Maddie spent Monday afternoon in her office processing the handful of new memberships that had come in. Helen had been right. The curiosity seekers had started arriving in midafternoon and had almost made up for the women who’d canceled their memberships first thing in the morning.
Even so, Maddie was still in a foul mood when the door to her office flew open.
“I hope you’re satisfied!” Peggy Martin declared. “Thanks to you, Cal’s going to be fired.”
Maddie’s heart stopped, then raced. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s going to be a special school board meeting tomorrow night to consider whether or not to fire him. They’ll probably ride him out of town on a rail just because you had to get even with Bill for dumping you.”
There were so many things wrong with that statement Maddie didn’t know where to begin.
“I don’t suppose you stopped to consider your role in this,” she said finally.
Peggy stared at her blankly. “Me? What did I do?”
“You were so desperate to get even with me, you just had to twist every little rumor you’d heard into something ugly, then put it in the paper,” Maddie accused. “If anyone’s to blame for this mess, it’s you.”
Peggy stared at her with pure venom. “Don’t you dare try to turn this around on me. All I did was report the facts.”
“Oh, please, you spun a bunch of gossip into something tawdry.”
“There wouldn’t have been any gossip if you’d stayed away from him,” Peggy snapped.
“And let you have him?”
“At least I’m not ten years older than he is and the mother of one of his players,” Peggy said. “I know this was about Bill. It killed you that he left you for a younger woman, so you set out to get even in the most public way possible.”
Maddie knew that denying the accusation would be a waste of time. “What time is the meeting tomorrow?”
“You’re not planning to be there, are you?” Peggy demanded incredulously. “That would pretty much seal Cal’s fate.”
“What time is the meeting?” she repeated.
“Eight,” Peggy said finally. “But if you care even a little bit about Cal, you’ll stay away.”
She whirled around and left, nearly running into Cal as she did so. She scowled at him, then kept on going.
Cal heaved a sigh. “Messenger of doom, no doubt.”
“Something like that.”
“I’m sorry. I wanted to let you know about the meeting before someone else did.”
“I wish you had. Maybe I could have thought of a quick
comeback when Peggy started accusing me of ruining your life.”
He sat on a corner of her desk, his thigh pressed against hers. “You’re not ruining my life,” he assured her. “You’re the best thing in it.”
“You still going to feel that way if the board fires you?”
“I’m not worried about it,” he said, and a hard look in his eyes suggested he wasn’t lying. “Neither should you.”
She stared at him with amazement. “How can you be so calm?”
“I’m putting my faith in the system and in Hamilton Reynolds.”
Maddie sat back. “You’ve talked to Ham?”
“At length.”
“And he’s on your side?”
Cal nodded. “It’s going to be okay, Maddie. This is all much ado about nothing. The board has to at least listen to the parents. That’s their obligation, but saner minds will prevail. I believe that.”
“Ham has a lot of influence in this town, that’s true,” she conceded. “But it won’t hurt to have a few more people there in your corner.”
“You going to be one of them?”
She studied him intently. “Unless you think me being there will make things worse.”
“I told you, I’m not worried,” he said. “And I want you there. I have a couple of things I intend to say that you need to hear.”
“Such as?”
He shook his head. “I’ve already run it by Ham. He thinks I’ll be persuasive.”
“You don’t care about my opinion?” she asked, miffed.
“Of course I do, but this is one time I want to call the shots. Just let me do this my way, Maddie.”
“But I’ve lived in Serenity my whole life,” she protested. “I know how these people think.”
“Remember what I told you about thinking too much? Sometimes it’s better to go with your gut. I want the people of this town to listen with their hearts, not their minds.” He smiled. “And that’s all I intend to say on the subject for now.”
“But—”
He leaned down. “Hush, Maddie.”
Apparently not content to see if she’d keep silent on her own, he covered her mouth with his. He had a very persuasive mouth. In no time at all she couldn’t have formed a coherent thought if she’d wanted to.
He pulled her up and into the V between his legs, surrounding her with heat and filling her with longing. She rested her hands on the hard muscles of his thighs and let him have his way with her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers. Every part of her turned into molten liquid, so hot and needy that she would have dragged him down to the floor in another instant, but he ended the kiss on a ragged sigh.
“This is the kind of thing that got us into this fix in the first place,” he murmured, his hands still cupping her face, his eyes still filled with heat.
