Chapter 25

Twenty-Five

Welcome back, ohana! We’d like to issue a warm aloha to Mr. Bell, who is joining us again this term! He’ll be in charge of the spring concert, and we’re so pleased to see his smiling face every day.

NOLAN

Merrick Winters was the most stubborn man on the planet. In the days since New Year’s Eve, he’d dodged my calls and seemed to think that if he stuck his head in the sand, he could pretend I hadn’t said I was staying. As if I might forget if he played ostrich long enough.

Nope, I’d called Principal Alana at a reasonable hour on New Year’s Day and signed up for another five and a half months in paradise. Merry be damned. He was so certain I wouldn’t stay, couldn’t stick it out, and I was utterly determined to show him otherwise.

However, the first day back at school dawned chilly and rainy. The girls fought on the whole walk to school, which made us late. I’d packed an extra thermos of coffee as a peace offering, but Merry already had a line of kids vying for his attention in his classroom. My classroom had sprung a roof leak during the break, so I now had a large bucket and the plink-plonk of raindrops to contend with.

As if that weren’t bad enough, all the schedules had changed with the start of the new semester, and chaos reigned in the halls as students and faculty alike had little clue where to be and when. Further, my classes were filled with cranky, over-sugared, under-slept students.

“I don’t want to sing that.” Kaitlyn seemed determined to start this term as we’d finished the last, despite her mother’s generous fancy restaurant gift card. A gift I couldn’t wait to use with Merry, and thinking of him made me even more irritable.

“I’ll open a suggestion box for new material tomorrow.” I waved a hand. “But for now, everyone up?—”

“Why do we have to stand?” Liam K. had a brand-new shirt proclaiming him a Gamer 4 Life and bags under his eyes that suggested he’d spent all break nuking zombies. “I’m tired.”

“Have you tried a reasonable bedtime?” I snapped, then took a deep breath. Great teaching moment that wasn’t. I went to the basket of snacks I kept near the door. “Sorry. How about a juice pouch?”

“Um, Mr. Bell?” Kelvin, another eighth grader obsessed with gaming, had a newly squeaky voice. “I don’t think I’m an alto anymore?”

“Mr. Bell, I don’t feel so good.” Suddenly, Kaitlyn went from pissy to ill, undoubtedly the same stomach virus that had claimed Ryder and several of the guests at the New Year’s Eve party.

Speaking of Ryder, he and Legend were back for sixth grade choir class, and someone had the brilliant idea to gift Legend a laser pointer that did nifty tricks like projecting paw prints or big X marks. He, of course, had to try out all the features on my backside.

“A laser pointer? I’m disappointed. The year two thousand called and would like its tricks back.” I shook my head and motioned at his bag. “Also, you could harm someone’s vision. Put it away, please, or I’ll have to confiscate it.”

After class, though, it was Ryder, not Legend, who came up to me all apologetic and unusually solemn-faced.

“Nol—Mr. Bell, are you mad I got sick?” he asked in a low voice.

“Mad? Of course not.” I’d had a few private thoughts about the awful timing, but that wasn’t the poor kid’s fault. And if his father had used the brief illness as a reason not to see me, well, that was between the stubborn surfer and me.

“You didn’t come over after New Year’s Eve, so I wondered.” Ryder pursed his lips. “And Dad morphed into a giant porcupine, so I can’t ask him what happened.”

“I’m sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong, I promise.” I patted his arm before the bell rang a second time, and he dashed off.

Hell. I’d never meant to hurt the boys or for them to get caught up in our rather adult bickering. I’d foolishly assumed Merry would accept my decision to stay and we could resume our growing relationship, but I’d been wrong on both counts.

My foul mood continued through lunch—where Merry was nowhere to be found—to the end of the school day, where all I saw were the taillights of his hatchback speeding away from the school. I marched the girls back to Cara and Craig, surprised literal smoke wasn’t billowing from my ears.

“The baby took a three-hour nap.” Cara greeted us warmly with leftover cookies. She and Craig were all cozy on the family room couch, looking like they had very much enjoyed their day off and extended nap time.

