Authors: Jean C. Gordon
“That’s what I’m hoping. Could I talk you into putting together a booth for the Adirondack Medical Center?”
Jamie pressed her forefinger to her lips. While she was flattered, Becca was right. She didn’t have a lot of spare time. “You mean the birthing center.”
“No.” Becca gently swung her feet back and forth. “The Medical Center. With the birthing center, clinics and the hospital in Saranac Lake, it’s one of the area’s largest employers.”
“Wouldn’t you rather have Kelly or Autumn or one of the administrators represent the Adirondack Medical Center? Autumn’s a hometown girl.”
Becca glanced at the door. “I thought about Autumn. But you have more work experience, and…” She dropped her gaze to her hands folded in her lap. “Your experience is more in the trenches, if you know what I mean.”
“Not exactly.”
Becca leaned forward. “A fair number of our students’ parents aren’t college-educated, and we have students who are planning to go to work right out of high school.”
Excitement bubbled through Jamie. “Like licensed practical nurses or aides or lab techs or food service.” Jamie could relate to that. She’d taken LPN courses at Vo-Tech when she was in high school and worked as an LPN until John was deployed to the Middle East the first time. Then, she decided to go to college and become an RN.
“Exactly.” Becca slapped the examination table. “As I said, someone who came up through the trenches. I think you can put together a great booth that will really give the kids direction. And I certainly have nothing against you asking Autumn to help.”
The door to the examination room pushed open. “Asking Autumn to help with what?” the midwife asked.
“Jamie’s going to…I mean, Jamie is thinking about heading up a booth for the medical center at the high school Career Day.”
“Good choice and, sure, I’ll help,” Autumn said.
“Why do I feel I have no choice?” Jamie asked her friends with a surrendering smile.
“Because you want to,” Becca said.
Jamie thought about the conflicted feelings she’d had last Sunday when she’d dropped Myles off for his class. The longing for the fellowship she’d once had there. Career Day would be a non-church way for her to get involved in the community again.
“Yes, because I want to.”
Becca clapped. “Now, I almost have all the booths set.”
“Of course,” Jamie warned, “if Autumn and I have a birth on Career Day, our booth might be unmanned.”
“Not a problem. I’m sure you’ll have it set up so well it can run on its own. Our first meeting is Friday evening in my homeroom. The school will be open for the basketball game anyway. Can you make it?”
Friday was bowling. But after her and Eli’s discussion on Sunday, she wasn’t sure she was up to spending the evening with him.
“If you’re concerned about Myles watching the girls, I can take them all to the game,” Autumn offered. “I wouldn’t mind. Myles could hang out with Tanner, and I enjoy spending time with Rose and Opal.”
“Thanks. I’ll be there.”
Another week away from Eli would give her time to put him and the situation with Charlotte and her son back into perspective.
* * *
Jamie sat in the living room recliner basking in her few moments of solitude. Autumn had picked up the kids an hour ago so they could stop for pizza before the game. Scooby came over and nuzzled Jamie’s foot. She rubbed his nose. “Yes, it is quiet with them all gone. Come on, I’ll feed you. Then, I’m leaving, too.” Scooby whimpered as if he understood.
With the dog fed, Jamie headed over to the school. She hadn’t asked Becca who else was on the Career Day committee, but she’d find out soon enough. Both the stairwell and the hall to Becca’s classroom were empty, even though, according to her watch, she was only fifteen minutes early. She could have sat and enjoyed her solitude at home a little longer. But as long as the classroom was open, she could sit and enjoy her solitude here.
The doorknob turned and, as she pushed the door open, her heart tripped. She took in the broad shoulders, perfect posture, the way his close-cropped hair tapered to a V on the back of his neck. Eli sat in the student desk directly in front of Becca’s desk tapping something into his tablet computer. She pulled the door back toward her and it squeaked.
He turned. “Jamie. Becca said she’d talked you into joining us.”
Funny, she hadn’t said anything to Jamie about Eli being on the committee.
He glanced at his watch.
“Hi, Eli. Yes, I’m here fifteen minutes early.”
“What?” Confusion spread across his face.
“You checked your watch. You do it often. Or often when I meet with you.”