Dazed, Maddie reached for him. “Don’t care,” she whispered as she managed to steal another kiss.
She felt his lips curve into a smile against hers.
“Told you thinking was highly overrated,” he said.
Maddie was the one who pulled back slightly this time. “Okay, buster, now that you’ve proved your point, what are you going to do about it?”
Cal laughed. “Is that a challenge?”
She gazed into his eyes and, to her astonishment, saw love shining back at her. It made her knees weak, but also steadied her resolve. “Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Yes, it is.”
“Then I think we’ve got places to go and things to do,” he said, latching on to her hand.
“Go where?”
“My place,” he said at once.
“What’s wrong with here?” she demanded impatiently.
“Nothing if you don’t care about the photographers I saw lurking in the bushes when I came in.”
Snapped back to reality, Maddie groaned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“And spoil all this fun? Besides, there are no windows in this room and the doors are locked. I made sure of that. Come on, darlin’, let’s get out of here.”
“We can’t leave together,” she told him. “And we can’t go to your place. They’ll just follow us. I’m sure at least one of them reports to Peggy, and she’s determined to turn this into the scandal of the year.”
Cal sighed. “Rain check, then?”
“You’ve got it,” Maddie said.
It seemed that somewhere along the way, he’d also gotten her heart.
T
he high-school auditorium was packed. Built years ago, the stage had oak floors polished to a shine and heavy velvet curtains with gold fringe. Long tables sat center stage with nameplates in front of the places for each of the five school board members, most of whom were standing to the side in a small cluster, whispering among themselves. They waved off anyone else who approached, perhaps in an attempt to demonstrate that they were going into this meeting with their objectivity intact.
It was evident to Maddie, though, that everyone else in town had already taken sides. The tension in the room was palpable with neighbor pitted against neighbor. While most of the hastily made, hand-lettered signs in the room supported Cal with a Save Our Coach slogan, there were more than a dozen individuals vocally demanding he be fired. They could be heard lobbying Cal’s supporters.
Though the air-conditioning was on, it labored to fight the heat in the packed room. Maddie could feel a trickle of perspiration running down her back as she faced down Cal’s detractors with her chin held high.
“I still think you should let me represent you,” Helen told Cal.
“I don’t need representation,” he said. “I’m going to tell them how I feel about Maddie. If they want to fire me for that, so be it.”
“They don’t even have a right to ask questions about your personal life,” Helen said. “At least not the kind of questions some of them are going to ask. You haven’t broken any laws. You haven’t even broken that ridiculous morals clause in your contract, which by the way, I will negotiate out of there before you ever sign another contract with this school district.”
“They’re just trying to protect the kids,” he said.
“From what?” Dana Sue demanded. “Seeing two people together who genuinely care about each other?” Her gaze narrowed. “You do care about Maddie, right?”
Cal exchanged a glance with Maddie that reminded her of the heat between them the night before.
“I care,” he said quietly.
Helen continued to regard him with dismay. “I still think it’s risky for you to stand up there without an attorney. If they’re going to attack with lies and innuendos, you’ll need me to object strenuously for the record. That’s the best way to keep them in line.”
“I appreciate your concern,” he told her. “I really do. If you think I’m about to leap off a bridge and land in a legal quagmire, feel free to jump in and stop me. Anything short of that, leave this in my hands.”
Helen nodded, but she didn’t look happy.
The grim-looking board members took their places. The school board secretary, who doubled as Betty’s secretary at the high school, sat down to record the meeting. Hamilton Reynolds called the special meeting to order. “Now, then,” he began, “I guess we all know why we’re here tonight. I wish
even half you folks would show up when the education of your children is on the agenda.”
Maddie heard Cal’s sigh and saw him relax. She turned to him. “You’re right. He’s definitely on your side. He’s only that cranky when he’s out of patience with folks who are wasting his time.”
Can nodded. “I know. He told me he was, but a part of me wondered if the pressure might not change that by tonight.”
“If there’s one thing I know about Ham, it’s that he’s a man of his word,” Maddie said, feeling marginally better herself.
“I suppose the first thing we need to do is hear from Betty Donovan, since it’s one of her teachers we’re discussing,” Ham said. “Betty, you want to summarize the issues as you see them?”
Betty walked stiffly to the microphone down front. Even though Cal and Maddie were right in the front row, she was careful not to glance their way.
