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“Some big kids, teenagers, were trying to steal his backpack. I was driving to Zara’s and saw them.”
I scrubbed my hand over my face. “Thank god you were there. Did they hurt him?”
“Just scraped his knee when they pushed him to the ground. I’m looking for disinfectant and a bandage.”
Finally able to bring myself to let go of Jesse, I said, “I’ll get it.”
She stepped down from the ladder, giving me another reassuring smile. Looking closely, I noticed there was a brittle edge to it and realized perhaps it was a much bigger deal than she was letting on.
I pulled out a container of bandages and reached into the very back of the cupboard for the disinfectant. “What happened to the teenagers?”
“Allegra scared them off.”
I glanced at her over my shoulder, raising an eyebrow in enquiry. She was barely five foot four, I couldn’t figure out how that worked.
“With a...what was it, Allegra?”
“A rolling pin.”
“Yeah, a rolling pin.”
“I see.”
“A really big rolling pin,” she clarified.
Given how much my gut was still churning, I was surprised my hands weren’t shaking when I finished getting what I needed from the medicine cupboard. “Up.” I lifted Jesse onto the counter. “This might sting a little bit, I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay.”
He only winced slightly while I treated his injury and covered it with a bandage. “Very brave, good job.” Before he climbed down from the counter, there was something I had to say to him. “Jesse…”
He looked up at me from under his thick bangs, a wary look in his eyes.
“I’m very, very sorry that I wasn’t there today to pick you up. It’s freaking me out, thinking about what might have happened to you if Allegra hadn’t happened to show up.” The rational part of my brain accepted the reality, that Jesse was fine, but there was a deeper part that was still coming to terms with the whole situation. Focussing on the rational part, I forced myself to continue. “First, I’ll be looking into some options for how we can communicate while you’re not with me. Not a phone, I think I’d like to wait until you were a little older for that, but if there is something else…”
“My little cousins have watches they can text their parents on.”
“Thanks, Allegra. That’s exactly what I’m talking about. But in the meantime, I need you to understand this. And I mean Ireallyneed you to understand. Are you listening?” I waited for him to nod seriously before I continued. “I will never, ever, leave you to walk home from school on your own. Ever. If I can’t get there, for whatever reason, someone else will come. Always. Bruce, Ellen, Jake, Matt, Zara. Probably even Allegra.”
“Damn straight.”
That made me smile. “Someone will always come for you, if I can’t. Do you get it?”
He stared at me for a long moment with that shuttered, neutral expression in his eyes that tore at my heart, because he was way too young to have mastered it. “I get it.”
“Good.” I ruffled his hair, then made myself step back, to give him some space. He’d had a pretty shitty, intense afternoon and it was time to lighten things up. “So, what’s all this?” I asked, gesturing to the bags piled on the countertop.
“Stuff for pizza. I thought Jesse might like me to show him how to make the best pizza this side of the state line.”
I gave her a teasing look. “Just the state line?”
“Har har.” She was trying hard, but I didn’t fail to notice the way she was twisting her hands together, or the tension in her voice. It seemed to me she’d had a pretty big scare herself, and if it hadn’t been for Jesse standing there, I would have wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. Maybe making pizzas was what we all needed right now, not just Jesse.
“You got pepperoni there?”
“Does a one-legged duck swim in circles? Of course I’ve got pepperoni.”
“Perfect. Well, I’m gonna leave you to it, if that’s okay. I’ve got a ton of admin stuff to do.”
