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By the end of the day, my gut was churning with worry, which was how I ended up in Principal Michaels’s office.
“What can I do for you, Emory?” she asked as I took a seat in one of the chairs in front of her desk.
“Seth Jacobs.”
She didn’t even try to hide the wince when I said his name.
“What has he done this time?”
“He hasn’t done anything wrong, but I’m very concerned there may be something going on at home.”
I’d come to her after the incident in the parking lot, however I had never mentioned the possibility of abuse. She’d stated the family was simply having a rough time dealing with the death of their loved one. At the time, I figured she knew them better than I did, so I agreed to let it go.
She huffed out a breath. “We’ve had this discussion before, haven’t we? They’re grieving, my dear.”
“All due respect, Mrs. Michaels, this isn’t about grief and if we continue to pass it off as such, we’re doing Seth a huge disservice. Possibly even perpetuating his abuse.”
“Abuse?” The word left her mouth on a whisper.
“Have you looked at him recently? Really looked at him? His clothes are dirty, like they haven’t seen the inside of a washing machine in who knows how long. Plus they don’t fit him. His pants are too short, his shirts are hanging off his frame because he’s lost weight. Seth was skinny to begin with, but now he’s damn near skeletal.”
I saw the moment the pieces clicked into place in her mind. Lifting a hand to her mouth, she uttered, “How did I miss this?”
“We all missed it. For months, we chalked his behavior up to missing his mom. But it’s so much more than that. My question is, what do we do now?”
She stood from her seat, walked to my side and placed her hand on my shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze.
“We fight for him.” She released her hold, calling out for her secretary. “Shirley, can you please get Grace, from Child Protective Services, on the line for me.”
*****
SATURDAY MORNINGS FORme usually consisted of laundry, cleaning, and maybe having lunch with River and Quin. It was a day to relax and refresh after a grueling week of trying to teach a horde of adolescents why math was the key to their future. Or at the very least, impress upon them the importance of being able to add and subtract. Yet, somehow, I allowed myself to get roped into joining the pair, plus Sophia, for a session of torture.
“I think my vagina is broken,” Quin exclaimed within the first five minutes of self-defense class.
The only upside to the morning was the view. Kolton Lane, one of the Mountain Grove police department’s finest, was our instructor. I swore it must have been a prerequisite to be drop-dead gorgeous in order to apply at the academy because every officer I’d met so far had been downright sinful, including their chief of police, Caleb. Unfortunately, both men were very much taken, but a girl could still look.
“Quin, I really don’t think it’s possible,” I replied, though I had to give her credit for the most creative way to try to get out of participating.
“I’m telling you, Ems. Whatever the hell that stretch was Evil Cop just made us do, I strained my V-jay.”
I’d never had a nickname before so when Quin had dubbed me “Ems” at the celebration of life, I was overcome with joy. I quickly realized she had a nickname for everyone and sometimes those names changed based on the circumstances. Case in point, Kolton, who before class was known as “hot cop.”
By the time we split into pairs, I was a disgusting mess. I’d never been a small person, but when you’re wearing yoga pants and a long sleeve athletic top, it was difficult to hide the rolls of skin where sweat liked to gather. The evidence was clear in the lines of moisture which appeared in places on my clothing I hadn’t even realized were accessible to moisture. It was really quite embarrassing. Luckily, I was surrounded by a group of people with an I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude and who actually seemed to like me for who I was, not what I could do for them.
Kolt went through some moves, using Sophia to demonstrate. Everything was going great until she ended up purposefully kneeing him in the balls. River was mortified, I was shocked, and Quin gave her a high five. Turned out, Caleb had given the youngster money to perform a little payback on his officer for marrying his little sister, Daisy.
Once we’d finished for the morning, Kolt and Sophia got a little revenge of their own. I’d never laughed so hard in my life, as I stood across the street and watched while they covered the police chief’s Jeep in Saran Wrap.
This was yet another reason why I was grateful I’d taken the chance and moved to Mountain Grove. The community was more like what I’d pictured a functional family to be. Basically, the exact opposite of the one I grew up in. Everyone treated each other with kindness and respect. It was awe-inspiring. That’s not to say there weren’t any bad seeds, because there were, but life was so much simpler in the small town.
As we headed to Bo’s, the local diner, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I’d experienced the sensation many times over the years. Someone was watching me…or us, I couldn’t be sure which. But as we sat down to order lunch, I had my answer.
“Do you think we should put Uncle Luc out of his misery and ask him to join us for lunch?” Sophia asked.
Luciano del Toro was as mysterious as he was breathtakingly gorgeous. He was tall, maybe six three, with dark brown hair which was long enough to run your fingers through, yet not long enough to put in a ponytail. His muscles flexed with each step he took, accentuating his ripped physique. Everything about him reminded me of one of those models from a magazine. Even his eyes, a unique mixture of blue and gray, were absolute perfection and completely unattainable for a girl like me.
“No, let him keep thinking we don’t have a clue. I’ll say something to Rico tonight,” River said.
