Stillwater Rising Page 11

  Jordan’s brow rose. “You were with children all night after spending the day with Julia,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m surprised you didn’t come home sooner.”

  She slipped off her shoes and wiggled her toes against the grass. “Ellie was having a lot of fun but didn’t want me to leave her.”

  “Was this her first sleepover?”

  Charlotte nodded. “I think so. Shelley worked her magic, though, and had the kids making cookies by the time I left. I promised we would be by in the morning for breakfast.” She smiled as Jordan’s eyes lit up. “I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

  Knowing Shelley, she’d have freshly baked muffins, omelets, and waffles complete with homemade whipped cream and cut fruit.

  “Did you see Lauren this morning?” She’d sent Lauren texts throughout the day to let her know how Ellie was and what was going on, but she’d only received one text back—thank you. Hopefully that meant that she had slept all day.

  Jordan sat down on the edge of their deck, and Charlotte joined him. Buster grabbed a bright orange ball and brought it to Jordan, who promptly threw it, and Buster went running after it.

  “I knocked to let her know I was there, but she must have been asleep already. Although I’m not sure how she could have slept with the mower going.” Buster ran back with the ball and dropped it into Jordan’s outstretched palm. He threw it again and then wiped his hand on his shorts. “I tried to cut her lawn as fast as I could.”

  “She didn’t look good, Jordan. I’m worried about her.”

  His lips thinned before he reached over and placed his hand on her thigh. “Some people have to take care of themselves. You can’t do it for everyone.”

  “She has no one to help her, though.”

  He shook his head. “She has a lot of people. This whole town, in fact. I think it’s just hard for her to accept the help.”

  Charlotte thought back to how Lauren had almost said no when she’d offered to keep Ellie longer than originally planned. He was right. Lauren did have a hard time accepting the help. But she needed it. Why couldn’t she see that?

  “How’s Julia?”

  There was a look on his face as he asked the question, but Charlotte couldn’t quite read him. They hadn’t really talked about Julia much; Jordan’s focus was on his students, and hers was on the town. It was almost as if they had an unspoken agreement to not bring her up in case they disagreed with one another.

  Samantha’s comment about the town’s view of Julia hit a little closer to home than she thought it had.

  “Did you know her house has been vandalized on a regular basis? And that she hasn’t been to visit her son’s grave at all? Or that she’s barely eating?”

  “Are you trying to save her as well?” There was a note of resignation in his voice.

  “What do you mean by that?” She turned to look at him and quickly looked away when she saw the message in his eyes. Pity. Why would he pity her?

  “Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve always felt it was your responsibility to help people. It’s like you don’t trust them to do it themselves.”

  “Sometimes they can’t.”

  “Not if you’re the one always doing it for them.” He threw the ball again for Buster.

  Charlotte let out a long breath. He didn’t understand. He never had.

  “The only one you’ve never tried to fix is me. Why is that, I wonder?”

  This caught her attention.

  “You’ve never needed it. That’s what drew me to you. You were solid, always have been.”

  Jordan nodded but got to his feet and stepped away from her. Buster ran up toward them and dropped the ball at his feet and then lay down.

  “I’ve always wondered if that’s what you thought.”

  She set her glass of wine down on the ledge and went to stand beside her husband.

  “What am I missing, Jordan? Is there something going on that I don’t know about?”

  He turned toward her, and sadness hit her hard. Something was wrong. She could feel it.

  “Nothing I can’t handle,” he said.

  She didn’t like the sound of that. He never handled anything alone. She was always there beside him. Like a team. The media had labeled them as a powerhouse team holding their town together. It’s what worked for them.

  “What happened after you left Lauren’s?” In all of their texts today, he never did tell her what he’d done. Now that she thought about it, the conversation had really been one-way. She’d texted him to let him know where she was, and he’d replied back with one word. Okay.

  “What do you mean, what happened?”

  “Just that. What happened today? What did you do?”

  He shrugged. “Had a few meetings regarding the new security measures at the school for the new year.”

  “That was today?” She didn’t have that meeting in her calendar.

  “You don’t need to be present at every meeting I hold. The school is my responsibility. Not yours.” His scowl deepened.

  Oh, no he didn’t. He wasn’t going to play this game with her. She straightened her back, prepared for a discussion that went beyond their roles of husband and wife.

  “As mayor of this town, the school is my responsibility, and you know it. Everything that happens in this town is my responsibility. And yes, I do need to be at those meetings. What did I miss?”

  There was a fire in his eyes, as if he was going to argue, but she stood firm. She couldn’t believe he was being like this.

  “We’re looking into metal detectors at the entrances and lanyards for everyone to wear in the school.”

  “To distinguish visitors from staff?”

  He nodded. “We also discussed making that one wall as you walk in all glass.”

  The front office was directly to the left of the entrance with one small windowpane. Making that wall all glass made sense; the office staff could see who walked in at all times.

  “I like that idea. I’d support it if you needed my vote.”

  “I don’t. It was a unanimous decision.”

