Page 14 of Bone to Pick
It was clear Porter was trying to make an effort, to make aconnection, and I appreciated that. Which was why I found myself sharing more information with him than I usually shared with anyone.
“Nope. Gramps was a physics professor at Hannabury, actually, and an amateur inventor. For decades, he and my grandma lived in faculty housing, back when the college offered that as a benefit. They raised my mom there. And since they didn’t have a mortgage, they bought a large parcel of land as an investment.” I swept a hand out, indicating the seventy-acre plot around us. “For years, they parked an RV out here. They’d spend their summers fishing and exploring, and there’s a tool shed out back where Gramps used to tinker with things. They had lots of big dreams of building a house out here as soon as he retired, but…” I took another sip of coffee. “Then Grandma died. And Gramps wasn’t excited to retire anymore. Too much alone time and nothing to do, you know?”
“Yeah.” Porter’s bright green eyes shone with sympathy. “How did he finally decide to build the cabin?”
I smiled down at my coffee, remembering my mom’s frantic phone call.They’re forcing him out, Theo. Get up there and distract him.
“Well… I told himIneeded a break from working on my dissertation—which wasn’t a lie. I said I wanted to come stay with him for the summer and distract myself with physical labor. Chopping wood or building something. He was so excited to have company up here he immediately got to work planning our summer project. And he didn’t seem to mind too much when the school suggested making him a professor emeritus and taking him off the roster for the following autumn.”
“You worked on it together?” He looked around the small space as if appreciating it through a new lens. “So cool.”
“Knowing how the place was put together has come in handy from time to time,” I agreed. “And I’ve never laughed as much as I did that summer. Never worked as hard or slept as little either. When Gramps fell asleep each night, I stayed up working on my dissertation for a few more hours. I hadn’t told him I had a job lead in Virginia that would require me to finish my degree as soon as possible.”
“Did you make it? Did you get that job?”
I shook my head. “No, but it turned out to be a good thing. If I’d gone to Virginia, I wouldn’t have gotten the job at Brown, which is how I ended up getting hired here.”
Porter looked surprised. “You had a job at Brown, and you left it to come to Hannabury? Why?”
I rolled my eyes. It was a question I’d been asked many, many times. “You sound like my father,” I said with a laugh. “I grew up in New York, where his side of the family is from. My mother was thrilled to get out of Hannabury and never wanted to come back, but I lived for the summers I’d spend with my grandparents up here. I enjoyed Providence, and I loved the students at Brown, but when Gramps left me this place, I just…”
“Felt the need to come back here permanently?” Porter guessed. “Like it was a thing you were supposed to do?”
After all the Porter revelations of the past few hours, maybe it shouldn’t have felt so strange that this man would understand immediately what my parents and former colleagues still struggled to comprehend, but it did.
“That.” I nodded. “Yeah. And it wasn’t just the house. When I talked to the dean about openings in the department, it turned out Hannabury was so eager to hire me they gave me tenureandtold me I’d be the top candidate for the department head position once Jim Burton retired. It would have taken decades to get that at Brown, if it ever happened at all. It was all—”
“Serendipity?” Porter supplied. I nodded. “Yeah,” he sighed. “I keep waiting for that to happen for me, but… I mean, I guess you have to put yourself in the right place first, right? The stars didn’t just align for you—you made them align.”
He sounded doubtful and hopeful all at once.
“I suppose that’s true,” I agreed.
“And did you regret it?” he asked. “Leaving your family behind, knowing they didn’t understand?”
“Nope. Because I knew it was the right thing for me, and that made everything worthwhile. Even dealing with know-it-all students who refuse to listen.” I gave him a pointed look.
“I know you’re not talking aboutme.” He lifted an eyebrow. “All I do is listen and study. Check out the GPA I had before your class last semester—people who don’t listen don’t get 3.8’s,Theo. And I’ll have you know, I busted my ass in your class. I can’t help it if you’re a…” His voice trailed off, and he cleared his throat. “Never mind.”
I stood up and carried both of our dirty dishes to the sink, mostly so I could hide my grin. That littleTheosaid Subdued Porter was on his way out.
Good.
After setting the dishes down, I turned and leaned my hip against the counter, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
“Why are you censoring yourself with me?” I challenged. “I’m not your professor, you’re not my student anymore, and we’re stuck together for at least a few more hours. Clearly, you had a reason for coming here last night, so finish your thought. I’m a… what?”
His nostrils flared. “Fine, then. You’re an asshole with an overblown sense of authority who gets off on making students beg.”
Well. That was uncensored, at least. Also, categorically incorrect.
“My job is to teach my students. I want to see them succeed. Sometimes that means pushing them and holding them to a high standard. But I’m not on some power trip here—”
He shoved his chair back and stood up. “Then explain why I worked my ass off in your class and you still failed me.”
“Because you didn’t do the assignments properly,” I shot back. “You fundamentally misunderstood what I wanted. I asked you time and again to come to my office hours, to let me explain things to you, but you clearly thought you knew better than I did.”
“I’m a good writer,” Porter said, voice vibrating with emotion. “Dozens of other teachers and professors have said so, and I didn’t put nearly as much effort into their classes as I did yours—”
