Cottage at the Beach (The Off Season)

by Lee Tobin McClain

  Erica waved as they passed, and then the dog spotted a seagull and lunged, nearly jerking her off her feet. “Ziggy!” she cried, bracing herself and holding on to the big dog’s leash with difficulty. “Ziggy, heel!”

  The dog glanced over his shoulder at her and then continued pulling toward the seagull.

  Looked like she’d tried to train him at least. Trey stood, grimacing through the back pain, walked toward the dog and snapped his fingers. “Hey. Sit.” He kept his voice low and calm. It was worth a try, considering it was the first command most dogs learned.

  The dog stopped, turned and came toward him, sinking down into a perfect sit.

  “Nice.” He reached in his pocket automatically and realized he did, in fact, have a biscuit he’d meant to give to King. “Give paw,” he said, holding out a hand to the dog, and sure enough, the doodle lifted a large, white-gold front foot for him to shake.

  He handed over the biscuit. Ziggy inhaled it, nuzzled him and then jumped up, putting his paws on Trey’s chest and nearly knocking him backward. His back twisted painfully as he caught himself and he couldn’t restrain a grimace.

  “Ziggy!” Erica jerked the dog’s leash. “Sit! Down.”

  The dog obliged, slowly, then leaped up to snap at a butterfly.

  “I’m sorry about him,” she said to Trey as she planted her feet and tugged the dog back into her radius.

  “Looks like Erica could use some help with training Ziggy,” Julie said from the steps. “You’re a dog expert, aren’t you, Trey?”

  Just what he needed: the responsibility of training a huge, out-of-control mutt.

  But if it would get him back into Erica’s good graces...help him succeed here, get back on the force and get King back... Yeah. That was a plan.

  He looked directly at her. “Would that buy me another chance to work with you and the kids?” he asked. “I know I’ve done poorly so far, and I apologize.”

  She hesitated.

  He knelt in front of the foolish dog so he wouldn’t have to face that steady gaze. “I can teach him to mind his manners better, act calmer around people.”

  Erica stepped closer and rubbed Ziggy’s head. “He’s already calmer around you. He can tell you know what you’re doing. But what I need is to get him calmer around me.”

  “Oh, I’d need to work with both of you,” he said. And then he thought about that.

  Erica was a beautiful woman. Not the kind of woman he’d go for romantically, but he felt a strange kinship between them, something he’d never felt before.

  He didn’t need any attachments here in this town. He just needed to stick to business, get done what he needed to get done and go back to his real life.

  If that meant training Erica’s dog, and teaching her to work with the dog—while keeping his emotional distance—well, that was what he’d have to do. It shouldn’t be that hard. She wasn’t his type.

  “I always wanted him to be a therapy dog,” Erica admitted. “To work with cancer patients. But I don’t think he’s capable. He’s too wild.”

  “He’s just untrained. He can get there.” Of that, Trey was confident.

  “You should give it a try,” Julie encouraged.

  Still kneeling in front of Ziggy, Trey looked up. Erica was chewing her lip and there was something in her eyes that suggested she was aware of the weird vibe between them.

  Finally, she let out a sigh. “I guess, if it would help him be better with people... I guess it’s worth it.”

  “You sound like it’s a prison sentence.” With difficulty, Trey rose to his feet. “It won’t be that, I promise. I’ll work hard at that and at the school, but you have to have an open mind. Toward the training and toward me.”

  “All right, then.” Erica held out her hand. “It’s a deal.”

  He took her hand in his, and sudden warmth shot up his arm. Her skin was just so soft. He’d never felt anything like it.

  She tugged her hand away and he realized he’d been clutching it. Should he apologize? Or pretend it never happened?

  Ziggy solved the problem by going nuts over another dog walking by, and Erica waved and hurried off down the street, tugging Ziggy along.

  “You just took on quite a project.” Julie sounded amused.

  “Yeah, I did.” In more ways than one.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THURSDAY AFTERNOON, ERICA headed to the teachers’ lounge for her end-of-day planning period.

