Frowning, I looked over my shoulder. “What?”
He looked uncomfortable, refusing to meet my eye, one slim shoulder shrugging awkwardly. “You’re dating my cousin. But you’re also a teacher. What do I call you?”
The question caught me off guard. I’d never had to consider that before. “Well, in school, you’ll call me Ms. Brooks.”
He nodded, like he expected that.
“As for here… you can call me whatever you want, I suppose. Simone is fine.”
The way he wrinkled his nose made me think he wouldn’t be comfortable with that. I almost laughed, holding myself back since I didn't want him to think his question was silly. The nuances of dating a student’s guardian were new to me too, even if he wasn’t a student of mine anymore.
“Or you can stick with Ms. Brooks if you want. Whatever makes you comfortable.”
The question, while innocent in nature, reflected something more important than just how to address me. Jasper was starting to see my place here as more permanent. The realization made me smile and it didn’t fade all morning. Elias came down to join us after a while, helping me make breakfast, and his mood was upbeat and jovial as he took over feeding Isla and playing with her while Jasper and I ate. Even Jasper noticed the change in his mood, his eyes narrowed as he studied his cousin.
“What happened last night? You look happy.”
Elias hummed a happy sound, leaning back to avoid Isla’s messy attempts to grab him with sticky fingers. “I am happy. That crew that’s been causing trouble won’t be a problem anymore.”
Sitting up straighter, Jasper demanded, “How do you know?”
“Because we did the crew’s president a favor in exchange for him leaving and taking his people with him. He might be a criminal, but one percenters have their own honor code. He swore a vow, and he won’t break it. Not after what we did for him.”
Jasper looked unconvinced, his face clouded. “You didn’t do anything illegal, did you?”
Snorting, Elias turned enough to raise an eyebrow at him. “Do you really think I’d do something like that?”
It took only a second before Jasper acquiesced and shook his head. “No, I guess not. What’d you do then?”
Elias didn’t get into the gritty details, which I was proud of him for, but he was honest and open with Jasper, explaining, “The club president’s sister had gone missing. A few of the guys on my crew are good at finding people. We helped find her. In exchange, he agreed to leave town.”
Jasper went quiet for a moment, and I could see him thinking it all through. After last night, he was still struggling with the threats and his fear for his sister. It would take a few days before he fully accepted that she was safe.
Elias must have been thinking the same thing because he offered, “The club is actually planning to go out to do some clean up today. Put to rights some of the stuff damaged by Battle’s crew. Want to join? Pretty sure all the club kids are going to help out.”
Jasper’s brows furrowed. “Why are you cleaning up their mess for them?”
Elias shrugged. “Because this is our town. Our community. It’s our job to take care of it. We might not have caused the damage, but leaving those affected by it to struggle on their own isn’t right. If we can help, we will.”
Huffing out a laugh, I took a sip of my coffee. “I wish that mindset would be brought to the school. Half our classes are being held together by tape and glue at this point.”
Pursing his lips, Elias considered me thoughtfully. “You know, I noticed a few things when I was there. Do you know if there’s some kind of procedure for volunteering our time? I know of at least a few of the guys who could help. If there’s any electrical issues, I can look into it myself.”
While the offer was kind, I didn’t know the first thing about the bureaucracy of the upper management. Reagan had made noise about me becoming vice principal, even unofficiallybecause the students respected me, but I’d always turned her down. I wanted to help kids, not play nice with the school board.
“You’d have to speak with the principals of each school. I doubt Reagan would say no to a little free help, we’re looking at losing the art department soon if we don’t find some room in the budget to spare it. If you want to save us maintenance costs, it’d go a long way.”
“Let me talk to my crew. Pretty sure they’d all be down to help. Maybe Prez can call the principals, get some kind of program together or something.”
He said it like it was nothing, like he wasn’t offering to take a huge weight off our budget and our minds by getting people to help the schools function. I studied him, bewildered. How had this man who was good down to his core manage to stay single all these years? And how was I going to stop myself from falling head over heels for him if he kept doing things like this? I didn’t think I had it in me.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
ZERO
After spending the morning with Simone and the kids, I was supposed to meet up with the crew to start clean up. I also planned on talking to Prez about the school thing because if we could help, I wanted to and I knew he felt the same. No doubt there’d be legal shit and paperwork to do, but we could handle that. But first, before we did any of that, I wanted to check in with Rooster.
I wasn’t surprised to see Mel at the hospital. She always dropped everything to nurse the crew if we got hurt. She’d seen to a few of my bumps and scrapes over the years. She was fussing over Rooster, who looked rough sitting in that bed. His arm was in a cast, a sling keeping it supported. He was shirtless, dark purple bruising all along his side and back, along with one big one on the side of his face. He kept wincing when Mel shined a light in his eyes, but his familiar goofy smile took over when he saw me with Isla on my hip.
