Chapter 24 Holt
Holt
The house is lit up brighter than the moon tonight. It’s a welcome sight despite wincing at the thought of every single light being on inside.
I’d rather have all the lights on than come home to darkness every day.
“Anyone home?” I holler as I walk through the garage door. Mom’s piddling around in the kitchen as two little shouts come from upstairs, followed quickly by pounding steps.
“Daddy!”
I get three steps into the house before I’m waylaid by my girls. “How are my monkeys?”
“I got to be Ms. Nelson’s helper today,” Leah says.
“You did? What did you help her with?”
“I passed out worksheets and helped clean up the classroom while everyone went out to recess.”
“How come you didn’t go with the rest of the class?”
Leah’s face is set in a stubborn pout. “I didn’t want to.”
I glance at Lauren to see if she knows what’s going on, but she just shrugs. “I had a normal day. No one even got in trouble, so we got to have extra play time at the end of the day. Can we go to the library tomorrow? I finished my book.”
“That’s a great idea.” I kiss Lauren on her head and then pick up Leah. She wraps her little arms around my neck as we walk into the living room. I give Mom a little wave, and she blows me a kiss in return. “Want to tell me why you didn’t want to go out to recess?”
Leah settles into my lap on the couch while Lauren snuggles into my other side. “I don’t like climbing on the playground anymore.”
“Okay. Did something happen that scared you?”
“I falled off yesterday.”
Lauren grabs Leah’s hand. “How come you didn’t tell me?”
Leah shrugs, and my gut tightens at the move. “Lee Lee, did someone push you off the playground?”
She nods her head, sticking her nose into my neck to hide.
“Oh, sweetheart. I’m sorry that happened. Did you tell a teacher?”
“Mrs. Halbrand. She telled me to stop playing with the boys if I didn’t want to get hurt. But I wasn’t playing with them.”
I grit my teeth to keep from cursing. Gina Halbrand is a severe woman who should have retired fifteen years ago.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard her name in connection with issues with the students.
Lauren was placed in her classroom, and I made sure the administration moved her to a different teacher before the school year started.
“Who pushed you, and was it the first time?”
“No, Mason pushes me on the playground a lot.”
“Oh, baby. I’m sorry he’s been bothering you.”
“He bothers everybody.”
“Okay. I’ll talk with Ms. Nelson and your principal on Monday.” I wrap my arm around Lauren and squeeze my girls into my chest tightly. “Now, we’ve got company coming over after dinner, so we need to get the fort set up. Who wants to help me?”
Two sharp elbows dig into my stomach as the girls fly off the couch. I grunt through the pain, just grateful I didn’t get a knee to the balls this time.
I head into the kitchen, where Mom’s hot dish is starting to smell incredible. “Thanks for hanging with them this afternoon.”
“Of course, darling. Farrah asked me to tell you she wants to meet with you on Monday. She said she emailed you her availability. I have a feeling it’s about that bully. You know, I went to school with Gina. She was mean even back then. It doesn’t surprise me that she hasn’t changed a bit.”
“I wish Leah had told me she’s been having issues with this kid before now.”
“It might be a good idea to see why she hasn’t.”
“Do you know something I don’t?”
“No, sweetheart. It’s just…” Mom hesitates as if she doesn’t want to say whatever she’s thinking out loud. She glances at the stairs before lowering her voice. “I’m wondering if Kathy may have said something to Leah. I wouldn’t put it past her to tell Leah that boys will be boys and to ignore him.”
I let out a breath. I wish Mom were wrong, but given the other things Kathy has told Lauren and Leah recently, I could easily see her doing that. “I’ll ask Leah.”
The girls come down the stairs with their arms loaded with blankets. “Go slow, Lee Lee. I don’t want you to trip,” Lauren cautions, setting the pace to keep Leah from tumbling headfirst because she can’t see her feet.
I meet the girls in the living room to set up the corner posts for their fort. Everything is ready to go by the time Mom calls us in for dinner.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay to eat?” I ask her as she gathers up her stuff.
“I’m sure. Pop Pop made his homemade sandwich rolls tonight.”
“I don’t blame you for passing then. Thanks for this, Mom. We’ll see you for Sunday dinner.”
“See you Sunday. Make sure to bring Gia this time, please.”
“How’d you know she was in town again?”
Mom gives me a disappointed look.
Then it dawns on me. “The crochet club. Should have known.”
“We do know how to use our cell phones. We’re not that ancient.” She winks and then heads out the front door. The girls and I eat dinner, talking about our days and what we want to do this weekend.
“Dad, can we leave the fort up and invite Gia over for a sleepover?” Lauren asks.
“We could have a moobie night!” Leah adds.
“Sure. I’ll see if she wants to come over.
