Small-Town Mom (3 page)

Jamie strode in. “Myles, go to the main office and wait for me.”

Despite the menace in his mother’s voice, Myles turned to Eli for confirmation before he rose to leave.

“Tell Mrs. Woods that I said to wait for your mother in the office.”

Jamie pinched her lips together. Eli could sympathize with her frustration, but she should have established control over her son long before he hit high school age.

Jamie placed her hands palms down on the other side of his desk and leaned across. “Where do you get off undermining my authority and encouraging Myles to disobey me? I didn’t tell him he could go to youth group. And I certainly didn’t give you permission to drive him home.”

“Whoa! Please sit, and lower your voice. Classes are still in session.”

Eli stood and moved a chair beside the desk. She sat and grasped her purse in her lap. The flush of her anger accented her cheekbones in an attractive, natural way that no amount of makeup, no matter how carefully applied, could have.

“I did not intentionally undermine you,” he said. “Mrs. Thomas accepted my offer to drive Myles home. I was dropping off a couple of other kids, too. Since she’d brought Myles, I assumed her okay was enough.”

Jamie’s grip on her purse relaxed. “Are you telling me that you didn’t mention youth group to him on Friday, invite him to the meeting on Sunday?”

Eli had to walk a fine line talking about church activities. He understood why the school had the policy, but he didn’t have to like it. “I didn’t say anything to Myles about the meeting, even though it could do him a lot of good to get involved.”

Her dark-lashed eyes widened.

“He’s looking for some direction, guidance, and I think he could find it at youth group or some other organized activity.”

“Guidance that I’m not providing him.” She gripped her purse again until her knuckles were white.

That was exactly what he thought, but he knew better as a man and an educator to not say that outright. “We’ve been talking this week, and Myles said that all he does is go to school and watch his sisters after school and weekends when you work. I’m sure—”

“He watches Rose and Opal the two afternoons I’m scheduled in the practice’s office and if there’s a delivery, not every day after school and weekends.”

“If you’d let me finish, I was going to say that I knew Myles was exaggerating. But you must see the inconsistency in your work schedule and how that might affect Myles. He needs consistency, some time to chill, to just hang out with the guys and not be on constant call.”

“Hanging out with the guys, the wrong guys, is what got him in trouble in the first place. I’m sure you read all about the trouble he got himself into last school year.” She paused and cleared her throat. “Things were going better this year.”

Until he started talking with me.
Eli tented his fingers and rested his chin on his pointer fingers, waiting for her to say it. Somehow, she’d made him into the enemy. It was the easiest way out, to find someone else to blame. He’d done it himself. Not that he thought she was intentionally to blame—just a little scattered as pretty women often were. Like his mother. But Jamie obviously had her son’s best interests at heart.

“Myles ran cross-country this past fall,” she said as if to disprove what Eli had said.

“With Tanner Thomas. Myles told me.”

One corner of Jamie’s mouth quirked down. “He made the team when he was in seventh grade, but he didn’t run last school year.”

“That’s what I’m saying about hanging out with the guys in an organized activity being good for Myles.”

She pushed a thick black curl from her forehead. “And how many groups, clubs and sports teams did you belong to when you were in high school?”

He had her here. “None, after I was booted from the football team junior year for failing grades.”
Among other things.
“You wouldn’t want to read
my
school record for the last two years of high school. I would have been a lot better off if I had been involved in something.”

“My son is not you.” She enunciated each word separately.

“No, he’s not. But he may be headed down the same road. It’s my job to help him make better choices than I did. I don’t want to think about where I’d be today if the armed forces hadn’t saved me.”

Jamie blanched. “Don’t get any ideas about the military
saving
Myles. It didn’t save Myles’s father. It killed him.”

His chest tightened. Granted, he hadn’t lost a spouse, but he’d lost close friends in the Middle East, including his former fiancee. “I understand how you might feel like that.”

Her frown told him that she didn’t believe him. But the service hadn’t hardened him so much that he couldn’t feel some of her pain. He held her gaze with his for a moment. No way could he miss the spark of anger in her coffee-brown eyes.

