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Theron
Some weeks were easier than others. This week definitely fell into the ‘others’ category. As I finished typing up a report on the disciplinary meeting I’d just had with a set of divorced parents who could hardly stand being in the same room as one another, I felt a telltale throbbing in my temples. I pulled open my top drawer and shook out two pain relievers. With any luck, they’d kick in before this tension headache had a chance to blossom into a migraine.
I groaned when there was a knock at the door. Because it was the way of things today, my water bottle was empty when I picked it up to wash down the pills, so I swallowed them dry. “Come in.”
I couldn’t decide if I was relieved or annoyed when Tom walked through the door. He and I had been friends for a long time, and he was a pain in my ass—both personally and professionally. Seeing him here at the end of the day meant he either had another issue for me to handle before I could finally pack it up for the weekend or he wanted to meddle in my personal life. My money was on the latter, because Tom was one of the few teachers who didn’t have a ton of behavioral issues with his classes.
“Have you gotten in touch with him?” Tom asked as he plopped onto the hard-plastic chair across the desk.
“No.” I continued typing the report, still hopeful I’d get out the door before a migraine had time to set in. With any luck, a heavy dose of fresh air and a long walk would reverse the tension of this week.
“Are you going to see him this weekend?” Tom pried. In some ways, he was worse now that he and Ben had been together a year, than he had been when he’d been miserably single.
“Probably not.” I massaged my forehead and closed my eyes, trying to remember what in the hell it was we’d discussed in the meeting. I wasn’t proud of the fact, but I’d tuned a lot of it out because there were some kids who simply didn’t want to be helped. My first few years at the school, those had been the students I pushed harder than anyone else, but now I was jaded. What I needed was to get away from this place for a while and remember why I’d wanted to be a school administrator in the first place.
“But you want to,” he pushed. I shoved in the keyboard tray with more force than was absolutely necessary and glared at him. “Don’t look at me like that. You know I’m right.”
He was, but at the same time I couldn’t get William’s warning out of my head. I’d been trying for almost three weeks to figure out what skeletons could be in Sam’s closet that had William so protective of him.
If you’re not willing to stick by him once you learn who he is, walk away. Now.
My knee-jerk reaction had been to point out William knew me better than to think I was a shallow asshole, but the fact hedidknow me gave me pause. There was definitely something deeper in that warning and it was driving me nuts.
“See! That look right there says it all.” Tom waved his finger around, pointing at me like a little kid picking out which puppy he wanted to take home, complete with the shit-eating grin. “Youwantto get to know this kid better, so what in the hell’s stopping you? I’ve never seen you tentative before. It’s a little disconcerting.”
“What if I can’t deal with whatever William wasn’t telling me?” I wasn’t worried so much about what William or anyone else at the club might think of me, but I worried about what it would do to my self-esteem if I promised there was nothing that could turn me off and I wound up hurting him. The one thing William and I could agree on was that Sam was special; I’d never forgive myself if I played a role in damaging his already fragile sense of self.
“You won’t know until you talk to him. Don’t make any promises you can’t keep, but if you’re still thinking about him going on a month later, your curiosity isn’t going to go away.” This was payback for when I’d pushed Tom to go after his boy last year. He swiped my phone off the desk and handed it to me. “At the very least, call William and see if the kid’s working tonight.”
“His name is Sam,” I ground out. Yes, Sam was young, and he radiated boy vibes, but I wasn’t a fan of Tom repeatedly calling himkid.
The bastard chuckled. “My, aren’t we protective already? Make the call.”
Tom stood, holding out my phone. When I took it from him, he turned toward the door. “If you want moral support, give me a call. Ben’s been asking to go down and check out the playroom.”
Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Some other night, maybe, but I didn’t need my best friend there to see me crash and burn if things didn’t go well.
I stared at the door, as if expecting Tom to come back for round two of badgering me into calling William. When I turned back to the report I was supposed to be writing, it didn’t take long to concede it was a lost cause; I’d have to finish the paperwork over the weekend. I quickly packed up my laptop, turned out the lights, and locked my office.
“Goodnight, Mr. Walker,” the school secretary called out. I gave her a quick wave, not wanting to get sucked into her typical recap of everything that had happened during the week as if I hadn’t been right in the thick of it. She was a nice enough lady but tended to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. The further I could stay off her radar the better.
I thought about Sam as I sat in rush hour traffic. There had been plenty of guys who’d caught my attention in the past, but none held it the way he did. I’d been watching him from a distance since shortly after he started working at The Lodge, trying to figure out what he was into, butonlyfrom a distance because he seemed like the type who would spook easily.
I was still thinking about him as I reheated one of the premade meals I had delivered weekly to keep me from going out to eat every night. I probably spent the same amount of money, but it was easy to tell myself this wasn’t as bad because I didn’t seem pathetic for dining alone or ordering take-out for one.
Once the kitchen was cleaned up, Sam was still on my mind. He was an obsession.
Call William.Tom’s suggestion wasn’t a horrible one.
I flipped the phone over in my hands a few times. Hit the unlock button as I settled into my recliner. Stared at the screen a bit more. Took a sip of water to fight off the sudden desert in my mouth. Scrolled to William’s contact info. Set down the phone and paced, trying to talk myself out of pursuing anything. Sat down again.
“You’re fucking ridiculous,” I muttered as I grabbed the phone again. This wasn’t how a good Daddy acted. I needed to be confident, especially if there was something that had the potential to hold Sam back from giving himself over to me. Before I could second-guess myself, yet again, I tapped the call button. Either William would answer, or he wouldn’t, simple as that.
“I was starting to wonder if we’d ever hear from you again,” William said as soon as the call connected. I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or amused by the delay in me reaching out but, either way, he didn’t seem surprised to hear from me.
“Yeah, well you gave me a lot to think about,” I admitted. A pit formed in my stomach, and the headache I’d managed to escape earlier started creeping in again.
