Jesus Freaks: The Prodigal (Jesus Freaks #2)(72)

Roland looks concerned, as if I’m waving a flag he wishes I didn’t possess. But, I have a plan.

Dean Baker shakes his head. “There is a select few upperclassmen with the privileges to shepherd.”

“Is Maggie one of them?” I ask about my RA.

“Yes. But, unfortunately, she’s going on a missions trip.”

Liar, she’s going to Seattle to visit with her sister’s family. You just want me caught. You’re digging, and I’m going to steal your shovel.

Taking a deep breath, I quickly scan my options. Dean Baker isn’t bluffing. In fact, he’s so sure that he’s got me that I can still see the mouse tail wiggling from his lips. He knows one of three things will happen if he sends this shepherd home with me on break: 1. I’ll screw up and he can nail me to the wall. 2. I’ll be buckled into submission, behaving as he wants me to for the sake of not wanting to make waves. Or. 3. I’ll quit. Leave. Making his life a hell of a lot easier by his assumptions. Right now, none of those are options for me; I look to Roland who, frankly, looks quite defeated.

Looking back at Dean Baker, I place my hand over Roland’s. It’s sweating. Offering the best pageant smile I can come up with, I take another breath. “There isn’t even any need for all of this, Dean Baker,” I coo, placating. “I’m spending the entire break with Roland and his parents—my grandparents.”

I squeeze Roland’s hand, begging him not to react. He squeezes back. My eyes stay cemented on Dean Baker.

What now?

“This true, Pastor Abbot?” Baker leans back in his chair.

Roland nods. “Of course, sir. Hence my confusion regarding the whole shepherding business. I guess we both assumed the other had information neither of us had.”

Dean Baker nods slowly. “You’ve got quite the travel schedule the second and third weeks of January.”

“She’ll be with me the whole time. That’s been the plan the whole time, so she can see how my ministry operates across the south.”

I listen to Roland go on about his speaking engagements, happy that he’s playing along with my lie. Once we get Dean Baker off our backs, I can resume planning some ski dates with Mollie.

“Very well, then,” Dean Baker states assuredly. “I look forward to seeing you both at the family conference in Georgia in January.”

“Awesome!” I know sarcasm is a lost language among the people here, so I dial it up with Dean Baker on purpose. “I can’t wait to learn about what everyone’s doing.”

I don’t wait to be excused. Throwing my backpack on, I offer Dean Baker a small wave, and head out of the office. I assume Roland is following me, but find myself alone when I reach the small waiting area. Thankfully, the work-study student is immersed in computer work, so I can press my ear against the door to eavesdrop without judgment.

“I don’t have to underscore, Pastor Abbot, the serious nature of these allegations against yo daughter.” Dean Baker’s voice isn’t any different when addressing Roland than it’s ever been when he’s spoken to me.

Roland’s voice, too, is unchanged. Calm, if not slightly peppy. “And, as you’re aware, I’m also a member of this faculty and am aware of the hundreds of suspicious concerns we receive on many students. Never, to my knowledge, has anyone been assigned a shepherd after the first claim.”

I always forget that Roland is a professor here. He’s the spiritual liaison, for goodness sake. I see him with students at the coffee shop all the time, and I’m sure he meets with them elsewhere. If he wasn’t my father, I’d totally love a guy like him to talk to about how insane this place can be.

You could just talk to him anyway.

“And yo sure you’re up to the challenge of watching over her during break?”

“I’m an adult, Hershel, and she’s a child. My child. I think we’ll manage.”

I want to fist-bump the air, but refrain, stepping away from the door when I hear what I assume are Roland’s footsteps moving toward me.

“Ready?” he says with a stressed smile while we move through the office.

I nod, waiting until we’re outside the walls of the administration building to speak. “Thanks for playing along with my bluff. I needed him off my back.”

Roland stops on the last step, causing me to turn around to face him. “Bluff or not, Kennedy, you’re coming home with me during the break.”

“What? No. That was just to get out of that stupid shepherding thing—”

Roland puts up his hand, and a stern line forms across his mouth. “No.” He lowers his voice to a near whisper, linking his arm through mine as we move further away from the building. “Don’t think for a minute that he won’t be checking in on us.”

“Spying?” My throat constricts with anger and tears. My mind is racing around how to get out of this, how to tell my mom, Mollie—no. No. I’m going home for break. I’m not spending six weeks with Roland.

“Follow-up,” Roland lets go of my arm once we’re halfway across the quad.

“But, spying,” I reiterate. He’s silent, and that’s the only answer I need. “Well … what now? I want to go home! I don’t want—sorry … it’s not that I don’t want to meet your parents, or whatever, but I wasn’t planning on that. Yet.”