The laugh lines at the corners of his eyes deepened. “Bad habit. It’s from a combination of my mother always being late and me serving in the military.”
Jamie took her coat off and placed it on the desk behind her before sliding into the seat next to him. “I’m surprised Becca isn’t here yet.”
“Me, too.” He moved his arm with his watch away from him on the desk as if to stop himself from checking it.
Jamie suppressed a smile. “Becca didn’t mention anything to me about you being here tonight.”
“I asked her not to. After last Sunday, I was afraid you’d turn her down.”
The truth stung. She might have.
“Becca really wanted you to agree.”
“It’s fine. I’m kind of excited about putting together a booth for the Medical Center. And I should have known you’d be involved. You’re the guidance counselor.”
“I can help you get organized. I mean, I’ve done this sort of thing before. I spent some time on an Air Force recruitment team.”
Jamie froze. Eli had been a recruiter. John had been recruited at a job fair. It hadn’t been at their high school—it had been at a local mall—and Eli certainly hadn’t been involved. Still, resentment squeezed her chest. If the recruiters hadn’t been there, John would be… She pushed her thoughts back into the mental folder where she kept the remembrances of John and their marriage and clamped down on the feeling of betrayal she felt for her attraction to Eli. As irritating as he could be, she couldn’t deny the pull between them. Not that she could see anything coming of it. She couldn’t let herself care for another man the military could take away from her.
* * *
Eli couldn’t miss the rigid way Jamie held herself. Apparently, he’d said something wrong yet again. He couldn’t tell whether it was his offer to help her with her organization or his mention of recruiting.
“Hey, you two.” Becca breezed into the classroom. “I meant to be here at six forty-five.”
Eli caught Jamie’s gaze darting from his face to his wrist and back. He grinned at her and she turned her attention to a folder she’d placed in front of her.
Becca set her briefcase on her desk and began removing papers. “My sitter cancelled this morning and I had to ask my former mother-in-law to watch Brendon. I couldn’t escape a thinly veiled admonishment about how I should be home with him, shouldn’t have taken on this committee if it meant evening meetings. But you don’t want to hear my woes. Jamie, just let me say that I don’t know how you do it with three kids.”
“It’s a challenge, but I manage. Usually.”
And surprisingly well.
Although Eli didn’t know why he was surprised. He was coming around to the realization that she was a lot better organized than he’d given her credit for at first, and competent at a surprising number of different things. Still, she could let a guy lend a hand every so often.
“So, did you two come together?” Becca put her emptied case on the floor beside her.
“No.” Jamie drew the word out. “Why would you think that?”
“I thought you were dating.” Becca’s hands fluttered as she rearranged the papers she’d placed on her desk.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Jamie asked.
“The other day after dismissal I looked out of my window and saw Myles and Liam Russell fighting. Some of the other kids broke it up and everyone got on his bus. I talked with Myles after class the next day. He seemed upset that his mother was seeing someone.” Becca paused. “Not that you shouldn’t be. I suggested he talk with Eli, and Myles made it sound like it was Eli you were seeing, and he wasn’t happy about it. Then Mrs. Woods said what a cute couple you make….”
Jamie blanched.
“And tonight, my mother-in-law mentioned that you’re bowling together in the Friday night league.” Becca’s voice trailed off again and she looked at Eli.
“It’s true.”
Jamie’s eyes widened. She hadn’t caught his humor.
“We’re bowling with Tom and Karen Hill.” He tapped the toe of his boot against the desk leg. “That’s it.” Except there was something more. He just hadn’t quite figured out what. He needed Jamie for that, and she seemed to be doing her best to avoid him.
“Right,” Jamie agreed. “I signed up for the winter-spring bowling season. I had no idea Eli bowled, and it was completely random that we ended up on the same team.”
Eli leaned back in his seat. To his ears, the lady was protesting too much. And, unless he was reading the schooled expression on Becca’s face wrong, she agreed.
“I guess that’s settled,” Becca said. “I’m expecting a few more people, speaking of whom.” She lifted her chin toward the door.
Anne Howard Hazard, Jamie’s former neighbor and a professor at the community college, Liz Young from the Chamber of Commerce and another woman Eli didn’t recognize entered the room together.
