"Maybe that's why she acted out. Makes sense, doesn't it? I'll see you in a few minutes."

When Mrs. Vaughn hung up, Sophia wanted to throw her phone. Instead, she pounded it against her forehead. "d.a.m.n it," she whispered as she lost her battle with the tears that had welled up. "Can't anything go right? Can I really be so terrible as to deserve all this?"

"What's going on?"

Dropping her hand, she whirled to see Ted standing behind her. She hadn't heard him come out. How long had he been listening?

She dashed a hand across her cheeks. "Nothing. Alexa needs to be picked up from a school a little early, that's all." Hoping to escape the scrutiny of those dark eyes, she moved away from him. "I hope you don't mind if I go now instead of in forty minutes."

She couldn't even make herself wait for an answer. She hurried down the stairs and out the front door as fast as she could without breaking into a full run. But before she could get in her car, Ted came jogging out after her.

At the sound of his footsteps, she glanced back and he gestured toward the pa.s.senger side door. "Unlock it. I'm going with you."

Ted took a seat in the princ.i.p.al's office next to Sophia while Mrs. Vaughn closed the door. Alexa was already there, in a chair set off to one side, looking like a condemned prisoner. She didn't get up and rush into her mother's arms, as Ted thought she might. She didn't plead her case. She just peered up at them through her brown bangs with swollen eyes and a tear-streaked face.

Certain injuries were evident. Ted suspected the sc.r.a.pe on her cheek was new-it was bleeding-but the swollen lip and the bruise didn't seem as recent.

"I'm sorry to have to call you in under these circ.u.mstances." Mrs. Vaughn looked at him as if she couldn't fathom how he was involved, but he didn't trouble himself to explain. He wasn't sure he could. He just acted as if he had every right to be there, and she didn't try to shut him out.

When Sophia turned to her daughter and started to blink rapidly, he knew she was fighting tears, just as she'd been fighting them on the way over. She opened her mouth to respond to the princ.i.p.al, but Ted squeezed her arm to tell her he'd handle this. "It's unfortunate. Has Alexa been in trouble often?"

Alexa's gaze shifted to him. She seemed confused by his presence, too, but didn't say anything. She just bowed her head and stared at the floor.

Mrs. Vaughn took her seat behind the desk. "Never."

"So this is her first infraction?" He knew it was. Sophia had explained the whole situation in the car. He merely wanted to remind Mrs. Vaughn that this was a kid who'd never caused trouble before. Maybe she'd see that suspension was a bit extreme, that maybe there'd been more provocation than she'd been told, since this wasn't typical behavior for Alexa.

"Yes. But as you know-" Mrs. Vaughn's eyes cut to Sophia "-there's been a lot of disruption at home."

"None of which is Alexa's fault," he pointed out.

"Oh, no," she agreed. "I wasn't implying that."

He addressed Alexa. "Lex, can you tell me what happened?"

She didn't say anything until Sophia encouraged her. "This is a friend of mine, honey. Can you answer him?"

"She kept shoving her pencil into my back," she mumbled.

"She being...Connie?" Ted said.

A nod confirmed this.

Sophia made a sound that led him to believe she'd jump in, but he squeezed her arm again. "And she poked you before the fight broke out?" he asked.

Another nod.

"Did it hurt?"

"Yes!" Alexa spoke louder. "It was the pointy end!"

"Then it probably left some marks. Do you know if it did?"

"No," she said. "I can't see my own back."

"Can we take a look?"

After a silent confirmation from her mother, she got up, turned around and let Sophia lift the back of her shirt. Sure enough, there were several red marks, one where the point had broken the skin.

"Did you tell the teacher?" Ted asked.

She tugged her shirt down. "I couldn't. She wasn't there. It wouldn't help, anyway."

"Because..."

Her voice filled with indignation. "Then Connie and the others would be even meaner. A bunch of them followed me off campus yesterday, and Connie hit me lots of times."

"So you'd already had a bad experience with this girl."

Her chin b.u.mped her chest as she nodded.

"What did you do when she kept poking you today?"

"I asked her to stop. But Babette and Ella kept laughing and egging her on. They said they'd give her a dollar to do it again. Then they offered her a cookie and a bag of chips. She was pulling my hair when she wasn't poking me." Alexa held out her white blouse. "She even marked my shirt with her pen and said I'd have to get another one from a thrift store since we don't have money anymore."

Ted knew this wasn't his battle, but he was glad he'd come. Sophia was so emotional. She'd break into tears if she tried to speak.

When he looked up, Mrs. Vaughn cleared her throat. "A sympathetic story. But the other kids say most of it isn't true. They maintain that Connie made some comment about Alexa having to get her clothes from a thrift store and that was all it took."

Ted stood and gestured toward Alexa. "And those marks on her back? How did they get there?"

The princ.i.p.al couldn't argue with that. Alexa couldn't have hurt herself in that way. "She should've gone to the teacher, like you suggested."

"Tell me something, Mrs. Vaughn." Ted rested his hands on his hips, knowing it made him seem more imposing. "What would you have done in her shoes?"

"Stop baiting me, Mr. Dixon. I can't condone her actions. Fighting doesn't solve anything."

"That's true. So what's Connie's punishment for instigating this?"

She straightened her blotter. "I've a.s.signed her after-school detention."

"And Babette and Ella?"

"Babette and Ella?" she echoed. "This is the first I've heard of their involvement."

"Now that you know they have some culpability, I mean."

"Unfortunately, it's impossible to be perfectly fair to every child who might have been involved. I wasn't there. I can only go by eyewitness accounts, and I have to draw a hard line when students get physical. Alexa's the one who crossed that line."

