The Beachside Bed and Breakfast by Hope Ramsay

Author:Hope Ramsay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2022-08-23T00:00:00+00:00

Kerri tried to keep her disappointment and worry in check. Never before in the history of the interfaith service project had kids gone home with black eyes and bloody noses. It was her fault. She should have taken that snot Jayden aside and put him in time-out or something.

The kid had a potty mouth and wasn’t at all interested in the purpose of today’s service project. He’d avoided work. He’d called several of the kids names. If Danny was to be believed—and she wanted to believe him—Jayden had singled out Jackie Scott for a thrashing when no one was looking. And a fight between six-foot Jayden and little Jackie, who was small for his age, was not a fair fight.

But the adults should have stopped it before it happened. She should have stopped it. And maybe it had been a mistake to bring Danny here today. He wasn’t quite an adult, and he wasn’t as young as the other kids, although Jayden Walsh and Danny were nearly the same size.

Kerri was worried about Danny’s violent outburst. What had driven him to that? Had he been picked on as a child? Had he been abused? Or was this grief coming through as anger? It didn’t matter. He should have called for help, not taken matters into his own hands. And certainly not that way.

All of it suggested that he needed more than the job Colton had given him. Although, in truth, over the last couple of weeks Colton had done more than give him a job. He’d been mentoring him. Making sure he got up on time, teaching him skills, and pushing him to go back to school.

Right now, Colton was down the pier doing an amazing job of supervising Jayden, who was sporting a split lip and a black eye. But Dr. Killough said the injuries were minor. Colton seemed to be having a heart-to-heart with the boy. She only hoped he was suggesting that maybe Jayden had brought this upon himself.

But she couldn’t hear what Colton was saying. The boy seemed to be listening. Meanwhile Danny was nowhere to be found.

She couldn’t go look for him. She had to supervise the kids until their parents picked them up, and of course there were several kids who had been upset by what had happened. She was giving them all a little talk about violence when a car door slammed in the parking lot and someone yelled. “Where is that little shit who beat up my son?”

So much for conversations about non-violence.

Everyone turned to watch Teddy Walsh, who had once played tackle for the Clemson varsity football team, sprint across the parking lot, heading right for Kerri.

Oh boy. This was not good. Teddy Walsh was a hometown hero for some people in this town, which probably explained why his son felt so entitled. He owned a lot of pricey oceanfront real estate and hobnobbed with all the right white folk, including all the snobs at the yacht club. He was a steward at Grace Methodist.

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