The Last Letter (Page 56)

If I’d read it when she’d sent it, instead of hiding it away, I would have come. I never could have denied her, and everything would have been different. Then again, Ryan would still be dead because of me, so maybe not.

I came down the stairs of my new house to find Havoc napping in the sun that came through the floor-to-second-story windows in my great room. I’d had a section of the trees cleared so I could see the island that perched in the middle of the tiny lake. Luckily, with the angle my house was at, I couldn’t see Ella’s house.

Maybe I was torturing myself keeping Ryan’s grave in sight, but knowing Ella was this close and so damn far was way worse. It had been over a month since she’d walked out of my cabin. My things had arrived that afternoon. My entire role in Ella’s life came down to four moving boxes.

As breakups went, I’d expected screaming, shrieking, throwing things at me for what I’d done, but her stoic silence was worse. She’d accepted that we were done, and now I had to move on without her and the kids.

God, I missed the kids. Falling for Ella had tied me to them in a way that was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing for all they taught me, for the love I hadn’t realized I’d even been able to feel. A curse because Ella cut off all my access, as was her right. She didn’t trust me, and that extended to the kids. Her heart was broken over me, but my heart was shattered over the loss of all three of them.

I sighed at the sight of my empty living room. I really needed to buy some furniture. I had the bedroom covered, and most of the kitchen stuff was being delivered daily, thanks to Amazon.com. But the rest of the furniture just didn’t seem important, because this was my house but for some reason didn’t feel like my home.

My phone rang as I opened the fridge to figure out some lunch.

“Gentry,” I answered, wondering who had gotten themselves lost this time. As spring came to the area, more hikers were showing up and getting altitude sickness, or lost, or breaking their bones in inconvenient locations.

“Mr. Gentry? I’m so sorry to bother you. This is Principal Halsen over here at the elementary school. I happen to have Colton in the office.”

My stomach lurched. “Is he okay? Is he hurt?” Why were they calling me?

“No, no. Nothing like that. He actually got into an altercation today with a classmate and needs to go home.”

“A fight?” No way. Not Colt. Sure, the kid got fired up, but I’d never seen him get violent unless it was over Maisie.

“Yep, a fight.”

“Whoa. Did you call his mom?”

“We tried, but she’s not answering, and Colt told us that she’s in Montrose for one of Margaret’s therapies. I was hoping you might be able to come pick him up.”

I pulled the phone away from my ear and checked the number, just to make sure I wasn’t being pranked. “Pick him up?” I asked slowly.

“Yes. Policy demands that he go home for the day, and you’re the second name on his emergency contact sheet.”

Shit. Ella hadn’t updated the kids’ information yet. Which meant I might get to see Colt. I slammed the door on my excitement. Ella didn’t want me to see him, and I had no right to. “Is anyone else on the list?”

“Only Ada and Larry, and from what I’m being told, they’re on vacation in Glenwood Springs for a few days.”

Which left me.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

He thanked me, and we hung up.

I hesitated for a second, my finger hovering over Ella’s name on my contacts list, but I manned up and clicked the phone icon. It went straight to voicemail, not that I was surprised. I’d tried to call a few times that first week and had the same result. Ella was done with me. She’d told me that lies were her hard limit, and she meant it.

“Hey, Ella, it’s Beckett. Look, the school just called, and I guess Colt got into a fight and needs to be picked up. I’m the only one on his list, so I’m going to grab him. Let me know if you want me to drop him at the main house at Solitude or bring him up to Montrose. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll just bring him back to my house. I know you don’t want me to see him, but this is a little out of my control, so I’m hoping you’ll understand. Thanks.” I hung up and rested the phone against my forehead. Even hearing the message on her voicemail was torture.

I left Havoc sleeping in the sunshine and headed out, driving along the dirt road that cut through the property. Within twenty minutes, I pulled up to the school. With all the butterflies in my stomach, I would have thought I was the one about to get it from the principal. Instead, I was about to get it from Colt.

I walked through the doors and signed the clipboard, then looked up at the receptionist. “Hi, I’m Beckett Gentry, I’m here to pick up—”

“Colton MacKenzie,” the young woman said with a smile. “I know who you are. We all do.” She nodded toward a few other women who gathered around the desk behind her.

“Ah, okay. So, can I get him?”

“Oh, sure! I’ll buzz you in.”

The buzzer sounded, and I walked into the school. The last time I’d been here had been with Ella for Colt’s first grade play a couple of months ago. As recent as it felt, it also seemed like someone else’s memory.

