The Bone House - Brian Freeman [7]
She studied her husband, who had shown surprising willpower at the buffet this morning. Mark was a rugged man, the kind who turned women's heads. She felt satisfaction when she thought about his toned body, but she also felt mild jealousy and annoyance. He carried his own weight well, but he had the advantage of being three years younger than she was. He was a man, too, and a lifelong athlete. When he gained ten pounds on a vacation, he added half an hour to his weightlifting regimen, and the pounds miraculously vanished on the second day.
Annoying.
Hilary followed Mark's eyes to the beach, where she saw a large cluster of people half a mile away near the water. They weren't dressed like swimmers. She thought they looked like police. 'I wonder what's going on,' she said.
'I don't know.' Mark sounded distracted.
She leaned back in her chair, brushed her long blond hair away from her face, and adjusted her sunglasses. Even early in the morning, it was already warm on the patio. She tried to read her husband's mind and decipher what was bothering him. 'If we have to move, we move,' she said. 'We've done it before.'
'What?' he asked.
'Home. Money. I know you're worried. So am I. But what's the worst that happens? We pack up and go somewhere else.'
Mark dragged his gaze from the sea. He rubbed his chin, which was stubbled; he hadn't shaved yet. He picked up a fork to eat his breakfast and then put it down. 'Who says it'll be that easy? Any high school district in the country looks at a male teacher released after two years, and what do they think? Inappropriate behavior.'
'Not necessarily.'
He set his mug down sharply on the glass tabletop. 'Let's not kid ourselves, Hil.'
'I'm just saying, budgets are tight everywhere. We're coming out of a big recession in a small district. People get let go. It doesn't have to raise red flags.'
Mark shook his head. 'You don't think there's a back channel between principals? You don't think they talk to each other off the record? "What's the deal on Mark Bradley?" "Forget about him, he was banging one of his students." Face it, wherever I go, I'll be blacklisted.'
'You don't know that.'
'The hell I don't.'
She saw bitterness in Mark's face, which had grown and deepened over the past year of joblessness, until it was a constant fixture in his eyes. She couldn't blame him. He'd been treated badly, convicted without a trial or an appeal. He was in an impossible situation, and he was angry about it. The trouble was that his anger didn't change the reality or make it better; it only threw a shadow between the two of them. When they were together, when they were in bed, his anger was always there with them now.
She let the silence linger, and then she changed the subject. 'Did you see the bulletin board in the lobby? Amy Leigh's team from Green Bay did really well. They got first runner-up for small ensembles.'
'Good for her.'
'I wish I could have seen their final performance, but that was the day we drove to Tampa. Amy was one of my favorites in Chicago. Bubbly girl, really sweet.'
'I remember her.'
Hilary had coached Amy Leigh in dance for four years while she taught in the northern Chicago suburb of Highland Park. Amy didn't have natural grace but compensated for it with practice and enthusiasm. They'd become friends. Hilary's last name had been Semper, not Bradley, until Amy's senior year, and Amy had been among the students who were most excited when Hilary had announced that she was getting married.
'I called Amy's