Yeah, the fucker had slit our dog's throat but done such a piss poor job at it, Lilac had suffered. We'd gotten her to the vet in time to save her life, but still the vet had advised to put her down because of other disturbing wounds he had found on her.
"So he was tortured with the instrument of his own making?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but enough of that. What do you mean by you’ve seen gory? Where have you been?”
I forked a piece of beef into my mouth and chewed to give myself some time to think. When I decided to stay for a little while, I’d never thought it through fully. Like how much I should reveal to him.
“Just the world happening.” I shrugged off the rest of my explanation and changed the topic. “Are you still working at the high school?”
“Yeah, I’m the principal now.”
I beamed a smile at him. “They finally got rid of Mr. Polk?”
“Actually, he abandoned his work. Just didn’t show up, which I thought was weird, but it seemed his house was cleared out and his car gone.”
“Hmm, maybe one of the kids he used to mess with was finally going to squeal on him.”
His fork clattered to the plate. “What?”
“He used to feel up the girls. Everyone knew it.”
He shook his head. “No, not everyone.”
That wasn’t surprising. Daddy was way too good. He was oblivious to a whole lot of things that happened around him.
“That was just hearsay, Ari. Nobody proved anything.”
Oh, I proved it all right, but I just shrugged.
“So do you like it? The new position?”
“It’s a lot of work, but the kids are getting worse. You want to help them, but it's hard to do when they don't want to accept our help.”
"Yeah?"
"Yup, just today one of them spray-painted my car."
"You know who?" I clenched the fork tighter as I thought about those punk-ass kids giving him a hard time. Shaw was a good man with a good heart. They should behave for him just like I did. Even when I was bad news in everyone else’s eyes, the kindness of this man made me want to be good for him.
"One of the two boys I had to suspend today." He shrugged. "But I'm just assuming. It can be any of the kids I'd had to discipline this year or someone new entirely."
"I'm sorry."
The worry line that furrowed his brows evened out as he smiled at me. He relaxed his shoulders and took a sip of his drink.
"You have nothing to be sorry for.In fact, you being here right now is the best surprise I’ve had in a long time. You’re everything that’s good in this world, Ari.”
Warmth pooled in my belly and stoked the low flame that always burned when I was around him. His kindness always turned me on more than anything else. How did a man reach this ripe old age of forty-eight and not be corrupt at all? I wanted to know, but more than ever, I wanted to preserve it. Even from me.
“What do you think about the food?” I asked.
“You’re a great cook, but you always liked being in the kitchen.”
“You used to joke that I’d make some man a good housewife.” Fun times. I never got to spend as much time as I wanted in the kitchen, though. Mom never let me forget that was her domain and I didn’t belong there.
“You remember how you used to buy me the ingredients to bake stuff, so Mom didn’t know what we were up to?”
A light blush crept over his cheeks, and he shuffled in his seat. “Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have done that. She—”