“Come in. Take a seat, any seat.” Becca waved them in. “I think you all know each other, except Tessa Hamilton. Tessa’s taken over the movie theater. She’s going to coordinate local business representation at Career Day and talk with some of the chain stores in Ticonderoga about participating.”
“Hi,” Tessa said. “I met Anne and Liz in the hall.”
“This is Jamie Glasser. She’s a labor and delivery nurse with a midwife practice at the Adirondack Medical Center birthing center in Ticonderoga. And the handsome gentleman next to her is our high school guidance counselor, Eli Payton.”
Wrinkles creased Jamie’s forehead. Eli could almost believe Becca’s compliment had made Jamie jealous. Behind him, the classroom door clicked open and shut.
“Hey, sorry I’m late. Brett’s car isn’t running, so I had to pick him up at the college and give him a lift to his place. Of course, he didn’t call until I had already driven home from Ticonderoga.” Patrick Russell smiled and greeted Becca, Jamie and the other women. His smile disappeared when he got to Eli. “Payton.”
Eli didn’t miss Patrick’s use of his last name, just like they’d done when they’d been rivals for the starting quarterback position on the Schroon Lake Central football team.
“Patrick.”
“Why don’t you take the seat on the other side of Eli?”
Patrick shrugged out of his overcoat and sat.
Silence hung in the air. Tessa glanced around at her fellow committee members as if trying to measure the situation.
“Sorry, Tessa,” Becca said. “This is Patrick Russell. He’s a sales manager with International Paper in Ticonderoga, another one of the area’s large employers.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Tessa.”
“Tessa inherited the Schroon Lake movie theater from her grandfather. Now that we have all of the introductions out of the way, let’s get down to business. Here’s an outline of what I’ve put together so far.” Becca passed a copy to each of the committee members. “It gives you an idea of the businesses that will be represented. Any questions, additions?”
“I see you’ve included recruiters from the Armed Services,” Jamie said, looking directly at Eli.
“Representatives, not recruiters,” he corrected in an effort to deflect Jamie’s opposition.
Jamie turned her attention back to the outline. He understood where she was coming from, probably better than she thought he did. But he thought her opposition was unfounded. The military was a career option students should know about. Personally, he wouldn’t have been against allowing active recruitment of seniors who were old enough to sign up without parental permission. All of the branches required a high school diploma or equivalency now, so it wasn’t like they’d be pulling students out of school. He’d enlisted at seventeen with his mother’s permission and hadn’t regretted it and, as far as he could tell, neither had Jamie’s husband. He’d re-upped several times.
“We always have them.” Becca backed up Eli. She glanced up and down the line of committee members sitting in front of her, ending with Jamie.
Everyone on the committee, save Tessa, knew Jamie’s situation. Anne and Liz gave her sympathetic looks.
“Don’t you remember from the years you were school nurse?” Becca asked.
“I guess I didn’t notice then.” Her voice was almost inaudible. “I don’t suppose I could talk you out of it.”
Becca bit her bottom lip and Eli waited for her to answer before he jumped in again. Becca was the committee chair, and he was sure Jamie already knew his answer.
“I’m sorry, but no,” Becca said. “Our students need exposure to all available career options.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Becca hesitated as if waiting to see if Jamie had more to say before asking, “Anyone else have comments, questions?”
“Not from me,” Patrick said. “I was on the committee last year, too, with Liz and Anne.”
“I may have some once I start putting together a list of local companies to contact,” Tessa said. “Can I email you?”
“That would be fine. And I see you at school every day, Eli.”
Eli couldn’t resist a sidewise glance at Jamie to see if she had any reaction to him and Becca seeing each other every day. She didn’t, or was hiding it well. Maybe he’d imagined the spark of jealousy he’d seen on her face earlier.
“Okay.” Becca lifted her phone from her case. “All we need to do is set a date for our next meeting. Let’s make it in two weeks. That should give everyone time to get organized. What night?”
“Jamie and I bowl on Friday,” Eli said, garnering a studied look from Patrick. “And Anne and I have Singles Plus on Thursdays,” he added quickly to put the other man off any thought that he and Jamie were a couple. Eli got a raised eyebrow from Patrick and a sidewise glance from Jamie for his effort.