My father rips his arm from Quinton’s hold and stalks inside. His gait is a little wobbly as he shivers under the blanket.
“Um, thank you.”
“Yeah. I’ll tell you what I told the last caretaker. Lock your doors and hide the key.”
My mouth gapes.
What an ass.
Luckily, the man who raised me has already drifted down the hall when I say, “Fuck you.”
I slam the door in Quinton’s face.
And to think Marie thought he was nice. Urgh, what a heartless, self-centered?—
Something crashes inside the house as an explosion booms from the kitchen. I take off running toward the sounds, only to find the blanket discarded further down the hall.
Good Lord, what now?
Chapter
Four
QUINTON
“You want to tell me what happened?” I hug Maise into my side as we sit on the back steps of the house two hours after my neighborly encounter. We watch the drum of furniture pieces burn down as the last of the day’s light sinks over the horizon. Luckily for my daughter, I was able to usher Hank back to his house without any drama before she came outside.
The new caretaker was?—
“Nope.”
“Maise . . .”
“She started it,” she mutters.
“She started what?”
“Being a bully to Casey.”
“And Casey is . . . ?”
“The girl I was buddied up with for my first week.”
“Ah, okay. And you finished it, I gather.”
Her hands snap to her hips as she looks up at me, serious as hell. “Sure as shit did.”
“Maisey Emmaline MacKelvie,” I growl at her for the language, but I can’t seem to wipe the proud damn grin from my face. So to hide it, I turn away, pretending to study the neighbors’ houses.
“Sorry, Daddy. She just was so mean. She made Casey cry. And I only started there, and?—”
She’s getting herself all worked up over this.
“Hey, kiddo. You were defending her. But if we are going to stay at that school, you can’t hit people.”
“Why not? What if they deserve it so bad?”
I huff a laugh and shake my head. “No, kiddo, not even then.”
