“Paige hasn’t turned in her genetics assignment.” Juan’s tone made it clear he expected Nick to understand the significance of this. “I gave her a two-day extension, but when she missed that deadline, too, I confronted her. At which point she told me to, and I quote, ‘get out of my face.’”
Nick laughed. “No, she didn’t.”
The line fizzed and popped. As the silence dragged, the smile slid off Nick’s face. “Wait, what? Really? Why would she say that? She’s never talked back to a teacher in her life. She’s never even talked back tome.”
Jackson jerked a glance at him, one eyebrow raised. Nick gave him a helpless look.
“I don’t know,” Juan said slowly. “I was hoping you could shed some light, here. Her track record is pristine, so I’m willing to cut her some slack, but I don’t appreciate being insulted by my students. And I’ll have to fail her for the assignment if she doesn’t turn it in. Like I said, I normally wouldn’t circumvent the proper channels, but I’m hoping this is all a misunderstanding.”
“It must be.” Nick breathed heavily into the phone. “And yeah, I’ll talk to her. Absolutely. I’m sorry she said that. But there must be an explanation.”
“I hope so. She has until the end of the week for the assignment, but after that, I’ll have to give her a zero. It’s wortha quarter of her grade, so it’ll be hard for her to skate through with anything higher than a C-minus.”
“Sure, I understand.” Nick went through the requisite ritual before hanging up.
A C-minus. Paige had never brought home anything lower than a B-plus, and even then, only two of those.
When he slid his phone back into his jeans, Jackson looked over. “Everything okay? What was that about?”
Nick rubbed absently at his sternum. He hadn’t seen much of his daughter since their ill-fated day at Hinkley Farm, when she’d had Megan take her home. Since then, she’d spent the night at Maria’s more than once.
Shit. Now that he thought about it, they hadn’t had a substantive conversation all week.
“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “I think I fucked up. I upset Paige the other day, and it sounds like she lashed out at school.”
Jackson frowned. “Paige, lashing out? No way. She’s the sweetest kid I know.”
“Yeah. Usually. But something’s gotten to her. And I’m pretty sure it’s my fault.”
“You’re always pretty sure it’s your fault.”
Nick gave a brittle laugh. “That’s ’cause it usually is.” He stewed in his thoughts for the next few miles, then abruptly snapped his fingers in Jackson’s face.
Jackson jerked the wheel, then corrected. “Jeez, man. You almost sent us into a ditch.”
Nick ignored him. “That’s it.”
“That’s what?”
“The thing I’m going to fight for.”
Jackson cast him a skeptical glance.
“Whatever’s bothering Paige, I’m going to fix it. I’ll go to war forher. Un-screw up whatever I screwed up. There’s your answer. That counts, right?”
Jackson sighed. “I swear. It’s like you haven’t listened to a word I’ve said.”
Nick shook his head. He had. Healwayslistened when Jackson talked, because Jackson never said anything that wasn’t worth taking the time to say. The guy stood head and shoulders above most people in that regard. Well, at six foot five, he stood head and shoulders above most people in general, but especially when it came to meaningful insight.
But Nick didn’t feel like arguing, so he turned his face to the window and plotted his next moves while Henderson rolled ever closer.
As soon as he got home, he’d find Paige. He’d coax the truth out of her, then do whatever necessary to get her feeling safe again.
Really, he just had to figure out where he’d gone wrong.
27.
On Monday, five days after originally planned, Gallant finally had a letter.
