Chapter 19
“So you really like the idea?” I asked Stuart as we sipped coffee at the breakfast table the next morning. “I mean, you really think it makes sense?”
“You’re sure this is something that you want to take on?” he asked. “I mean, my part is the easy part. Paperwork and signing checks and documents. You’re taking on quite a load, Kate.”
“Not alone, though. You’ll help with the office administration, right? And Eric will be training and helping with overall operations, and Cutter will help, too. Plus, Father Corletti will send others to help train as well.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “What are we doing about high school, though? Is Allie going to go all in at your new academy? Or will she stay at Coronado High?”
“Forza West, for Allie,” I said. “But we’ll be bringing in academic teachers, too. I have a feeling those will be the classes she tries to skip.”
He nodded slowly. “That makes sense. What about Mindy?”
I grimaced. To be honest I hadn’t thought about that.
And right now my brain was very, very tired.
I’d spent most of the time between two in the morning and right now on the phone with Father Corletti, talking to him and Marcus about the idea and all the practical aspects of getting my idea up and running.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “She’s decent in the field, but I think she’d really rock at training to be an alimentatore. I mean, Laura rocks at research. Like mother, like daughter?”
“So the school would teach that stuff, too?” Stuart asked. “The history, the demonology, all of that?”
“Along with regular academic courses. Yeah.” Though if this school turned out to be anything like my experience, there’d be more fighting and less academia, except for those on the alimentatore track.
“How are you going to recruit the academic instructors?”
I sighed. “Stuart, I came up with this idea yesterday. I haven’t thought of everything yet. But you’re right. We’ll need to recruit. We’ll need accreditations. And I’m really hoping my organized and resourceful husband will jump all over that.”
“I’ve got back-to-back meetings today, but I’ll give it some thought. I promise.”
“Yeah?” He got up, then kissed me on the cheek before taking his coffee mug to the sink. “Anything for you. You know that right?”
“What are you doing for Mom?” Allie asked, padding into the kitchen in her bare feet and bunny-covered pajamas.
“Stuart’s looking into some legal aspects of an idea I have.” I couldn’t help the fact that I was practically bouncing in my seat.
Allie glanced at Stuart, her brows raised. “Mom’s dying to tell me what it is. Is it okay? Can you tell me? Is it a secret?”
I laughed. “No, I think it’s okay for you to know, but you need to also understand that it may not happen. A million things have to fall into place to make it a sure thing.”
“What?” Now she looked really interested. She pulled out a chair and sat at the table, then took one of the pieces of buttered toast I’d made for myself. “What’s going on?”
“We’re thinking about making the Greatwater mansion into a training center. Forza West. A full-on boarding school for training hunters.”
“Whoa. That is so cool.” Her eyes were wide, and she looked as giddy as I felt.
“While you two hash it all out all over again, I’m going to go to the office.”
“Thanks, sweetheart. And Father Corletti said for you to go ahead and draw up the paperwork so Forza can purchase the building.”
“I’m on it,” he said.
“Then this is really happening?” Allie said.
“The purchase of the property, yes. But whether we can create a boarding school … well, that’s a bigger deal. But you’d like that?”
“Are you kidding? Of course.”
“You understand it would be your actual school. Coronado High would be off the agenda.”
“Oh.”
“And?” I watched her carefully.
“I can get behind that,” she said slowly. “But what about Mindy?”
“Well, that would be up to Mindy and Laura, wouldn’t it? But even if she decided to stay at Coronado, you two would still be living next to each other.”
“But you said it would be a boarding school.”
I stumbled over that, because she was right, and yet I hadn’t thought about that aspect at all. I wondered if Stuart had. Would we sell this house and move into the mansion? After all, staff and instructors usually lived on site, too.
Since I didn’t know, I punted. “We’ll figure it all out as it goes along,” I said, probably more impatiently than I should have. “There’s a million details to talk about.”
“But—”
I held up my hand. “I’ve been up all night talking to Father Corletti. Seriously, baby. We can talk about the details later.”
“Whatever.” But she didn’t say it in an irritated-teenage way. Instead she said it in an I’m bored of this conversation and ready to move on-teenage way. I considered that a plus.
She got up and poured herself a cup of cream with a splash of coffee, then came back to the table. “I can go patrolling with Jared today, right?”
“You can. But you need to be careful. Be aware of your surroundings. Always alert.”
