Page 72 of Welcome to Forever
“Sooo?” Ben flashed another toothless smile. “Did you?”
Kat’s cheeks burned as she remembered the many kisses they’d had in the hallway right before the call from Micah’s uncle. And if not for Ben’s little fall, they’d be in bed on round number three right about now.
She stood on wobbly legs. “I’ll just go sit outside.” Before she could embarrass herself any further tonight. “I’m glad you’re all right, Ben,” she said.
“You, too, Principal Chandler,” Ben called back.
—
Micah waited until Ben was sleeping before slipping out of the small hospital room and dialing his father’s number. He’d missed three calls in the hour he’d been in Ben’s room.
“Hey, Dad? You called?”
There was a long pause.
“It’s two o’clock in the morning. Don’t tell me you’re just now getting your lady friend home,” his father finally said, a tone of disdain evident.
Micah ground his teeth. “We’re at the ER. Ben had a fall.”
Another long pause.
“He okay?” his father asked.
“Yeah. Just an overnighter.” Not that his father really cared. “Why’d you call, Dad?”
“I didn’t realize you were seeing that Chandler woman.”
“Just friends. Is this the reason you called? To interrogate me on my love life? Because I have better things to do right now.”
“I don’t think it’s wise of you to connect yourself to that woman, sad as her story is. There’ll be talk, and it won’t have anything to do with you. I don’t see how that can be a positive thing for your reputation.”
“I don’t give a shit about my reputation, Dad. You know that.”
His father took his time answering. “Do you care about hers? I happen to know she’s working hard to polish her own image. Word has it that if she doesn’t, she’ll be out of a job next year, thanks to a few unfortunate incidents at the school.”
Blood was drumming in Micah’s ears. How did his father even know about Kat or what she was going through at the small elementary school? He shouldn’t be surprised, though. His father knew everything that was happening in this town.
“Being seen with the father of one of her students, a man whoworksfor her, that might not be too glowing for Ms. Chandler’s image, wouldn’t you agree? And, really, son, hasn’t the poor woman been through enough?” There was a fake air of concern in his voice.
Micah knew the truth, though. His father was only pointing any of this out because he hated the fact that Micah took “menial” jobs around town. It wasn’t the Marine way—not if he expected to get anywhere in his career. Far be it from his father to understand that maybe Micah wanted something different for his life. Maybe he wanted a job that didn’t take him away for months at a time. Maybe he wanted his son to look at him with admiration rather than the wariness that Micah had grown to have around his own father.
Or maybe, just maybe, Micah wanted a wife who didn’t cry herself to sleep at night the way his own mother had done when his father stayed out too late “working,” or whatever the hell he’d been doing back then.
A wife?
“Dad, Kat’s personal life is none of your business,” Micah said through tight lips.
“Youare my business, son.” His father’s voice hardened, like a commander talking to his infinite inferior. “And whether you like it or not, what you do affects my career, too. Make sure whatever you have going on with that woman doesn’t pull our family name down. Understand?”
Micah forced himself to take a calming breath, and not to punch the wall beside him. He couldn’t help being bullied by the old man when he was a child, but now things were different. “If that’s all, I have a son who needs me.”
“I see.” A long beat hung between them. “We’ll speak tomorrow,” his father said. Then the phone clicked and an empty dial tone replaced the silence.
Micah growled low in his throat, stuffing his phone back in his pocket.
“You okay?” Kat was leaning against the wall, watching him.
His gaze flicked to her ankle. “I could ask you the same.”
