Chapter 19 A Re with the Devil
A REUNION WITH THE DEVIL
LUCAS
The couple said their goodbyes before he could, and that left him alone—as alone as you could be in a crowd—with Jess. What should he do?
“I’m so sorry, Lucas.”
He looked down into Jess’ apologetic face. “For what?”
“You know what. I saw your face when you looked up and saw her standing there. You glowed. I’ve never seen you look that happy to see someone, except maybe Ezra.”
He couldn’t deny it. Happy didn’t begin to describe how he felt upon seeing her. But then he saw the tension in her face and body, and he knew she’d seen the familiar moment between him and Jess.
Damn. The conversation had been winding to an end, and he was just about to walk away from the parents when Elyxandre walked up with Lieutenant Axton.
He could read the tension in her face, and he tried to reassure her, but it was clear he’d failed by the coldness in her voice.
Granted, she hadn’t said much. They’d agreed to keep things separate at work, and he hadn’t done anything wrong.
But knowing her past, he also knew how the scene might look to her.
He needed to talk to her tonight, no matter how late it got.
“It’s okay,” he assured Jess.
“No, it’s not. She looked like she’d been slapped across the face.”
“She knows we’re just friends.”
“That did not look like a woman who believed we are ‘just friends.’”
Jess wasn’t wrong in her observations, but he also wasn’t going to share Elyxandre’s history. That was private, and he knew she wouldn’t appreciate it if he shared it with other people. Even his best friend.
He smiled down at her, doing his best to project a certainty he wasn’t feeling. “I promise, it will be okay.”
She punched him in the arm. “Lucas Vaughn, you cannot lie to save your life. Do you like her?”
Like her? It seemed like such a middle school question, but he knew what she meant at the heart of it.
He nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I really do. She’s everything I didn’t know I wanted, inside and out.
When I first met her, I had no clue she was going to be working at the school.
When I found out, I was disappointed because I thought that was the end of it.
I mean, all I really knew about her was what she looked like and that she was a Good Samaritan who stopped to help the kids the night of the car accident.
“But as we worked together? We have so many things in common about how we look at our jobs, the kids at school. She’s crazy good with them, even when they’re at their worst moments.
And everything is about giving them tools to succeed.
Always building them up, never tearing them down, even when they’re being total punkzillas. ”
“Is she a good kisser?”
“She’s out of this—Jess!” Good grief. He was totally caught up in thinking about Elyxandre and almost gave away personal details from Wednesday night.
“Can’t blame a girl for trying to get the gossip on her best friend.”
“Do you have no shame, woman?”
“Nope. None.”
Jess whispered, “She makes you happy, Lucas. I’m so glad. You deserve that after everything with Tonja. And if Elyxandre makes you happy, then in the long run, that’s all that matters.”
He paused. There was a wistfulness in her tone, and though she smiled, it was soft and a little sad. Something was wrong.
“Jess? Is everything okay?”
Her smile brightened, but it was too bright, as if she were hiding something. “Of course it is. So, how’s Ezra feeling about the game tonight? Is he nervous? I bet he’s in the locker room throwing up right now.”
“Jess.” His voice held a warning note. “What’s wrong?”
She gave his arm a pat. “Nothing is ‘wrong.’ Everything is as it should be.”
How he knew what she meant, he’d never know, but the flash of understanding came in an instant, like a cloud passing over the sun and allowing the brightness of its rays to shine down. “Jess,” he said softly. “Oh my god. I-I didn’t know. I thought—”
“Stop it. You were honest with me when you told me that you thought we were better off as friends. Yes, I hoped with time you might change your mind, so I didn’t push.
Patience isn’t always a virtue, it seems. However, it was too important to me to keep you in my life, even if we were only besties. ”
This was not the place to have this conversation. He wanted to hug her and tell her how much he loved her as a friend, but he couldn’t do that either. This was so fucked up. Was he really that blind?
