“Drew!”
“Oh, sorry.” He had the nerve to look guilty for swearing in front of the girls for a moment before he pressed on. “I don’t. Road rash is no good for a surgeon’s hands.”
“Make sense.” Rafe was done too. He turned to Sloan, then nodded to the mudroom. “You need help with the bags?” Their little weekend rolling bags were by the mudroom door.
“No. We got it, bro.”
Sloan clenched her back teeth. She would not punch Drew in the face in front of her children. “Yes, please. Can you put them in the trunk? Drew can you help Avery with her car seat?”
“Yeah, let’s do this.” Sloan couldn’t look at Rafe before they left ’cause she was afraid she’d run into his arms for a last bit of comfort. Or worse, she’d kiss him goodbye.
“We’re going in early?” Addison asked as Sloan strapped her in to her car seat.
“Yes, baby. You’re going to hang out with Miss Xeni while your daddy and I meet with Mrs. Brown.”
“Okay,” she replied with a big smile. They didn’t get the levels of sheer fuckery, but her girls were observant as hell. They were on the same team. Team Shut the Hell Up Drew.
Sloan climbed behind the wheel, then queued up the girls’ favorite playlist and saved them all from any conversation on the way over to Whippoorwill. Not that Drew would have tried it. He was too busy texting on his phone. When they dropped the girls with Xeni she introduced her to Drew, who suddenly decided to turn on the professional charm. Xeni wasn’t fucking buying it. She ignored him and invited the girls to come color. Before Sloan went into Mrs. Brown’s classroom, she made sure she and Xeni shared a bit of meaningful eye contact. They’d discuss this disaster of a morning later.
The meeting with Mrs. Brown went fine. Drew was perfectly nice to her. He wanted to seem like the perfect father to Addison and Avery, hands on and caring, as if his mother wasn’t doing all the actual work. Sloan was annoyed, but she could handle it until Drew casually dropped that he’d planned to keep them out of school that day, but Sloan wouldn’t let him.
“Well, the girls were having a great time with our first unit. They don’t want to miss what we have in store today,” Mrs. Brown said, before she shot him a ‘kindly fuck off’ grin. Drew missed it, but Sloan didn’t and boy, did she appreciate it. They wrapped things up, said goodbye to the girls and made sure the front office knew Drew would be handling pick-up that day.
As they walked back out to the car so she could give Drew the girls’ bags, Sloan realized just how unnecessary the meeting had been. Drew just wanted to be seen. Not for the girls, but to make himself look good. If she wouldn’t move back to Seattle and feed his involved-father fantasy, then he would come to them. It was going to be a long thirteen years.
“You call your Lyft?” Sloan asked as she unlocked the tailgate on the Tahoe.
“Yeah. What’s the deal with this Rafe guy?”
Sloan set the bags on the sidewalk and closed the trunk. “Don’t. He was available. He had excellent references. He’s worked for two families who’ve attended this school. Even the teachers gave him good recommendations. And most importantly, he’s very good with the girls.”
“How is he with you?”
“Are you asking me if I’m happy with the way he’s performing the job I hired him to do? Because I’d be really upset if you were hinting at something else.”
“You could have at least told me—”
“Told you what? I told you I hired a guy to watch the girls. I’m not leaving you out of the loop. You said you wanted to come meet him. You’ve met him.” Sloan took a step back and pulled in a breath. This is why she couldn’t stand to be around him. She couldn’t have a conversation with him talking down to her.
“I want you to find someone else.”
“Why? Give me one sensible reason why.”
“I’m their father and I don’t like him.”
“Not good enough. I have to get to work. I don’t know how you’re filling your day, but be back here at two-thirty.”
“When am I ever late?”
“Bye Drew.” Sloan left just as the first wave of parents showed up for drop-off. Perfect timing. She couldn’t fake a polite conversation until she stopped shaking.
Just as Rafe put his quiche crust in the fridge to rest, he heard the mudroom door. When he turned around, Sloan was standing in the kitchen with a slightly deranged look on her face.
“Are my kids gone?”
“Yes?” He glanced at the clock over the stove. It was a little after six. “I thought their flight was at four-thirty.”
“It was and Drew texted me before they took off, but I just had to be sure.”
