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I snickered. “It had better be. I’m not planning on teaching anyone anything tomorrow.”
“What’s the story with this learning center? How’s that going?” Noah tipped back in his chair while we waited for Scott to finish texting.
“Good. I’ve got an offer on the property across the street from my school. The building’s a complete teardown, but the location couldn’t be better.” I was still waiting to hear what the current owners thought about it. Commercial real estate apparently moved at a different pace than residential. “I’m hoping to hear something this coming week. But I don’t know for sure. I’m fairly confident the original zoning will work for what I want to do there, so that’s one headache averted. Tristan’s double-checking, just to be sure.”
“I’m surprised he needs any clients other than us.” Scott chuckled and set down his phone before dealing another card. “No one’s responding. Should we be worried?”
“Nah.” Noah shook his head. “Cody’s been working on a big project with Jackson. It’s possible he’s still there. Jackson’s wife is a restaurant chef-owner, so I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have someone at home hoping for him to hurry up and get there.”
“Unless they have kids.” How would it work to run a restaurant and balance a family? People did, most likely, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I could see, easily, how two teachers would make that situation work though. Would Kayla want to keep working? Maybe she’d decide she wanted to stay home. Or homeschool? I’d be fine with that. It wasn’t like we’d be trying to make things work on our salaries alone.
“True.” Noah shrugged. “I’m not sure if he does.”
“How do you work with someone and not know about their family?” Scott frowned and flipped the final card. “When I was at Robinson, I think I knew more about the family lives of people who sat near me than was probably reasonable or healthy.”
I snickered. “I don’t know a lot about the family or personal lives of teachers who aren’t in the math department. And even then, we have one teacher—I’m pretty sure she’s been teaching math since Isaac Newton was around—who isn’t one for sharing.”
“Maybe because everyone cracks jokes about how old she is?” Noah shook his head. “You think that might have something to do about it?”
I flinched. “Maybe. To be fair, I don’t think we say them aloud.”
“She has to know. That kind of thing is obvious.” Scott pointed a finger at me. “You know better.”
I sighed. I did know better. “Yeah, all right. I’ll do better. Point being, I don’t think it’s super weird not to know all the ins and outs of your coworkers’ lives.”
“Not even ‘coworker.’ He’s basically the second in command. And really, he’s around more than Mr. Ballentine, so he might as well be in charge. How much did you know about Joe Robinson’s personal life before he did the whole heart attack and matchmaking contest thing?”
Scott flashed a grin. “All right. That’s a point. Nothing. He was a name on the building. An occasional nod in the hall or the elevator. He could have been married six times with twelve kids for all I knew.”
“Mypointwas that Cody might be working late. That was all I was trying to say.” Noah looked at his cards again and shook his head. “I’m out.”
“Me too.” I wasn’t going to try and bluff Scott. Chances were high he had a good hand, and I had a pair of threes. That wasn’t going to win any contests. “Wes has been making himself scarce a lot these days. Anyone else notice that?”
“Not until you said something, no.” Scott frowned and pulled the pile of poker chips toward himself. “He’s still pretty serious about the dive shop thing, and now that he’s free of Robinson, I guess he’s been taking some classes.”
“Classes?” I frowned. “Like dive classes?”
“Nah. Business classes, is my understanding. You’d have to talk to Cody. The two of them were discussing it at our place a couple weeks ago.” Noah pushed back his chair and stood. “You have any soda in the fridge?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. Help yourself.” Scott collected the cards and started shuffling.
“You want anything?” Noah pointed at me and then Scott.
“I’ll take something without caffeine, if there’s an option like that.” I was officially old enough that I didn’t need to risk it. I had enough trouble sleeping that I didn’t want to add to the problem. Although, to be fair, my lack of sleep was less about age and more about Kayla.
“Should be. We keep root beer for Beckett as a treat. In fact, that sounds really good. I’ll take one, too.” Scott grinned. “Thanks, Noah.”
“Sure thing.” Noah disappeared into the kitchen.
“Are we playing again or do you want to call it?” I wasn’t really in the mood for cards. And three wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as our usual group. I’d be okay watching TV or just hanging. Or heading home early and calling it a night.
Noah brought the sodas and distributed them. “Let’s not bother. I wouldn’t mind an early night since I guess I’m going to start looking at real estate. Maybe I’ll get online and poke around a little.”
“I can hook you up with my agent, if you want?” Scott reached for his phone. “She’s a friend of the family and we were pleased with how she helped us find this place.”
Noah shrugged. “Sure. Shoot me her details. Never hurts to have someone on tap.”
Scott poked at his phone before clicking it off. “Done.”
