Educational Experience

Chapter Thirty-One

31.

I said, “How the hell did you find me?” Smiling, though. Glad Wyatt had come looking for me again. Just…not sure why, exactly.

I could tell LeeAnn wanted to know how and why she was there, though. With good reason. I mean, she knew we’d met. But when she last saw us, Wyatt was just my English teacher. And she didn’t know me well enough to suspect anything else might go down between us. She did know Wyatt well enough to think all I’d ever be was one of her students.

So her sudden arrival didn’t add up any kind of way. The little equations she was running in her head were all probably ‘way off. But her cell rang, and the conversation got so serious so fast that she sighed, gave us this little shrug and headed for the back door that led to the inner offices.

“No, he was not. No. Because there was no—what?” she was saying. “Are you listening to me? That’s--there’s—lemme send it to you.”

“I’d better go find out what that’s about,” Chase said. And then to Wyatt, with a hand stuck out, he said, “Chase.”

And I said, “Wyatt. Taylor.”

They shook, and Chase said, “Okay, that’s a name. You got this guy?”

She looked up at me and took in all the clues—probably saw I’d been crying, of course. Because her eyes got all worried.

But she said, “I think so.”

And Chase gave me a last slap on the back.

“Go do your thing, man—just keep that cell on, okay? It’s not fatal, but it’s serious.”

“How serious?” Wyatt asked him.

Chase looked at me. What I said next would tell him who Wyatt was to me. And to him.

I said, “Let’s get into it when we get home. The girls’ll want the scoop, too. After I give ‘em hell for letting you slip one past ‘em.”

She and Chase were both relieved to see me smile when I said that. And I don’t know if it really helped him figure us out. But he smiled like he was happy she was there, too. Whoever she was.

That’s when I knew how badly I’d freaked him out when I started sobbing like that. Guys get weird about crying anyway, but seeing me cry had been a serious “red alert,” I think. Like I said, he tunes into everything, always figuring out how it will affect his case. Me falling to pieces was not a good sign. So if Wyatt could put me back together again that fast, she should be on the team for sure.

Chase said, “Give ‘em hell, son—nice meeting you, Wyatt!”

And when he rushed off, I went back to the first question.

“So how in the world did you get here?” I said.

“Uber,” she said. “One of my former students. He doesn’t charge me. But I pay him a little something anyway.”

“No, I mean…how did you know to come here, though?”

“Let’s…do all that when we get home, too.”

“When we get home, huh?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Hope so,” I said. “You’re a tough sell.”

“And yet here I am,” she said. With this sort of bewildered lilt to it. Like she kind of didn’t know why she was there, either.

“Thank God,” I said. Sincerely.