Chapter 11 The Revolving Door #2
“Probably wants to stick around to protect her brother,” Lucas said.
“I’ll check to see if she has enough credits to swing early graduation in January since she’ll be eighteen.
If she does, maybe we can work on getting her signed up for at least the community college part-time and get her some scholarships.
If she wanted to try and get custody of her little brother after graduation, it would be tough, but we can connect her with resources to help her with that.
” He groaned. “I feel so fucking helpless.”
“I do too. Like I said earlier, I’m going to try to talk to her. I’ll give her whatever help she needs, but she’s got to get brave and turn the asshole in, or she’s stuck.”
“Judah’s right. Waiting for her to get hurt in order to help her sucks. Depending on how bad the abuse has been, he very well could put her in the hospital or kill her.”
“We’ll watch her, Dr. Vaughn. She’s got just a few months to get through, and when she’s eighteen, we can get her out of there.
My concern, though, is whether she’ll leave if her brother’s still there.
If she won’t leave, then once she’s eighteen, our hands are tied.
Unless she reports the abuse, there’s nothing we can do then.
We would actually have to witness it, or it would have to happen on school grounds for us to intercede officially. ”
A knock sounded at his door. He looked up to see Jess through the window. He waved her in. Seemed like everyone was conspiring to keep him from working today.
“Sorry to interrupt,” she said.
He watched her eyes as they moved back and forth between him and the woman sitting across from him.
“Jess, this is Officer Hookstead, our new SRO. She was a police officer in New Orleans before working here. Officer Hookstead, this is Jess Wesley, a friend of mine. She works at one of the local endodontic offices and coordinates with Operation Smile.”
Elyxandre stood and held out her hand. “That’s the group that does free dentistry for the students in the district?”
“Oral surgery portion, yes.”
“That’s awesome. Thanks for making that happen. Nice to meet you.”
Jess held out her hand as well. “Same.” She glanced at him as she let go of Elyxandre’s hand. “Lucas didn’t mention the new SRO was a woman.” He could hear the teasing in her voice. “All the boys here must have hearts in their eyes.”
He could see the wheels turning. No, he hadn’t mentioned it to her, but he hadn’t really thought it was necessary.
Inwardly, he groaned at the smirk on her face, letting him know there would be a discussion later.
Her assumption would be that he hadn’t mentioned it because he was hiding something. Fantastic.
This was the problem of not having lived with a woman or having a girlfriend for so long.
He’d forgotten the nuances of things he should mention, like new female co-workers.
Why did women have to be so different from men in what they considered important information?
Then again, he realized that if he still had male friends he hung around with regularly, they’d complain he hadn’t mentioned it either, although for entirely different reasons.
Elyxandre flashed a smile. “After the first day, they got over the shock. Day two, I just became the scary lady with a gun. Please, call me Elyxandre. I get enough of the ‘Officer’ title here.”
“What a gorgeous name! It suits you.” Looking back to Lucas, she said, “I really just came by the school to drop off some flyers for the fundraiser and thought I’d say hello.
But since I’m here, I might as well remind you about the barbecue for the office’s anniversary.
Please say you’ll be there and save me from death by hamburger flipper. ”
What the hell was this about? He already told her that he wasn’t coming.
Sunday was his “personal day,” when he did things for himself.
Absolutely no work for him. It was a rule he’d made when he became a single father to make sure he had built-in time for Ezra and a mental health break for himself.
“That’s on Sunday, Jess,” he reminded her. “It’s the day after all the homecoming craziness, and I had planned to go hiking in Castroville. Ezra and I haven’t been out that way in a while.” It was only half a lie. His son already had plans for Sunday, and he intended to go hiking on his own.
“Well, you could certainly bring Ezra. Stop by before, or better yet, after. You’ll have hiked up a good appetite, and you know there will be way too much food.” She glanced at Elyxandre, back to Lucas, and her grin grew even larger.
Oh, hell no. He knew exactly where she was going next.
Her full attention went to Elyxandre. “You should come too. It’s really more of an open house, so nothing official is required for entry.
” She snapped her fingers. “I know! You should go hiking with them, then come with them afterward. That way, you’d get to see something other than San Antonio proper. ”
He watched a tinge of pink flush Elyxandre’s features.