“This way,” the receptionist said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and giving me a flirtatious smile. “I’m Jennifer, in case you don’t remember.”

“Jennifer, right. We met last year, right?” She led me into the administration offices.

“Yep! When you came in for search and rescue with your dog. I may have slipped you my number when you signed in.”

“Yes, I do remember that.” I tried to force a smile. Ella and I hadn’t been together then, but it hadn’t mattered, and I hadn’t called Jennifer. “I’m sorry for not calling. I hope there are no hard feelings.”

Jennifer touched my arm just outside the principal’s door. “None. I was so sorry to hear that you and Ella broke up. If you ever need anything, or just want to talk, I’m happy to give you my number again, just in case.”

Oh boy. She looked so hopeful, and uncomplicated, and not Ella.

“Thanks, I’ll…keep that in mind.” It was the best I could do without offending her.

“You do that.” She smiled again. A lot of smiling. I bet she was happy most of the time. That she wasn’t fighting to keep her kid alive, or dealing with the death of her brother and the betrayal of the man she loved. She was all shiny, like a new penny.

But in the last eighteen months, I’d learned that I liked a little bit of tarnish. It gave depth to the lines and made the shiny parts all the more eye-catching. Ella was beyond beautiful for what she’d been through. Tragedy hadn’t broken her, it had refined her.

Jennifer knocked and opened the door to the principal’s office, and I entered, my eyes immediately locking onto Colt’s.

His flew impossibly wide.

“Principal Halsen,” I addressed the administrator, who motioned to the empty chair beside Colt.

I took it, sitting next to a very rigid Colt. Every line of his little body was tense, and his mouth was all pursed up. His hand gripped the armrest, and I reached over, giving him a reassuring squeeze. His posture softened the slightest bit, but it was enough.

“Mr. Gentry. I’m so sorry to call you in here, but in this kind of incident when there’s violence, we do need to send him home.”

“Can you tell me what happened?” I asked Colt.

“He attacked a classmate—”

“I’d like to hear it from him, first, if that’s okay,” I interrupted Principal Halsen.

“We were on the playground, and Drake Cooper wouldn’t leave Emma alone. She doesn’t like him.” Colt kept his eyes forward. “She told him to leave, and he wouldn’t, and he tried to kiss her.”

Drake. Recognition hit me. Letter number three.

“Is this the same kid who went after Maisie with that kiss-tag stuff?” I asked. It was the first time I’d ever used something only Chaos would have known. Of course, Colt didn’t know that, didn’t realize that as I sat next to him. I felt an odd merging of the guy who had written those letters and the man who had adopted Colt.

“Yeah. I guess he didn’t learn.”

“Guess not.”

Principal Halsen gave me a disapproving look, which I blatantly ignored.

“So I pulled him away and hit him,” Colt finished with a shrug. “He tried to hit me back, but I dodged.”

“Nice,” I said with a nod.

“He’s slow.” Another shrug.

“Mr. Gentry, as you can see, your son instigated violence in an unprovoked attack. He’ll be sent home today and suspended tomorrow. We have to send a message that this kind of violence isn’t tolerated.”

“I’m not his son,” Colt whispered.

Yeah, you are.

“Right, sorry, Colt,” Principal Halsen corrected and sent me another pointed look. He knew about the adoption from the records point of view.

“I have no problem with taking Colt home or him being suspended. You’re right, he did swing first. But my question is what you’re going to do about Drake.”

Colt’s head swung toward me in shock.

“I’m sorry?” Principal Halsen asked.

“My guess is that you’ve told Colt he’s purely at fault here, right? After all, he swung, he did what you thought was escalating violence.”

“He is in the wrong.”

“Maybe. But so is Drake. And he was already in the middle of an act of violence, which Colt stopped.”

“I’d hardly call playground antics like that violence,” Principal Halsen scoffed. “Drake has been told that his actions are unacceptable. But you know how little boys with crushes are, I’m sure.”

I glanced at Colt, who had the same look on his face Ella did when she was about to blow a gasket.

“Actually, I do. They act like Colt and protect the girls they like. What the other kid did, whether or not you see it, is wrong. And sure, you can brush it off as a playground antic, like I’m sure you’ve done for the last thirty years you’ve been at this school. The problem isn’t this one time; it’s the pattern. You did nothing last year when it was Maisie. Now we’re here, and that kid is another year older. So sure, I can take Colt home and give him a stern talking to about when it’s appropriate to use force. But I’ll probably end up showing him how to throw a better punch, because one day that other kid will be sixteen, and it won’t be just playground kisses he’s taking by force.”