“Mom. You don’t have to say that every time I go patrolling. I’m not going to accidentally forget and then be all reckless and stupid because you didn’t remind me that I’m supposed to be careful.”
“Just being sure,” I said, because she’s a teenager and these things bear repeating.
She rolled her eyes, but she smiled. “He’s picking me up in about fifteen minutes so I need to get dressed soon.
” She took another sip, then frowned. “It must be really weird to have to renew your driver’s license every ten years or so because you look like you’re exactly the same age as you were when you got it. ”
“Yes. That’s something that I’ve always wondered about,” I said dryly.
“I’m just trying to learn. That’s what you said, right? I’m supposed to be learning all the time. This is my vocation now.”
“Apparently you are better at studying when your vocation involves a boy.”
She just smiled.
“Allie. He’s too old for you.”
“I know, Mother...”
And then she pushed back from the table and left the room, leaving me to smile into my coffee. He was too old for her, and she knew it. He also knew it, and I think he respected that. But I was definitely going to keep an eye on the two of them for the foreseeable future.
Once I’d had more coffee than a human being should consume in one morning, I started back on cleaning the house again since there was still much to be done before Saturday. I kept the TV on as I worked, as Timmy was already up and fed and camped out in front of Sesame Street.
He sang and I cleaned, and on the whole the morning felt about as average as you could get. Eventually, Eddie stumbled downstairs, made himself an Eggo waffle, then told me he was heading out to meet Rita for breakfast.
I glanced at the waffle and decided not to press the point.
“Is she coming on Saturday for You Know Who’s p-a-r-t-y?” I asked, being cryptic since You Know Who was only a few feet away.
“As far as I know she is. Don’t expect she’d want to miss it.” He spoke casually, but I could tell that he was looking forward to having her here, playing host and showing off his great-grandson.
Once he was out the door, I turned my attention back to Timmy. “It’s just you and me, kid. Want to help me clean?”
“Elmo,” Timmy said pointing at the screen.
Isn’t that always the way? Shoved aside by a monster. Albeit an adorably cute one.
By late afternoon, I’d done pretty much everything except vacuum the living room, which I was holding off on so as to not bother Timmy, who switched from television to quietly playing with his stuffed animals on the couch.
Since the “quietly” was key, I didn’t want to anger whatever benevolent gods had blessed me with this moment of peace.
I took a moment at the kitchen table to flip through a magazine, and looked up to see Mindy at the back door. I got up to let her in, expecting to see Laura trailing behind her, but it was just Mindy.
“Allie’s not here. She went out patrolling with Jared.”
Mindy bit her lower lip, cocked her head, crossed her arms over her chest. And me, with my keen ability to read body language, clued in that she was irritated.
“She told me she wanted to do nails stuff today. She was going to do mine this morning so they’d be polished and cool for the show.”
“Maybe she got the times wrong,” I said, knowing full well that my daughter just forgot, her best friend pushed out of her mind by the power of a cute boy.
“I can’t believe she went out patrolling again and didn’t take me. It’s not about getting hurt and having my understudy go on, I’m sure of it.”
Since she was most likely right, I wisely stayed quiet.
“I’ve been training, Aunt Kate, and I’m good. I mean yeah, Allie’s better, but she’s practiced more. And she probably inherited some good stuff from you.”
“I think she inherited more from her father,” I said dryly.
Mindy shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.” She looked back at me. “They really went patrolling together?”
“I’m sorry. They really did. Do you want to hang out? I’ll pay you to babysit Timmy while I finish cleaning.” She looked over at Timmy who was being the most well-behaved child ever.
“You’d pay me to watch that?”
I laughed. “I’m afraid if I move him so I can vacuum, all hell will break loose. I was hoping for a buffer.”
“I’ll watch him. You don’t even have to pay me. Do you want me to take him over to our house?”
“Would you? That would be great.”
As we started to gather up a few things to take with him, she paused and looked at me. “Can I tell you something, Aunt Kate?”
“Of course, you can.”
“I don’t know that I trust him. Jared, I mean.”
I wasn’t sure if it was warning bells going off in my head or irritation with my daughter, who clearly had still not yet told her best friend the full situation yet. “Why not?” I asked.
“It’s probably just me. I just think he’s—”
“What?”
She shook her head. “I just think he’s not what he seems.