  “Okay, what’s going on here? What have I done, because obviously it was something.”

  He stared at her, as if willing her to read his thoughts, before he glanced away and stared out at the water.

  Charlotte glanced up at the sky, at the twinkling lights shining down on them. She loved looking up at the stars. She used to lie on the grass in the middle of the night and count the stars, for as long as she could, until they all blurred together.

  “Nothing. Sorry, it wasn’t an easy day. I met with the carpenters to go over the interior remodeling that needs to be done and then spent the rest of the day in town making myself available to families. The beach crowd wasn’t too bad for this time of year and a few parents approached me looking for some reassurances. Some even asked what they could do to help other families.”

  “Anyone ask about Julia?”

  “Why would they?” His voice had chilled.

  Charlotte shrugged. She knew she needed to play this safe, to not go full throttle on this new idea, but it was hard. Jordan was her husband. He should understand and see things the same way. They had the same goal after all.

  “Because she’s a member of our community, of our family, and she’s hurting just as much as everyone else.”

  Jordan’s brow arched and the oh-so-famous principal look he was known for was now turned on her.

  “Really, Charlotte? Is this the message you’re now going to try to get across? You can’t expect others to embrace her, bring her back into the fold, so to speak. She’s forever part of the one memory everyone wants to forget.”

  “I know, I know.” Charlotte reached out and laid her hand on his arm. “But she’s not the one who shot the students. She’s just a mother who also lost her child.” She raised
her hand to stop whatever argument he was about to throw at her. “I know it’s not the same, but it kind of is, isn’t it? Gabe killed himself. Her grief is no different than the others’.”

  Jordan’s lips thinned at her response. “There is a difference. But I doubt we’re going to see eye to eye on this one.”

  At his words, a sword pierced her heart. They hurt. Each word he spoke hurt. Was it his goal tonight to tear her apart, to break their bond? To make her doubt herself or what she believed?

  “Are we okay?” she asked.

  “What kind of question is that?”

  She blinked and stared upward. “Will you support me in public regarding Julia?”

  “Charlotte . . .” There was an edge to her husband’s voice, as if warning her to drop the subject. But she couldn’t.

  Since the day Julia Berry had moved to Stillwater, Jordan had kept her at arm’s length, no matter how Charlotte felt about her. He always left the room when she was there; his words and attitude toward her were . . . not condescending but not welcoming either. He’d claimed there was something off about her, something he couldn’t put his finger on. He’d never liked her, and so it was no surprise that he felt this way.

  “I need you to support me in this, Jordan. Please.”

  Jordan’s hands fisted at his sides as he stood there beside her. “You don’t understand what you’re asking,” he said. The muscle in his cheek flared as he clenched his jaw.

  “I’m not asking anything I haven’t in the past. We support each other, Jordan. That’s what we do. That’s who we are.” Her muscles tensed, and she couldn’t believe this was happening between them.

  “Not in this. You can’t ask me to support you in this.” He turned and walked down toward the beach. Buster climbed to his feet and followed after him.

  “I’m going for a run,” he said over his shoulder. He didn’t bother to wait for her reply.

  What was it about Julia that set him off? It didn’t make sense—not that kind of reaction.

  She puzzled over it while she headed back to the deck and grabbed her wineglass. She took a sip and thought about how Jordan had always been distant with Julia and even with her son. If she remembered correctly, Jordan used to come home in foul moods over how he’d had to deal with Gabe when he was at Stillwater Public. He’d been the only problem child in the school to get beneath Jordan’s skin, which was saying something since Jordan had a knack for handling most kids with attitudes.

  She was content to sit there on their deck until Jordan came back from his late run, but the sound of the phone ringing interrupted her musing. It was Charlie.

  “So, how did the meeting go?” She’d called him earlier to say she wouldn’t be there and asked him to call.

  As Charlie filled her in on what had transpired, she reached her hand out to blindly feel for the chair and then sat down. Her heart sank at his words.

  Charlotte’s hand shook as she gripped the phone in her hand. She leaned back in the chair and digested the news from Charlie.

  Jenn wanted to close the school. Shut it down. Forever.

  How could she do that?

  She dialed Jenn’s home number.

  “Hello?”

  She breathed a sigh of relief when Robert answered. She knew Jenn probably hadn’t made it home yet, but she wasn’t sure how long after the meeting Charlie had called.

  “Robert, we need to talk. Jenn approached her committee tonight with the idea of shutting down the school.”

  There was silence on the other end. Did that mean he knew of her plan? He didn’t condone it, did he?

  “If you knew about this, why didn’t you at least warn me? I knew she said some things to Samantha, but I didn’t think she would take it this far.”

  “I didn’t know.” Robert’s voice held a faraway note to it.

  “You didn’t know?” She had a hard time believing that. Robert knew everything that happened in this town; that’s why he made such a great business partner for her. They worked well as a team.

  “No, Charlotte. I didn’t. Jenn just drove up; let me talk to her.” He hung up on her.

