Chapter Thirty
Tabitha
Two years later
“ALL RIGHT, GET OUT OF here,” I shout over the class dismissal bell signaling the end of the day.
The students get up and dart out the door like the building’s on fire. They’re anxious to get the weekend started, and I don’t blame them. This has been a long week. The last quarter of the school year is rough. The weather is nice, so the students would rather be outside, and the teachers are scurrying to get all the required materials covered before the students move on to the next year.
I usually have my whole year planned out, but it never goes to plan, so I’m caught trying to catch up more often than I’m ahead of schedule. It could drive even the sanest person crazy. I like the challenge of teaching, it keeps me busy. With teaching and being a single mom I have almost zero time to sit and think about all the things I’ve been through.
When we lost Brandon, I’d been out of work for a year. After the car accident, Brandon wanted me to stay home, so I did. I loved being a stay-at-home mom, but when I became a single mother, I couldn’t do that anymore. I needed work. The Monroe Superintendent found me a position teaching Algebra to high schoolers, and I took it. It was a little different than teaching elementary grades, but it turns out I liked it a little more. Eventually, I’ll get to teach some of my old students again, and that’s a little exciting.
I never left Monroe like I wanted to. I just couldn’t do it. I was completely on my own, and I needed help. Everyone I knew and loved was still here, and I couldn’t leave them all behind, no matter how hard it was to stay behind. Some days I wasn’t sure I could make it through, but there was always someone, or something to pull me through. I’m lucky to have such an amazing support system. Without them, I would’ve never gotten through all the tragedy I’ve had to endure. They’ve kept me positive, despite all the reasons I had not to be.
I sit at my desk, finishing up my lesson plans for the next week, before I head out to pick the kids up from Beth’s house. She’s been monumental in my life. She watches Logan while I’m at work, and Hank picks Mattie up from school every day and drops her off with the rest of the kids. I constantly worry that Beth is going to be overwhelmed, but after two sets of twins, I guess she’s more than capable to take on two more. The day Brandon died, she was so going to announce that she was pregnant again, this time with only one baby. She had another son seven months later, and she named him after her brother.
Hank remained sheriff, but he doesn’t work the long hours he used to. He’s made it his duty to help me with anything he thinks I may want or need. He spends most of his free time doing things around the house for me. I’m truly blessed to have the people I still have in my life.
I’m lonely, though. I miss Brandon. I miss Mathew and Phil. I feel guilty that I’m still here, while two amazing men have lost their lives. I’m so in love with them both it’s crippling. They deserved more time. I know that if they were both here I wouldn’t have been able to experience the great love I had twice, but I’d give up love completely if that meant they could be here. I didn’t deserve either one of them. They were both exactly the type of guys every girl dreams to one day marry. I was lucky to get a chance to call both of them mine.
I’ll probably never move on. I can’t take the chance of losing another person I love. I’ve been asked out a few times, but I was never ready. I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready to move on. Maybe it’s just God’s way of telling me I’ve had my turn, and now it’s time to let everyone else have theirs. Mathew and Brandon were irreplaceable. I was lucky enough to find love with them both, even if it was only for short periods of time. It would be selfish to even consider looking for that again. I was fortunate to fall in love twice. Most people don’t even find true love once.
I continue to work on my lessons. It’s getting late, but everyone is used to my workaholic ways. They know it’s my way of coping, so they never stand in my way. When my phone dings with repeated chimes, I assume it’s later than it is, and I’m holding people up. I check my phone to see I have a couple text messages from Beth. She usually texts me throughout the day, but I get a little worried when I get more than one text at a time. I try to stay positive, but fearing that something bad has happened has become almost like breathing for me. I can’t help it. I open the messages with a prayer ready on my lips.
Beth: Keeping the kiddos tonight.
Beth: NO ARGUMENTS.
While I’m reading her messages, a few more messages chime in.
John: hey what do you have planned tonight?
John drifted away a little bit in college, but he always came around when it mattered. It was awkward at first when Beth and Steve became a couple, but eventually we all fell right back into place, just with slightly different roles and pairings. He’s still single, so we hang out a lot, but it’s never romantically. John is definitely like a big brother, and he sees me pretty much the same way. We would never cross that line.
I look down to read the last of the text messages.
Steve: At your house. Where’s kid bro’s bear?
Steve: found it. I’ll be back to fix that screen door
Why are they all messaging me at once? I’m instantly curious. Not that Beth took the kids for the night, because that’s something we do all the time, but that all three of my friends were suddenly concerned about tonight. I look at the calendar, but there’s nothing on there that stands out. What are my people up to? Something is very suspicious about their synchronized text messages. I’ll definitely be getting to the bottom of this after I finish up for the day. For now I send both Beth and Steve a couple thumbs-up, and then I respond to John.
