Page 11 of Awakening the Sheriff

I extended my hand across his desk. “Keaton Perry. Sorry we had to meet under these circumstances.”

He pressed my hand firmly. “Auden Frant. Pleasure to meet you. Have a seat.”

He gestured to a chair across from his desk. Wearily, I sank into it, bracing myself for his lecture. He’d think I was an utter failure as a parent, and he wouldn’t even be wrong.

Auden closed the door to his office, then took his seat again. “Principal Hebert called me into the school this morning. It seems your son, Byron, started a fight with another student, Gabe Everett.”

“I’m sorry he had to call you in. In fact, I’m sorry you’ve had to waste your time on all this.”

“Keaton.” His calm demeanor soothed my frayed emotions like a balm. “That’s all part of my job. Principal Hebert told me you moved here from Atlanta and that Byron ran into some trouble there. What can you tell me about that?”

Ah, that was why Nicholas had called in the cavalry. I couldn’t blame him. The whole reason I’d told the principal what had happened in Atlanta was so he knew to act at the first signs of trouble.

Too restless to stay seated, I got up and walked to the window. Maybe it would be easier to confess my shortcomings as a father if I didn’t have to look at this specimen of male perfection. “It started about a year and a half ago when he became a freshman in high school. Within weeks, his attitude changed. He’d never been Mr. Sunshine, but he got moody and disrespectful, and things got worse and worse. When he got arrested for shoplifting, I came to the conclusion that something had to change, and we moved here.”

“Why’d you pick Forestville?”

“I grew up in Bear Creek, a small town in Oregon, and I loved it. Cheesy as it may sound, my childhood was pretty idyllic, and I wanted that for my kids as well.”

“Nothing wrong with that. I grew up here, and I wouldn’t wanna raise my girls anywhere else.”

I paced the small confines of Auden’s office and stopped in front of a framed photo of Auden and two smiling girls on his desk. “Byron’s mother isn’t around much. We’re divorced, and I have primary custody, since she’s a flight attendant. She has the boys one weekend a month and most breaks. She moved with us and now lives in Seattle.”

“Ah.” Auden leaned back in his chair and rubbed his beard. “That can be tough, I’m sure.”

“Understatement of the year,” I muttered. A pang of guilt hit me for burdening him with my problems. But something about Auden’s calmness made it easy to open up. “You’re a single dad too, correct? I think one of your daughters is in my youngest son’s class.”

“Two daughters.” His voice was stuffed with pride. “Violet is fourteen, and Dani is twelve. Their mother, Tricia, and I share custody fifty-fifty.”

“Daughters.” What would it be like to raise girls instead of boys?

“Yep.” Auden caught my eye with a knowing smile. “Different challenges, but the same amount of love and worry. Considering your ex moved here as well, I assume she agreed with your decision to relocate?”

I’d always thought so, but Byron’s snappy remark had made me question it. “That was my impression.”

“So the attitude started in Atlanta?”

“Yes. Wait, he gave you attitude?”

Auden grinned. “Loads of it, but no worries. I’m immune to teenage sulkiness.”

Jeepers, I wanted to dig a deep hole and hide in it. How could Byron do this to me? Maybe he was right, and coming here had been the worst decision ever. “I’m still sorry. I raised him better than that.”

“He’s not a bad kid, and his current troubles don’t reflect negatively on you.”

“No? It’s hard not to feel like a failure. I was convinced moving here would be the answer.”

“Was he prosecuted in Atlanta?”

“They couldn’t make the charges stick because he had nothing on him when they caught him, unlike his friends, and the surveillance footage was inconclusive. Byron claims he didn’t steal anything, that he’s innocent.”

“And you believe him?”

I threw up my hands. “I don’t know what to believe. I hate the idea of my son as a thief, but I have little reason to assume he’s telling the truth, considering all the stunts he’s pulled. We discovered he’d stolen liquor from his mom’s house and drank it with his friends.”

Auden’s gray eyes filled with empathy. “That isn’t uncommon behavior for teenagers. They act out, test boundaries.”

“Theoretically, I know that, but it’s one thing to read it in some textbook and another to find yourself trying to raise a rebellious sixteen-year-old who seems hell-bent on self-destruction.”

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