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“Thatcher Reed, is that you?” A sweet voice asked from behind me. It didn’t shock me that people recognized me, even if it had been four years since I’d been here. I’d had a glow up, but I hadn’t changedthatmuch.
I turned around, and my jaw dropped. “Ms. Andrews?”
She looked exactly the same as she had when I was in middle school. Only smaller. I was bigger. That made sense. And her boobs were still extremely large.
Nope. I jerked my eyes up. I wasn’t doing that to me, her, or Astrid. This was just the shock of seeing her after so many years.
Angel wasn’t having that same fight with his conscience. His gaze trailed down her body like she was a delicious snack. Oh, and she noticed him too. When she glanced at him, her cheeks lightened to this lovely shade of pink and she dropped her gaze.
Holy hell. I never saw her act that way. I meant, I’d only ever seen her around middle schoolers but still, it was similar to seeing a parent in a normal human way. No, bad analogy. It was like seeing a person of authority acting human. That was better.
“Hi there,” Angel said through a grin. “What’s your name?”
“Meredith,” she coughed. Oh, we were on first names now…
“Ready?” Trinity came to a screeching halt as she realized I wasn’t just making small talk with teachers.
“Hi, Trinity,” Ms. Andrews, wait—Meredith answered on a cough. “Have a good rest of your day, okay sweetie?”
“Yeah.” Trinity’s face scrunched up in confusion. Whatever she was thinking, it didn’t last long because she shook her head and pushed through our circle to head toward the doors.
“It was great to see you.” I nodded and followed after my sister. After a minute, I realized Angel wasn’t with us because Trinity stopped to stare over her shoulder.
When I glanced back, Meredith had just finished writing something on Angel’s wrist, then attached the pen to the opening of her blouse, right over her ample cleavage. I laughed as Angel didn’t even try to hide his interest as his gaze dipped.
“Doesn’t he have a girlfriend?” Trinity glared at my friend.
And hewasmy friend. Not like the guys, but a friend none the less.
“Nope, they broke up.” I shrugged and placed a hand on her back to guide her to my car.
She grunted and climbed into the front seat. Shoving her bag forward with her feet. I didn’t say anything about her manners, because today was important. If I were her, I’d probably be exhibiting all kinds of dickish behavior. My darling sister actually seemed calmer, which was strange for her.
I was committed to not looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Angel stepped out of the school backward with a hand over his heart before he spun around and sauntered over to us. Without a word, he climbed in the backseat, sighing in obvious satisfaction of a successful number grab. Any other guy and I would have called him prime fuckboy material, except I’d seen him with his girlfriend. He had no problem committing when he wanted to.
“Why are you here? Why is he here?” Ah, there was the sister I knew and tried to shove into dark closets. Where was nice, rational Trinity?
I glanced over at her as I pulled out. A smart ass comment was on the tip of my tongue until I took in her beat red face and round eyes. She was mortified.
“Hello to you too there, brat.” Angel didn’t sound put out at all. If anything, he was still riding the high of his encounter with Meredith, because I caught his mischievous grin in the rearview mirror.
“Why are you here?” She remained facing forward as if she didn’t want him to see how embarrassed she was.
Guilt and a little bit of shame clouded around me. I didn’t even think how Trinity would feel to have someone along that wasn’t me, or maybe Astrid. I’d heard them talk about the court stuff a time or two.
I sighed. In hindsight, who wouldn’t be embarrassed by all this? It was like I helped parade her biggest life mistake in front of someone who was a near stranger to her.
“He wanted to come along, and I told him it was fine. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about how you would feel,” I lowered my voice. With Angel being four feet from me, he heard every word, but it seemed like trying to instill the illusion of privacy was the right thing to do.
She nodded jerkily, still looking straight ahead.
“Hey,” Angel called, sitting forward and touching her shoulder. He waited, but she refused to look at him. “It’s not a big deal. I’ve known for a while what happened to you. It’s not something to be ashamed of, all right? Everyone makes stupid mistakes. It happens. The important thing here, is that you have people willing to help you pick yourself back up. If nothing else, then take this from your fuck up: People care.”
Trinity sniffled like she was on the verge of angry tears, but it was so quiet, I almost thought it was from her shifting in her seat. “You care? You don’t even know me.”
“That’s because you’ve made yourself into someone I don’t want to know. But that’s what you wanted us to see at the cookout, wasn’t it?”
