Letting Go (Triple Eight Ranch) - By Mary Beth Lee Page 0,11
right. I need to decide quick.”
*****
Jed thanked the last of the nursery workers picking up the saplings and pulled the gloves off his hands, stuck them in his back pocket and inhaled the fresh air. A bit of cool ran under the hot wind today warning of thunderstorms later, but for now the weather couldn’t be much better.
He thanked God for that blessing. It made getting the trees out significantly easier. He checked the time on his phone and blew out a deep breath. In twenty minutes after-care would close, so he needed to get.
Shouting a quick thanks to his foreman José, Jed jumped in his truck and headed into town. Not letting Mack go to Clarissa’s today had been a tough decision, but after that stunt yesterday, he’d felt after-care was the right choice, if only to let her know she couldn’t get her way by disobeying.
God, I know you’re in control.
The comforting thought brought a calm to his heart. As long as he remembered that truth, he could handle anything.
Pulling in front of the school, he saw the stressed look on the teacher’s face matched by the stormy one on Mack’s. Wonderful.
He climbed out of the truck and made his way to the parent pick up area. Unlike the other children playing happily on the playground equipment, Mack was beside the teacher, arms crossed in front of her chest.
“Mr. Dillon.”
“Hey there, Mrs Snyder,” he said lightly, even though it was obvious this was not going to be a happy conversation.
Twenty minutes later he and Mack were leaving the school with paperwork from the principal and the knowledge that his daughter was the first kindergartener in the history of Stearns Elementary suspended from after-care for one full week. For some reason, Mack had led her classmates in a paint the door campaign, cut a classmate’s pony tail off and broken an aquarium to let a pet snake out. All in less than thirty minutes.
Now Mack was strapped into her booster scowling like a soldier ready for war.
He’d wanted to ask how on earth a five-year-old could possibly do so much damage with multiple teachers on duty, but he knew the answer. Mack could pretty much do anything once her mind was set.
“I didn’t paint the door first, Carly asked me to cut her hair, and the snake was sad,” Mack said when he started the truck.
Lord, give me strength.
“Mack, you handed out the paint brushes and hid the paint in the plants by the door. You know better than to cut someone’s hair. And snakes aren’t sad. No more excuses.”
“She said Clarissa was a floozy just like Mama.”
Oh man. Anger hit him full on and Jed forced himself not to turn the truck around.
“I hate after-care, Daddy. Don’t make me go back.”
No, they wouldn’t be going back. But he couldn’t condone Mack’s behavior, even though, right then, he understood.
A gust of wind shook the truck, and Jed looked at the sky surprised by the mix of dark blues, grays and greens. Thunderheads roiled, wisps of circulation causing some of them to rotate in crazy patterns across the sky. Definitely not driving weather.
He pulled in front of the diner, helped Mack out of her booster seat and, holding her hand, ran inside Pete’s as the first pelt of rain hit.
Clarissa turned in surprise when the bells rang above the diner door, and when he saw her worried glance out the front window, he was thankful they were there with her.
“Looks like it’s going to rock and roll out there,” she said.
The sound of hail took care of any answer he was going to give. Mack ran forward and threw her arms around Clarissa. “I don’t like after-care. I’m gonna stay with you from now on, ‘kay?”
Clarissa met his eyes, a new worry on her face. Thunder boomed, shaking the window panes of the diner and the weather alert radio sounded in the kitchen.
Pete came out of the back, wiping his hands on a towel he kept tucked in his apron.
“National weather service just issued a tornado warning,” he said, and Jed looked out the door, not all that surprised considering what the clouds had looked like. Grabbing Mack and Clarissa’s hands, he turned to Pete.
Pete shook his head. “No cellar, but the walk-in fridge should be safe. Go on, I’ll be there in a minute.”
Clarissa pulled her hand from his and pushed him away. “Take Mack and go. What do you need me to do, Pete?”
Pete cast a worried glance