Atticus shook his head.“I … how…?”
Slade chuckled.“She’s cool.I promise.”He leaned in and lowered his voice.“Now sit.”
He tried to shake it off as he eased into one of the armless chairs facing the principal’s desk.One minute, he’d been walking into the high school to talk about a missing bronze statue, only to find himself agreeing to dinner with Slade’s parents.
How did that happen?
More importantly, what the fuck was he supposed to do now?He’d never met anyone’s parents before.Hell, he’d never officially dated anyone.Not until … well,now.
Voices sounded outside the office, and Atticus tried to pull himself together before Callie Jameson walked into the room.
When she came into view, he checked her out, curious whether she looked like Rose or not.He knew the family tree had many branches, but since he’d yet to ask Slade about it, he wasn’t sure how they were related.
Callie looked nothing like Rose.She was younger.Probably early- to mid-forties if the lines around her eyes were anything to go by.She had long, board-straight, white-blonde hair and big blue eyes.Her makeup was applied with a light touch, and she wore a CRHS sweatshirt and jeans—not at all what he’d expected—making her look more like one of the students rather than the woman in charge of the place.
She must’ve noticed Atticus checking out her attire because she said, “It’s spirit week.”
“Homecoming already?”Slade asked.
“I know.Seems like school just started,” she said, grinning widely.“It’s good to see you, Slade.”
“Likewise.”
“And you must be Atticus,” she said, holding out her hand.
Atticus shook it, surprised that his palm was dry despite the butterflies doing the jitterbug in his chest cavity.
Callie moved around behind the large desk, her gaze shifting between them as she took a seat.“What can I do for you?”
“We’re here to talk about the statue,” Atticus said, wondering why she sounded like she had no idea why they were there.
Her white-blonde eyebrows angled down, her big blue eyes shifting between them.“The statue?”
“The missing one,” he clarified.
Her eyes darted to the door, then back to him.“How’d you hear about that?”
Slade barked a laugh.“You seriously think no one’s noticed the infamous mustang statue missing from in front of the school?”
Infamous?Why did Slade use that adjective?What was up with this statue?
“I was hopin’ they haven’t.”
Okay, so maybe this was something they kept in one of those trophy cases and not the large kind he’d been thinking.
Atticus’s eyebrows lifted.“How big of a statue are we talkin’ about?”
“Big,” Slade stated.“Oh, wait.Hold on.”He got to his feet and leaned over Callie’s desk, grabbing a book off a shelf.“I bet it’s in here.”
Atticus waited while Slade flipped through the pages of a yearbook before stopping on one.He set the book down, pointing toward…
“Holy shi—ishkabob,” he blurted, barely stopping the curse.“That’s arealstatue.”
Callie nodded.“I know.”
“And it’s missing?”
She nodded again.