“Okay,” he conceded. “I may not fully understand, but I still have to do what I believe is best for Myles. It’s my job.”

* * *

The bell signaling the end of the school day rang and stopped Jamie from verbally drawing her line between Eli’s job as guidance counselor and her job as Myles’s mother. And it was for the better. Right now, she couldn’t trust herself not to say things she might regret later. How could he understand? Sure, he’d served his country, just like John, and most likely he’d seen comrades fall. But had he lost a spouse? Did he have children? The lack of any family photos in his office seemed to say no.

She rose. “I should go. I want to catch the girls before they get on the bus so they can ride home with Myles and me.”

“I’ll call their teachers.”

Jamie gave Eli the girls’ teachers’ names reluctantly. It was peevish on her part. She didn’t want Eli to be right about anything. But he
was
right. Calling the teachers would be a better way of catching Rose and Opal.

Eli replaced the phone receiver. “Sorry. Both of their classes have been dismissed.”

“Thanks. I have time to get Myles and be home before the bus drops the girls off.”

“I’ll walk you to the office.”

Jamie bit her tongue to stop herself from saying the first thing that had come to mind, that she knew her way to the office. Eli was being polite. And she had to admit that he seemed to be doing what he thought was best for her son. She just didn’t happen to agree with him.

He opened the door, and they stepped into the hall and the onslaught of one hundred and fifty high school and middle school students set loose for the day.

Eli took Jamie’s elbow and guided her to the side of the rush, raising her awareness of how close the crush of students had pressed her to him.

“Has Myles shown any interest in running track in the spring?” he asked. “Since he’s run cross-country, he might want to do long-distance.”

Back to that? She sighed. “He hasn’t said anything.” Not that Myles shared much with her anymore. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt if you broached it with him, if he comes in to talk with you.”

Eli nodded and held the office door open for her. She couldn’t fault his manners.

“Hello, Jamie, Eli.” Thelma Woods’s voice softened on his name. “If you’re looking for Myles, he left with Liam Russell and one of the other seniors after the final bell.”

Jamie tensed. If Eli needed another example of her lack of control over her defiant son, Myles had just provided it.

“He was supposed to wait here for his mother.” Eli spoke before she could, his voice low and curt.

She warmed at his including her. Maybe they could be in this together, as long as he respected her parental authority.

Thelma gave Eli a little shrug. “He said you told him to wait here until school was over.”

“I’d better go while I still have time to get home before the kids,” Jamie said.

“Call me if you need to. Anytime,” Eli said.

Jamie smiled and ignored Thelma’s raised eyebrow. The woman had an overactive imagination when it came to the personal lives of the school staff. Jamie did not need her speculating that anything was going on between her and Eli except Myles.

Jamie hurried down the hall, passing the high school sports trophy case on her way to the main door. She hadn’t been into sports much in high school, except for intramural bowling. But her late husband had been cocaptain of their high school wrestling team and a state champion their senior year. Eli might be right about encouraging Myles to join the track team in the spring.

She pushed open the door, and the bitter north wind hit her face with full force. But for the immediate future, the only running Myles might be doing was running for cover from her.

Ten minutes later, Jamie pulled into her driveway seconds ahead of the school bus. She stepped from her crossover and waited while the bus doors opened.

“Mommy!” Seven-year-old Opal jumped down and skipped over to her while Rose followed at a more dignified nine-year-old pace. Jamie kept her gaze on the door. It closed and the bus engine roared to life, leaving a cloud of diesel fumes as it pulled away.

“Mommy,” Opal repeated. “I got a hundred on my spelling test. Can we go in and have some ice cream to celebrate?”

“After dinner.”

The little girl’s smile dimmed.

“With whipped cream and sprinkles,” Jamie added. No need to take her bad day out on the girls.

“All right!” Opal skipped off to the house.