"She just showed you the marks on her back. That looks pretty physical to me."

"But I have no idea how they got there. Maybe she poked first, because what she's saying goes against everything I've heard so far."

Ted caught Alexa's eye. "Lex, could you wait outside and let your mother and me have a few words with Mrs. Vaughn alone?"

After the door closed, he lowered his voice so she couldn't hear him in the anteroom. "I'm sorry to learn that you condone bullying here, Mrs. Vaughn. With my mother being a princ.i.p.al herself, I expected more from you and our school system."

She drew herself up taller. "I don't...condone bullying, Mr. Dixon!"

"Then why are you punishing the victim instead of the perpetrator?"

"Consequences follow behavior. One child struck another, and now she must face the consequences."

"It doesn't matter to you that the child you're suspending is the one who was first teased, poked and tormented?"

Her nostrils flared, but she didn't answer.

"I believe I've committed a sizeable amount to funding the new gymnasium. As disappointed as I am in the way this school is being run, however, I'm afraid I'll have to withdraw my support from that project." He motioned to Sophia. "Let's go."

Mrs. Vaughn hurried around her desk. "You'd penalize the kids for something you feel I've done?"

"Why not? You're penalizing Alexa for something Connie did."

"But we've already lost the money Mr. DeBussi pledged to the project!"

"That explains a lot, doesn't it?"

They glared at each other for several seconds, until she lowered her gaze. "I apologize if you feel I've been unfair."

"I don't feel anything. I'm convinced of it." Whether she'd acted consciously or not, she'd known that Sophia was in no position to defend her daughter. In his opinion, Mrs. Vaughn thought she'd be able to get away with punishing Sophia and Alexa for Skip's sins, just like Chief Stacy seemed eager to do.

"What do you suggest as a more fitting punishment?" she asked grudgingly.

"You a.s.signed Connie detention. Maybe Alexa should have the same." Ted turned to Sophia. "Don't you agree?"

She nodded.

"I don't mind telling you that it's a mistake to keep rescuing a child," Mrs. Vaughn said, her voice and demeanor full of reproach. "It teaches the wrong principles."

Ted straightened the nameplate at the edge of her desk. "Didn't you admit to me that this is the first time Alexa has ever been in trouble?"

She didn't reply to that question. With a sigh, she wadded up the sheet she had ready for Sophia to sign and threw it in the wastebasket. "Fine. She'll serve detention for five days after school, starting tomorrow. But it's not my fault that she'll be doing it with Connie. And I will not tolerate either one of them acting out again."

"Will a teacher be present at all times?" Sophia asked. "I don't want her left alone with that girl ever again."

It was easy to see that Mrs. Vaughn was loath to rea.s.sure her. She preferred to insist that the way she'd chosen to handle the situation would've been better. But Ted wasn't about to back off. He was tired of the prejudice and injustice that'd been heaped upon Sophia, and he was angry that everyone else's reaction to what Skip had done kept drawing him into her life. He wouldn't have gotten involved with one of his best friends if not for Sophia. But he didn't want to think about that, didn't want to feel any regret because it was too late to change anything.

"There will be a teacher," the princ.i.p.al said.

Sophia lifted her chin. "Thank you."

Mrs. Vaughn followed them into the reception area, where they waited for Alexa to retrieve her backpack. "Does this mean we can count on you to help with the gymnasium?" she asked.

Ted could see Alexa in the princ.i.p.al's office, wiping her eyes before pulling her backpack over one shoulder. "We'll see how school goes this coming week," he replied. "As long as Alexa remains safe, I'm happy to donate."

Her lips pursed. "So...are you and Mrs. DeBussi...seeing each other?"

She was still perplexed as to why he was there, was trying to put it into some sort of context. "No, Mrs. DeBussi is working for me."

"Since when?"

He pretended not to hear her. Alexa joined them at that moment, and they walked out.

"Thanks for your help," Sophia murmured as they navigated the front steps.

He didn't respond to that, either. He was drifting closer and closer to her; he could feel it. But he didn't know how to stop what was happening between them. Being with her, standing up for her, felt too d.a.m.n...natural.

17.

"Once you drop me off, you can head home," Ted told Sophia as he drove them back to his place. He probably should've let Sophia take the wheel. The Mercedes was, after all, her car-until the repo company took possession of it, anyway-but driving gave him something to concentrate on besides his new housekeeper and her daughter.

"I'll finish that project you gave me first," Sophia said. "And make dinner. Alexa can do her homework. We were planning to have her come over after school, anyway, so nothing's changed."

"Except that it's been a rough day for both of you. Why don't you go home and recoup?" He hoped to convince her, especially because he needed to do the same, needed to get her out of his system before Eve picked him up. The last thing he wanted was to be thinking of Sophia the whole time he was trying to talk himself into loving the person he'd chosen to pursue.

"No, I'll finish out the day. I don't want you to feel my problems are taking a toll on my work."

"I don't mind."

She raised a hand. "Please, I need to finish...for me, if not for you."

"Right. Okay."

"I have to do my part," she explained. "I hope you understand."

"I do. And I appreciate that," he said, but when they went into the house so she could get Alexa set up at the kitchen table, he saw her lunch and knew she was trying too hard. When she'd brought up his tray and he'd waylaid her without realizing she hadn't eaten, she'd never said a word.

She should've spoken up.

"Get started with your math," she told Lex. "I'll be up in the office for a while, but I'll come down and see how you're getting along when I make dinner."