Then he remembered that August night after the dinner party he went to with her—the night of Ezra’s accident.
He’d been thinking about this very thing, wondering if maybe she still harbored some sort of attachment to him.
But then the call came telling him to come pick up his son at the hospital, and it completely went out of his head. How could he not have seen this?
He opened his mouth to apologize. Pointing a finger at him, she scowled. “So help me, if the words about to come out of your mouth are an apology, I will pinch and twist your nipple right here and now in front of everyone.”
The mock-threat got its intended result of a laugh. “You know I believe you’d do it, right?” he asked.
“Of course I would.” She gave him a little shove. “Go find her. Talk to her. Don’t wait. She must take a break at some point. Drag her under the stands and kiss her stupid if she won’t listen.”
She started to turn toward the parking lot.
“You’re not staying for the game?”
She shook her head. “No, I think it’s best if I head home, just so there’s no lingering confusion for her. The school cable station is broadcasting the game, so I’ll cheer Ezra on from there.”
“Jess—”
“Go, you idiot!” She made a shooing motion with her hands. “It’s fine. We’re fine. We’ll always be fine.”
“Thank you,” he said.
With a wave and a smile, Jess headed toward her car.
He stood there, watching her as she left, a soft pang in his chest. Back when they first dated, he liked her, but it never blossomed into anything more.
He hated the thought that he hurt her. Tonight might be a rough night for her, but he believed her when she said they were fine and always would be.
Looking back over his adult years, he realized that theirs was the first relationship he’d ever called an end to.
He and his high school girlfriend had broken up amicably when they went to separate colleges across the country from each other.
His wife had filed for the divorce. Without any other experience with breakups, he just hoped he’d been clear and fair.
Hopefully, in a few days, everything would be just as it had been for the past couple of years because he’d hate to lose her as a friend.
With a shake of his head, he proceeded to walk back to the stands.
While Elyxandre was working wasn’t the time to get into all of this, but if he managed to catch her alone, he’d do what he could to quickly reassure her.
When she was off duty, he’d talk with her, making sure she understood that whatever she thought she saw wasn’t the truth.
If he could get her to listen, that is. She was a strong woman, and if she wouldn’t listen to him, there was nothing he could do.
He didn’t want to make her do anything. He wanted her to listen because she wanted to hear him out—because she cared about what he had to say.
As he approached the gates, he saw several officers heading toward the home sideline as if they were on a mission.
One was talking into the radio clipped to his shoulder.
Both had stone-faced expressions. Did something happen?
An injury? Students misbehaving? Parents fighting?
Any and all of those things could happen in the stands on any night, but things had been so tense lately, with so many things going wrong, that he felt like one more thing would shatter what little peace there was.
Whatever was going on was happening on the far side of the sidelines.
He pushed himself to move a little faster, intuition telling him that whatever was going on wasn’t good.
If he ran, that would draw attention, and then people would switch their focus to him.
Best if he tried to appear as normal as possible.
Before he got very far, one of the assistant principals came running up to him. “Lucas, we have a problem.”
“I saw the officers moving quickly. What’s going on?”
“Officer Hookstead is dealing with a very drunk parent, I think. He’s screaming all kinds of obscenities at her, and it’s causing quite a scene. I don’t recognize him, so I’m not sure whose parent he is.”
“Well, the police appear to be on it. Let’s let them do their job and worry about who it is later.
Find Raymond.” He was one of the other assistant principals.
“They may need to remove the parent from the premises, and they’ll want to do that with as little disruption as possible.
One of you take the south end of the field behind the bleachers, the other take the north end. ”
“He’s already in position.”
“Excellent. Stay on this end, then. I’ll go see what’s happening.”
His new staff really were doing well. They’d accurately anticipated what needed to be done.
More and more, he was finding that they could be trusted to do things that previously had been an issue in their building.
Maybe the culture really was shifting since they’d hired from outside to support him as the new principal.