Unbreak My Heart (Unbreak My Heart #1)(81)

I climbed out of the car as my mom stepped out onto the front porch. “Yeah, she said she’d wait.”

“Okay, then I’ll meet you there at like four thirty. Shit, I have to go. See you in a few hours.”

The phone disconnected, and I dropped my arm down to my side. I guessed I was going to have to deal with Snots McCauley again that afternoon.

*



“Hey, beautiful,” Shane called, opening my door as I put the car in park. “How was the rest of your day?”

“Eh. Keller spent most of the day playing Legos with Aunt Ellie. The poor kid looked like he was waiting on the executioner; he’s so terrified about seeing you.”

“I don’t know why—you’re way more scary,” he said, putting a hand on the small of my back to lead me inside the school.

“Hello, Mr. Anderson. I’m Susan McCauley, the counselor here.”

“Nice to meet you,” Shane replied politely, reaching out to shake her hand.

“Why don’t you come on into my office?” she said, waving her arm toward a door to the right.

Shane gently pushed me forward, and Susan barely looked at me as we passed her. Fun times.

“I asked you to come to see me because it seems Keller has been having some behavioral issues for most of the school year.”

“What?” I asked in confusion. “We only got one note.”

“At first it was name-calling, but today it progressed into actual physical violence,” Susan said to Shane, completely ignoring me. “We have a no-tolerance rule. That’s why we sent Keller home with Ms. Evans. But I wanted to speak to you one-on-one so we could work together to help Keller.”

“From what Keller said, some boy was calling him names—”

“That’s the story I heard, too,” Susan said with a nod. “But we really can’t excuse violence because of a little name-calling.”

“Keller has scratches all over his arms. Did you send the other kid home, too?” I asked, clenching my hands in my lap. The woman acted like a robot—I didn’t understand how she was supposed to be a counselor for little kids.

“Ms. Evans, please let me speak to Mr. Anderson,” Snotty McCauley chastised, glancing at me briefly before turning her eyes back to Shane.

He made a sound of disbelief in his throat, looking over at me in surprise.

“Kate has just as much to say here as I do,” Shane defended, his brows pulling together.

“In situations like these, I find it more beneficial if I speak directly to the child’s parents, Mr. Anderson,” she said simply. “I meant no disrespect.”

“She’s his mother,” Shane argued, making my breath catch. “I’m not sure why you’d have an issue talking to her.”

“Oh.” Susan looked thrown for a moment and glanced down to shuffle through some papers on her desk. “Keller called her aunt when she picked him up earlier, and I was under the impression that Keller and Sage’s mother had died in a car accident two years ago.”

The breath left my chest at her nonchalant mention of Rachel’s accident. When she looked back up from her desk, her eyes widened at the looks on our faces.

“Yes, she did,” Shane agreed softly. “But Kate has been taking care of Keller since he was born. She’s his mother in every sense of the word.”

Susan sputtered for a moment, then seemed to get her nerves under control. “I hadn’t realized,” she said flatly, before wrinkling her nose as if she smelled something bad. “Well, sometimes untraditional home lives can be the root of behavioral issues. Perhaps Keller—”

“Yeah, we’re done here,” Shane said in disgust, shaking his head as he stood and pulled me up beside him. “Have the office call Kate tomorrow and let us know when Keller can come back to school.”

“Mr. Anderson!” Susan called as Shane opened her office door. “We really haven’t settled on any plan of attack—”

“Keller’s mother and I will deal with any behavior issues he has,” Shane said, turning to face her. “You’ve been condescending and rude since the moment we walked into the school—and I shouldn’t have even had to come in here when you could have talked to Kate earlier. I’m not sure what your deal is, but I sure as shit hope that you treat the kids in your care better than you treat their concerned parents.”

He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my car so fast I was practically running to keep up with him.

“That f*cking bitch!” he mumbled, taking the keys from my hand so he could unlock the car for me. “Could you believe that shit?”

“She was like that when I picked Keller up.”

“Why the hell didn’t you warn me?”

I shrugged and reached up to give him a small peck on the mouth. “You took care of it.”

I climbed inside the car and started it up as he shut the door.

“I’ll follow you,” he mouthed through the window before walking over to his truck.

My hands were shaking from adrenaline as we pulled out of the parking lot, and I took a deep breath to try to calm my nerves. I’d always hated confrontation. I didn’t like it when people were mad at me, and knowing that someone disliked me made my skin crawl. I think that may have been why I was such a people pleaser as a kid.