She was angry at herself for not realizing how bad the situation had gotten for her son. Angry at the school for not doing enough to protect her sweet boy. Those two outlets should be enough, but she had plenty of temper left over for the man waiting for them in the truck.

The one who’d set her sweet boy on this path to the current deluge of problems.

“Hey, bud,” Gabe said as Andrew got into the back seat. “You okay?”

“No,” Angi snapped before Andrew could answer. “He’s not okay. Do you know why he’s not okay?”

Gabe gave her a sidelong glance. “Guessing it has something to do with that cut above his eye.” He turned to Andrew again. “How’s your head?”

“Fine,” the boy muttered.

“Do not speak to him,” she commanded, all the anger that she hadn’t been able to let loose on the well-meaning principal coalescing into a heavy ball of frustration. One that she could now level at the man sitting next to her. “He’s not okay because he just got suspended for fighting. A three-day suspension. You should see the other boy.” She sucked in a quick breath. “In fact, there he is.” She pointed to the kid walking down the steps of the school with his obviously furious mother. His face was red from crying and his right eye was already developing a massive bruise.

“He’s twice Andrew’s size,” Gabe said on a harsh breath. “Looks mean as the day is long.”

“But this one—” Angi jerked a thumb toward the back seat “—beat the tar out of him from all accounts. It was a regular pummeling.”

“I thought Andrew was hurt.”

“I slipped when the teachers pulled me off him,” the boy explained. “Hit my head on the ground. It’s fine. Even the school nurse said so. That’s Johnny, and he’s a bully. But I took care of him.”

“Violence doesn’t take care of anything,” Angi said, frustrated that things had gotten so out of control. She lifted a hand when Gabe would have spoken. “Not a word from you.”

“I was going to agree,” he said under his breath.

“Not a word,” she repeated. “Please take us to my car. I called the pediatrician’s office, and Andrew has an appointment for concussion testing this afternoon.”

Gabe shifted into gear and headed back toward the mill. He’d given her so much comfort on the way to the school when she’d been anxious and frazzled. But she didn’t know how to deal with this new side of her son.

Andrew was a sweet kid, a little awkward but with such a big heart. Now he’d been suspended for fighting, of all things. What had changed in his life? She rolled her lips together as guilt tumbled through her. Everything. She’d sublet her apartment so they could move back into her mother’s house after the heart attack. Andrew had lost his grandfather this year, the only father figure he’d ever known.

Angi was burning the candle at both ends as she tried to balance her responsibilities at the restaurant with the ones she had yet to give up at the inn.