  Trey followed her. Aaack! He’d been sticking to her so close he’d actually bumped into her a couple of times. All a part of his new effort to be the perfect volunteer, and it was wreaking havoc with her blood pressure.

  Not that she was attracted. At least, no more than she would be to any handsome guy. It was just annoying when she was used to being a free, independent agent. That was it: annoying. Annoyance could make you feel flushed and feverish, right?

  A few other teachers who had free periods were in the lounge, working or chatting before going to their after-school duties or lesson planning.

  The gray-haired Maloney twins, who taught art and music respectively, were deep in discussion at a table in the corner. One of the math teachers was marking tests, and a couple of the social studies teachers hunched over a laptop. The smell of stale coffee blended with someone’s slightly burned popcorn from the microwave.

  After Trey had met everyone—and Erica didn’t miss a couple of the female teachers raising their eyebrows at each other, an obvious commentary on Trey’s good looks—the two of them sat in a corner to talk about the next day’s lessons and activities.

  “Sorry we have to do this in here,” she said to him. “We only have the one classroom for the academy, so when Paul—that’s the other teacher for the behavior support program—has the kids, I usually work in the lounge. It’s a little dingy.”

  “Conference room’s empty,” the math teacher said without looking up.

  Aaack again. For whatever reason, she didn’t want to be alone with Trey. “Oh, well, we’re settled in here,” she said, pulling out her folders of materials to make it so.

  “No problem.” Trey looked around, surely noticing the stained floors and ripped upholstery. “No worse than most police stations. I’m used to it.” He settled back into the chair with a sigh. “Truth is, I’m just glad to sit down.”

  At least he wasn’t snobby about the surroundings. “You did better today,” she told him. He had taken over half the kids and helped them with lower-level math while Erica had worked with the more advanced kids. Then, because objectives called for lots of breaks for physical activity and community service, they’d walked into town and cleaned up litter in a couple of streets and alleys.

  Trey had made an obvious effort to be friendly and patient with the kids, and they were starting to respond. “Here’s my tentative plan for tomorrow,” she said, showing him, and they were soon deep in discussions of how to give the kids real-world applications for the math they were learning.

  The bell rang, signaling the last class change of the day. Minutes later, the door flew open.

  “Fight,” the school secretary exclaimed breathlessly, and pointed to Erica. “One of your kids, Venus, is involved. Your niece, too.”

  “Hannah?” Erica stood, knocking her chair back in her haste. She steadied it and hurried to the door, Trey following her. “What happened?”

  “Venus said some rude things to Hannah. Kaitlyn Martin got involved and threw a couple of punches, supposedly to defend Hannah. And then Hannah jumped in and fought.”

  “Call the parents,” Erica said, and hurried in the direction the secretary had indicated.

  In the school’s central court area where four halls came together, several teachers were holding back Kaitlyn and Hannah. A security officer had Venus and was tugging her toward the office.

  It figured they’d be
hardest on a kid from her program, although by size and angry expression, Kaitlyn looked like more of a threat.

  Hannah turned toward Erica and big tears started rolling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “Don’t apologize,” Kaitlyn snapped at her. “That’ll just make people tease you more, if you act all wimpy.” She tried without success to shake off the teacher’s restraining grip.

  “We’ll do worse than that if you don’t stop resisting us,” the teacher snapped, and Kaitlyn went still, looking shaken.

  “Are you calm enough to walk to the office?” Erica asked both girls, and they nodded, Hannah still leaking tears.

  “Thanks,” Erica said to the two teachers who’d gotten involved. “We’ll take it from here.” She glanced back at Trey to make sure he was on board, and he nodded, his expression blank, lips flat. A cop expression, which made sense; he’d probably broken up some teen fights in his day.

  No time to psychoanalyze him now. “Come on,” she said to the girls. “Let’s go to the office and wait for your parents.”

  “You called Mom?” Hannah’s voice cracked on the last word. “She can’t come in. I don’t want to make her do that!”

