Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
She nodded.
“He hasn’t always been that guy, but he was before our children came along, and he’s been their rock all their lives. His son is just like him, with an overly honed sense of duty, honor, and service. They’re knights. And knights stand for good and save people.”
Theresa leaned forward, but Aja cut her off.
“Do not give him a lecture on medieval knights or the Knights Templar, because that’s not the kind he means,” Aja warned her. “There are bad apples and all that, but I cannot, will not, go through life thinking the worst of people. That would be the end of me.”
Theresa put up her hands.
“All this, of course, does not answer the question of what Hannah’s going to do about the troglodytes in her dorm,” Aja said, bringing the conversation full circle.
“Well, knowing Hannah,” I said with a grin, “she might Zoom with the guy’s parents and have a conversation with them and then walk down the hall to his room and let them in on how he’s been acting.”
“Ohmygod,” Theresa gasped. “Your daughter would do that?”
I nodded. “My daughter’s a badass, and she’s never been one to back down from a fight. I just want her to be safe. I worry.”
“I’m sure you do with the way the world is.”
“Some to do with the world, more to do with her being my child. I will always worry. I love those people who think that, when your kid turns eighteen or moves out or moves to another state, somehow that worry gets turned off.”
“You’re right,” Theresa said, reaching for my hand. “It never goes away.”
I squeezed her hand tight.
I made spaghetti for dinner and Caesar salad to go with it, and had poured myself a glass of Chianti and was just waiting to hear my husband’s car roll up when I heard a different car in the driveway. Rising, I walked out on the porch and my daughter was getting out of the back seat of a Chevy Suburban, and from the look on her face, I was surprised there wasn’t smoke coming out of her ears.
The driver’s side window rolled down, and I saw the wicked grin of Sam’s deputy director, Ian Doyle.
“Come on, kid, it was funny.”
I could hear her growl from where I was. She hurled open the gate when she reached it, threw it closed, and continued to me, stomping up the steps.
“Hi, honey,” I greeted her.
“I’m going to murder him.”
I took another sip of wine so I wouldn’t laugh.
“I’ll see you later, kid,” Ian yelled, and then glanced at me. “You have a good evening, Mr. Harcourt,” he finished with a cackle.
“You too,” I said, and watched as the window rolled up as he backed out of the driveway.
I faced my daughter then.
“I know we don’t swear in this house—but, Pa, I––” She growled again. “Fucking Ian.”
It was lucky I had swallowed my latest sip of wine or I would have spit up all over her. “What happened?”
“You couldn’t tell with the blacked-out windows, but Miro is in the car and that traitor Eli, who I’ve stuck up for with Dad, but, Pa—they all suck.”
“Wait, was today the day that your father went to have lunch with you?”
She scoffed. “If only.”
“I made baked spaghetti,” I told her, sliding my arm around her shoulders. “Come inside and I’ll put the bread on.”
She whimpered, and I walked her in.
From the story I got, Sam showed up at Hannah’s dorm to collect her and Jalissa and Coretta for lunch. He was charming—so my daughter said—and very low-key. He met more of her new acquaintances, was nice, stood up straight when he met some of the boys, and the word got around fast that Hannah’s father could bench-press any of them that he wanted. It went well, they had a lovely meal, he walked them back, invited Jalissa and Coretta over for Halloween and left. Everything was great.
“Ian’s the devil,” she muttered under her breath.
A half an hour later, there was a knock on her dorm room door, and when she opened it, Ian was there, grinning like the cat that ate the canary.
She remembered thinking, “Oh no,” right before it came out of her mouth.
“Which room is fuckwit Calvin in?”
“No, no, no,” she rushed out. “Dad was already here and––”
“The one at the end of the hall,” Coretta answered.
“Great,” Ian said and was gone, but when Hannah went to chase after him, she was waylaid by Eli Kohn leaning into the room.
“Hello,” he greeted her cheerfully, and even though she’d always found him gorgeous, at the moment she was ready to kill him. “How are you?”
“Why are you here?” she whimpered.
He handed her his business card. “Well, the marshals service has partnered with the school to give a series of self-defense classes to the student body.”