Page 30 of The New Place

“What?”

Ned sinks into a chair. It’s not closing. Of course it’s not.

But worry has climbed high in his throat, the anxiety of leaving on time thickening into a different, sicker sort of dread.

Steve and Jess wouldn’t just move away from Boston. They have family there. Their kids’ schools and friends. It’d have to be something big to wrench them from their life. Something enormous.

Like a university very quietly, very suddenly falling apart.

“Steve can’t be right,” Ned says quickly. “It’s nothing, I’m sure. So I’m just not going to worry about it.”

“You look worried,” Abbot says.

“I’m not.” He was just hired at Adams. Why would they have had his position open last year if the university was in trouble? And he’s been assigned classes for fall semester already, and advisees he’s been talking to about next year, and he has a syllabus nearly complete for a class he wants to teach someday, and new research projects he’s just beginning to dream up. So Adams has to be here, because any alternative just doesn’t make sense.

“Ned,” Abbot says and sits across from him, reaching for his hands.

Ned stares at Abbot’s long, slim fingers holding his. What if? rattles through him. Ned will be without a paycheck. All the money he’s put into his bank account will be wiped out in a matter of months while he scrambles to find another job.

And scramble he will. It took him long enough to land at Adams, and he’d needed Abbot’s connections to do it. Starting all over again, and this time with a bevy of more qualified professors on the hunt too?

“Steve is just exaggerating,” Ned says quickly.

“He must be. Or he’s mistaken.”

“Yeah, absolutely.” Ned tries to relax the tension in his shoulders and finds he can’t. “If he isn’t, though?”

Because that’s the kicker. Ned trusts Steve. He wouldn’t make this up, and he wouldn’t lead him astray. If Steve told Ned Adams won’t be there next year, it’s because he believes it. And he and Jess wouldn’t light out to Portland over their life in Boston without being sure they’re making the right choice, so…

Ned closes his eyes against the path this reasoning is leading him along.

When he opens them again, he says, “Steve thinks you should pursue Newbury.”

Abbot pulls his hands back and stands. “The kettle.” It’s steaming, but not whistling. Still, Abbot bustles over to the counter, fussing with the pour-over.

“Abbot.”

This same man who Ned laid bare last night, standing now with his back locked, his movements abrupt. It’s not the university, Ned is pretty sure. They’ve driven past it a dozen times, and Abbot’s never clammed up like this, wrapped himself in his careful, hard silence.

So Beverly’s the problem, whoever she is. Not the school itself.

“Kind of something you know the dean there,” Ned says.

“I’d like to believe Adams is still a possibility,” Abbot says to the travel mug he pulls out of the cupboard.

“Do you want to talk about her?”

“No.”

Of course not. Ned stifles a sigh. “Friend of the family?” Ned pushes. “That’s what Chris said. She seemed happy to see you.”

“It’s been a long time, that’s all.”

“She’s known you since you were little?”

Abbot doesn’t answer.

Ned could try to fish for more, but he doesn’t have time. Abbot moves glacially slow when it comes to sharing anything important, and Ned won’t be able to uncover any gems before he has to go. “It’d be cool to have you closer,” he says instead.