Читать книгу Miss Liz's Passion - Sherryl Woods, Sherryl Woods - Страница 10

Todd pulled his pickup into the lot behind the elementary school. The dusty playground was empty, except for a forgotten soccer ball. The swings shifted slowly in the hot stirring of humid air. The cloudless sky burned a merciless reminder that Miami was still weeks away from the first cool nights and gentle days.

As if the weather weren’t enough to sap energy, Todd felt an age-old feeling of intimidation squeezing his chest as he walked around the corner of the low, brick building. When he’d finally graduated from high school two years late, he’d vowed never to cross the threshold of another school. He was here now only because of Kevin. And one feisty teacher who wouldn’t let well enough alone, he reminded himself.

As he neared the entrance, he heard the faint ringing of a bell and a moment later the quiet erupted into a scene of absolute chaos. Several hundred noisy, rambunctious students began pouring through the doors like salmon frantic to get upstream. He stood out of the way and watched, hoping to catch a glimpse of the determinedly staid Mrs. Gentry in the midst of the pandemonium.

It took him only a few minutes to spot her. Her red hair was pulled tautly back. Curly strands, indifferent to her efforts at restraint, had escaped to create a halo that glittered a coppery gold in the sunlight. In her slim beige skirt, emerald green silk blouse and sensible beige pumps, she was solemnly leading a perfectly formed line toward one of the bright yellow Dade County school buses. The impression of rigidity returned with a thud, correcting a night of more alluring dreams.

Then he saw a small girl of six or seven lift a laughing face toward her. Elizabeth’s—Miss Liz’s—generous mouth curved into an answering smile. With fingers that seemed somehow hesitant she reached out and lovingly brushed a strand of hair back from the child’s face. There was an odd sense of yearning in that fleeting touch that wrapped itself around Todd’s heart.

Contradictions! So many contradictions, he wondered if he’d ever understand them all.

There’s a lifetime to try.

The unexpectedly wayward thought careened through his head, slamming into his consciousness with the impact of a fullback charging at full speed. His breath rushed out, followed by a colorful, resistant oath. There was no way in hell this woman—any woman—was going to get to him again. Not after Sarah.

But his palms were sweating like a lovestruck teen’s and his heartbeat skittered and danced in a way he’d all but forgotten. He seized on past hurts and entrenched bitterness to chase away the symptoms of an imagination gone awry. They did a damn poor job of it, he noted wryly as he waited at the entrance for Elizabeth Gentry to join him. He rubbed his palms on his denim-clad thighs and hoped the heat in his loins would cool.

While he waited, she stood watching—a lone sentry—until the last school bus pulled away. Again he caught that flash of yearning on her face, the subtle droop of her shoulders when the children were out of sight. An aching need built in his chest, a need that made no sense. A tender wondering filled his soul with questions he wanted to ask, but didn’t know how, didn’t even know if he had the right to ask. Worse, he couldn’t even imagine where all these thoughts were coming from. He covered his confusion with a smile meant to tease away the frown on her lovely face.

“Why so glum?” he asked softly, stepping from the shadows as she neared the front door.

Startled eyes met his. He thought there was the beginning of a smile, but it ended before it could brighten her face. She merely nodded in satisfaction.

“So, you came.”

“I told you I would. Right on time, too,” he noted as if seeking approval.

That did earn a full-blown grin. “Are you expecting a gold star for attendance? If so, it will hardly make up for all those zeros.”

Despite her teasing tone, his voice and his mood went flat. “I stopped worrying about report cards long ago.”

“Even Kevin’s?” she queried briskly, chasing away any last remnants of the light mood.

Disappointed and unable to figure out why, he snapped, “You’re all business, aren’t you, Miss Liz?”

She scowled disapprovingly. The prim set of her mouth wasn’t all that far removed from his original image of her. With an urge of pure devilment, he felt like kissing those lips until they were bruised and swollen and parted on a sigh of pleasure.

“It’s Mrs. Gentry,” she corrected with that familiar snap in her voice. “And I do try to act like a professional when I’m having a business meeting. Shall we go inside?”

“By all means,” he said, responding to her cool demeanor with a touch of sarcasm he couldn’t have stopped if he’d wanted to. The woman infuriated him. Worse, something told him she enjoyed it, that she liked watching the barriers go up. He wondered why. Did she need them there to protect her heart? Not from him. He wasn’t interested. Perhaps he should tell her that.

As soon as they reached room one-twenty-two, she grabbed an eraser and attacked the blackboard as if the day’s lessons had offended her by lingering on display. Chalk dust filled the air with a fine mist and a scent that dragged Todd back nearly twenty years.

He pulled a too-small chair up beside her desk, turned it around and sat down straddling it to wait. With each moment that passed, his impatience grew. Only when the blackboard was cleaned to her satisfaction and the chalk lined up neatly and the papers on her desk straightened into tidy piles, did she sit down. It took several more minutes for her to lift her gaze to meet his. Only then did he realize that she’d been gathering her composure, not putting him in his place.