” Gia’s only been back in town for two days, and I’m already fighting my need to spend every minute with her.
I have to keep reminding myself that we have time now.
She’s not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.
It doesn’t stop me from wanting to be with her constantly, but it helps to remember that our time isn’t finite.
I’m working on the dishes, and the girls are getting the pillows situated just perfectly in the fort when Knox and Finn walk in the door. Leah and Finn run full force at each other to hug, both of them losing their balance and falling to the floor in a fit of giggles.
I grab a beer from the fridge and hand it to Knox. “They act like they haven’t seen each other in a week.”
He snorts. “Little Romeo over there asked if Leah would like his dinosaur shirt or his robot shirt better.”
Seems he chose dinosaurs over robots. I’d say he knows my daughter well. “Oh my god. That’s fucking adorable. You good?”
“Had to fire a ranch hand today.”
“Ah, shit. I’m sorry, Knox.”
He shrugs. “It is what it is. I’ll be pulling double-duty now until I can find someone else.”
“Let me know if you need me to take Finn after school. He can hang out here for the night, so you won’t have to worry about him.”
“Thanks. I’ll probably take you up on that next week.”
The rest of my best friends and their kids trickle in until I’ve got a houseful of people.
It’s loud and chaotic, but always a blast. Our kids are close in age, with Grayson’s daughter, London, being the youngest at four, and Emmett’s son and daughter, Eli and Emma, being the oldest at nine and ten.
The kids pile into the living room to watch their movie. They’ve got bowls of snacks scattered around that will require a few loads of laundry once they’re done, but they’re all content in their fort.
I set up the adult snacks at the table while my friends get settled in their chairs. “Knox, has Finn had any issues with a kid named Mason?”
“Not that I’m aware of, but I can ask him. Why?”
“Apparently, he’s been pushing Leah around to the point where she doesn’t want to go out to recess anymore.”
All three of my friends straighten at that news. Knox is the first to speak. “And Farrah hasn’t done anything about it?”
“I’m actually not sure she knew until today. She asked to meet with me on Monday.” When I checked my email, I saw that Mom was right about Farrah wanting to talk about Leah and the issues with this student.
Knox scoffs. “Yeah, sure. What’s she going to do? Fart sunshine at the kid to get him to stop bullying Leah?”
Emmett, Grayson, and I stare at Knox for a long, silent moment.
“What?” he growls.
“I think we need to talk about this issue you’ve got with a kindergarten teacher,” Emmett responds.
Knox rolls his eyes. “I don’t have a problem with her. She just rubs me the wrong way.”
“I think you might want her to rub you the right way.” Grayson grins.
Knox gives him a dark look, and we burst out laughing. Knox tries to leave the table, but I stop him, shoving him back down by the shoulder. “Why does she bother you so much?”
He sighs, resigned to the inquisition. “Nobody is that happy. It has to be fake, and I can’t stand when people pretend to be something they’re not.”
“Or she could just be that happy,” Emmett counters. “She’s a kindergarten teacher. It’s sort of a prerequisite to be peppy.”
Knox shakes his head. “You can be happy without shitting rainbows everywhere.”
“Is that how she decorated her classroom?” Grayson asks. “I feel like that might be a health hazard.”
Knox flips him off, making Gray laugh harder.
I interrupt before the two of them can start bickering. “Look, I get where you’re coming from, but I think Farrah is genuinely that nice. Maybe you should give her a chance.”
“It’s too late now. She hates me.”
“Then there ya go.” Grayson holds his hand out. “She can’t be happy all the time if she hates your guts.”
Knox looks at me, desperate to change the subject. “What are we doing about this little shithead who’s bothering Leah?”
“I don’t know. They’re six-year-olds. They have no idea how to navigate their worlds yet. At the very least, I’m going to see what the school and Farrah say about him first. I also want to have words with Gina Halbrand. She told Leah to brush it off instead of taking her seriously.”
“She is so scary,” Grayson whispers as if she’s in the room with us. “I’m pretty sure she’s a witch.”
“You’re an idiot, Gray.” I roll my eyes through my laughter. “She’s not a witch.”
“She’s like a hundred years old. And her nose hooks in an oddly birdlike way.”
“She went to school with my Mom. She’s not that old. I do agree about the nose thing though. It’s very beaky.”
“I need to see a picture of this woman,” Emmett says.
Grayson pulls out his phone to find one while we talk about teachers we hated growing up. I’d have killed to have a teacher like Farrah. Instead, I got one who ran her classroom like a drill sergeant.
Knox says, “I’ll talk to Finn about this kid. He might know something the teachers don’t.”
“Thanks.”
The conversation shifts, and the guys start giving me a hard time about Gia coming back to town, but it doesn’t bother me. I’ll take the teasing if it means I get to keep her.