Someone Like You (3 page)

But the emotion vanished like mist on a Carolina lake when he touched Brie. Her hand was supple in his, and he liked having her body close to his.

Don’t even get started on how she looks in those jeans.

“You’re good,” he said to take his mind off her body. “I saw you out here with your kid.”

Her violet eyes warmed; they were accented by her hair being pulled off her brow with a little band. “You’re fantastic. Where did you learn to dance?”

“My mama taught me. Then, instead of square dancing for one of our Phys. Ed units, I talked our old principal into getting us jitterbug—aka swing—instructors.” 

Most people didn’t know one of the PE units included dance. They’d tried it here once and the kids loved it so Skelly let them continue and Dylan supported the program.

Brie’s smile was genuine, as if she forgot she disliked him. Taking advantage of that—hell he was only human--he pulled her to him then spun her out. She followed easily. Briefly, he wondered if she followed a man’s lead in bed.

Jesus, Corelli, don’t go there
.

But when the song ended and an old Righteous Brothers tune followed, Nick couldn’t help himself--he drew her close and kept her there.

“I…I think this is enough.”

Not for him. “Stay a minute. I want to say again how much I appreciate what you’re doing for Matt.”

“Nick, I got worried about him when I told him I’d help.”

His body stiffened. “Why?”

“He seemed so…I don’t know, sad I guess, before I made the offer. Then it was like the sun came out on his face. He was so pleased, relieved, it makes me wonder what’s going on in his life.”

“I got a handle on this, Brie.”

“What do you mean?”

“The kid confides in me.”

“No offense intended, but if Matt has issues, you aren’t the one to be dealing with them.”

And just like that, he got pissed again. Damn this woman. Why did she think so little of him? He had a hankering to ask her, but let his defensiveness seep out instead. “I may be a jock, Gabrielle, but I work real well with kids.” He stopped dancing. “And if I needed more help, or Matt does, I’m not some dumb redneck. I’d go to a counselor.” Or get one for him outside of school. But he didn’t tell her he’d done that.

All attraction gone now, he stormed away, leaving her stranded on the floor.

o0o

“Are you still cutting?”

The psychologist, Rich Lawson, who sat in the chair opposite Matt, asked the question in a low key manner, but Matt wasn’t fooled. He knew this was a big deal.

“No.”

Rich cocked his head.

Coach’s words rang in his head.
You gotta tell him the truth, Matt. None of this will help if you don’t. And if you aren’t getting better, I’ll have to take this further.

“Okay, I have, but not as much.”

“What brought it on this week?

“My father. He pulled the Sir thing and hasn’t spoken to me in a week.”

The counselor’s eyes flared with anger. So did Coach Corelli’s when Matt talked to him about The Mayor. Matt hadn’t told them this, but seeing the two other adults’ anger at his father’s behavior made the sick feeling in his gut ease.

“Did you try to talk to him about how he treats you? Like we discussed.”

Shaking his head Matt averted his gaze.

“Matt, it’s all right. You don’t have to be ashamed. We just have to work harder to get you comfortable enough to confront him.”

Suddenly his eyes stung. Tears fell down his cheeks.

“Why are you crying?”

He couldn’t answer.

“Matt, tell me.”

“W-why are you and Coach so nice to me and he isn’t?”

Rich threw down his pen, came to the edge of his seat and touched Matt’s arm. “Because you deserve it. Coach Corelli and I know that. And we care about you.”

“You…you care about me. Honest?”

“Yeah, Matt. Honest. This is your father’s problem, not yours. A lot of other people would care about you too, if you let them in.”

He nodded, thinking of Mrs. Gorman. Maybe she could care about him.

Okay,
he told himself.
He could get through one more day.

Chapter 3

The following Tuesday, Brie sat in her room before class began with Ian Lancaster, the Service Learning Coordinator for the school district. She liked the outgoing guy who’d been appointed to help the Dynamics of Citizenship classes, or DOC as the kids called them, meet their service-to-the-community requirements in order to graduate. “Thanks for coming in to today to get these projects going, Ian. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. I wish everybody in the school valued the program like you do. If it wasn’t for the state mandate, we wouldn’t be doing community outreach with the kids. To this degree, anyway.”

