"Thornton?" Elizabeth asked again.
"Yes, ma'am."
What were the chances that she was related to Jack? There were probably other Thorntons in the area. She didn't have to know him.
These were the things she kept telling herself as she, Harper, and Dylan sat in her office and waited for Harper's parent to show up.
"So, your mom is coming, Harper?"
"No, ma'am. My Dad."
She closed her eyes and hoped it wasn't him. She had no idea what to say or ask. Except the obvious. "Why didn't you write to me like you promised?"
She heard a male voice outside the door and then a knock. Elizabeth took a breath and then straightened her jacket over her hips before opening the door.
When the door opened they both stared. His eyes growing wide and then following from the top of her head, quickly to her feet. Hers doing the same. "Mr. Thornton," she said formally. "Please come in." She stepped back and allowed him to come in.
"You're the principal? What are the chances?"
"Yes, I am. We have a few things to discuss."
Jack took her tone to mean that business with Harper would come first, questions later. So he took the seat next to Harper. "Harp, what happened? They told me there was a fight. Please tell me you didn't do that to his face," he said, nodding at Dylan.
"No, sir," Dylan broke in. "Bradley the jerk did it."
"Dylan Wyatt," Elizabeth scolded.
"He was a jerk! He was picking on Harper. I had to do something."
Elizabeth sighed. "Please start from the beginning."
Harper spoke. "Bradley came over and started talking to me. At first he was nice. I think he thought I was his age. Once he found out whose class I'm in, his friends and he changed. All of the sudden I was a baby and…." Harper stopped talking, her head down. Jack put his hand on her back and rubbed up and down.
"He took her book," Dylan continued. "Harper looked really upset so I stepped in and told him he was being a jerk and to give her book back. Then he shoved me and punched me."
Elizabeth looked at all three of them. "Harper, you're not in trouble. You didn't do anything wrong. Dylan, you felt the need to step in and that's admirable…."
"But…I'm in trouble," he finished. "Mom! I didn't hit him. I wasn't the one picking on Harper."
"Mom?" Jack asked. "You're….I mean, he's your son?"
Elizabeth nodded. "Dylan, I think I need to have a chat with Mr. Flynn and Bradley before anything else is decided."
"Ms. Thatcher?" Harper asked quietly.
"Yes, Harper."
"I'm really grateful that Dylan stepped in. If what I think means anything, Dylan wasn't at fault. He tried to help."
"Thank you, sweetie. I'll remember that. You can head back to class now. Have Ms. Blakely at the front desk give you a slip that says you're not tardy."
"Yes, ma'am." Harper and Jack stood.
"Have a good rest of the day, Honey Bee," Jack whispered, giving her a hug.
"Thanks, Dad."
"Do I need to stay?" Dylan asked her.
"No. I think you can go too." Dylan hurried out of the room to catch up with Harper.
That left Jack and Elizabeth alone. She was leaning back on her desk, arms crossed in front of her, staring at Jack.
Elizabeth was trying not to be obvious but she was finding it hard to ignore his presence in the room. The man was a hundred times more handsome than the last time she had seen him. The years had been extremely kind to him. Why couldn't he have a pot belly and missing teeth? That would help. Not only that, he wore his Fire Chief uniform very well, obviously working out regularly.
She resisted the urge to fan herself with a paper from her desk.
"You aren't required to stay, Mr. Thornton," she said, trying not to let her feelings betray her.
"Well, Ms. Thatcher, I appreciate that but don't you think we need to discuss some things? Catch up?"
"I don't really have time at the moment. I need to talk with Bradley and Mr. Flynn and make a decision on what to do."
"Coffee?"
"I'm sorry?"
"We could get coffee. After work?"
"I'm sorry. I don't think that would be wise."
"Why is that?"
"I have my reasons." She met his eyes and he saw hurt there. Maybe a bit of anger.
"Blue eyes," he said quietly, getting her attention. The way he did that, always had an effect on her.
"That was a long time ago."
"You still have them, those blue eyes the color of the sky."
"Mr. Thornton…"
"It's me, Elizabeth. Why do you have this wall up? We were best friends." And he'd loved her.
"As I said, it was a long time ago. Now, I really need to get back to work. Don't you, Chief?"
