Sasha crouched in front of him and placed her hands on his thin shoulders. “Sometimes, we have to do things we don’t want to do. It helps us when we grow older and teaches us a life lesson. Did you know my mother told me that?”
“Yeah, when she first introduced the idea of Bruceous for our husband. Blah!”Her dragon did a barfing sound that made Sasha want to giggle.
“Shush, we have to concentrate on Noel right now.”
“Tell him he’ll disappoint Max.”
“You know how hard Max works?” she asked Noel.
He didn’t react, but his gaze tracked to her face and remained. “Max wanted to live and work in London, but he changed his life around so he could look after you and spend time with you. Max has to work to pay for things like kindergarten.” Did he understand? “If Max didn’t go to work, you wouldn’t have nice food and trips to the castle. You wouldn’t have books and coloring pencils or crayons.”
“That’s not working. Bribe the kid,”her dragon said.
Agreeing, Sasha tried a new tack. “If you go to kindergarten today, I will do my best to make Darren stop being mean to you, and we’ll do something special this afternoon. How does that sound? A surprise.”
Noel brightened. “Surprise now.”
“No,” Sasha stated. “If I let you stay home today instead of going to kindergarten, you don’t get a surprise. Instead, we’ll do jobs, and I’m afraid I’ll have to punish you. No beach visits, either.”
Noel stamped his foot. “Not fair. Want surprise.”
“Those are the Sasha rules,” Sasha said, speaking in a stern voice when she wanted to give him a quick cuddle and fight his battles for him. It wouldn’t help him, and she sensed Max would agree with her. “How about this? It’s kindergarten this morning, and I’ll help you with meanie Darren. If this doesn’t work, we’ll bring in the big guns and consult with Max.”
“Want surprise.”
“Only if you go to kindergarten,” Sasha countered calmly.
Noel stared at her, his cheeks turning pink. Sasha returned his intense gaze, wryly thinking she’d stepped into her mother’s shoes. Instead of agreeing with Sasha, Noel finally stomped to the bag he took with him to kindergarten and picked it up.
“Want surprise,” he stated.
“When we get home from kindergarten,” Sasha promised.
Noel didn’t say much during their walk to kindergarten, which was unusual because he’d become quite a chatterbox.
“We’d better have an excellent surprise ready for him. He resembles a martyr from our storybooks,”her dragon said.
“Which one is Darren?”
Noel pointed out a kid with red hair and freckles. He wasn’t larger than Noel, but when Sasha spotted him, he was pushing a little girl.
“Right, that does it,”her dragon snapped.“Let’s break his twig arms.”
“Steady, this requires diplomacy with a bit of dragon to back up our claims.”She gathered herself and smiled encouragement at Noel. “Noel, wait there.”
Sasha strode over to Darren and his current victim. She’d almost reached him when he pushed the girl again, and this time she fell. Sasha scooped her up and placed her on her feet before turning her attention to Darren. She crouched to his height and stared him in the face. Aware of her limited time, Sasha let her dragon appear in her eyes and voice. “I saw what you just did,” she rumbled. “That was mean, Darren, and if you continue with this behavior, I will visit your house. You don’t want that. Stop pushing little girls and stop being mean to Noel or else,” she added in a threatening tone.
“Grrrrr,”her dragon added.
The color departed from Darren’s cheeks, leaving his ginger freckles standing out like a map of crazy dots. Having done the best she could, Sasha stood and turned to check on the little girl. Noel had his arm around her shoulders, and they were studying the blood dripping down her knee.
A smile curved her mouth, and pride swelled within her.
“Aw, that is so sweet,”her dragon cooed.
“Is Carly all right?” the teacher asked.
“We need some blood clean-up,” Sasha said. “Darren gave her a fright pushing her that way. He’s been bullying Noel too. Noel didn’t want to come to kindergarten this morning.”