“This is a disciplinary action against Cal Maddox,” she began. “One of the most important things that any teacher in this system does is to set an example for our students.” She waved a copy of Saturday’s paper. “Right here is the proof that Coach Maddox is not setting the right kind of example. He’s been a good teacher and an outstanding coach, but that’s not enough, at least here in Serenity where we live by a high moral code. I recommend that he be fired, with cause, for carrying on with the mother of one of our students.”
She was about to walk away when Ham held up his hand.
“Hold on a minute, Betty. That paper you’re waving around down there is the
Serenity Times,
am I right?”
“Well, of course it is.”
“You didn’t write that article yourself, did you?”
She stared at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not moonlighting as a reporter.”
“Of course you’re not,” Ham agreed. “Which brings me to my point. Did you see any of these alleged misdeeds yourself?”
“No, but they’re right here in black and white.”
“So are the comics, but that doesn’t make ’em fact,” Ham said, drawing chuckles, though mostly from Cal’s supporters.
“Well, I saw enough with my own two eyes,” Betty huffed. “I saw the two of them all cozy over at Rosalina’s on two different occasions.”
“Following baseball games, am I right?” Ham asked.
“Yes.”
“And the entire team and a few other parents were there?”
“Well, yes.”
“Did they do anything inappropriate? Any kissing, for instance? Holding hands, for that matter?”
“No,” she admitted with a pained expression.
“Thank you, Betty. That will be all.”
“But—”
“That’s enough,” Ham said. “Anybody else want to speak? And before you say yes and walk up to that microphone, I want you to consider whether you’ve ever actually witnessed any of this so-called inappropriate behavior everyone’s all worked up over. If all you have is hearsay, then I request that you keep your opinion to yourselves. We don’t condemn people in this town based on gossip, at least not as long as I have anything to say about it.”
There was a lot of grumbling among those clustered on the right side of the auditorium, but no one stood up, not even Peggy Martin, who was so red-faced over Ham’s implied criticism of her reporting she looked as if her head might explode.
“Okay, then,” Ham said, looking satisfied with himself. “I’d vote on this right now, but we need to balance things out before we do. Anyone here feel inclined to speak on Coach Maddox’s behalf?”
Cal was about to stand up, when Ty leaped from his seat and headed for the microphone.
“I just have one thing to say,” he said. “That newspaper story is a bunch of lies. I know my mom and I know Coach, probably better than almost anybody in this room does. They’re great influences on me and my brother and sister and on every other kid they know. Anybody who says otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
The entire baseball team rose to their feet and erupted into cheers as Ty returned to his seat.
Maddie glanced at Cal and saw that his eyes were damp with tears. She’d never felt prouder of her son. Whatever his own misgivings about Maddie’s relationship with Cal, he’d come through for them when it counted.
“He’s something, isn’t he?” she said, wiping at a few tears of her own.
“He should be,” Cal said. “You raised him. Now let me get up there and say my piece.”
The cheers that had started with the team escalated when Cal stood up. A lot of folks in town cared as much about his leadership on the ball field as they did about whatever example he set. And his team was going to play for the state championship on Friday night. A lot of parents wanted him to know they appreciated the hard work that had made that happen. In fact, he had to turn around and silence them before he could speak. Maddie saw the look of wonder in his eyes as he faced the solid show of support.
“Frankly, I wasn’t expecting this,” he told the board. “Mrs. Donovan is right about one thing. Teachers do have to set an example for the children in their care. I’ve tried to do that, both in what I teach them and in how I live. I came to Serenity because Hamilton Reynolds convinced me I could find a home here, and I have. In fact, I’ve found more than that. I’ve found a woman who is everything I’ve always wanted.”
He glanced at Maddie, his heart in his eyes, then turned back to the board. “So, at least some of what you’ve heard and seen in the paper is true. I have spent time with Maddie Townsend and hope to spend even more with her in the future. A lot of you have known her all her life. You know it’s true when I say that she’s someone who’s worthy of respect and deserving of love.” He faced her again and looked deep into her eyes as if there weren’t another soul in the room, then said quietly, “She has both of those things from me.”
When he finally turned back to the board, he said simply, “If you want to fire me because of that, so be it, but I’d say Maddie’s integrity and my feelings for her set an example a lot of folks in this town want for their kids.”
He returned to his seat, picked up Maddie’s hand and kissed her knuckles, then cast a defiant look up at the board members. “There you go,” he said. “I kissed her right here in plain sight.”
Ham shook his head, but he was clearly fighting a smile. “Anybody on the board have anything to say?”
