Page 39 of Spark
Okay,thishe could work with.“So, we need to take her emotions out of the equation to keep her calm.”
Wait, did Chloe just snort?“Two words, buddy.Cy.Borg.”
“You said you need her to not shut down,” Tyler argued, but Chloe wasn’t having it.
She turned toward him from the passenger seat.“Keeping her calm and squashing her emotions are two totally different things.Trust me, it will be better if I do this.”
“I’m here to help, you know,” he said, and—would the surprises please stop coming—Chloe nodded.
“Idoknow, but you’re still an authority figure.She’s going to be defensive the second she sees you, and I’ve already got my work cut out for me as it is.”
Well, hell.Given Esme’s past, that made sense.Still, he wasn’t going with Chloe to be purely ornamental.“You’re Esme’s advocate, and I’m not here to steamroll you or take over,” Tyler said, coasting to a stop at a red light just in time to catch Chloe’s eyes go wide.“But I’d be a shitty wingman if I didn’t want to help you help her.”
“It’s not personal,” she said, her tone marking the words as completely genuine.“I just don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“I don’t, either,” he said.“Look, if Esme gets too defensive with me there, I can step out.No harm, no foul.But maybe Tara is right.She might take the news at least a little better in front of someone she doesn’t know.”
Showing your emotions made you vulnerable, and hell if Tyler didn’t know every step to that little dance.
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Chloe said, but she also didn’t argue, so he was going to call it a win.“Tom called the principal to give her a heads up that we’re on our way to see Esme and asked for the school counselor to be on standby in case we need him, but they won’t pull her from class until we get there.I figure the least I can do is spare her the extra twenty minutes of anxiety.It’ll also lower the odds that she’ll have her defenses too far up before I can walk her through what’s happening.At least, not all of them.”
Tyler wasn’t about to knock self-preservation.Hell, he was the fucking czar of self-preservation.Still… “That sounds pretty tough for a thirteen-year-old.”
Chloe’s expression was a direct translation ofyou have no idea.“She’s got a lot of armor and she’s not afraid to let it shine.Don’t take it personally.”
“I work in a house full of first responders, remember?I have pretty thick skin.”
“Well, good, because you’re probably about to use it.”
A few minutes later, Tyler pulled up in front of the Brookline Academy, a two-story brick building lined with large glass windows on the main floor, and put the Mustang inpark.After a quick nod from Chloe, they got out and made their way to the school’s front entrance, going through the process of being buzzed in, then swapping their IDs for time-stamped visitor’s badges at the main office.The feel of the place, with its dove-gray walls bearing framed drawings courtesy of the eighth-grade art class and a huge painting of the school mascot—an eagle—with the words “Soaring to New Heights at Brookline Academy” scripted below it, gave Tyler an instant hit of nostalgia.He’d spent countless hours sitting at a desk in the front office of the high school where his mom had been an English teacher, doing his homework and waiting while she’d attended staff meetings or tutored kids to pad her paycheck.She’d retired last year after two and a half decades with Remington City Public Schools, but man, some things about school buildings never changed.
“Hi, Julie.How are you?”Chloe greeted the administrative assistant behind the front desk, who led them to a small conference room, then left to get Esme right away.Metering his breath to keep his pulse perfectly steady, Tyler sat quietly beside Chloe until the door opened a few minutes later to reveal a teenager wearing ripped jeans, a concert T-shirt for a band called Jimmy’s Pants (seriously?), and the biggest scowl he’d ever seen.
“Oh, my God, Chloe.Is this about my attendance?Because pulling me out of class to drag me forallegedlyskipping English is totes ironic.”
Esme was tall for thirteen, easily matching Chloe’s five six, although she had the lanky, coltish build of a teenager.Her dark eyeliner and even darker long lashes were a contrast to her porcelain-pale skin.Her chin lifted in defiance, enough to send her purple-streaked dark brown hair over her shoulders as someone, probably Julie, quietly shut the door behind her.Esme stopped short, two steps into the room, when she caught sight of Tyler, her eyes going round for just an instant before narrowing.“Huh.Who’s your snack?”
A startled sound crossed Chloe’s lips and landed right in his chest.But he’d stared down four-alarm fires.Hung fifteen stories above the pavement to rescue a stranded window washer.Put life-saving pressure on sucking chest wounds.He could handle one attitude-loaded teenager.
“Tyler Gates,” he said.Not wanting to put her any further on the defensive by leading with his status at the RFD, he added, “I’m a friend of Chloe’s.You must be Esme.”
He stood, making sure there was enough distance between them not to intimidate her as he extended his hand, like he would with a feral cat.
“And you must be a rocket scientist,” she said, eyeing his hand as ifitwas the feral cat.Ooookay.Message received.
“Esme, Tylerisa friend of mine.Please don’t be rude.”Chloe’s tone shaped the words into a request, and to his surprise, the girl sighed.
“Okay, fine.Sorry.But I don’t really do the, you know”—she held up a hand, then used it to gesture to the one Tyler had offered—“touching thing.No offense.”
“Understood.”Retracting his hand with a wave, he sat back down beside Chloe.Esme sent a glance from Chloe to Tyler, then back again, her arms crossing into a tight knot.
“This isn’t about me skipping English yesterday, is it?”
He’d give her this—the kid knew how to read a room.And hell if Chloe hadn’t been spot-on about her defenses.“It isn’t, although we’ll talk about that later,” Chloe said.“For now, why don’t you come sit down?”
Esme didn’t budge.“I’ll stand.”
“Okay,” Chloe said, clearly wanting to give Esme control over something, even if it was small.“I need to talk to you about a development in your case, and I want to be straight with you.It’s pretty serious.”
