Page 44 of Redemption
Exhaling through my nose, I try to control my temper.
Everything Lily said sounds like an excuse, a way to pacify a mom whose husband sits on the board, but that means letting Tanner slip through the cracks, which I can’t do.
“What about Tanner’s attitude? How has that been? Did you notice any changes before the end of the school year?”
Her nails tap against the desk, a nervous tick.
“Actually, yeah. He’s usually a fairly good student. He makes good grades. However, he failed a course last year and had to take a summer class to make up for it. I’m hoping that this year is a fresh start for him.”
“So what’s being done to ensure that happens—that he has better success than last year?”
Her brows scrunch in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. Tanner has more going on than just headaches. With the consistency of his headaches last year andthe abrupt attitude change, I think it would be a good idea to keep an eye on him.”
Realization clears the confusion off her face, and suddenly, she’s looking at me with pity. “I uh—heard about your brother when I moved to town—”
I don’t let her finish that sentence. I stand and push back the chair, knocking it into the wall. Leaning down so my knuckles are pressed onto her desk, I glare down at her. “Don’t. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. So don’t you dare sit there and look at me with pity. I came here because I’m concerned about a kid.”
“But are you drawing parallels where there are none?” she asks.
If I were in my right mind, I would have been able to hear the sincerity in her question, but I’m not. Anger thrums through me.
How dare she.
Narrowing my eyes at her, I say, “You hired me to be a nurse—to recognize the signs when a kid needs help, and I’m doing that. You either trust my judgment, or you don’t. Either way, you will not bring up my brother again.”
Lily pinches her lips together and nods, staying silent, which is for the best in this situation. There aren’t a lot of times when I lose my temper—as much as Hayes would like to say I fall into the stereotype of a fiery redhead, it’s not true. It takes a lot of sparks to ignite the flame, but when that last spark hits, it rages like an inferno. And right now, I’m one spark away from an explosion. I think Lily realizes that, too.
She doesn’t look at me when she says, “Maybe you should talk to Hayes.”
I don’t let my surprise show, but I don’t take how much that hurt her to say for granted. She doesn’t want me around Hayes; in a way, I can respect that—Hayes is a hard man to let go.
“Thank you,” I say, pushing off the desk.
Nodding, she opens her mouth to say something but stops. I wait. Lily still doesn’t look at me when she says, “Don’t break his heart again.”
“I didn’t—I’m not—”
She lifts her head, and the devastation on her face makes me stop talking.
“You did. Whether you realize it or not—you did. That man has been broken since the day I met him, and it wasn’t until you came back to town that I realized that while you might have been the one to break him—you’re also the only one who can fix him.”
I shake my head, ready to deny it, but Lily smiles. So, I keep my mouth shut.
“When he thinks no one is looking, he smiles at you, and it’s a different kind of smile than I’ve ever seen from him. So, I’ll say it again: don’t break his heart.”
There’s not anything else left for me to say. Hayes and I broke each other beyond repair, but that’s hard for people to understand because they don’t know the whole story. So I smile back at her, sympathizing with the pain of letting Hayes Miller go, and walk out of her office to face the demons of my past once again.
______________________
Walking onto a football field is like stepping into my own execution. It’s painful to every fiber of my being. I used to love this sport, but it took away one of the most important people in my life.
It stripped me of the very person I would have been and changed me entirely. So yes, walking out here feels like an execution.
The August sun shines bright in my eyes as I walk out, hoping to catch Hayes before practice starts.
Talking to him is going to go over about as well as a lead balloon, but I have to try.
