Page 40 of What He Doesn't Know

I’d already had three cups of coffee by lunch, but I rounded the corner into the teachers’ café to fill up again, anyway.

“I don’t know, I think it’s nice to see her so smiley again,” Sierra Maggert said as she mashed the buttons on the microwave with her pudgy fingers. She was a younger teacher, round in every way from her cheeks to her ankles, and one of the kindest members on the faculty in my opinion. She’d offered to sit with me every day that I’d been alone at lunch, and we’d spent quite a few afternoons talking about her dog, Buster, that she’d had to put on a diet last month.

“Oh, it is,” the man next to her agreed. I didn’t recognize him. “I’m just saying it’s not like before. It’s notgenuine,you know? It’s like that crazy kind of smiley you see from people who are faking that everything is fine before they crack and go on a killing spree.”

She chuckled as the man continued.

“But I mean, after what happened to her, I don’t know how she’s kept it together. While I still think she was getting her rocks off on an island somewhere, maybe those three days were spent in a mental hospital. Girl needed a breakdown.”

Sierra clucked her tongue, but then her eyes found mine and she gave me a wide grin. “Hey there, Reese. Back for more coffee?”

The man beside her sipped his own coffee, watching me over the top of his mug like I couldn’t be trusted. He’d mentioned someone being gone for three days, and Charlie shot immediately to the forefront of my mind. I wasn’t one for getting caught up in teacher gossip, but if they were talking about her, I wanted in.

“Can’t get enough of it today,” I said, holding up my empty Thermos with a forced smile. I reached for the coffee pot to fill it, my eyes skirting from Sierra to her counterpart. “I’m Reese Walker.”

Once my coffee was refilled, I extended a hand toward him, and he eyed it for a moment before tentatively reaching forward to grip it in a limp handshake. “Sheldon Mackabee. You’re the new music teacher, right? Piano guy.”

“That’s me,” I said, fastening the top back on my Thermos. “Sorry to eavesdrop, but I overheard a bit of your conversation before I came in.” I shifted, debating my options on what to say next. I wanted them to trust me enough to tell me what they’d been talking about. “Care to fill the new guy in on the hottest gossip?”

Sheldon narrowed his eyes, but Sierra lit up like I’d pressed all the right buttons for her at once.

“Charlie Pierce,” she whispered, pulling her leftover container from the microwave and scooting closer to us. She swiped a plastic fork from the dispenser on the counter and stuck her freshly heated roast beef with it, dipping it in gravy and lifting it to her lips. “Sweet little kindergarten teacher. Know who she is?”

The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention, but I feigned disinterest, leaning a hip against the counter. “I’m familiar.”

“Well,” Sierra continued. “She was out for a few days back in January, and ever since then, she’s been all happy go lucky. She hasn’t been that way with anyone other than her students in so long, it’s freaking everyone out a little. She’s almost back to being the person she was when she first started here.”

Sheldon snorted. “No, she’s not. She’sfakinglike she’s happy. That said, she does have a little more of a pep in her step.” He pointed at Sierra. “I’m telling you, she got laid.”

My jaw clenched at Sheldon’s remark, and even more at the fact that he was just as aware of the fact she was faking her happiness as I was.

I forced a tight laugh. “Well, she’s married, isn’t she? I don’t think getting laid would constitute as a catalyst for a mood change.”

Sheldon and Sierra exchanged a look.

“I don’t know, that’s just my guess,” Sheldon said. “But after what happened to her, she deserves to get the sadness banged out of her.”

I hated Sheldon.

Sierra giggled, but then shook her head with a sigh. “It really is so sad, the poor thing.”

I cleared my throat, debating if I should let on that I knew what they were talking about. About her loss. But then I realized she would have been very,verypregnant if she’d lasted eight months carrying twins — and then she’d come back after the summer no longer pregnant, and also without children.

Of course, they all knew about what had happened.

“It is sad,” I finally said. “I mean, I heard she lost them both…” I shook my head. “I can’t even imagine.”

They both watched me then, exchanging another odd glance before Sheldon leaned in closer. “We’re not talking about her pregnancy, Reese. It’s what happenedafter.”

“After?”

Sheldon looked over his shoulder at a table of other teachers, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Her husband cheated on her about a year after it happened.”

My eyes must have bulged out of my head, because both Sierra and Sheldon nodded withI know, rightexpressions.

“Exactly,” Sheldon added, leaning back a bit and taking a sip of his coffee. “Some spicy blonde vixen he works with is what I heard. And hey, I don’t know that I could blame the guy. After Charlie became such a shell? And come on, that innocent school girl thing has to get old fast.” He shrugged. “I would want some tight bossy tail after going through what he did, too.”

I ran my hand over my mouth, scrubbing the rough hair on my jaw and trying with every ounce of willpower I had not to show that I cared.