Chase looks at her, then at me with a heavy dose of skepticism. “What’s going on?”
“Go,” Kennedy whispers, shoving her bony elbow into my side.
I give her a look to knock it off. Instead, she tries to hurry me by motioning toward her dad with her head. It’s not the subtle encouragement she thinks it is.
“Megan?” Chase asks.
This is going to be a disaster. I can already tell.
“Now,” Kennedy whispers.
I suck in a long breath and steady myself. “Chase, we have something to tell you.”
CHAPTER 31
Chase
“So tell me,”I say.
Kennedy moves so she’s a couple of feet behind Megan. Megan reaches back and takes her hand, tugging her forward until they’re shoulder to shoulder.
My daughter’s eyes are shifty. She has a little smirk on her lips that tells me she’s done something I’m not going to love. The gesture is more of a shield than anything—her way of bolstering her confidence.
My sights settle on Megan. Holy shit, she’s gorgeous. It’s hard to believe she’s as pretty as I imagined while I was gone.I didn’t make her up. She’s real.
She clears her throat.
“So?” I ask, prompting her to speak. “What do you have to tell me?”Get it over with so I can get you alone somewhere.
“I want to preface this conversation by saying everything is fine,” Megan says. “There’s no need to panic.”
My stomach knots. “Maybe if you’d tell me what’s happening, I wouldn’t.”
“Good point.”
My high spirits at coming home to my girls dissolve like sand out of an hourglass. I’m draining—all my energy and enthusiasm wane more and more as I wait for an explanation as to why I shouldn’t panic.
Megan takes a deep breath. “I got a call today.”
“Who from?”
I spin a million thoughts in a few seconds, conjuring up every person who might’ve called Megan and every reason.This is not helping.
“I had the pleasure of meeting Principal Walding and Mrs. Falconberry today,” Megan says.
It’s the nonchalance for me. I lift a brow and look at my daughter.
My goodwill is gone. The hourglass is empty, and I’m left clutching the back of a chair for support.
I hang my head and will myself to stay calm.Dammit, Kennedy. “I know you’re being facetious because I’ve met both people, and it wasn’t pleasurable either time.”
If it were a different day, I would look at Megan and wink. But it’s today, and I don’t have it in me to be coy.
“I’m suspended for three days, Dad.”
My head whips up. “Excuse me? Please, say that again because I just thought I heard you say you are suspended.”
Kennedy doesn’t balk. “That’s what I said.”