Me: Nothing actually. My night just opened up.
Me: Are you in town? We can hang out.
He doesn’t respond right away, so I set my phone down to get back to the task at hand, but before I can even get back to the page I was currently on my phone chimes again.
John: Maybe. Head on home. Ill text back in a bit.
I need to spend another couple of hours to finish up lesson plans and to make copies of worksheets, but my curiosity is killing me. I decide to pack everything up so I can finish it at home this weekend before heading out to my car in the parking lot. I make it to my car and quickly slide in. I pull down my visor to look in the mirror behind it. I spend a few minutes to touch up my makeup and to pull my hair back into a ponytail. I don’t know what I should expect to walk into when I get home, so I want to make sure I don’t look ragged when I get there.
It’s driving me nuts not knowing what they are up to, but I will try my best to be prepared for anything. Flipping up the visor, I start the car and pull out of the high school parking lot and head home.
I pass the police station on the way home and notice Hank’s truck sitting out front and his office window open with the light still on. This means he’s not in on whatever they have planned.
What are my friends up to?
I’m struggling to stop myself from activating my lead foot, so I can go over the speed limit and rush home. Not that Hank, or any other officer in this town, would even consider giving me a ticket. I don’t take advantage of this fact, nor do I accept the favor. If I break the law I expect to be punished just like everyone else, but I know they are doing it out of respect to Brandon. Brandon’s widow could get away with murder in Monroe. Thank the Lord I am not a sociopath. This town would be in some serious trouble.
I decide as I’m about to pass the grocery store to stop in for a little something for myself. I pull into the parking lot, find a spot close to the front doors, and run inside. I grab a bottle of red wine, a frozen pizza, and a bottle of bubble bath that doesn’t feature a cartoon character on it. Once I have all the fixings for a dinner party for one, I head up to the front registers and let the cashier ring me up.
“Planning a big date tonight, Mrs. Kane?” Mandy, my cashier and one of my former students, asks with an amused look on her face.
“If by date you mean dinner and a bubble bath with me, myself, and I, then yes, I guess I am.” I give her a polite smile.
“I guess that can count too!” She’s bouncing around so excitedly that her good mood is almost contagious. She always been a sweet girl and an excellent student, but she liked to constantly talk and pass notes with her friends. It was her only downfall in class.
“Well, there you go.” I pass her money to pay for my items. “Have a wonderful night, sweetheart.” I grab my bags and head back out to the parking lot.
I place the bags in the passenger seat and start toward home again, now fully equipped for a relaxing night in case I’m just being paranoid about my friends. I’m hoping I’m wrong, and that I can just go home and relax. After a long week of working with a bunch of obnoxious teenagers, I’m ready to sleep for a week. I didn’t really have anything planned for the weekend, but my weekends are always like that. I’m not even in my thirties yet, and I act like I’m getting close to retirement.
I finally make it home, and I don’t spot any cars on the street, nor see any light on inside my house. I do see that my screen door has been taken off the hinges and is propped up on the wall next to the door. I roll my eyes because Steve really didn’t have to take it down, it only squeaked slightly. I reach over to grab my grocery bags and the tot carrying my purse and everything I brought home from school. I exit my car and head up to my empty house. I check my phone and see that John hasn’t texted me back, which means he probably isn’t heading into town. I guess it’s just me tonight.
I insert the key into the door when I hear a throat clear behind me. My body goes stiff, and a slight fear overcomes me. Just what I need is to be approached by a creeper on a night I’m all alone, and there’s nobody expecting to see me until the next day. I could get kidnapped and taken across state lines before anyone would even know I was missing.
Then I remember this is Monroe, and that nothing criminal ever happens in Monroe. I slowly turn and gasp at the sight of the tall, and very much alive, man who is leaning against the porch frame.
“Mathew?” My voice quivers.
I reach forward and feel around his face to confirm that he is actually real and not just a ghost created in my head as a way to torment myself.
“Tabby, it’s me.” His deep voice fills me up with feels I thought I’d never feel again.
I drop the bags I was carrying when my hands become too shaky to hold them anymore. The wine bottle breaks and shatters across the porch floor. My eyes pool with tears, and my surroundings begin to swirl as the ground gets closer.
I’m falling.
He catches me and then lifts me into his warm, muscular arms and holds me against his hard chest.
“Tabby!” he shouts in alarm, but to me it sounds like it’s coming from a distance.
Then everything goes black.