“Thanks for the invite, but like Dr. Vaughn said, we’ll have had a pretty crazy week here. I’m honestly looking forward to a rare day with nothing to do. Maybe sleeping all day.”
An image of Elyxandre lazing in bed hit his imagination. He wondered what she slept in.
Before the fantasy could take wing, she heard him say his name.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Glee spread across Jess’ face. She knew she’d caught him distracted by a thought, and based on what Elyxandre just said, she probably wasn’t far off in her guess at what he was thinking. Damn.
“I said if hiking with you was too exhausting a concept, then maybe she would be interested in coming to the park the following week with me, and I can show her some of the other beautiful scenery in the San Antonio area. Mainly, the police and firefighters charity softball game. By then, she should be well-rested and ready to get revved up watching all that eye candy on the ball field.”
“Actually,” Elyxandre said, “I might be playing in that game.”
“Even better. If you play, I’ll bring Lucas with me. There will be plenty of eye candy for both of us since there are a couple of women who play on both sides.”
Good grief! He needed to get rid of Jess before she said anything else.
“I’ll see if I can squeeze in a few minutes on Sunday to stop by, but no promises to anything, Jess.
” He’d promise anything at this point to get her to stop matchmaking, even giving up some of his precious Sunday.
He made a show of looking at his watch. “Sorry to cut this short, but I need to head down to the guidance department before the day ends. I’ll pass along the flyers, and then we have a movie night to supervise. ”
As soon as it came out of his mouth, he really knew he was in trouble. He might be the former English teacher, but he could tell by Jess’ widening eyes that the subtext of what he just said actually threw gasoline on the fire instead of water.
Glancing Elyxandre’s way, she said through her smile, “It was very nice meeting you. I hope we have a chance to get to know each other better in the future. I’ll talk to you later, Lucas.”
Ugh. No threat there. Just a promise. She was going to be all over him about the sexy new SRO. He’d probably have several texts within the hour, and ignoring her would only make it worse. He made a mental note to call her when he got home tonight to get the interrogation over with.
With a waggle of her fingers goodbye, Jess sing-songed, “Have a great movie night tonight, you two,” as she went out the door, closing it behind her. No points for subtlety, he thought.
After she left and he was alone with Elyxandre, the air felt impossibly heavy, similar to humidity but without the dampness.
“Well, sorry if she made that awkward,” Lucas offered.
“It’s okay. A little confusing, but…”
“Why confusing?”
Elyxandre bit her lip, a worried expression casting over her face. “Well… isn’t that your girlfriend?”
“Ah. No. We dated for a short while back when Ezra was a freshman, but we’re just friends now. I’m not dating anyone right now.”
Why did he mention that?
“What about you?” he asked. “Anyone in your life?”
What the ever-loving fuck? Had he suddenly lost his mind?
There was a pause before she answered. “No. I mean, I have an ex. An ex-husband, but it’s been two years, and we are definitely not friends.”
The tension and tone in her voice told him all he needed to know. It had been an ugly split, and one with no love lost, especially on her part.
She continued, “Exes are always difficult relationships. Probably worse when the relationships have amicable endings.”
“How so?”
“Well, if it’s an ugly ending, you don’t have the pressure to be nice when you see them. If you’re lucky, you never have to. See them, that is. Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way, though, and you’re at odds with one another. You don’t care if you’re nice or not.”
“Whereas if it’s an amicable split, you always have to be nice.”
“Exactly. Seems like you don’t have that problem with Jess though. That’s good.”
“We only went out on a handful of dates, so it never had a chance to get serious. We’re way too good at being friends to be anything more.” Why was he offering all this information to her? “I take it your split with your ex was less than amicable?”
She paused a moment.
He apologized. “I’m sorry. None of my business.”
“No, it’s fine. I mean, it’s not exactly a secret.
We met my senior year in high school, moved to New Orleans right after graduation, and got married soon after.
Being a female officer is tough enough. Being an officer in the same precinct as your husband, who then became your ex-husband?
That’s a challenge on no one’s escape room task list.” She smiled tightly.
“People who work together probably shouldn’t date, let alone get married. Creates all kinds of complications.”
“Yeah. I can see how that might be.”
His voice sounded normal to him, but being in agreement with her made him a little sad.