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“You’re not everyone. And I spend more time with you than any of them. If you are feeling cold, I need to know. You don’t do a good enough job of taking care of yourself.”
She gasped, long and loud.
So dramatic.
He fought back a grin. Dramatic and cute.
“I see that you’re not looking after yourself, then I have to step in.”
“You’re nuts.”
“Call it what you like, baby girl. But it is what it is.” He wrapped his hands around one of hers and started rubbing it briskly. “Does this have anything to do with your dizziness earlier?”
“My old back injury means that sometimes I have low-blood pressure and poor circulation.”
“Then you should be wearing your gloves all the time.”
“It would be hard to type while wearing my gloves. I really need to pick this stuff up.”
“Effie, look at me.”
She raised her gaze to him.
“Don’t go borrowing trouble before it’s happened.”
“Right. You’re right.” She nodded. “There’s no way they can suspend Brooks. Or take his scholarship. He’s amazing. The principal will be reasonable. He’s a school principal. I’m sure he’s a very nice man.”
16
“You are not a very nice man.”
Yeah, she probably shouldn’t have said it like that. Now instead of thirty-five, she sounded as if she was five.
But that didn’t make it any less the truth. He wasn’t a nice man. At all.
He was a judgmental asshole.
When they arrived at the school, she’d been in such a panic that she couldn’t even remember how to get to the admin building. Luckily, Steele was excellent in a crisis. She’d even told him he could put that on his CV if he ever needed to get another job.
Of course, then she’d realized he owned his own businesses. And there were rumors that he was also The Boss. But like she’d told him, she didn’t listen to rumors.
When they’d gotten to the admin building the secretary had given her a sympathetic look before taking them through. She’d really expected Steele to leave. She was convinced he had far more important things to do than stick around a high school.
What she hadn’t expected was for him to walk into the principal’s office with her.
The principal was a wizened older man who looked like he should have retired about twenty years ago. He was wearing a suit two sizes too big, and obviously no one had told him that mud-brown was not his color.
She was uncertain that mud brown was anyone’s color.
When they’d entered the room, he’d looked her up and down dismissively. Rude asshole. This school was the best in the city, and she’d been so happy when Brooks had won a scholarship to come here. But Effie hoped that he hadn’t been putting up with this sort of attitude from teachers and other students.
Brooks had been sitting off to the side, holding an ice pack to his face. She’d gone straight to him, gasping in shock at his black eye and the blood under his nose and on his white shirt.
She’d immediately demanded to know what had happened. And that’s when Mr. Cleary, the principal, told her Brooks was being expelled.
Like hell.
“Ms. Stephenson, this has nothing to do with being nice. He was caught fighting. That is against the rules of St. Augustine. And it is clearly laid out in the terms and conditions for his scholarship. We ask that he pack up his locker immediately and that you let us know where he is going so we can send his records there. Good day.”
