A Child's Wish

“What on earth for?”

“They’re easy to replace. And you don’t go to jail for it.”

He stared at her and slowly started to smile. “You are too much,” he said.

“Yeah, I know, but I’m still nice to have around.”

Mark brushed the hair back from her face and ran his fingers down to the bottom of the strand. “That’s an understatement,” he said.

Kelsey’s doctor, coming from the little girl’s room, interrupted, saving Meredith from throwing her arms around her soon-to-be ex-boss.

“YOU WANT A GLASS of wine?”

She should go. Again. They’d had dinner. Kelsey was asleep in her own bed with Gilda by her side.

Reaching for her bag, Meredith glanced at Mark, standing in the archway to the living room, wine bottle and two glasses in hand, and let her arm drop.

“Yeah.” It had been a long two days, getting Kelsey home, Meredith going back to work on Thursday to face the sympathies of her coworkers and worries from many of her students. By voting non-reemployment instead of dismissal, the school board had agreed to let her finish out the year. She wasn’t sure that had been a kind move—for anyone.

“Was today any easier than yesterday?” he asked, handing her a filled goblet.

“About the same.” He sat down next to her on the couch, something he’d never done before. Meredith’s nerves responded with a leap. “Monday should be better.”

“I’ll be back then.”

He was close and it felt good. Too good. While he was only her boss for another month or two, they were far too different to ever coexist peacefully.

“Kelsey still isn’t saying much about her mother,” she said, reminding herself why she was there. And why she wasn’t.

They’d all been through so much. Kelsey needed her. And she needed Kelsey, too. Mark had a lot of emotional reparation to oversee—with himself and his daughter. None of them needed to deal with the complications of a doomed sexual attraction.

“She starts counseling next week.”

Sipping wine, Meredith stared at the golden liquid in her glass, getting lost in the sparkle. And then set it on the table. “She blames herself.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“She’s piled so much on her own shoulders right now, it’s amazing she can even stand up.”

“Because she drank something she thought was lemonade?”

“Because she exposed her mother’s drug dealings, she took drugs herself, she let that boy Kenny down, getting him and his father in trouble. She let you down. She let herself down.”

“She’s the victim of a sick woman.” Mark’s jaw was tight again.

Meredith pulled a throw pillow from the other end of the couch where she’d tossed it when she sat down and passed it to him.

Taking it, Mark didn’t say a word. Just squeezed until his knuckles were white.

She watched him as long as she could, and then reached over, covering his fist with her hand. “She’s young, Mark. Most of her life has been secure, solid and full of love. She’ll recover.”

He sipped wine, then set his glass on the table beside him with careful precision. Nodded.

“I’m not so sure about you,” she added softly, looking him in the eye.

He looked back and Meredith took a deep breath. The territory was different when they connected. Dangerous.

“You can’t analyze this one, Mark,” she told him. “Sometimes events just happen in life and we’ll never know why.”