Brie had heard the grumbling in the teachers’ lounge about the do-good activities that
interfered
with their
real
studies
.

“Have the kids chosen their area of interest?” he asked.

“Most of them. They run the gamut of working in clothes closets to MADD’s DUI intervention to abstinence and hunting safety.” She thought about Matt Keller. “One boy chose domestic violence. He wants to work in the playroom at a shelter in Rochester.”

“That’s terrific. The kids housed there need male role models.” 

When the students filed in and got settled, Brie introduced Ian.

His smile was genuine as he stood before the class. “Thanks for having me. And thanks for choosing your areas of interest so fast.”

One girl, Betty, who Brie particularly liked, said, “As if we had a choice. Ms. G’s a tough taskmaster.”

The class laughed.

“Let’s go over the requirements.” Ian tapped his computer and an outline came up on the screen in the front of the room. “As I said, you’ve already done the first two—picking your area of interest and determining what help is needed.”

There was good-natured grumbling all around.

“Yeah, Ms. Gorman made us.”

“We can’t slack off at all in here.”

Ian continued, “Today and tomorrow each of you will meet with me individually while you formalize the bibliography for your research. I’ll be helping you put together a plan of action for implementing your volunteer work while Mrs. Gorman does the latter.

“Next there’s reflection. I understand your teacher has journal assignments ready for you.”

“Of course she does,” Betty commented again.

Ian chuckled. “You’ll include how you felt volunteering, what you learned, how you helped the people at the specific place you worked.

 “And finally--this one is fun, guys--Celebration and Demonstration. Your other classmates and the school as a whole need to recognize how you’ve made a difference in the lives of others. You’ll be presenting your results to each other, the faculty and board members.”

“Can we have a party when we’re done?” a boy asked.

Brie smiled. “I think that’s a great idea, Luke. We can have it here or outside of school.”

“Can we do it at the lake where you live?” Luke wheedled.

“We’ll see.”

Ian clicked off the computer. “That’s it for now. Time to meet with me.”  He turned to Brie.

She pointed to the back of the room where she’d partitioned off a space to confer individually with kids in some semblance of privacy. “Who would like to go first?”

Matt Keller raised his hand, which pleased Brie immensely. “Matt? Go on back with Mr. Lancaster. The rest of you get a laptop from the computer cart so you can go online to finalize your bibliography.” 

Though the school wasn’t equipped with a laptop for each student, it did have the technology to provide classrooms with the portable computers on an as-needed basis. And thankfully DOC classes were kept small, so supervising student work would be easier.

The hour went well. Ian managed to meet with half of the kids; he’d return tomorrow to finish with the others. As it was the last period of the day, Brie had arranged to discuss their progress with Ian after class and to make sure the two of them were on the same page. She bade the students goodbye and headed back to the private area. She found Ian sprawled on one of the chairs she’d bought with her own money. Both she and the kids seemed to appreciate the comfort. Sometimes, like today, she brought in fresh flowers for the windowsill, as she’d positioned this area to get natural light. The scent of carnations wafted over to her.

“How’d it go?”

“Really well. This is a terrific bunch of kids but they wear me out with all their energy and enthusiasm.” He winked at her. “I think their teacher rubs off on them.”

Oh, well. “That’s sweet. Can I ask you about one of them?”

“Yeah, sure. Who?”

“Matt Keller.”

“The boy who picked the DV shelter. We’ve had kids volunteer there before.”

“I know. I’m just surprised this particular boy chose that kind of work.”

“That’s the beauty of this program, Brie. It brings out sides of the kids we didn’t—and sometimes
they
didn’t—know they had. It’s why I gave up teaching Math and took over the coordinator position when the state mandated this program.”

“I’m glad you did. You’re terrific at this job.”

“So, can I ask
you
a question?”

“Um, sure.”

“Will you have dinner with me Friday night?”

“Oh!” She’d never dated anyone from school. She’d hardly dated anybody since Jared died.