She let her breath out once he left the room. It had taken all her willpower not to get all the answers right then. "Blue eyes." He had given her that nickname when they first started hanging out. When he had said it today, she fought hard not to let him get to her.
Her heart wanted him still, after sixteen years. After separation that summer after graduation. After meeting Ray, marrying him, graduating college, having Dylan. After Ray's abuse and all that entailed. After a divorce? How could she still want Jack? A man she hadn't allowed herself to think about in years.
…
Jack thought about her the whole afternoon. Elizabeth Thatcher. At the age of 34, she still took his breath away. She had filled out, not quite as thin as in high school. Of course, neither was he.
She had a child, with a different last name than her, so that either meant she was divorced or she never married his father. Honestly the second option wasn't possible. She had stuck fast to saving herself for marriage for which he had a lot of admiration.
He didn't understand exactly why she wouldn't speak with him or look him in the eye. Or meet him for coffee. He assumed it was just the awkwardness of seeing each other again.
….
Elizabeth ran after work, hard. Almost as if she was running away from him, from the past. And yet, she craved the answers to why. She wanted to know and she was second guessing her quick denial of his coffee invitation.
As she ran back home, slower, she stopped at their spot on the beach. She turned to see the ocean and breathed and listened to the crashing waves. She was lost in its beauty she didn't hear someone approaching behind her.
"Elizabeth," he said quietly, not wanting to scare her.
She spun and looked at him. No uniform, just a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. His arm muscles bulging. Good heavens. "Hi."
"I've seen you run past here before. From my house. I wasn't sure who you were, just that you were beautiful and familiar. I didn't know you were here in town."
"Your house?"
"I bought my parents house. Harper and I needed a place and my parents moved to a condo. Perfect timing, I guess."
"Your wife? Is she here too?"
"No. Ex-wife. She lives back in Austin, as far as I know."
Jack took a seat and motioned for her to join him. She hesitated and then sat down, a good foot from him.
"What did you decide with regard to Bradley the jerk?"
"Jack," she scolded.
"I'm glad you said my name, finally."
"Bradley has been suspended for three days."
"Suspended? Not just detention, huh?"
"He has detention for two weeks after his suspension. Our school has a no fighting or bullying policy. He does it again, consequences are worse."
"And your son? Who, by the way, I'm very grateful for."
"He didn't strike anyone or initiate a fight, so at school, he is free and clear. At home he's grounded. He knows not to call anyone names and that action may have made Bradley hit him when he might not have before."
"Elizabeth, it's really good to see you. It's been a long time."
"Yes. It has." She stared at her hands, the feelings of hurt coming up into her eyes, threatening to spill over. "Why, Jack? You promised to write me and call but you didn't. Not one time. I thought we had something special."
"That's just it. You were special, Blue Eyes. I was an ordinary kid from the Cape. I was going to school in Texas. You had a free ride to Harvard. Your family had money, prestige. My family was blue collar, hidden in the background."
"So, our friendship? Meant nothing? Because we had different families and goals, you just made the decision to drop me?"
"Of course you meant something. You meant a lot to me. But you needed someone better. Someone who could give you what you deserved."
She got up and brushed the sand off herself. "Yes, well, I certainly got that. I need to get back to Dylan."
Jack stood too. "Blue eyes."
"Elizabeth."
"Elizabeth, please. We need to sort this out."
"Why? Why are all the men in my life insisting that they make decisions for me? I'm a strong woman! It wasn't fair for you to make that decision for the both of us. Now we will never know what could have been."
She wiped her cheeks and jogged off, leaving Jack with questions of his own.
…..
The next few days passed by and even though Jack and Elizabeth didn't see each other, there was no escaping the other in their minds. Jack kept replaying the conversation over and over again. What did she mean by "what could have been"? Had she had feelings for him back then too? Had he actually had a chance? The thought burned a hole through his stomach.
As he sat in his office Friday afternoon, he pictured how she looked that day on the beach during her run. She was beyond beautiful. The curves of her long legs and gorgeous hips more pronounced in her black leggings. Even her slightly loose tee drove his imagination wild. He wanted to know her again. They had so much in common back then. Would they still? He did his best to shake it off. She wasn't his to be dreaming about.
