The bell rang, reminding me that I needed to get them from the gym, which meant I needed to put a smile on and get back in teacher mode. Whatever happened after school, I’d worry about it when the time came. I refused to let my personal troubles affect my students. They were more important than what was going on in my personal life.
Thirty
Alec
Despite the factthat talking to Da hadn’t provided me with the clear direction I’d wanted, he had reminded me that the only person who expected me to put in insane hours was me. No one would think less of me if I took some time off. No one other than me, of course, because it didn’t matter how many times people told me to cut back, I kept pushing myself as if I had something to prove.
The strange thing was, I never expected my employees to sacrifice their relationships, romantic or otherwise, for the company. In my head, I’d always told myself that I worked these crazy hours so they didn’t need to, but that had been a half-truth at best. Throwing myself into work was the easiest way to keep relationships at a distance. That reasoning had only grown after things between Keli and me had gone south.
Lumen wasn’t Keli. In fact, Lumen wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before. I just needed to figure out what I wanted to do with that information. Even after I’d called and left a message, I hadn’t known what my decision was going to be. I’d been a little annoyed when she’d sent me a text in reply, more by the fact that she’d been so formal than anything else, but since I’d gone through the school to contact her, I couldn’t really blame her for wanting to make certain the line between us was drawn for anyone who might happen to see her phone. That had probably been the reason why she hadn’t called me in the first place.
By the time I had to leave to pick up Evanne, I was feeling fairly confident that today would continue to be a good day. Tuesday went over a few last-minute notes with me on my way out, and I passed along responses for anything on which my team needed confirmation. After Da’s reminder of the quality employees at MIRI, I trusted that they could handle anything else that came up, enough so that I told them not to message me unless the building was on fire.
I pretended not to notice Tuesday staring at me as I exited the building with a smile. It didn’t take me long to get to the school, and as I pulled into line, I watched the cars in front of and behind me, noticing for the first time that my car didn’t actually stand out from the crowd. It was unique because of what it was, but not because of how much it cost. I hadn’t really known what to think about Keli wanting to send Evanne here, but it was nice to know that she wouldn’t stand out simply because of who her father was.
It wasn’t long before it was my turn, and Evanne was skipping over to me. She got into the passenger seat instead of the back seat this time. She’d been so excited when she’d passed the four feet, eight-inch height rule and had been able to ride without a car seat, but it had only been recently that I’d let her sit in front with me. And then, it was with the seat as far away as possible from the airbags.
The measures it took to keep a kid safe was terrifying.
“Hi, Daddy.”
“Hello,mo chride. How was school?”
“Fun! We played floor hockey during gym class, and I scored three times.”
I pulled out of the pickup zone and left through the school gates. “That’s great! And what did you learn in class?”
“I learned that America didn’t have any buffalo.”
“Really?”
Evanne nodded. “Mmhmm! Positive. Ms. Browne said so.Buffaloare only in Africa and Asia. America hasbison, but some people called them buffalo and made a song about them so now everyone thinks bison are buffalo.”
“Is that so? I didn’t know that. I think you should tell me something new every day.”
“Or Ms. Browne could tell you when she has dinner with us.”
I wasn’t about to address that before I’d talked to Lumen. Maybe it made me a bit of a coward, but I changed the subject. “Excited for karate?”
Her face lit up. “So excited! My sensei always makes us run laps as training.”
I shot her a glance. “Do you keep up with the others?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Daddy…”
“What?” I widened my eyes and tried to look innocent. “Are you fast?”
“I’m the fastest kid in my class!”
I hadn’t known an eight-year-old could look scandalized.
“Areyou?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes! You’re being silly.”
I shook my head. “Not me.”
“Uh huh.”