“Tell me about Kevin,” she suggested, idly scratching at a blotchy red spot on her arm. When she pushed up her sleeve, he saw the marks went all the way up.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She regarded him blankly. He reached over and touched one of the raised blotches. “What happened?”

Red flamed her cheeks. “Hives,” she said curtly. “About Kevin…”

Hives, hmm? Generally caused by allergies or nerves. He wondered which had caused hers? He decided not to ask. It would give him something to speculate about later, when her image was plaguing him.

“I thought you wanted to tell me about Kevin,” he said instead. “Isn’t that why we’re meeting?”

“We’ll get to my observations. I thought it might be helpful if I knew whether his behavior in school reflected his behavior at home. Does he give you any discipline problems?”

Sarah’s complaints sprang to mind, but he shook his head. “No more than any kid his age.”

She seemed surprised by that. “Are you sure?”

“I know what I was like at Kevin’s age. He’s no different.”

She smiled. The effect was like the sun emerging on a cloudy day. It warmed his heart, even as she said, “But I suspect you were a holy terror. That’s hardly a fair comparison.”

“I turned out okay,” he countered, responding to her amusement. “For a holy terror, that is.”

“Don’t you want more for Kevin?”

He sighed. “I assume you’re thinking ahead to college.”

She shook her head. “Right now, I’m thinking ahead to passing third grade. He won’t at the rate he’s going.”

Her somber prediction had the desired effect. It shook him up as none of her vague warnings had. “It’s that bad?” he said skeptically. “Surely—”

“Mr. Lewis, he can’t read.”

“He struggles over a few words.”

“The simplest words.”

“Then why did he pass second grade?”

“I can’t account for another teacher’s decision. All I can tell you is that the situation cannot continue without doing irreparable harm. Once a child has lost the chance to acquire solid reading skills, everything else becomes almost impossible. History, geography, science, even math. Kevin is bright, but he’s frustrated and angry. He takes it out on his classmates.”

The scenario had an all-too-familiar ring to it. “Boys like to fight,” he said defensively. “It’s perfectly normal.”

“He’s clobbered two girls in the last week,” she said bluntly.

Todd was genuinely shocked at that. He found he could no longer cling to the hope that this was all a tempest in a teapot. He’d scattered blame and defenses since the conversation began and Liz had countered every one of them. “I’ll see that he’s punished.”

“I’ve already seen to that. More punishment is not the answer.”

“What then?”

“Testing. Maybe special classes.”

Todd felt his stomach knot. “I will not have my son made out to be different.”

“But he is different,” she said with surprising gentleness. “Denying it won’t help him.”

“Dammit, he’s just a little boy,” he snapped, frustration and anger on Kevin’s behalf making his head pound. So much about this was familiar. Familiar and painful. He closed his eyes against Elizabeth Gentry’s patient, compassionate expression. He rubbed his temples, but the throbbing kept on.

He loved Kevin, just the way he was. Why hadn’t Sarah? Why couldn’t Liz Gentry? He didn’t expect him to scale intellectual mountains. He just wanted him to grow into a man who could take pride in whatever skills he had. His unquestioning love and support should be enough. It was more than he’d ever had. He had no idea how to explain all of that to the woman who was waiting so quietly for him to reach the right decision. Whatever the hell that was.

He studied her, wondering what made her tick, why she fought so hard for one little boy when there were dozens more needing her attention. Far more about her puzzled him. When had a woman so full of feminine promise become so wary around men, so determined to keep the focus of her life on her classroom? Or did he have that wrong, as well? Perhaps he was the only man who seemed to throw her.

“Why are you so uptight around me?” he asked suddenly.

She paled and said staunchly, “I am not uptight.”

“Oh, really? Do you always destroy paper clips that way?”

“What way?” she said, staring at him blankly.

Liz recognized a desperate attempt at distraction when she saw one. Unfortunately, though, Todd Lewis was right. He was pointing toward her desk, smirking in satisfaction, mischief making his eyes sparkle. She glanced down. There was indeed a pile of twisted bits of metal in front of her. She sighed. Okay, so she was uptight. It didn’t mean anything. Admittedly, though, it was usually the parents who got nervous about these conferences.

She took a closer look at Todd Lewis. He did not seem nervous. In fact, he looked every bit as overwhelming and lazily self-confident as he had the previous afternoon on his own turf. He’d obviously gone home to change before the meeting. His jeans were pressed. His shirt was crisply starched and open at the throat to reveal a tantalizing swirl of dark brown hair. His hair was damp and recently combed. He smelled of soap and the faintest trace of after-shave. It all added up to raw masculine appeal. Not even the fact that he was sitting on a scaled-down chair meant for third-graders diminished him. If anything, it simply emphasized his powerful build.

“I’ll ask you again,” he said. “Why do I make you nervous?”

“You don’t make me nervous, Mr. Lewis.” These flat-out lies were getting to be a habit around him. She scratched harder at her hives. “You make me mad.” That, at least, was the truth.

