Page 108 of Every Beat of My Heart

“And you’re what?”

I huffed out a breath. “Not any of those things. You know how long it took for me to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Hell, I’m still trying to figure it out. She deserves better.”

“That’s not for you to decide, son.”

There was a pounding on the door. At this point my head was starting to ache from the lack of sleep and stress. I moved toward the door. “What now?”

Teddy stood there, a newspaper in his hands that he slapped against my chest. “Care to tell me what this is?”

“Dad’s paper?” I grabbed it before it fell to the floor.

Teddy swept past me into the apartment. “Read the article.”

“Does anyone respect the fact that I worked all night?” I asked to the room in general, knowing the answer was no. My family could be nosey when they wanted to be. I unfolded the paper where it was already opened to the headline: “Local Teacher Endears Himself to His Students and Team Only to Be Ousted by Angry Parent. Have School Sports Gotten out of Hand?”

Teddy closed the door.

“What is this?” I couldn’t figure out how my story got into the paper.

Teddy raised a brow as he moved further into the room. “I think someone went to the paper. Maybe Claire?”

“I don’t think she’d do something like this.” Why would she put herself out there for me? She had to know school administrators were like dinosaurs when it came to decisions. They were generally slow to make them, and when they did, they never went back.

I skimmed the article, the parts where it talked about how I was revered in the classroom and on the field for my mindset and growth tactics. There were a few quotes from fellow teachers and kids, raving about me. “This is nice.”

“Keep reading,” Teddy said.

Then there was the part about someone complaining to administration because I removed a player after turnovers on the field. They knew about the video, how he’d followed me home. There was a reference to the other local case, where the principal was suspended after investigating a teacher for theft, and that teacher created a fake AI audio recording.

That principal recently got his job back, and he was quoted as asking, “Where does it end? If a parent or teacher is unhappy, they can just create a fake video of teachers in compromising positions and get them fired? This has to stop. People’s livelihoods are at stake.”

“Wow. I can’t believe anyone did this for me.”

Teddy tore the paper out of my hand, rolled it up, and smacked me against the chest again.

I rubbed my chest. “Stop doing that.”

“Owen said Claire did this. That she talked to the team, and got them to speak to the administration about how much they enjoyed having you as a coach, how much you changed their lives.”

“Why would she do that?” I asked, my brain muddled from lack of sleep.

“She obviously loves you,” Dad interjected.

I stretched my neck. “She never said she did.”

Dad gave me a look. “You don’t always need the words to know it. She went to the administration, she probably talked to this reporter.”

“Why would she risk her job for me?”

Teddy raised his brow. “You can’t honestly be this dense.”

“I pushed her away. I told her I didn’t deserve her.” I paced the room. “This whole thing was a disaster. Signature Jameson, am I right? I make mistakes, I do the wrong thing, and create a mess. One that can’t be cleaned up.”

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself,” Dad said.

“Have you forgotten that this is what I do? I’m a screwup. I’m never going to grow up and get things right.”

Dad shook his head. “You did something right. You were amazing with those kids. It’s there in the article and whatever they said to the administration. You did that.”

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