Lord Have Mercy (The Southern Gentleman #2)(9)

Turning my head only, I looked over my shoulder at the woman that was becoming increasingly more difficult to deal with on a daily basis.

“Nivea,” I said. “I thought you were on bus duty?”

Nivea’s eyes narrowed. “I am.”

I looked around the parent pick-up line and frowned. “If you’re on bus duty, why the hell are you here?”

She crossed her arms angrily over her chest. “Because I saw you over here talking to her.”

I gritted my teeth, and was about to reply when Camryn said, “You do realize, right, that the point of ‘bus duty’ is to make sure that none of the little Kindergarteners that have to cross to the high school campus to get on the bus don’t get hit by a freakin’ car, right?”

I felt my heart stutter at that.

She sounded pissed, and she had a right to be.

Nivea, however, did not have that right. Apparently, she was under the assumption that I was not allowed to hold conversations with women that weren’t her.

“The kids are still on the other campus,” Nivea argued, adding foot tapping into the mix.

I nearly groaned. “Nivea, go back to your scheduled post. Now.”

Nivea narrowed her eyes even more, and at this point, I wasn’t sure they were even open at all with the disdain she was conveying.

“I will not.”

“You will,” I said in a hard voice. “Or I’ll let the principal know that you’re unfit for this particular duty.”

I was at my wit’s end.

This afternoon, I was ending it with the woman.

There was no way I could play this game with her anymore.

On top of the irrational jealousy, the calls, and her constant need for attention, I realized rather quickly that there wasn’t much substance to the woman at all. She was like a piece of fluff.

I honestly didn’t see how the hell she’d become a teacher. Likely she fucked her way to her degree.

That was the only way I could see her passing something.

And, on top of that, her common sense was almost nil. Because, if she did have at least a semblance of it, she would’ve realized how stupid she was for leaving her post when she was supposed to be caring for five-year-old children.

Jesus. That was what I got for thinking with my dick.

That was the only good quality Nivea had, her mouth. She sucked like a Dyson vacuum and didn’t complain that I tried to choke her with it. Honestly, it was the only time she stayed quiet enough for me to enjoy being with her.

I should’ve broken it off with her a long time ago, but goddamn Camryn and her inability to be around me without showing fear had set me off something fierce. I’d been so focused trying to appear unaffected and aloof that I hadn’t realized what kind of message I was sending Nivea.

My sister had been saying for weeks that I’d needed to break it off with Nivea, but every time I started to, Camryn would show her face with that fucking dumbass, Carver, and I’d forget that Nivea was annoying as hell.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Nivea hissed.

“Fine,” Camryn started forward. “You stay here, and I’ll go.”

With that, Camryn marched off, leaving me staring at Nivea with barely contained hostility.

“You know that she had to be here this morning to do bus duty, and you also know that you should’ve stayed,” I told her bluntly. “I don’t know what you think you accomplished by coming over here, but it only served one purpose.”

Nivea tapped her foot and sneered. “And what was that? Because from where I was standing, y’all looked mighty cozy.”

I looked around the parking lot where we were standing.

A couple feet away from us the crossing guard stood looking for all she was worth like she wasn’t paying attention to our conversation when we both knew she was. Two cars down from Camryn’s where we’d both been standing, a mother was getting her daughter dressed for dance. Two cars farther down on the opposite side, a daycare van was loading up children to shuttle across town to the daycare.

There was literally no privacy where we were standing.

“I’m fairly sure that Tina over there can hear every word we’re saying.” I paused when Tina held her thumb up in the air indicating that she could. “That mother over there keeps looking at you like you annoy her. That daycare lady over there is trying to tell the kids that they can’t pet Dooley, and I’m fairly sure all ten of them are looking in our direction. What makes you think that we were looking ‘cozy?’”

Nivea sniffed delicately.

I grunted an annoyed sound and started past her to my cruiser.

The moment I stood in front of it, I opened the back door for Dooley to kennel himself, and then slammed it closed before opening the driver’s side door and pressing my foot on the brake at the same time I started it up.

Once I had the air conditioner running full blast, I rolled down the window.

Nivea was glaring at me like I’d just spat in her face.

“What?” I asked.

I didn’t really care.

But she was semi-standing behind my vehicle, and until she moved, I wouldn’t be able to leave.

If I’d been in my personal vehicle, I’d have hopped the damn curb and driven through the grass. Tina would’ve just had to move out of my damn way.