Page 13 of A Convenient Heart
She thought of all the books and papers, lost. The slates, the chalkboard.
“The pageant backdrops,” she mumbled.
“Hmm?”
“The children will be devastated. They’ve worked hard to get ready for the pageant.”
And what would they do without a classroom when school was meant to resume?
Her thoughts tumbled like one of the snowflakes tossed about on the wind.
“They could still perform the pageant without the backdrops, couldn’t they?”
It wouldn’t be the same.
But she appreciated his attempt at comforting her.
She pushed back from his embrace, brushing at the hair that had fallen from its pins. Cold slithered at the neck of her cape.
She was a mess. No doubt her face was streaked with soot and she was a soggy mess.
But Jack was looking at her in the flickering light in a way she couldn’t understand.
She swayed nearer and he frowned. “You’ve got soot…” His voice trailed off as his thumb brushed her jaw.
And then he was the one who took a step back, leaving her off-balance and wobbly.
Someone called out, and she became aware of several men at the corner of the boardwalk. Was that why Jack had stepped away from her? He must’ve been more aware of their surroundings than she had been in her upset. Had Jack been protecting her reputation? Keeping the men from seeing the private moment between the two of them?
She watched his profile as his eyes tracked the men.
Jack was a surprise in every way.
But as her gaze took in the last of the dying flames and the skeleton of what had once been her beloved classroom, she was glad for his presence. Glad that she wasn’t standing on the boardwalk alone with this awful hopelessness swamping her.
How was she supposed to finish out the school year without a classroom?
Chapter3
“We’ll rebuild. The children need a school.”
“Where’s the money gonna come from? Town’s got no budget for rebuilding.”
The conversation between the two male voices washed over Jack, though he was hardly paying attention.
He was having some trouble looking away from Merritt. She’d given him her name in a storm of tears hours ago, and he had felt such a punch of connection.
Early morning sunlight was spilling over the horizon. Sometime in the wee hours, the clouds and snow had moved off. It looked like it would be a cold, sunny day later. Right now, everyone who had gathered on the streets was covered in gray soot. Wisps of smoke and steam filtered up into the sky from the ashes and coals that had once been the school building.
Merritt was covered in soot too. She had a smudge of it right on her nose, and he wanted to do something about it—but he didn’t dare.
For one, she was surrounded by other people.
But the real reason he was poking through the ashes with a long-handled spade, as far away from her as he could manage, was because it was time for him to go.
Past time.
He’d gotten too involved already.