Craig was also in high spirits as he took the girls with him on a grocery run to refill the snack cupboard and fridge. Not wanting to escape to my lonely rental, I made myself busy tidying the kitchen while Cara fed the baby in a nearby rocker.

“Okay, spill,” she demanded. “Why the terrible face?”

“Merry still isn’t talking to me.” I had no problems venting to Cara. We’d always enjoyed an easy friendship in addition to being in-laws. “He’s convinced I’m going to leave anyway, so why give us a chance?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, honey.” She set the now-sleepy baby down in his little family room portable crib and returned to give me a big hug.

“It’s okay. I just need to wait him out.” Harrumphing, I scrubbed harder at the already-clean counters. Outside, yet more misty rain fell, and the light was already fading from the overcast sky. “And endure this rainy season as well.”

“Controlling the weather might be the easier of the two tasks.” Chuckling, Cara shook her head before taking a mango from the fridge. “Honestly, I’m about as shocked as Merry that you decided to stay on.”

“Why?” I gave her the same look that had failed to work on Merry on New Year’s Eve.

“Nolan, you’re a New Yorker through and through. No one pines for the city life more than you. You even gifted your boyfriend a bakery box of your New York favorites.”

“ Oh. ” Feeling small and kind of foolish, I put the sponge away. “When you put it like that, it seems selfish. But I just wanted him to be able to share…” I trailed off because I wasn’t helping my case any.

“It was a lovely gesture.” Cara backtracked nimbly, patting my shoulder on her way to get a cutting board and knife. “But I can see why Merry assumes you’ll miss Broadway by March.”

“Don’t we all have to make sacrifices for love?” I launched into the same speech I’d been giving myself for days. I liked Merry more than anyone I’d ever dated. Surely, that had to count for something? “Look at you, for example. Craig has dragged you to any number of places and duty stations you’d rather not go.”

“Is that what you think?” Cara let the knife clatter to the countertop. “That I hate my life but love my husband?”

“Ummm.” I had clearly wandered into shark-infested waters. I stepped away, desperately searching for some other cleaning task.

“Nolan.” Cara tracked me down to wag a finger in my face. “You can’t hate Hawaii and stay for Merry.”

“I don’t hate it here.” I was staying for Merry, so I didn’t bother arguing that point. “Who could hate Hawaii?”

“But you wish you could transplant Merry and the boys to Manhattan.”

“Maybe,” I said softly. I closed my eyes, picturing Merry and me riding the subway together. Shopping in the fashion district, grabbing takeout… Nope. None of the images remotely tracked. That wasn’t Merry. “But if he lived there, he wouldn’t be Merry.”

“Exactly. That’s my point.” Cara gave me a far less deadly-looking smile. “I met your brother when he was on spring break from West Point. I knew what I was getting into as an officer’s wife and happily signed up.”

“And Craig is so lucky you did.” I beamed at her. I might only have one in-law, but she was my favorite even when she was dispensing lectures I could do without.

“No, I’m lucky.” Cara leaned against the fridge, glaring like I was more tiring than her kids. “I’d spent my whole life up until that point in Georgia in a little town I didn’t much like. I wanted to get out, see new places, experience different things. Marrying Craig made that life happen. Do I miss him when he’s deployed? Sure. And yes, there are plenty of sacrifices for us both.”

“So—” I opened my mouth only to shut it quickly again as Cara narrowed her eyes further at me.

“However, overall, I love my life,” Cara continued, warming to the topic, as animated as I’d ever seen her. “The strong friendships I’ve built at each duty station, the chance to show the girls so much of the world, how I’ve been able to prove myself in a way I never could have back home. And Craig wouldn’t be Craig without his years of service.”

“And when he makes general, he damn well better thank you at the ceremony.”

“Oh, Nolan.” Cara groaned and beat her head lightly against the fridge.

“No, no, I get what you’re saying.” I risked stepping close enough to put a hand on her shoulder.

“Do you?” Tone highly suspicious, she peered up at me. “Do you really?”

“I have to stay for my own reasons,” I parroted the answer she was looking for, yet her expression remained unconvinced. Which was understandable. I could deliver the line, but the problem remained that Merry was my reason for staying. And if said reason wasn’t speaking to me, staying got that much harder.