Join the Club - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,23

both barrels.

My eyes met Bourne’s, and I raised my brows at him in question.

He gestured to my kid, who I could see writing something down on a desk in the corner of the STAR lab, and then at the teacher.

Which was when I realized that the teacher must’ve been the chick that was being mean to my baby.

I narrowed my eyes and gritted my teeth to keep myself from joining in on the verbal lashing that the detective was giving to the woman.

“…and why would you ever think that what you’re doing is okay?” the detective growled.

The teacher’s eyes weren’t filled with sorrow, either. They were filled with annoyance that she was getting chewed out.

I had a feeling that she was more upset about it being done in public rather than because she’d gotten caught.

“I’m treating your son like he deserves to be treated,” she said indignantly.

That’s when I stepped in.

“So a five-year-old,” I interrupted, “has done something to deserve to be treated like that?” I asked carefully. “He’s done something so horrible to you that you refuse to open his ketchup packets?” I paused. “And throw his food away? My son already suffers from stomach issues. So you’re telling me when he actually has a settled tummy for a change, you’re going to deny him his food?”

My son had spent the last few weeks throwing up at random.

I really didn’t think that the one time that he was actually feeling well enough to eat at school that she should’ve done that.

No way, no how.

The teacher had nothing to say.

“I think that it’s best for you to gather your belongings and leave,” Principal O’Malley said softly, his eyes directed at the irate teacher. “I’ll discuss this with the school board, but as of right now, you’re on unpaid administrative leave until I can discuss what’s happened with them.”

The teacher rolled her eyes and walked away as if her job hadn’t just been taken away from her.

I deflated. “I was hoping she’d put up more of a fight,” I murmured.

The detective turned to look at me for the first time, and he grinned.

“I got her a few good ones. Don’t worry,” he said. “And this won’t be the end of this.”

“Do you think it’s because y’all are both cops?” I asked him curiously.

Bourne stiffened beside me.

“I don’t think that’s it,” O’Malley said. “There are other students in this school that have police officer parents.”

“But do any of them come to this particular class?” the detective asked.

“Probably not,” Bourne murmured just as Asa came walking out of the lab. “Hey, buddy. You ready to go to the book fair?”

Asa nodded and skipped to me, throwing his arms around my leg. “I’m ready!”

Grinning, I ran my hand over his hair, smoothing it down even though I knew it wouldn’t stay. “Can Uncle Bourne take you to the fair? That way Mommy can talk to the principal?”

He shrugged as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Thirty minutes later, the detective, I learned was called Neal, and I were talking outside the hallway of the book fair.

“Are you seeing anybody?” he asked.

We’d bonded over our son’s predicaments, and I’d found that I quite liked him a lot.

Though, just sayin’, not anywhere near as much as Bourne.

But, since that was a scab that I shouldn’t pick at, I opened my mouth to say ‘no’ but never got the chance.

“You ready, baby?” Bourne asked.

I blinked at his use of ‘baby’ and was just about to call him on it when Asa stepped out with his massive bag of crap that he likely didn’t need, and that Bourne probably spent a couple hundred bucks on.

He then promptly spilled it on the floor.

Grinning, I hurried over to help him clean it up.

Once it was all packed nicely in the bag, I walked back over to the two men with Asa’s hand in mine.

I smiled at Neal, but the one he returned didn’t reach his eyes.

“Well, it was nice talking to y’all,” Neal said. “I’ll see you at the station, Bourne. Nice to meet you, Delanie.”

Then he was gone, leaving me standing there in confusion.

I looked over to Bourne to see if he’d noticed his abrupt departure only to see him glaring at Neal’s back.

“Everything okay?” I asked curiously.

Bourne shrugged, his eyes going to Asa.

“You ready to go back to class, little man?” he asked.

Asa pouted. “Do I have to?”

Bourne grinned, making my heart skip a beat.

“Yeah,” he said. “Your mommy and I are driving to Austin. I