He picked up his phone to text Pete Stanton, his old friend.
"Up for a beer at my place after you close shop tonight?" He knew Pete now owned his own pizza place and would probably be working Fridays, but he needed to talk to someone.
"Sure. Can't get there till about 9:30 or 10 though. Too late?"
"Nope. See you then."
…..
"Well, that was a weird class." Dylan commented as he and Harper left the music room and headed back to Mrs. Sullivan's. "What do you think of Mrs. Coulter?"
"She seems nice. I think she had too much coffee this morning but other than that she seems alright."
"I think you're right about the coffee. No one should be that dramatic." They laughed. "So what instrument are you gonna pick?"
"I don't know. My dad plays guitar but that's not really an orchestra instrument. My mom played the flute."
"You could go with the flute then."
"No. I don't want to do anything my mom did."
"Oookay." Dylan scratched his head. Seemed like Harper's feelings toward her mother were close to his for his dad. "My mom played the cello. She said it helped her when she learned guitar too. You could try that."
"The cello… I like it. What about you?"
"Me? I'm going with the drums!" Dylan stated proudly,
"Oh yeah? My uncle Tom plays the drums in a band."
"Does he get all the girls?" Dylan grinned.
"Dad says before he met my Aunt Faith, he had a lot of girl friends."
"Nice. Yeah, totally doing the drums!"
"You're such a dork," Harper laughed.
"But I'll be a cool dork!"
"Hardly. Its orchestra, not rock band." She rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, but it's a start."
They took their seats back in the classroom for social studies. After going over the homework from the night before, Mrs. Sullivan introduced their first project of the year. It sounded interesting enough. They were to pair up and pick a country from the list on the chalkboard to research and then design a presentation to share with the class and their families for open house in a couple weeks.
Harper cringed at the thought of needing a partner. She and Dylan had become fast friends, but he was also friends with another kid, Cody. Cody was nice. He didn't seem phased at all to have Harper hanging around them. They made a good trio. But Mrs. Sullivan wasn't looking for that now. When it came to this project, she just figured Dylan and Cody would want to work together, and she'd be the odd one out.
As the teacher began showing examples of what their visual displays could be for the presentation, Dylan turned back in his seat to face Harper.
"You wanna work together?" he whispered.
She smiled and nodded. Soon Mrs. Sullivan told them to find a partner and to discuss what country they wanted to study. Dylan spun around in his chair to face Harper.
"So, what country should we do?" Harper asked
"I don't know. Spain maybe? Or Italy?"
"I was wondering about Greece. My dad's always wanted to go. He's even learned how to make Greek food. It's really, really good."
"You had me at food!" Harper laughed. "My mom loves Greek food. There was a restaurant not far from our house in DC. She'd get food from there whenever Dad was gone."
"He didn't like the food?" Dylan tried to figure out how to respond. The long pause and the look on his face made it clear the answer wasn't simple. "Forget I asked. It's okay."
Dylan made eye contact again. "It's fine. I guess you could say he just liked to tell mom what to do. He'd be real stupid about it too. If she liked something, he'd tell her not to do it just to be mean."
"Why would he do that?" Harper asked, appalled at the thought.
"Mom says he was mad about stuff in his life and at work and he took it out on her."
"And you?"
He shook his head. "Me he just ignored. I got off easy."
Harper heard a faint sniffle from her friend and decided to change the subject. "Greece it is."
….
Elizabeth was in her office packing up for the weekend. The last bell of the day had rang a few minutes before so Dylan would be meeting her soon. She gathered up the last of her things and walked out into the main office to wait. As she did, she saw Dylan and Harper through the large glass windows that looked into the main hallway. She was glad Dylan was making friends, but did it have to be with Jack Thornton's little girl? How could she escape him now?
Dylan waved goodbye and walked into the office. "Hi, Mom."
"Hi, sweetie. How was your day?"
"Great. I'm gonna be a drummer."
"Excuse me?"
"We had music today. Mrs. Coulter showed us all the instruments and told us to pick one."
"And you picked the drums?"
"Yup!"
Elizabeth laughed. "Alright. Drums for you, earplugs for me."
"Awesome! Hey, are we doing movie night tonight?"
"Well, it's Friday. What would you like to watch?"
"Star Wars."
