Page 69 of Look What You Made Me Do

He shrugged off her hand. “Go and do your radio, Ella. Milk the publicity for all you can. Just leave me out of it, okay?”

The indifference in his eyes was more devastating than his anger, clawing at her gut as he walked out, and she stared blankly at the back of the door as it closed. Her heart drummed wildly, thudding loudly through her head.

What had just happened? What had she done?

By the time the final bell of the day had rung, Ella was all talked out. Between conversations with Deluca businesses and community figures, two local radio slots and a chat with a journalist from a bigger Inverboro paper, it had been a lot. As requested, she’d avoided Jake’s name, but it did seem to be the one thing they were the most interested in.

So she’d downplayed it as much as possible, trying to recork the bottle, mentioning only when repeatedly pressed that Jake’s involvement was purely serendipitous. That it had evolved out of a chance meeting with an old school friend and wasn’t some orchestrated career move.

She hoped like hell, as she made her way to the field, that would satisfy both the media’s appetite and make some kind of amends to Jake. But he wasn’t on the field when she arrived.

There was only Pete.

Jake hadn’t been serious, had he? Surely, he wouldn’t really pull out on them? He was mad, she got that. But he wouldn’t do something so damaging, would he?

“Hey.” Pete nodded.

She forced a smile. “Jake running late?”

Pete returned her smile with a sympathetic one of his own. “He’s not coming, Ella.”

There was tenderness in Pete’s tone and she knew he was trying to let her down gently but it didn’t help. “He’ll be here tomorrow,” she said as the knot of nerves in her belly tangled tighter. “After he’s had a chance to calm down.”

“I think Chernobyl’s nuclear reactor has a greater chance of cooling down before Jake does.”

“He can’t just walk out on the team, Pete. Can you talk to him?” she implored. “Please?”

“If I thought it would make a difference, I would. But he won’t listen to me. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he can be stubborn AF when he wants to be.”

Ella nodded. Yeah, she’d noticed. “Okay.” She sighed, accepting defeat – for today anyway. “Just do me a favor? Tell the team he’s not well and he’ll see them tomorrow.”

“What happens when he doesn’t show?”

“He will,” she said, her confidence wafer thin.

Thursday was as ridiculous as Wednesday. More ridiculous. The phones ran hot. Everyone wanted a piece of her. She avoided all media but embraced all comers from the community as the conversations she’d had yesterday started to bear fruit.

There was a petition circulating and a letter-writing campaign – to the mayor, the governor and the district Board of Education – being organized. And the cherry on top came in the form of Donald Wiseman ringing to express his displeasure at the negative press she was generating for the department.

Ella relished it all, grateful for something to occupy her mind, to keep it off that afternoon’s practice session.

Would Jake be there?

He hadn’t returned any of the umpteen messages she’d left on his cell since yesterday afternoon and she’d barely slept for fretting about it.

Was it possible to develop an ulcer overnight?

A last-minute phone call kept her from being early to the field and she arrived with the team stragglers to find Jake another no-show.

“Coach still sick, Pete?” Cameron asked.

Pete glanced at Ella and she gave him a slight nod. “Yep. You know these old blokes. Can’t keep up. He asked me to work you guys extra hard though.”

The team grumbled but hit the field for their warm-ups in good spirits. “Thanks, Pete,” Ella said.

“They’re going to have to know sooner or later.”

Ella chewed on her bottom lip. “I know. I know. Did he tell you he wasn’t coming?”

---