She’d been so brave, so full of gentle spirit until the very end, which had been mercifully quick. Hank’s throat constricted slightly and he touched her face, as if trying to run a finger down her cheek. Instead, he obliterated her face entirely, reminding him she was but a memory of what should have been. They’d deserved it all. They hadn’t had enough time. Would they even be in this situation with Ethan if Amanda had lived? He’d lost the love of his life; his children had lost their mother. Everyone, especially Amanda, had lost the future they’d deserved.
No one ever said life was fair. Hank had learned that lesson many times over. He forced away the melancholy and returned the frame to its place between recent pictures of Ethan and Alli. He had to focus on the future, not on the hopes and dreams they’d all lost.
He was doing the best he could to manage without her, and, damn it, his efforts had to be enough.
Chapter Three
Hank had never attended a parent-teacher conference before. As he strode across the parking lot, he received a few odd glances from mothers in cars waiting to pick up their children.
The few male teachers who taught at Nolter probably didn’t dress in business suits. Maybe the mothers thought he was a book salesman or something.
Hank grimaced as he entered the building. He’d thought about changing first, but he’d run out of time as his meeting with the head accountant had run late. Time was one of those things Hank never seemed to have enough of, no matter how well he delegated.
Besides, he was comfortable in his attire. America had gone casual, and a suit still said class and power. That gave him a sense of security in this unfamiliar territory he was entering. He stepped into the office and announced to the secretary he had a meeting with Jolie Tomlinson.
The secretary had him sign in on a form. “She’s expecting you. Just go down to her classroom. Do you remember the way?”
Hank nodded. He found Jolie Tomlinson’s room, knocked on the metal door frame and entered.
“Hi.” She rose to her feet and wiped her hands on her denim jumper before offering him her hand. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“Like I said, this is important,” he replied. He took a breath and tried to relax his shoulders.
She nodded. “Of course. I can tell you are a man who cares very deeply for his children.”
Were there parents who simply didn’t care and wouldn’t show up? Hank wondered. The thought was appalling, but he remembered news reports he’d read while living in Chicago and realized that sadly, such parents did exist.
“So what seems to be Ethan’s main problem?” Hank asked, cutting to the chase and steeling himself for the worst. She’d gestured to an adult-size chair placed in front of her desk. He sat. About four feet separated them.
“Ethan is having a few issues accepting authority. He has a very dominant personality. He can’t shout out the answers to every question. He needs to share playground toys. When a teacher asks him to do something, he should do it immediately. Ethan has had to have a few time-outs for failing to meet class expectations.”
Hank understood the concept of time-out, which was when a student was removed from the group. “So are these punishments during class?”
“We like to think of them as consequences and, no, they happen at recess. We operate on a check system. First check is a warning. Second check a student loses five minutes of recess, and the third check ten. Four checks is the whole recess and five checks means the child is sent to the office.”
“How many check marks has Ethan had?”
“I keep track of them on this clipboard.” Jolie passed a clipboard over and Hank saw today’s sheet. At least, aside from Ethan, there were two other children on the list.
“Yesterday he had four check marks. I kept him inside during the entire twenty-minute afternoon recess. Instead of sitting quietly or reading, he kicked the underside of his desk the entire time. He’s also not doing any homework. This morning I found a lot of the workbook pages I assigned wadded up in his backpack.”
“I wondered about that. Alli seems to have at least a half hour of homework every night and Ethan always says he has none.”
“Carrie Hillhouse and I do a lot of team teaching. She’d planned to attend this meeting, but she had an emergency. She teaches my class social studies, for example, and I teach hers science. We do a lot of the same lessons and we’re planning to take both our classes on a field trip to the Shepherd of the Hills fish hatchery just below the Table Rock Dam the second week of May. We’re studying pond and river habitats, and the hatchery is the largest trout-production facility in Missouri. I’d hate for Ethan to not be able to join us.”
Hank knew many hotel guests visited the site, but he hadn’t yet been there himself. He hadn’t done any Branson shows either, and Branson had more theater seats than Broadway in New York City. “I think Ethan would like to see the fish,” Hank said.
Jolie brushed a loose tendril of hair from her face. Her hair was a soft brown that looked almost auburn in the light of her desk lamp. And Hank wondered how silky it would feel. As he had the first time he’d seen her, he couldn’t help noticing that Jolie Tomlinson was extremely attractive. He had the sudden urge to find out…He shook his head. She was his kids’ teacher. What was he thinking?
“Yes, Ethan has told me he wants to go on the trip,” Jolie responded. “And I think we can use the trip as extra incentive for him to improve his behavior. Your son is a very smart boy.
“He loves to read, so that’s not a problem area. I tested him in math, and he’s low. But not too low,” she added quickly. “I think it’s more that his grandmother didn’t teach him a few concepts other kids his age learn, rather than any lack of ability on Ethan’s part. Some after-school tutoring would bring him up to grade level by the end of the year. I’m confident he’ll catch on quickly.”
“Will that be available during latchkey?” Hank asked, suddenly overwhelmed by everything. They had yet to discuss the behavior plan.
He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back off his face. Fatherhood didn’t come with an instruction manual, and at the moment Hank really wished it did. Luckily it seemed that Jolie had the answer. She was the professional and he needed her help. “Just tell me what I need to do.”
SHE WAS LOSING him. She’d seen the eyes of many a parent glaze over when discussing their children’s problems.
She knew the symptoms. The parents, or parent in this case, were well-adjusted people. They held good jobs, made decent money. They loved their offspring and weren’t abusive or neglectful. So how could they have children who had issues? They always figured she somehow knew all the answers.
Unfortunately neither of her college degrees came with magic wands. Still, she’d been taught some solutions and developed tenacity. You kept applying various strategies until one clicked. Something about Hank made her desire to help even stronger than usual. Maybe she was simply a sucker for a handsome face.
No, that wasn’t it. She empathized with his plight. She wanted the best for him and his kids, the same thing she wanted for all her students and their parents. She reassured herself her motives were purely professional.
“Mr. Friesen,” she began, careful of the words she used. “Ethan is a ten-year-old boy. He’s not showing any signs of anything but being a normal boy who hasn’t grown up attending regular school. I’m planning on working with him after school to teach him math. I also think this will help with some of the behavior issues, as he’ll be getting extra face time with me. I suspect some of the motivation behind his behavior is that he wants my attention and is willing to do negative things to get it. If he can have my attention in