you finish your projects, you’ll set up displays for parent night. You’ll get to stand by your display and answer questions as visitors walk around.”

  As he talked about the projects, Maxwell sleepily slipped down into his pocket, wiggled into a comfy position and went back to dozing. Jack felt Mei’s steady gaze, and when he glanced over at her, the tilt of her head and her quizzical expression made him falter. Was she surprised to find that he’d actually finished college and had a career beyond guiding hunters into the high country?

  The shrill hallway bell sounded, marking the end of class, but every student stayed seated and at least twelve hands shot up.

  He smiled. “I suppose you’re wondering about Maxwell.”

  When a cacophony of questions erupted, Jack held up his hand. “He’s a sugar glider. He’s nocturnal. Does anyone know what that means?”

  Ricardo’s hand shot up. “He sleeps during the day.”

  “Right. I’m babysitting while his owner is out of town. Sugar gliders become very attached to their owners, but the boys are a little better about strangers. I dropped him in my pocket to bring him along so he wouldn’t feel lonely while I was gone.”

  “But what is he?”

  “He’s a marsupial—so the females carry their young in a pouch, just as kangaroos do. The babies are called joeys, in fact. They live up in the trees and they can glide through the air, from one tree to the next, like flying squirrels.”

  The class expelled a collective wow, clearly enchanted, then the questions came fast and furious. Finally Jack held up both hands, palm out. “I’ll see if I can’t bring another friend next time. Nature is an amazing thing, guys. I hope you’ll appreciate it all the more when this unit is over.”

  The students left in a scramble of chairs and desks squealing against the wood floors, jostling to get through the doorway with their bulky backpacks, too many bodies at a time.

  A few minutes later the room was silent.

  Mei leaned against the front edge of her desk, her arms folded in front of her chest and her expression cool. “Seeing you here was…um…quite a surprise. I was expecting someone twice your age.”

  “I was surprised to see you here, too.”

  She arched a brow. “Then search and rescue isn’t your career.”

  “Strictly volunteer. But with all of the practice sessions and other meetings, it’s practically a half-time job.” He handed extra copies of the syllabus to her. “Here you go, in case anyone was absent.”

  “And you’re a wildlife biologist?”

  “With a Master’s.” He sighed. “It’s been a long road. I worked my way through school so I could graduate debt-free.”

  She ducked her head a little to one side, her long black hair shifting like a gleaming waterfall. “That’s impressive. Most of the guys in this town just follow in their daddies’ footsteps…family businesses and such.”

  “And do very well. But a lot of them weren’t in my shoes. Poverty gives motivation a whole new meaning,” he added with a smile. “But I’m sure you wouldn’t know about difficult beginnings.”

  Her jaw dropped. “You think I got whatever I wanted on some silver platter? Or that my life here was happy?”

  He’d just been making a halfhearted joke about his own background and hadn’t meant to insult her, but from the hurt, defensive look in her eyes, apparently he had. “Sorry.”

  She shifted uncomfortably. “Me, too. Coming back here has made me…oversensitive or something. You did a good job in class today,” she added stiffly as she gathered her purse and briefcase. “Be sure to let me know if you need any audiovisual equipment for your next lecture.”

  She headed out the door, waited for him to leave and then locked the classroom door behind him. Without another word she strode down the hallway with her heels clicking against the floor in a rapid staccato beat.

  He watched her go, then turned toward the front entrance, where he’d left his truck out along the curb.

  Four more sessions, a field trip and a parent open house meant six more opportunities to see if he could get past Mei Clayton’s prickly defenses. Did she have a warm heart hidden behind all of that armor?

  With parents like hers, maybe not. But it still might be interesting to try.

  Chapter Seven

  Lisette poured
two cups of hot blackberry tea, rounded the kitchen island and set them on the glass-and-wrought-iron table.

  As soon as she sat down, Albert stood on his back legs by her chair and begged to be lifted into her lap. “How was your first day of school?”

  “Fine.” Mei brought a serving tray of Arabella’s raspberry-almond scones, lemon curd and softened butter to the table and settled into a chair facing the double set of French doors.

  Lisette moved a scone to her plate, broke off a piece, buttered it and fed it to Albert. “That’s not much of an answer, but I can understand that you might well be…disillusioned with your career.” Lisette stirred a packet of sweetener into her tea and looked at Mei over the rim as she took a delicate sip. “I’ve always wondered when you might decide to go back to school and try something…different.”

  “Like medical school?” Mei asked drily. It was an old, well-worn topic, and one of many that had made living far away from here a pleasant alternative.

  Both her parents had wanted her to follow in her dad’s footsteps and become a doctor. They had been all about measuring up and meeting expectations, not simple, unconditional love and acceptance. What would it have been like to be truly loved for exactly who she was? To feel as if she really belonged in this family? She would never know.

  The one thing she’d been able to count on was that she always seemed to disappoint her mother in some way, and that had been double for her late father.

  Lisette pursed her lips. “I’m sure teaching must be fun, dear. But really, with your intellect there are so many other options out there…and you’re still young enough to spread your wings.”

  Mei felt her blood pressure ratchet up a notch. “Fun isn’t exactly the right word. Sometimes it is, but try challenging. Difficult. Rewarding.”

  “You should add underpaid and underappreciated,” Lisette added with a sigh.