“Call home. Call the cops. Find out how to get a restraining order against that piece of crap if the police aren’t going to keep him in jail.”
“Language, ladies.” One of the younger counselors walked in the door carrying a leather binder and a yoga mat.
“Seriously?” Megan rounded on Mrs. Trestle. “I just ran into the guy who tried to kidnap me three weeks ago. He’s out of jail and walking around school. That is not okay, and I will not watch my language if you can’t protect me from him.”
“He’s here?” The counselor peered past Megan to the office secretary behind the front desk like she needed confirmation of the fact.
Apparently “he” did not require a name.
“I just got in.” The secretary shrugged while she cradled a phone on her shoulder and typed something at the same time. “I haven’t heard anything yet.”
“Okay.” Mrs. Trestle nodded toward her office at the end of the hall. “Come with me, and we’ll get this sorted out. I don’t want you walking around this school if he’s here.” The woman put a protective arm around Megan’s shoulders and led her away, yoga mat still tucked securely under her other arm.
Because, of course, everyone knew that J.D. and his father had tried to kidnap Megan and her music teacher. Whereas Bailey was simply J.D.’s ex-girlfriend.
No one had any idea that she had every reason to be terrified of J.D., too.
“Bailey, are you coming?” Megan turned before entering the smaller office.
“I’m going to call my dad first.” She needed a minute to catch her breath. To stop shaking.
To figure out her next move.
“Honey, you can use your phone in the testing center right around the corner. You know where I mean?” The office secretary looked up from her desktop screen and pointed the way until Bailey nodded.
Rounding the corner, she pushed open the door to the small testing area. The lights were on in the back of the room but not the front, as if no one had come in yet today.
Not that it mattered to her.
Still, maybe that was why she didn’t notice the boy seated at the first testing corral until he stood suddenly.
“Dawson.” She recognized him from the Hastings’ house right away, even though his face remained in shadow.
She’d spent half her babysitting shift mooning at him out the window of Aiden’s nursery.
“Bailey.” He moved to pick up a pile of papers on the desk of the corral where he’d been sitting. “I can work on this out front if you need to be in here.”
“No. You don’t have to go.” She rushed the words out, realizing that she was simultaneously sidestepping to block his path. Could she be any more obvious? “That is... I’m only texting my dad.” She held up her phone for proof.
Adding to her dork quotient exponentially.
Nice.
“And I’m only filling out paperwork to start school here.” He waved the papers before sliding them back on the desk. “Not in any special hurry.”
She stared at him dumbly for a long moment, taking in his T with cutoff sleeves that would never pass the dress-code rules but that showed off better muscles than J.D. would ever dream of having. The girls of Crestwood were going to go nuts for him.
“Can’t blame you for that.” She fidgeted with her phone case, picking around the edge of the purple cover, hardly believing she’d ended up in a room alone with him on a morning that had started out about as badly as any day possibly could. “I wouldn’t go to school here either if I had a choice.”
Outside in the waiting area of the guidance office, she could hear some teachers laughing and joking.
Did anyone care that a boy who had harassed and threatened Megan was back in class today?
“That bad?” He leaned over to slide a second chair out and flipped it to face her, the metal feet scraping the cracked terrazzo. Wordlessly, he offered it to her before lowering himself into his former seat.
“Worse.” She eyed the chair, knowing it had to be meant for her but scarcely remembering how to react to a boy being nice. “Unless you like high drama and lots of cliques.”
Dropping her backpack on the floor, she sank into the cold metal that put her just a few inches away from him. Well, their knees were that close since the chairs were angled. But the rest of her still sat two feet away from him.
