Page 108 of Catching Our Moment
“Call your mom, and I will see what I can do about coming home for a bit. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“We have a plan, then. Listen to your father, but call your mom. And Buddy, what school were they talking to you about?”
“It’s called the Tucker School, but I’ve never heard of it.”
“That’s fine. We’ll figure it out. Are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“Call your mom as soon as we hang up, and I will call her afterward.”
“Okay, thanks, Shaw.”
“Hey, my man. We will figure it out. I’ve got you,” I said.
My hands were shaking as I hung up the phone and was barely able to dial Wyatt’s number.
“Yo,” he said as a way of greeting.
“Yeah, I need your person to find out what they can about a place called The Tucker School,” I said.
“Is this about Aaron?” he said.
“Yeah, and I don’t think it’s a good thing.”
After showering and packing, I drove straight to the airport and was on a flight that afternoon, barely managing to keep my anger banked under my need to see them. To protect them.
I didn’t think this was going to go over well, but I needed to tell her what I’d found out in person. I needed to have her back.
Come hell or high water, she wasn’t in this alone.
I pulled up to the house and knocked on the door.
“Shaw?”
There she was, with bags under her eyes, a messy ponytail, and still wearing her robe. But damn, she was so beautiful. My stomach dropped with the weight of how much I missed her.
“What in the world are you doing here?”
“We need to talk. You need to get dressed.” I kissed her forehead in a friendly greeting as I pushed past her.
Within an hour, we were on James’s front porch.
Amber opened the door, the fake smile disappearing from her face when she asked, in a tone laced with hostility, “What the hell are you doing here?”
I stood behind Kelcie, hands folded in front of me, trying to look as inconspicuous as a 240 pound, 6’5” man could be as she stepped forward with a backpack in her hand. “Hello, Amber. I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d check in on Aaron. I brought his homework. He seemed to have forgotten it.”
She yanked the bag out of Kelcie’s hand. “Fine, I’ll give it to him.”
“Amber, who is at the door?” another feminine voice sounded, and a pretty, older woman appeared.
“Hello, Vivian,” Kelcie said with a soft, hesitant smile.
“Oh! Kelcie, dear, how wonderful to see you.” She wrapped Kelcie in a hug and escorted her out onto the porch. “What are you doing here, dear?”
“Just dropping off—” she started to say before Amber walked out, closing the door behind her.