“Myles wasn’t on the bus,” Rose said before Jamie could ask. “I saw him walk by with Scott and Liam, my friend Katy’s brother. Liam has a really loud car. They used to come over all of the time when you were working, but they haven’t in a while, not since you told Myles he couldn’t have anyone over without your permission when you’re at work. He knows I’ll tell on him.”

Leave it to Rose to have all of the details and to appoint herself to police Myles. She looked down at her daughter. While Jamie appreciated that the possibility of Rose reporting on him had helped stop Myles from disobeying the house rules, she shouldn’t put the little girl in that position.

“Come on, Mom.” Rose hitched her backpack up on her shoulder and headed into the house.

After a final glance at the fading form of the school bus, Jamie followed her.

* * *

“Here you go.” Jamie handed Opal and Rose dishes of ice cream with sprinkles and whipped cream. “As soon as you finish, right to your homework.”

Mouth full, with whipped cream on her upper lip, Opal nodded her agreement.

“When I get done, can I watch TV?” Rose asked.

“I’ll see. It depends on how late it is.”

“I can work fast.”

“And still do a good job?”

Rose nodded. “Promise.”

Jamie smiled at the girls’ chatter as she crossed the room to load the dishwasher. She opened the door and lifted a plate from the counter. This was Myles’s job. The girls set and cleared the table and he loaded the dishwasher. But, after the blowup they’d had when he’d arrived home just as they were sitting down to eat, his sullen attitude at the dinner table had stretched her patience to the limit. She’d needed him out of her sight for a while, so she’d sent him up to his room to do his homework—without his cell phone.

“Mom, the phone is ringing,” Rose said.

Jamie’s gaze darted to Myles’s phone on the counter before she realized the faint ring was the house phone, not his cell phone, or hers. So it probably wasn’t one of the midwives at the birthing center. She released a sigh of relief. She was on call tonight, but leaving the kids and going into work for a delivery that would take hours was the last thing she wanted to do.

As Jamie followed the faint ringing into the living room, her pulse quickened. Could it be Eli calling to check whether Myles made it home? No, that was silly. Why would he call? A teenage boy hitching a ride home with a couple of friends wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. More, why would she want him to call? She didn’t even like the man.

When she reached the foot of the stairs, the ringing stopped, and she heard the low rumble of Myles’s voice. She froze, startled at how much it sounded like John’s. Then anger thawed her immobility. Myles had the living room phone. Fists clenched, she looked up the stairwell with resignation. She couldn’t let him get away with this. Maybe Eli had been right, that Myles needed a stronger hand than hers.
No!
She could,
would
handle Myles just as she’d handled a hundred other troubles when John was deployed… Now that he was gone.

She bowed her head and closed her eyes. “Dear Lord, I know I’m a good mother. Please help me be a better one, especially for Myles.” Then, she caught herself. What was she doing? She shook her head. She knew prayers were useless. John’s death had proven that. But old habits die hard. Lifting a foot that seemed to weigh fifty pounds, Jamie dragged herself up the stairs to the inevitable confrontation. Beside her, tail wagging, their golden retriever, Scooby, whined in sympathy.

“Yes, boy, I couldn’t agree more.”

Chapter Three

E
li had had a bad feeling about the old heating system in his mom’s house the last time he’d been over and heard the pipes clanking. His stop by this afternoon to say hello on the way back from working out at the gym in Crown Point had proven him right. The temperature was subzero outside, and he’d found his mother working in her upstairs studio in fifty-degree cold.

He held his breath and opened the air-release valve on the pipe leading to the radiator in the studio. After a couple of gurgles, the hot water flowed soundlessly, bringing heat to the frosty room. The hot water hadn’t been circulating in the upstairs baseboard radiators because of air in the pipes, and his mother hadn’t even noticed.

He closed the valve and straightened. That should do it for now. But the valve needed to be replaced. Might as well do it while he was here, although he suspected he’d be back frequently to take care of other home maintenance issues. As far as he could tell, nothing had been done to the house since the last time he’d been here on leave. And that had to have been at least five years ago.

“Mom,” he called as he tromped downstairs. “I’m going to run to the hardware store in Ticonderoga. Do you need anything while I’m out?”