All of a sudden, Justin Tiller turned his back on all of them and started issuing orders.
“Frieda! Get the kids and hurry up. We’re done here and I got places to be,” he said, then stalked out of the room.
Frieda ducked her head, muttered “Nice to meet you,” and grabbed Donny’s hand. “Come on, Son. We gotta go find Connor and Lee. Daddy’s ready to go.”
Their exit broke up the crowd, and parents began going to retrieve their children. Some would be going on to different rooms with older children, while others were going home.
Sam put a hand on Katie’s shoulder. She turned, saw the look of concern in his eyes, and then looked around for Beth and Evie. They were sitting on the oval rug in the reading center with some of their friends, chattering and playing.
“It’s good to see you,” Katie said.
“Are you okay?” Sam asked.
Katie managed a wry smile. “Lord, yes. Hateful people don’t scare me. It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for.”
“Like Justin Tiller?”
She nodded.
Sam lowered his voice.
“Go do your thing, honey, and don’t worry about him. People who cause trouble in this town are my problem, not yours. Understand?”
“Yes, and thank you,” Katie said, and then put on her teacher face and her teacher smile and went to mingle.
After the evening was winding down, Katie sent a text to Marcy and Susan, asking them to come to her room when they got a chance.
Marcy was right across the room and showed up first.
“How did your evening go?” she asked. “Did everything go off okay?”
“It was fine,” Katie said.
“So, what’s up?” Marcy asked.
“I kinda want to wait until Susan gets here so I don’t have to tell it twice.”
“Oh…I saw her coming down the hall. She should be here… Oh…there she is now,” Marcy said.
“Is everything okay?” Susan asked.
“I want to show you something,” Katie said, and walked them over to the dry-erase board. “This all began because the kids found out they were going to get to use computers. Then questions arose about there being only four of them. So as I was in the middle of explaining how only four students at a time would be using them, and that there were eighteen children in our class so we’d have to take turns, Donny Tiller walked up beside me, patted me on the arm, and quietly blew my mind.”
“What do you mean?” Susan asked.
“He said, ‘Miss Katie, that won’t come out even.’ I asked him what he meant, and he just repeated, ‘That won’t come out even,’ and then it hit me. Long story short, I asked him to show me what he meant, and he did this. He made eighteen marks. Then counted off four, and then four more, and again and again, until there were only two left. Then he said, ‘See. It won’t come out even.’”
Marcy was staring in disbelief, but Susan wasn’t surprised.
“His pre-K teacher mentioned early on that Donnie had an unusual grasp of grouping blocks and counting. His kindergarten teacher said he was good at math, but you know how it goes. We don’t test kids for those kinds of concepts that young. But this? Wow! Being able to calculate something like that in his head and then be able to lay it out so simply is amazing. But I sense a hesitation,” Susan said. “What else happened?”
“I don’t think his father was happy with me, or with Donny. He seemed angry, then ordered his wife to get their children and left the building.”
Susan sighed. “Justin Tiller has issues.”
Marcy rolled her eyes. “That’s a nice way of saying he’s feral, mean, shiftless, drinks like a fish, and can’t hold a job.”
Katie frowned. “I’ve had plenty of parents like him over the years. They don’t scare me. But what does scare me is a child being born with such a gift and then never having a chance to let it grow or use it.”
“We’ll see about getting him tested,” Susan said. “He may excel in other aspects as well. And don’t worry about Justin Tiller. He has to come through me to get to any of my teachers. So…good job, everyone. Let’s go home.”
Marcy gave Katie a quick hug. “Before we go, I noticed you got Thor Dooley. He’s a sweetheart, but his parents are a mess. They are also considered part of the high society side of Borden’s Gap.”
Katie grinned. “What does Jeff Dooley do for a living?”
“He plays random backup in bands in Nashville for any country singer in need of someone who can play guitar.”
“Nashville? That’s quite a drive from here. Why don’t they live in Nashville?”
“Because Miranda wouldn’t be noticed in Nashville, but in Borden’s Gap, she’s a big deal. For her, it’s all about ‘Do I want to be a little fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a little pond?’ She chose the puddle in which to reign.”
Katie laughed. “That analogy should be a bumper sticker. ‘I choose the puddle in which to reign.’”
They were still laughing as they locked up their rooms and walked out together into the warm summer night.
Chapter Fifteen
Katie went home satisfied with her first public event. There had been a few moments during the evening when she’d hear a childish squeal or hear a door bang and feel a surge of anxiety. But there were so many people around her to pull her out of it that her anxiety never bloomed into full-blown panic.
She was getting out of the shower when she got a text. She dried and hurried into her pajamas, then went to see who it was from.
It was Sam.
You were a huge hit! People were talking about you and it was all good. I am guessing there were moments when it was stressful for you, but it never showed. Proud of you, honey. Sleep in tomorrow, and if you’re not doing anything, I want to take all my girls out to eat at noon, and that includes you. Around eleven thirty?
Katie quickly responded.
Invitation accepted and thank you.
Then she laid her phone aside and hugged herself. For the first time in months, she was feeling joy again. Sam was going out of his way to let her know she mattered to him, and still giving her space. Just thinking about him made her ache, but it was all too new and too soon. So she crawled into bed, wishing she had another Dinah McCall book to read, then turned on the TV instead.
***
Justin Tiller was on a rampage. He’d done nothing but curse and shout since they’d come back from school and was downing beers as fast as he could swallow them.