  Charlotte sat there in shock. How could Jenn do this to her? Didn’t she understand the harm closing their school would do to the town? To the teachers and to the parents? Was she so lost in her grief that she couldn’t see past her own anger and sorrow?

  Part of her wanted to talk to her friend directly, but there seemed to be a wide schism between them, and she was afraid facing this issue head-on would completely separate them.

  Time drifted past, and yet Charlotte didn’t move. This betrayal hit her hard. How could Jenn do this to her, especially without talking to her about it first? Didn’t she realize Jordan would lose his job? That the teachers they called friends wouldn’t have an income and would have to move? That it would destroy their town?

  A wet nose nuzzled her hand, and she automatically began to pet Buster. She glanced up to see Jordan standing there, a puzzled look on his face.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head. How did she even explain this to him?

  She thought she’d have heard back from Robert by now, telling her she was overreacting and Jenn didn’t actually mean what Charlie had said. But he hadn’t. The phone had remained silent.

  “Charlotte, what’s wrong?” Jordan stood at her side and reached for the phone that rested in her hand still.

  When he squatted down beside her, she almost started to cry. She pushed back the tears and gave her head a small shake. She needed to figure this out and stop being so emotional about it.

  “They’re going to close the school.” That didn’t come out right, but it was all she could think of to say. They were going to close the school, or at least try. What if they did? What if Jenn spoke to enough people who agreed with her flawed logic?

  “Who’s going to close the school?” Jordan pulled out the chair beside her. Sweat beads covered his skin from his run, and she could tell he was out of breath. He must have pushed himself.

  “Charlotte? Who is going to close the school?”

  Forcing herself to focus, Charlotte looked him in the eye. “Jenn.”

  Jordan laughed. “You honestly believe that? Robert would never let her.”

  She shook her head. “She went to the committee about it.”

  “Okay,” he sighed. “I doubt the committee will do anything about it. I’m surprised Rob didn’t stop her.”

  “He didn’t know.”

  Jordan reached for her hand, stood up, and pulled her up with him. “Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

  There was a lot to worry about.

  “Give her a call tomorrow, and have your girls’ chat you two usually do over coffee and chocolate. Find out where her head is at, and see how you can help turn it around.” Jordan placed a kiss on the top of her head and then released her.

  “Jordan, it’s not that simple.”

  He smiled at her. “It is that simple. You’re best friends. You’ll figure it out. And I’m sure you’ll talk with Robert tomorrow and find out what is going on. We have our school board meeting later this week. Why don’t you suggest an impromptu meeting with some of the members before then?”

  “So you’re not worried?” Her question stopped him in the doorway. How could he be so nonchalant about this?

  “I’m not worried.” He bent down and patted Buster’s head. “Now, if it were anyone else, that’s a different story.”

  “Why?” She knew Jenn. Once she set her mind to something, she didn’t let go. If she wanted the school closed, she’d find a way to make it happen.

  “Because I trust Robert.”

  “I don’t understand.” She trusted Robert as well, but Jenn was her own person, and there was only so much that Robert could do.

  “Honey, if you weren�
�t mayor of our small town, Robert would be.”

  Flabbergasted at his statement, there wasn’t much left to say, so she watched him head downstairs to have a shower after his run.

  Robert as mayor? While she’d often joked about that with Rob, this was the first time Jordan had ever said anything. Did he think she should step down after this session? She’d planned on running again. She’d even talked it over with Robert, and he’d confirmed he would support her for another term. But did Jordan know something she didn’t? Or was she just being overly paranoid right now and reading into things too much?

  She poured herself a glass of wine and headed into her office. She needed to calm herself down and focus on getting ready for Monday. She’d promised some things to Julia today, things she’d meant to talk to Jordan about, but that would have to wait till she was in the office and had her morning meeting with Sheila.

  She sat down at her desk and turned on her computer and noticed her phone vibrated.

  We need to talk. The message was from Robert.

  What’s up? Anxiety filled her as she texted him back. She cracked her fingers while she awaited his reply.

  Tomorrow.

  Tomorrow. So much for calming down.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  JULIA

  Julia grabbed a rag and began the slow process of shining her coffee table so that it gleamed. Earlier she’d cleaned it and thrown away old wrappers, magazines, and tissues she’d left lying there. She’d already gotten rid of the thick layer of dust, but now she slowly rubbed the rag around in circles to bring out the sheen in the wood. She’d fallen in love with this table a few years ago while hunting around at a flea market just south of them. At first glimpse it had been covered in black paint, but there was something there, beneath the layers, that spoke to her.

  After hours of scraping the paint off and restoring it back to the original wood, it didn’t take much for Julia to realize she’d found something priceless. Her whole house was furnished with similar pieces: antique dressers, tables, stands, and knickknacks.

  Her arms ached from the repeated circular motion, but she welcomed the pain. It provided a distraction from her thoughts. When she was finished, she set the arrangement from Paige and Camille in the center of the table and fingered the flowers. She was thankful for their friendship, despite how she’d kept them at bay. She didn’t want their association with her, their friendship, to hurt them businesswise.