“Sorry, Jazzy. Your mom says I have to put you down.” He lowers the little girl until her hands are on the ground before letting her feet drop.
“And why aren’t you in school?” he asks Jazz, patting the top of her head.
“I got out early to go to the dentist.” She sticks out her tongue. “Yuck.”
“Let’s see.” Bending over, he opens her mouth and inspects her teeth. “I don’t see any cavities. You should be fine.”
She shoves him away. “You’re not a dentist.”
He laughs. “No doubt about that. Do you have ballet today?” Everett has seen this kid dance. He doesn’t have to be an expert to recognize talent.
Jazz bobs her head up and down.
“Will you dance for me afterward?”
“Yes!”
He offers her a high five. “I’ll be waiting.”
She cranes her neck to look back at him as she walks off hand in hand with her mother.
He waves at her, fingers wiggling under chin. “Bye, Jazzy.”
Suddenly at his side, Kristi says, “She’s a cute kid. Too bad she has such a bitch for a mother.”
His neck snaps as he looks down at Kristi, who rarely says anything negative about anyone. “Something’s going on with Naomi. I’m still trying to figure out what it is. For Jazz’s sake, I’m hoping it’s just a phase.”
Everett thinks about what Cecily said earlier about Kristi being into him. No doubt she’s beautiful with a tight body and pert breasts. She’s always flirting with him, and he wouldn’t have to try very hard to get into her pants. But, not only is he her supervisor, he’s not that kind of guy anymore. At least he’s trying not to be that kind of guy. He’s had more than his share of hookups in his life. Groupies throw themselves at him, offering more than applause for his performances. Sometimes it’s hard to say no. All the more reason to stay secluded in the mountains a while longer. There are two types of girls in this town. College kids who hang out at the bars on Main Street, and guests at the inn who are mostly older than forty. Not that some college moms aren’t cougars. And plenty have made passes at him.
Since coming to Hope Springs, he’s only met one woman who intrigues him. He’s been on the lookout for Presley all day, but so far, much to his disappointment, he hasn’t seen her.
6
Presley
According to the high school’s website, the varsity girl’s field hockey game against Lynchburg’s E.C. Glass is scheduled for four o’clock on home turf. At three thirty, Presley leaves the inn and drives over to the school. She’s among the students and parents packing the bleachers when the referee blows the whistle for the face-off. Based on the conversations around her, the Hilltoppers are the Hawks’s biggest rival.
The woman sitting next to her, the proud mother of the Hawks’s goalie and team captain, has a stack of rosters, and she’s happy to give one to Presley. There is one pair of sisters on the varsity team. Emma and Abigail Reed. Emma, number twelve, is a senior while her sister, number twenty-three, is a junior. Both are in the starting lineup, but within minutes, it’s clear that Abigail is the team’s star. By halftime, she has five goals to her credit.
Three minutes into the second half, Abigail scores again, prompting the woman behind Presley to say to her friend sitting next to her, “Did you hear Abigail is being recruited by UVA?”
The friend says, “I guess so. Her father’s some bigwig alumni there. I’m sure he’s trying to get back into his daughter’s good graces after he left her mother for another woman.”
Presley’s ears perk up.
“He’s trying to get her a scholarship is what he’s doing,” the first woman says. “He’s bankrupt.”
The friend gasps. “You don’t say.”
“Yep. He owned a chain of high-end restaurants in Charlotte. Ran them all into the ground.”
“So that’s why Rita moved back in with her parents,” Friend says. “I thought she was living with them while she looked for a house.”
“She’s not living with them. They gave her the house. They moved into independent living at Shady Grove before they were even ready to be in a retirement facility.”
It strikes Presley that these women are talking about her biological grandparents. Will Presley ever get to meet them?
“Can you imagine?” Friend says. “How humiliating for poor Rita.”
There is no sympathy in the woman’s voice, and while Presley can’t see her, she imagines the malicious smile on her face.
Presley spots the woman, whose name she now knows is Rita, three rows down in the middle section. She’s totally engrossed in the game, oblivious to what these catty women are saying about her. If she’s not Presley’s biological mother, she’s her aunt, and Presley takes offense to their gossip.
Now is Presley’s big chance. She could politely ask Rita, who is seated at the end of the bleacher, to slide over and make room for her. The imaginary scene plays out in her head. She joins Rita, and they strike up a conversation about the game. Presley makes up a lie as to why she’s here. She tells Rita that she came to pick up her little sister from school. Her sister is a freshman and wants to stay until the end of the game. Rita tells Presley her daughters are numbers twelve and twenty-three, and Presley congratulates her on their performance. Presley asks Rita if she has any other children, and she tells her she had another child once, a daughter she gave up for adoption.
The buzzer sounds, signaling the end of the third quarter and jerking Presley back to reality. Rita has enough on her plate—dealing with the divorce, being a single mother, and moving her parents to a retirement home. And what if her ex-husband can’t afford to pay her alimony? She may be struggling financially. She doesn’t need the child she put up for adoption thirty years ago