“You seem shocked. Surely there are scores of guys beating down your door.”

“Hardly.”

“Well then, what about letting me be the first?”

For some reason, she thought of Nick Corelli and how he danced Friday night at the student mixer held at the school. Damn it. Why would she think of him now, especially after he’d left in a huff?

“I’d love to go out with you Friday, Ian. What time?”

o0o

Nick reached Brie’s room, found the door open, but she wasn’t at her desk or anywhere inside. Then he heard voices behind a partitioned off section in the far corner. He walked to the back and when he got there, he heard the low rumble of male laughter. Maybe he should leave. But then the guy said, “Well then, what about letting me be the first?”

A pause, then, “I’d love to go out with you Friday night, Ian.”

Huh? What was that all about?  He moved to the gap in the partition and found Brie seated in a chair, legs crossed in another one of her skinny skirts. This time she wore a pink blouse. And she was cozying up to Ian Lancaster. A teacher he liked.

“Am I interrupting?” he asked with an unintended snap in his voice. Shit.

Ian grinned. “Nope. I already talked Brie into a date and I’m leaving before she changes her mind.”

Both of them stood.

“I’ll be back tomorrow, Brie. Nick, nice to see to you again.”

Ian headed out and for some reason that baffled Nick, he felt ticked off. It made him say, “What was that all about?”

“What?”

“You’re goin’ on a date with him Friday night?”

“That isn’t any of your business.”

It wasn’t really. So he’d be damned if he could figure out why on God’s green earth it felt like it was. “Yeah, sure, I know. I, um, was hoping all the teachers would be at the game. It’s homecoming and we’re undefeated.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.” His expression was impatient. “Did you need to talk to me?”

It took him more effort than it should to beat back his annoyance. “Yeah, I wondered if you met with Matt yesterday.”

“I did. We worked on an outline. He promised to have it completed for Wednesday and then he can write the paper by Friday. He has good ideas.”

“Did Lancaster get to meet with him about his service learning project?”

“Yes. He said Matt was very enthusiastic about his.”

He stuck his hands in his pockets. “I think those projects are so cool. I wish the rest of the faculty could get involved in them.”

“You do?”

“Uh-huh. I
do
have other interests than sports, Gabrielle.”

Brie straightened. “Anyway, Matt’s got a solid start on the research for his.”

“Were you surprised he picked the domestic violence shelter?”

“You know about that?”

“Yeah, sure.”  Didn’t she listen when he said he was close to the boy? “Maybe I can take him to Rochester the first day, see what he’ll be doing.”

Her face was full of approval. “That is so sweet, Nick. I’m sure he’d appreciate the adult support.”

“More than you know.”

“What does that mean?”

“He doesn’t get much in that area.”

An uncomfortable silence sprung up between them. “Well,” she said starting to move to her left, just as he said “I’ll be going,” and moved his right.

They bumped into each other. He reached out for her and she grabbed onto his arms to keep from falling. For a minute they were close. For a minute, Nick felt a hot need to kiss her. God, he couldn’t remember the last time he got turned on so fast. It was that scent, sexy, flowery, and the latter wasn’t coming from the carnations by the window.

Brie recovered first, though she blushed a pretty pink and didn’t move away. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to, I…um…”

“Here,” he said putting her away from him and stepping to the side. “You go first.”

She shot out of the small space like a rabbit out of fox hole. A smile broached his lips. Maybe she wasn’t immune to him after all.

o0o

Brie sat at the end of a row of chairs, waiting for the Wednesday faculty meeting to begin. The room started to fill up and people congregated around the coffee and cookies Dylan provided every week—a bribe, she’d teased him. Someone came down the aisle. She didn’t even have to look up from the book she was reading to know who it was. Nick Corelli. Again, he smelled freshly showered, with a hint of something very male applied afterward. Brie’s nerve endings responded to the musky scent, a primitive female reaction, she guessed.

Oh, all right, she hadn’t forgotten what happened in the back of her room yesterday when they accidentally stepped in the same direction. His hands had felt good on her, his body’s proximity stirring something inside. Damn it! He was the last guy she wanted to respond to.