  Erica’s heart twisted. Hannah was so careful not to add to her mother’s burden, but all Amber wanted was to mother her, to do all the things she worried she wouldn’t be able to do in the future. “Of course the secretary called her, and I’m sure she’ll be in right away.”

  “My mom won’t,” Kaitlyn said glumly. “She’s at some hospitality convention.”

  “Your grandma, then.” They were all walking toward the office now, the girls dragging their feet.

  Erica could identify. Any encounter with Principal Micah O’Neil meant a long, patronizing lecture at a minimum.

  Worse, he was already dead set against the academy’s support program, and he was sure to blame the fight on Venus. More ammunition to discontinue the whole thing.

  They sat in the outer office, awaiting the arrival of parents and guardians. Venus, though, rode a bus quite a distance to get to school, and she looked at Erica miserably. “My mom is at work. She can’t get here in time.”

  “I’ll stand in for her,” Erica said. “That means stand up for you in the meeting, and discuss it with your mom afterward.”

  Julie White burst into the office. “Kaitlyn, what on earth?” She gave a distracted wave to Erica and Trey and then beckoned her granddaughter over to the end of the row of chairs. They got into an intense discussion.

  “Kaitlyn’s grandmother?” Trey guessed, and Erica nodded.

  Amber appeared next. She wore ripped jeans and a concert T-shirt, a baseball cap covering her head.

  Hannah jumped up and ran to her, Erica following behind to lend support. “I’m sorry, Mom,” Hannah said, her voice choked.

  Amber wrapped her arms around Hannah. “I kinda want to high-five you for standing up for yourself,” she growled into her daughter’s ear, loud enough for Erica to hear, “but I’m going to have to act like I’m mad at you.”

  Behind them, a door opened, a throat cleared loudly. Principal O’Neil beckoned them all into his office, and they filed in, crowding into the chairs in front of the large desk. Trey was at the end of the line, and when he reached the door, O’Neil raised an eyebrow and took a step forward, subtly blocking his way. “What’s your role here?” he asked.

  “I’m a volunteer.” Trey lifted his chin and met the older man’s eyes, clearly no stranger to displays of male dominance. “I’d like to sit in, if it’s okay with Ms. Rowe and the other girls’ parents.”

  That made O’Neil’s chest puff up, and Erica knew why: he wanted it to be his decision whether having Trey join the group was okay, not the parents’ decision. He wanted everyone to defer to his authority at all times.

  “He’s shadowing me to learn about the kids,” Erica said, aiming for a docile tone that was far from how she felt. “We’d really appreciate it if you’d let him stay.”

  Behind O’Neil’s back, Amber rolled her eyes. “Of course he can stay,” she said.

  “Fine with me,” Julie added.

  “It would be an education for me, sir,” Trey said.

  “All right, but just listen and learn,” O’Neil snapped. “And you’ll have to stand. We don’t have enough chairs here in the office.”

  Erica opened her mouth to offer to give Trey her chair—she knew his back was hurting from the way he’d winced after their cleanup activity—but he caught her eye and gave a tiny shake of his head.

  The last bell rang, and the hallway filled with kids headed toward the car pickup line, the parking lot for the lucky few older kids who had cars, and the bus area.

  O’Neil sat down and glared out at the three girls. “I want to hear what happened from each of you, and make it quick. Don’t bother to lie, because I already spoke to the two teachers who witnessed the fight.”

  Venus and Kaitlyn looked away, faces identically sullen.

  Amber nudged Hannah. “Tell the man what happened.”

  She bit her lip and nodded, then looked up at the principal. “It shouldn’t have been a big deal,” she said. “Someone in the hall made a comment about me. I don’t even know if it was her.” She nodded toward Venus. “But Kaitlyn got mad and started shoving her, and then it was a fight, and... I got involved.”

  Venus snorted audibly, but her face had relaxed a little. She’d clearly expected something worse to be said about her.