“I’ve heard enough,” Roger Tate grumbled. “Let’s just vote and put an end to this. I’m about to miss my favorite TV show.”
“Can’t vote,” Ham said. “There’s no motion on the table. Any of you want to make one?”
“What happens if we don’t?” George Neville inquired. “Does the whole thing just die, the way it should?”
“It would,” Ham said. “But I think we owe the coach more than that for putting him and Maddie through this. I think we owe him a vote of confidence.”
“So moved,” George said at once.
“Second,” Roger said.
The five members of the board voted unanimously in support of Cal and the job he was doing. Ham glanced over at Betty Donovan after the vote. “You have any problem with that?”
Though her cheeks flamed, she gave him a curt shake of her head. “None.”
“Good, then this matter is settled,” Ham declared. “Coach, we expect you to win that state championship for us, you hear?”
Cal met his gaze. “We certainly intend to do our best.”
Ham winked at him. “Can’t ask anyone to do more than that.”
Maddie studied the exchange. Once she and Cal had made their way through the throng of well-wishers and emerged on the sidewalk outside the school, she looked into his eyes. “Just how well do you know Ham Reynolds?”
“He recruited me for the job,” Cal said. “I thought everyone in town knew that.”
“But there’s more to it, isn’t there?”
Cal met her gaze. “He saved me,” he said simply. “I was at the lowest point in my life and he walked into my rehab room and yanked me back from despair. I owe him for that and for tonight.”
“Not for tonight,” she told him. “You earned that vote in there. Don’t you ever think otherwise.”
Bill had chosen a seat in a back corner of the auditorium and watched Maddie stand solidly behind Cal Maddox during a hearing that would have humiliated a lot of women. A lot of men, for that matter. He wasn’t sure he could have withstood it if anyone had called him on the carpet for his behavior with Noreen, and he had a whole lot more to apologize for than Maddie or Cal did.
Not for the first time he wondered how he’d let his life spin so wildly out of control. Blaming it on a midlife crisis was too easy, too simplistic. He’d been restless, that was true enough. And he’d been open to the adoration of a beautiful young woman. It had been a balm to his ego after life at home had become so hectic that he and Maddie rarely found time for each other.
But what part of him had been so jaded and selfish that he hadn’t recognized and valued the woman who’d borne his children and helped him attain professional success? How could he possibly have thought that hot sex was more important than everything he and Maddie had achieved together?
“They got off easy,” Noreen commented beside him, dragging his attention back to here and now.
“I don’t think we’re in any position to cast stones,” Bill told her.
She looked rattled for a moment, then sighed. “No. You’re right about that. Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Do you regret where we are now? I mean, together and on the verge of getting married, with a baby already on the way?”
Bill didn’t want to have this conversation, not now and cer
tainly not here, but she deserved some kind of answer. He chose his words carefully, hoping to avoid an argument. “It’s way too late for regrets, don’t you think?”
Noreen’s expression turned sad. “In other words, you do have regrets. You’re just burying them under obligation.”
“I didn’t say that,” Bill said irritably.
“You didn’t have to,” she said, squeezing past him to leave. “I’ll wait for you in the car.”
“Noreen,” he protested, but she was already gone, moving with surprising speed for a woman who was eight months pregnant.
He stared after her, overwhelmed by more regrets. It wasn’t just his own life he’d messed up, he realized with sudden insight, or his family’s. Noreen was paying a price as well. Friends had deserted her when they’d learned of the affair. Even in the office, his other staff members treated her coolly. If she clung to him a little more tightly than he might have liked, it was understandable.
What the hell was he supposed to do? he wondered. Was there any way to make any of this right?
He thought of Cal’s very public declaration of his feelings for Maddie, and of Ty’s defense of both of them. Even if there was some way to make things right for Noreen without marrying her, it was probably too late to change anything with Maddie. She’d obviously moved on, and who could blame her?
In some deep dark corner of his soul, he wondered if he’d come here tonight hoping for a different outcome, one that would have sent Cal away from Serenity. Probably so. But that was only vindictive, wishful thinking. Reality was that Cal was here and was becoming a part of the family Bill
had walked away from. He wondered if he’d ever find a way to make peace with that.
“Hey, Mom, do you think we could stop by Wharton’s for a milk shake?” Ty asked, walking beside her and Cal on their way home from the meeting, Dana Sue and Helen bringing up the rear.