Page 47 of Someone You Deserve

“What gave me away?”

She chuckles. “Well, whoever it’s for made a sound decision. That deck you built for us is still standing strong.”

Janet Connely is married to Harold, one of the three old men that play darts at Catch & Release every Friday night. They’ve lived in Carrington Cove since before any of my siblings and I were born, and last summer, I replaced and extended the deck off the back of their house for them. It was some of my best work, if I do say so myself.

“Glad to hear it. Now, about Bentley…”

Janet pushes a button under her desk, unlocking the half door beside her, letting me past the barricade. “He’s in Ms. Bell’s office. I have to say I was surprised to hear he was involved in an altercation.”

Sighing, I step past her desk. “Yeah, me too.”

I head down the hall that is lined with offices on either side, and finally arrive at Alaina’s office on the left, knocking to signal my arrival.

“Come in.”

I step into the room where Alaina sits behind her desk with Bentley occupying one of the chairs across from it.

“Hey, kiddo.”

Bentley doesn’t look up from his lap, but the redness on his cheek tells me he’s either been crying or he took a punch in this fight. Secretly, I hope it’s the first option.

Nothing’s a shot to your pride quite like getting caught off guard and taking a sucker punch.

“Thanks for coming, Penn. I’ve tried calling Astrid and Melissa again, and still no luck.”

Alaina looks up at me from her chair, her blonde hair pulled back away from her face and her blue eyes full of remorse. She’s always been a pretty girl, and we even went out a few times right after high school, but agreed we were better off as friends. The romantic chemistry just wasn’t there.

“Yeah, I tried on the way over here too. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for why they’re not answering.”

Alaina directs her attention to Bentley. “Bentley, I hope you take some time during your suspension to think about how you could have handled the situation differently, okay?”

Grabbing his backpack from the ground, he heaves it over his shoulder and mutters as he walks past me. “Whatever.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose before meeting Alaina’s eyes. “Do we know what started the fight?”

Alaina shakes her head. “Neither one of them wanted to talk about it. When they return from suspension, we’ll do a conflict resolution between the two of them, but it was nasty, Penn. Bentley had Marcus pinned to the ground and was wailing on him before the teacher on duty saw and finally broke them up.”

Well, at least Bentley didn’t lose.

“I’ll see if I can get it out of him before his mother finds out. I’m sure it will probably go over better if she understands why he acted this way.”

She smiles. “Good luck.”

Bentley is leaning against the wall just outside Alaina’s door, waiting for me as I step out. “Come on. Let’s go.”

I don’t look behind me to make sure that he’s following me, but I sense it. At least we know he’s not stupid enough to wait around for his mother to pick him up once she realizes she has a dozen missed phone calls from the school.

After we situate ourselves in my truck and take off for Astrid’s house, I wait a few minutes before finally breaking the silence. “You know, this will be a lot easier to understand if we know what happened, Bentley.” He stays silent, twisting his head to stare out the passenger side window. “I get being so angry with someone that you want to hit them. Trust me, I do.” My mind wanders back to Dick Cockwell and the audacity he possessed asking Astrid out in front of me, and then gloating about it at the restaurant, and now taking her on a date tonight.Fucker.“But putting your hands on someone else is never okay.”

“He freaking deserved it,” Bentley finally says, his jaw clenched and his eyes rimmed with tears.

“What did he do?”

All I get is a shake of his head.

“Did he piss you off?”

Bentley nods, still avoiding my eyes.

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