  Kaitlyn provided it. “Venus called the new girl a name. A bad name. And we’re supposed to stop bullying. That’s all I was doing.”

  Julie put a hand on Kaitlyn’s arm, but the girl snatched it away. Julie sighed and then spoke. “It’s great you wanted to help, honey, but shoving or hitting isn’t the answer, and you know it. You’ve been raised better than that.”

  “You can’t make the excuse that you’re protecting the new girl. Hannah’s been here a couple of months,” O’Neil contributed, and then added, “Your sister has never gotten into this kind of trouble.”

  Julie and Kaitlyn clenched their jaws in identical fashion. Their family resemblance would have been funny in different circumstances.

  “And your story?” O’Neil looked at Venus.

  “I joked along with some other kids. It wasn’t anything. All of a sudden she—” she pointed at Kaitlyn “—starts shoving me into the lockers.” She shrugged. “I was raised to fight back.”

  “And you know better, too,” Erica said firmly, conscious of her surrogate parent role. “Do you have anything to say to Hannah?”

  Venus pushed her lips together and looked over at Hannah. “Sorry,” she said.

  “Not sincere,” O’Neil snapped. “Three days’ after-school detention for all of you, starting tomorrow.” He stood, indicating the meeting was over, and then raised a finger. “In fact, rather than relaxing in a study hall, the three of you can work on the garden in front of the school. Separately, not together. And since you’re such an advocate—” He turned to Erica. “You can supervise.”

  Erica drew in a deep breath and let it out. No use to call him on being patronizing, treating her like one of the kids. Anyway, she’d rather be here than not, rather try to help the girls get along. The lost planning time, worrying about Ziggy stuck at home needing exercise...those were minor problems to solve later. “I won’t be able to supervise them closely unless they’re working together,” she said, keeping her voice humble and mild.

  The others had started to walk out, which was probably for the best; they wouldn’t be treated to O’Neil’s sneer. “I have real reservations about the way your kids mingle with the mainstream ones,” he said. “Consider this a test.”

  Erica felt her jaw clench and consciously relaxed it. “Yes, sir,” she said, and hurried to catch up with the others.

  They all
walked out together and then Venus veered off to meet her friends. Julie left with Kaitlyn.

  Amber turned to Trey. “I hear you’re going to help train Ziggy,” she said. “Lord knows he needs it.”

  “He really does,” Hannah agreed.

  The side of Trey’s mouth quirked up into a half smile. “I can’t argue with you on that.” They headed toward the parking lot, Trey, Hannah and Amber chatting amicably.

  He wasn’t treating Amber any differently than anyone else, despite her obvious status as a cancer patient. Erica liked him the better for that.

  But liking him too much would be a mistake. You could be nice to a cancer patient, but that didn’t mean you’d want to be in a relationship with one. And despite all her health efforts and surgery, Erica still knew her family history left her at increased risk. Not to mention that she couldn’t have kids. Not exactly a good bet for a relationship.

  Which was why she was devoting herself to her students. Why she needed to keep her distance from Trey.

  A little hard to do when she was teaching with him every day. And having him help her train her dog. Yeah, a little hard.

  Erica tuned back in to the conversation in time to hear Amber mention Italian food. Trey’s face lit up. “Sure thing!”

  “Terrific,” Amber said. “Let’s meet at seven.” She smiled innocently at Erica. “Trey’s going to join us for our Friday night dinner at DiGiorno’s. As a thanks in advance for his help with Ziggy.”

  “See you later,” Trey said, and headed off down the street.

  “You just had to do that, didn’t you?” Erica said to Amber.

  “Yes, I did. You won’t make a move for yourself, so sometimes your big sis has to take over.”

  “You two,” Hannah said, but her face had lifted for the first time that afternoon. She liked to hear them bickering because it reinforced her sense that things were normal in the family, normal with her mom.

  “Maybe I’ll stay home,” Erica said. “Leave you to Mr. Handsome.”

  A shadow crossed Amber’s face. “Nope,” she said. “This one’s for you.”