It also made him tense up. “Meaning?”

“You and I seem to agree on one thing, that Kevin is a bright child. His IQ scores are well within the normal range, at the high end of the scale, as a matter of fact. Despite that, he is failing in school. His behavior is deplorable. In the last week he has bitten one classmate and bloodied the lip of another one. Is that the way you’re rearing your son to respect girls?”

His distress seemed genuine. “I wish I had known about this sooner. Why didn’t…”

“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence. When was I supposed to tell you? When it first started happening? I wrote you a note after the first incident. I wrote you again after the second and third. You know that. You also know that my phone messages were intercepted.”

“Which should tell you that Kevin knew exactly how upset I’d be. I don’t tolerate that kind of behavior.”

“Kevin’s behavior is not the real problem.”

“But you just said…”

“It’s a symptom of his frustration. His self-esteem crumbles more each day that he can’t keep up. From what I’ve observed and what little testing I am competent to do, I would guess that he has a learning disability. I think if you’d agree to testing, we could identify the problem and get Kevin the help he needs. Right now, he needs some positive things to start happening for him. Without the right kind of motivation, he’ll just give up.”

“Look, I love my son. I want him to have the best of everything, but I won’t baby him,” he said with that stubborn jut of his chin that was so often mirrored on Kevin’s face. “He just needs to try harder. I’ll have a talk with him.”

Liz could see she wasn’t getting through to him. “In Kevin’s case, it’s going to take more than talk. Please, let me have him tested.”

“You said he needs the proper motivation. I’ll see that he gets that.”

There was an edge to his voice that told her exactly what Todd would consider proper motivation. Liz’s heart sank.

“Why are you being so ridiculously stubborn about this? Your son’s entire future may be at stake and you’re acting as though it’s a personal insult to suggest he have help.”

“Maybe that’s it,” he retorted unreasonably. “Maybe I don’t see where you get off telling me how to raise my son. You can’t even keep your classroom under control. These fights are happening while he’s under your supervision.”

“I can’t prevent your son’s disruptions unless I put him in a straightjacket,” she reminded him tightly. “I could suspend him. Is that what you’d prefer? That would take care of my problem, but it would do nothing about Kevin’s.”

“I’ve told you I’ll take care of that.”

“How? By punishing him? Pressuring him with expectations he can’t possibly meet? How exactly do you plan to take care of it, Mr. Lewis? Are you capable of teaching him yourself? From what Kevin has told me, you don’t even help him with his homework.”

He stood up. For a moment she had forgotten how tall he was, how impressively built. She felt her heart catch as he towered over her, his expression cold and unyielding.

“And that’s my problem, isn’t it? He’s my son. What’s the old saying about teachers? Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. That’s why you’re in the classroom, isn’t it? You don’t know the first thing about raising a child of your own. You’ve never had to stay up through the night worrying whether a cough would turn into pneumonia or how you could make up for some terrible hurt. I spend every day of my life trying to make up to that boy for the mother he lost, the mother who didn’t want him, didn’t want either of us. I won’t have him thinking that I don’t believe in him.”

Liz felt the sharp sting of tears. For an instant she wasn’t sure if they were for Kevin and Todd Lewis or for herself. How dare he talk to her of loss as if she’d never experienced one of her own! How dare he suggest that she knew nothing of mothering and worrying and loving!

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Lewis,” she said coldly. She tried to tell herself that he was angry, that he was only lashing out because of what he perceived as an attack on his child. Still, the cruel comments hurt.

“I think I do know exactly what I’m talking about. I was wrong about you yesterday when I said you understood kids. You don’t know the first thing about real kids and their needs. You learned it all in some textbook, but when it comes to kids who don’t conform, who fight and get dirty and make mistakes, you can’t handle it.”

A memory, as sweet and clear as it was painful, skittered through her mind. Laura looking angelic in her new Easter dress. Then, moments later, the bow in her golden hair askew, a smile of delight on her face—and chocolate streaked from head to toe.

Todd’s accusation was true. She had yelled at Laura over a silly dress. She had been upset. And it had all been over nothing. Today she would give anything to take back the words. She would barter with the devil himself to hold her child one more time, to feel those plump little arms around her neck, to kiss that chocolate-sticky cheek.

She lifted eyes that shimmered with tears to stare at Todd Lewis. In a voice that shook with fury and anguish, she said, “Don’t patronize me, Mr. Lewis. I know exactly how hard it is to be a parent.”

The words lingered in a moment of stunned silence before he said slowly, “You have a child?”

He sounded as if the very thought of it were mind-boggling. If she hadn’t been hurting so at the flood of memories, she might have smiled at his startled expression. Instead, she simply shook her head.

“But Kevin said—”

“I had a child. She died when she was three. My husband died in the same accident. So don’t tell me about loss, Mr. Lewis. Or guilt. Or worrying. Or loving. I could write the textbook on every one of those emotions myself.”