Join the Club - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,19

tomorrow at eight to pick you up.

Annoyed already with him, I immediately texted him right back.

Delanie: I have to get Asa to school tomorrow. I’m taking him to the book fair. I can be ready by ten.

Or never, if you prefer.

Not that I would tell him that.

Telling Bourne that I didn’t want to do it would let him know that I didn’t think rationally when it came to him.

And I definitely wanted him to think I was rational.

Meaning, I’d sucked it up and agreed even though I thought it was a terrible idea.

867-5301: I’ll be there at nine-thirty. We can take him to the book fair together. Then we’ll leave straight from the school.

I hated that he had a plan that made sense. I couldn’t refute it in any way.

So I didn’t bother responding.

Instead, I spent the next couple of hours waiting for Asa to get off the bus by working the dogs.

When Asa’s bus pulled around the corner and headed our way, I had a huge smile on my face.

When the bus pulled to a stop, Asa started running down the stairs at full speed to get to me.

I braced myself before he could get to me and pulled him up into my arms, waving at the bus driver seconds later.

Asa’s tiny little arms went around me, and he squeezed me tight.

God, I loved the kid.

More than anything.

“How was school, baby?” I asked, squeezing him lightly before letting him go back to his feet.

Asa was small for his age, but still, he was getting huge. And there was going to come a point one day that I wouldn’t be able to pick him up any more like I’d just done.

“I learned how to write my name in cursive,” he said. “And, I ate a huge burger. My friend dared me to put ours together and make one. I almost choked, and the teacher told me I was messing around. So I only got one bite of burger before she threw my entire lunch away. You know that the burger is the only food I’ll eat at school, but she wouldn’t let me eat it.”

I felt my eyes narrow.

“Well,” I said, trying not to get too mad. “I don’t even know what to say.”

I could see reprimanding him, but throwing his food away?

“Don’t worry about it. She’s mean,” he said, dismissing my worry with a wave of his hand.

Now I was worrying even more.

“What do you mean that she’s mean?” I asked, grabbing his hand and leading him into the house, bypassing everything on the way to the kitchen.

“She’s really mean to me. I’m not sure why, but I just ignore her,” he said.

I let his hand go and he dumped his backpack in the middle of the floor, just like he always did.

“Tell me the kinds of things that she does that you consider mean,” I replied gently, hoping that it wouldn’t make it seem like I was as pissed as I was.

He pointed to the counter where I kept the dog treats, and I rolled my eyes and handed him four.

He loved giving the dogs treats, and he was an amazing helper that all of the dogs just loved.

He disappeared to the kennels where he gave each dog a treat, and when he got back, I had him a peanut butter sandwich with no crusts made.

He started eating it before I reminded him of my question before he’d left.

“She doesn’t like me,” he repeated. “She’s my computer teacher. And she helps out in the STAR lab when I get sent there to take tests.”

Since Asa had skipped ahead a grade, he normally took his tests in the STAR lab to avoid any problems. I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t going to argue when it had my baby’s best interest at heart. At least, I thought it did.

Knowing that this chick didn’t like him made me semi-annoyed that he had to see her every day.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“Ms. Greeley,” he answered around a bite of food.

My lips tipped up at the corner.

My father would’ve had a conniption if he’d seen one of us doing that.

I couldn’t tell you how many times we’d gotten a belt to the ass for something similar.

That was why, although it wasn’t technically showing good manners, I never corrected him.

“What does she do?” I pushed, shooting off a text to Booth.

Delanie: Has Asa ever talked to you about a Ms. Greeley?

He replied immediately.

Booth: Once. About her refusing to open his ketchup packets at