Mountains Between Us by Jenny Proctor

Author:Jenny Proctor [Proctor, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: LDS, Blue Ridge Mountains, family, social work, troubled youth, romance, boarding school, clean, Morth Carolina, rehabilitative, friends, conflict
Publisher: Covenant Communications Inc.
Published: 2014-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Henry turned on his living room light and set his laptop and book down on the desk. He was too distracted to write, even though he told Eliza that was what he planned to do. He couldn’t stop thinking about her eyes. They looked like they held an invitation, a beckoning. And for whatever misguided reason, Henry felt like the invitation was for him.

Or maybe he was crazy—imagining things, seeing things, pretending things actually mattered, when, even if he was reading Eliza right, things couldn’t work out between them anyway.

He pushed his thoughts aside and pulled Daniel’s handwritten chapters out of his bag. Much to Henry’s surprise, the writing was good enough that he immediately forgot his own struggles.

The story was a bit disjointed and rough in a few spots, but overall, Daniel had a natural storytelling ability. His narrative was compelling, his characters unique. Henry pulled out a sheet of paper to make a few notes.

In an hour’s time, he’d worked through all four chapters, notating what he liked and making a few suggestions he hoped would be helpful. In the morning, he would sit down to write out Daniel’s curriculum.

One of the things that made Rockbridge so wonderful was that it accommodated so many different learning styles. But this was the first time Henry had thrown aside existing lesson plans and started completely from scratch. It would take time and effort to come up with something he felt would work for Daniel, but his writing was far above grade level. He was the kind of student who would benefit from specialized curriculum. Henry couldn’t help but wonder what Daniel’s life before Rockbridge had been. No two students at Rockbridge ever came to the school with the same story. Many came from families that were well off—easily able to handle the tuition for a dually therapeutic and educational experience. Still other families, desperate for help for their teenager, did the best they could to cover expenses.

Henry knew the Adlers had significant scholarship and funding programs in place so few children ever had to be turned away, but he imagined many families still sacrificed a great deal to make the situation work for their kids. He made a mental note to ask Jeff for a little more of Daniel’s background. It might offer some additional insight as he worked to personalize Daniel’s writing assignments.

* * *

At the end of Monday’s staff meeting a few days later, Henry gathered his notes from the conference room table and headed toward the door. He was a few paces behind Eliza and Flip, and though he wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, it wasn’t difficult to follow their conversation.

“We’ll leave at six thirty, then,” he heard Flip say. “I’m glad you’re coming with me. See you in a bit.”

Henry watched Flip gently touch Eliza’s arm before leaving her and heading out the back door of the admin building. Henry stood still for a moment, his emotions morphing from jealousy to disappointment, then quickly to resignation. He had done this.

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