He held his breath, allowing himself to hope. He counted the seconds, the time it took before he had no choice but to exhale and fill his lungs again. He made it more than a minute, staring at his screen and willing those three dots to appear.
But they never did.
Chapter 28
Haddie pushed through Posh’s shop door and out onto thesun-soaked sidewalk, breathing a sigh of relief that she would, in fact, be able to continue breathing even once in the dress she now held in a garment bag draped over her forearm along with the slightly poofier bag containing Emma’s wedding dress.
Despite there not being a cloud in the sky, the brisk October air sent a shiver from her neck down to her toes, and she was grateful Emma and Matteo had rented heat lamps for the ceremony in the square that evening.
“It was traipsing through Summertown trying to solve the mystery of the Gardener’s art installations where we fell in love again. Only made sense for us to get married in the center of it all.”
Because if you were born and raised in a place like Summertown, you could shut the place down for a night, especially if the venuewasthe town, which meant everyone was invited.
“Coach Martin!” someone called, and Haddie had to crane her neck to see over the pile of formal wear in her arms.
“Oh!” she replied. “Sarah. What are you doing out so early ona Sunday morning?”
Sarah stood on her toes to meet Haddie’s eyes above the dresses.
“Yours is the only signature missing,” Sarah told her, and Haddie’s brows furrowed. Also, her shoulders ached. Did Emma’s dress double as a weighted blanket?
“What?” Haddie asked. Then added, “Hang on a second…” She stumbled to the general vicinity where she remembered there being a park bench just outside the shop. When she plowed into it with her hip, she swore under her breath but then carefully laid the dresses over the back of the bench. “Okay,” she told Sarah, rubbing her soon-to-be bruised hip. “What about my signature?”
Sarah held out a clipboard she’d been hugging against her chest. “It’s a petition. Well, two, really. One to keep the soccer program…and one to keep Coach Rourke. The first one is for Principal Crawford, and the second… Well, we just want Coach Rourke to know how much we appreciate everything he’s done for the program so far this year. We got every player to sign, every teacher from kindergarten to senior year, and all of our parents. Mr. Crawford—junior, not senior—got his budget committee to come up with the idea to charge a registration fee for activities and sports, football included. The idea is for those fees to go toward supporting all programs, like a communal account, and we will continue fundraising efforts to try and make up for any deficit.” She pointed to the pages-long petition. “Even the football players signed. They’re even willing to stage a sit-in for their next game and every game thereafter, where they’ll basically let their opponents crush them if Coach Crawford doesn’t place equal importance on every othersport or activity Summertown offers. We’re going to present both petitions to the school board at Thursday night’s meeting, but we really wanted to get your signature before calling it complete.”
Haddie’s throat tightened and her eyes burned.
“Wait…you all know about the budget cuts? And the program cuts?” Sarah nodded, and Haddie’s heart sank. “Also, Coach Rourke is leaving tomorrow,” she reminded Sarah, her voice thick.
Sarah shrugged. “Maybe he’ll change his mind if he sees your name on the lists. He’s the one who got the whole football program to sign about the communal fund, you know. I think he might have also had something to do with the sit-in idea.” She leaned in close, a conspiratorial gleam in her eye. “Did you know that Billy McMannus has a C- in English now? I don’t want to spill any tea, but I heard Coach Rourke has been babysitting Billy’s brother after school so Billy can catch up on his homework. Does that sound like a guy who wants to leave?”
Haddie’s knees buckled, and she had to grab the top of the bench to steady herself. “How…?” she asked. “How do you know all this? And how did these petitions materialize without me hearing anything about them?”
Sarah grinned. “You’ll have to ask the head of the faculty’s budget rescue committee. He’s the one who proposed the idea for the registration fees in the first place. The one for Coach Rourke was Teddy’s idea.” She blushed. “Turns out his hotness isn’t so wasted after all.”
A knot of guilt sank deep in her gut. Haddie remembered an email from Tommy she’d flagged for later about joining a group offaculty members who wanted to rethink the budget, something about overturning Coach Crawford’s cuts. But her inbox had grown exponentially since school started, and then there had been the whole losing Levi thing that had preoccupied her thoughts for what felt like more minutes than actually existed in a day.
Haddie motioned for Sarah’s clipboard and the attached pen. “I’ll sign the budget petition, but I don’t think it would be right if I signed the other one.” She swallowed the knot in her throat. It wasn’t as if putting her name on a piece of paper was going to make Levi stay. And why was she even considering what it might mean if her signature did matter? He broke her trust…and her heart, which was maddening because Haddie knew better than to fall for any of it.
Sarah sighed and handed Haddie the clipboard. “I know I’m breaking the rule by even butting in to your private business, Coach Martin, but you have been such a downer the past few weeks. You should just admit how you feel about him so we can stop watching you torture yourself.”
Haddie had finished signing her name to the budget petition when her head shot up, her wide eyes meeting Sarah’s.
“What do you mean ‘breaking the rule,’ Sarah?Whatrule?”
Sarah clamped her hand over her gaping mouth. “Nothing!” She shook her head. “I mean…no one!Shit.I’m not supposed to crack under pressure. That’s Teddy’s job!” She grimaced and grabbed the clipboard back from Haddie before Haddie could officially decide not to sign theBeg Coach Rourke to Staypetition.
“Sarah…” Haddie began, taking a slow step toward her student.“You can tell me. It’s okay. What rule?”
“I am too young for this type of stress,” Sarah groaned. “Look…Coach Rourke caught me and Teddy outside your classroom grabbing our coffees after the whole roommates thing. And he sort of ripped us a new one and told us to respect your privacy if we wanted to stay on our teams.” She grimaced. “Teddy and I felt pretty bad about what we’d done, and I swear we didn’t apologize just to stay on the team.”
Haddie’s breath caught in her throat. “He knew?” Leviknew. And he hadn’t judged her for mishandling the ridiculous situation, nor had he even let on that he’d figured out what was going on, most likely because he knew she’d be humiliated.
“Give me back that clipboard,” Haddie demanded.
Sarah beamed and handed it over.
She knew it was too little, too late. Levi wasn’t going to stay because of some list of signatures, not when he had his career to go back to. But maybe with this tiny gesture, if he ever even saw the list, he’d at least know that Haddie thought he belonged here in Summertown, just like everyone else did.