"Again?" she sighed. "Which one?"
"Return of the Jedi."
"Alright, but would it kill you to pick a different genre once in a while?" she teased.
"Hey, if you wanted to watch chick movies you should have had a girl," he teased back.
Elizabeth loved her son completely. She'd watch a million Star Wars movies with him. Ever since they moved to Hyannis he was becoming more and more his own person. It was a blessing to see. Elizabeth hoped the move into the cottage this weekend would help her as well. Make her feel less under her parents thumb and on her own. Not that she didn't appreciate their support.
"Oh," Dylan said as they walked through the parking lot towards their car. "I have a project for social studies now. It's on Greece. Harper and I have to study it and come up with a presentation for open house."
Elizabeth almost dropped the stuff she was carrying. "You and Harper?"
"Yeah. She's my partner."
"Great…" she thought.
….
Pete arrived at Jack's just before 10 that night. Jack was upstairs checking on Harper when Pete arrived. Jack gently took Black Beauty out of her hands, placed her bookmark in its place and left the book on the bedside table.
"Good night, Honey Bee. I love you." He kissed her forehead and headed down. Pete was already in the kitchen grabbing himself a drink. "Don't you knock?" Jack teased.
"When I was in high school I never did. Why start now?"
"Fair enough. Grab me a cold one while you're in there." Pete opened the beer and handed it to Jack. "How much time do you have? Up for a fire in the pit out front?"
"I've got plenty of time. Clara's already asleep at the house."
"Really? Night Owl's asleep already?" Jack teased. Clara was always the one of their group that could stay up straight through the night at lock-ins and on road trips. It was unbelievable.
"Yeah well she's kind of an incubator right now so she's tired a lot."
"She's what?" Jack asked, hoping that meant what he thought it meant.
Pete grinned from ear to ear. "We're pregnant! Finally!"
"Congrats, man!" Jack gave his friend a big bear hug.
Pete and Clara were two years younger than Jack and Elizabeth. They got married not long after college. They decided to take the first few years of marriage and enjoy it just the two of them. When it came time to start their family, it was a bumpy road of infertility. Finally, it was their turn.
"I tell you what, that IVF is no joke. Turns out, we're having twins!"
"Even better! Oh man, Clara must be thrilled!"
"She is, but also very emotional. Everything makes her cry. Anyway, enough about me. What's going on with you?"
Jack took a sip of his beer, "I saw Blue Eyes."
Pete sighed. "I figured that would happen sooner or later. How'd it go?"
"Not good. She's mad at me. I never wrote her after graduation."
"Never?"
"Nope."
"Wow. How come?"
Jack threw his head back. "I was in love with her, but she was so far out of my league. What chance did I have, you know?"
"Seriously? Jack, that girl was crazy about you!"
"Well, I didn't know that!" Jack raised his voice. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell."
"It's all good."
"She said I blew it. I made a decision for both of us and now we'd never know what we could have been."
"Huh. Whatcha gonna do about it?"
"What can I do? I think she hates me now."
Pete shook his head. "You don't know that. Maybe you just need to apologize."
"She ran away from me, Pete. Literally. What am I supposed to do? Write her a note like I would have in high school?" Jack laughed and took a sip of his drink. "Wait, would that work?"
"It could." Pete shrugged. "She's moving into the Johnson's old cottage this weekend. You could always drop it off there."
Jack stared at the fire, trying to think about what he would say to her in a letter. As silly as the idea had seemed at first, he thought it might be his best chance.
"Her son's in Harper's class. They're friends."
"You're kidding?" Pete laughed. "Well, what do you know? Looks like you're stuck together one way or another."
"I guess so." Jack smiled, liking that thought. "Pete do you know, is she… divorced? Widowed?"
"Divorced, and let me tell you, if that guy ever sets foot in Hyannis, he will regret it."
"That bad?" Jack's heart broke at the thought.
"He never physically hurt her or her son that I know of, but Clara said he was still abusive. It was just all emotional, mental. Not that it matters. Abuse is abuse."
Jack felt himself fume with anger. How could anyone treat another person, especially their wife like that? It was deplorable.
"Pete, I want my friend back."
"It may not be easy," Pete warned.
"I know, but I'm a patient man."
