Page 9 of Twice Shy

Chapter Four

PTA Committee meeting, Tuesday September 10th

The following Tuesday, at the end of the school day, Joel was grading books in his classroom when Principal Allen appeared in his doorway. A tall, sometimes awkward woman, she’d been school principal almost as long as Jackie Olson had been chairing the PTA and was greatly respected by staff and parents alike.

She smiled as she stepped inside, although Joel had learned to beware that particular smile. Gloria Allen was after a favor. “Joel,” she said. “Charming class presentation this morning. Well done.”

“Thank you, they all worked really hard on it.”

“And so did you.” Her smile broadened and tensed. “Listen, I wouldn’t usually ask, but—”

“What do you need?”

She sighed, gave a dramatic flap of one arm. “Liz—you know she’s expecting? —well, she wants to step down from the PTA committee this year. It’ll be too much on top of her full-time work. And since you…”

She trailed off, but he mentally filled in the blank with ‘work part-time and don’t have a family’. “You want me to take over as teacher rep on the PTA committee? That’s fine.”

Gloria blinked, having clearly expected a fight. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. I usually end up helping at most of the events anyway.”

“You do.” She beamed, clapping her hands together in a thank you. “You’re a star, Joel. The first meeting’s tonight at seven. At the Rock House.”

“Tonight?”

She waved a hand. “If you have plans, don’t worry. Nobody expects you to attend every meeting.”

“I—” Hedidhave plans, but they were only to drive into Commack and pick up some paint samples from the hardware store. “No, it’s fine. I’ll be there.”

A thought surfaced once he was alone again: Ollie Snow might be there tonight. But he dismissed the odd idea and returned to his grading. He didn’t care whether the guy was there. Why would he?

After he’d cycled home, he had an early dinner and was at the Rock House just before seven o’clock. As New Milton’s only bar, the Rock House did good trade—especially in the tourist season. At weekends they apparently had live bands, although Joel had never been to see one, but early on a Tuesday evening in September the place was quiet. He spotted Jackie, Alyssa and about a half dozen other moms gathered in a large semicircular booth near the door. A couple of bottles of wine were already on the table, both half-empty. He bit back a smile; there was a reason they never met at the school, and the need to entice attendees with booze and food was one of them. Not that Joel was judging. Most of these women had fulltime jobs outside the home and did most of the work involved with raising kids too. No surprise they needed an occasional boozy night out.

“Mr. Morgan!” Jackie waved from her position at the back of the booth. “Mrs. Allen told us you’d be joining us this year. How wonderful!”

Alyssa, sitting next to her, caught his eye and offered a sympathetic smile. “Drew the short straw, huh?” she said as he took a seat on the end of the semicircular bench.

“Not at all. I volunteered.”

“Sure,” Alyssa laughed. “Well at least you won’t be the only guy here tonight.”

He felt an uncomfortable spike of adrenaline. “I won’t?”

“Ollie’s coming—hopefully. Cam took Nia around to babysit this evening, but he was pretty nervous about it.”

“Cam?”

“Ollie. Apparently, he’s never left the boys with a babysitter before.”

“Good grief,” another woman said. Sandra? Still dressed in office clothes she looked like she’d come straight from work. “If I didn’t get out at least once a week, I’d go mad.”

A general murmur of amusement followed and the wine was passed around again. Joel declined and headed to the bar to order a soda. Not that he didn’t drink, but he liked to keep a clear head when he was cycling. He’d only just sat down again, soda in hand, when Ollie Snow arrived looking a little frazzled. He wore a skinny t-shirt and jeans, the studded belt around his hips drawing Joel’s eyes down to— He looked up sharply, startled by the direction of his gaze. And his thoughts.

“Hey.” Ollie gave a slight, awkward wave.

“You made it,” Alyssa said, beckoning him over. “Come and sit down. How did it go? The boys okay?”

He nodded. “I think so. Luis was asleep already. And it’s only a couple of hours, right? Rory seemed fine. I think he’ll be fine. I gave Nia my number so if Rory needs to speak to me— It’s fine. It’ll be fine.”

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