of the few human friends he’s made recently. She sighed and followed him to his car to make sure he was safe. Why the hell does it seem like I’m always ending up the bad guy lately? She was definitely starting to feel somewhat underappreciated.
* * * *
Friday morning arrived quicker than Caleb wanted, as it had been rather late when he and Katrina had arrived home on Thursday evening. He had had trouble sleeping the night before. His mind had been preoccupied with thoughts of what he would ask Tanisha to ascertain what she had seen. He certainly didn’t want to lose his friend, but even more importantly, Tanisha had a family, and he didn’t think he could live with himself if he deprived them of a wife and mother. Tanisha was a good, sincere person and didn’t deserve to have her life cut short by something that should not have happened on campus. In fact, if anything, he felt as if the fault were partly his for bringing such threats to the campus by his very presence.
His eventual conversation with Tanisha took place later that morning while neither was teaching. They had the same schedule that day for open office hours. He entered her office and closed the door behind him. Then he plopped down into the empty guest chair next to her desk.
Tanisha barely looked up from grading essays before her and prompted, “Good morning, Caleb. I can bet I know why you’re here. It’s about last night, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, last night,” he replied quietly, though his pulse was already racing.
She pursed her lips and glanced over at him with a serious expression. “I saw you step outside to check on that student,” she offered. “Was she one of yours?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Her name is Beth.”
Tanisha’s eyes narrowed. “Did you know who those two guys were?”
This time he shook his head. “Nope. Still don’t, really.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that impression just from watching your and Katrina’s reactions towards them,” she ventured as she stared at her desk like she was recalling past events.
He let the silence grow between them for a few moments and asked, “Did you happen to see them leave?”
She frowned. “No. I picked up the phone to call security, but stopped for some reason and glanced back to see what was happening. But they were already gone. I was surprised how quickly they left, because I only turned my head away for a few seconds.”
A surge of relief flowed through him, and he had to force himself not to chuckle out loud. Oh thank God, he thought. “Yeah, they took off pretty fast,” he agreed.
She arched her eyebrows and admitted, “It’s true that Katrina can seem intimidating at times, but I can see where that could be handy on occasions such as last night.”
Caleb was delighted, though more from relief than from what Tanisha had said. “Oh, she can be intimidating, all right.”
Tanisha’s hazel eyes stared directly into Caleb’s. “Was Katrina angry with you last night? It looked like she was reading you the riot act right after those guys left.”
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly to stall for time while considering a response. “She thought what I did was too risky.”
She nodded. “It was. But that also doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right thing to do for your student. We’re not just educators. Our students expect for us to look after them while they’re here. This is our domain, and you were well within you right to challenge those men.”
“Thanks,” Caleb replied with a pleased smile.
“Although a call to security might have been smarter before you walked out there,” she added.
He rolled his eyes. “Oh, not you too! It’s bad enough to have Katrina preaching to me.”
She grinned. “Hey, just because Katrina can be gruff doesn’t mean she doesn’t have your best interests at heart, too.”
He frowned as he considered that and conceded that his mate did indeed care very deeply for him. He loved her for that. And while he still felt miffed with Katrina over her Devon decision, it didn’t mean he didn’t love her. He shook his head and decided he was simply happy not to be forced to lose a good friend.
Later that evening, he told Katrina about his conversation with Tanisha. She listened intently, observing his body language and staring into his eyes as if probing him like some sort of lie detector. Finally, she agreed no harm had probably been done. For