Dream Keeper (Dream Team 4)

Juno was probably trying to see to my feelings and instead of telling me her father was going to be there, she’d warned me “someone else is coming.”

It was a little weird she didn’t just say, “Dad’s coming to bore everyone with anecdotes about being a baller real estate agent.”

But sometimes she got a little weird when her dad had a new woman in his life.

Therefore, during these times, I had to let her be how she needed to be, even if that was weird, and be prepared to pick up the pieces after.

This was what was on my mind after I got past checking in at the front office and was walking down the hall toward Juno’s classroom.

But even if my headspace was taken up with all of that, when I turned the corner to the hallway where Juno’s classroom was, nothing would have made me miss the astonishing and totally unforeseen fact that Augustus “Auggie” Hero—hot guy, ex-military, current-commando, man I was supposed to be dating since Lottie tried to fix us up ages ago, man I’d broken down and had wall sex with not long ago and then ended that episode very badly—that Auggie Hero was holding up the wall beside the door to Juno’s classroom with his broad shoulders.

But his head was turned, and his black eyes were on me.

Oh God.

Now there…

Embodied in that man…

Was a true perfect world.

But I felt my heart start racing and that had nothing to do with the fact he was gorgeous.

What was he doing here?

It was important to repeat that he was a current commando.

A commando who, for unknown reasons, was loitering in the hallway of an elementary school.

Was…?

God!

Was there some threat to Juno?

Completely forgetting how disastrous our last encounter had been (which was now a couple of months ago—we’d both independently instigated Operation Avoidance since then), I rushed to him, my high heels echoing against the tile in the quiet hall.

And I didn’t hesitate to grab on to his forearm that was crossed on his chest and lean in close so I could say low, “Is everything okay?”

He stared down at me.

Then he tipped his chin and looked at my fingers curled around his forearm.

He looked back at me when I squeezed his sinewy flesh and snapped, “Auggie! Is something wrong? Is Juno unsafe?”

At my question, his face changed.

In my panic, I hadn’t really registered his expression before, but now it couldn’t be missed that it was hyper alert.

I was already hyper alert, but I did not take it as a good sign he’d gone hyper alert even if it wasn’t a surprise, considering all that had been swirling around the Dream Team for nearly a year.

That Dream Team being Evie, Ryn, Hattie, Lottie…and me.

And it was important at that juncture to mention that all the drama that had been swirling around the Dream Team included death and dirty cops and kidnappings and stalking and shoot-outs, and it bore repeating…death.

As in murders.

So…yeah, Auggie Hero, Badass Extraordinaire, standing outside my daughter’s classroom freaked me.

Big time.

His voice—something I particularly liked about him, it was deep but smooth (not silky and elegant, instead soft and calming)—came at me.

“Is there a reason Juno wouldn’t be safe?”

My voice was rising. “I don’t know! You tell me.”

“Pepper, I didn’t come up to me and ask if Juno was safe.”

Okay…

Wait.

What?

“Then why are you standing outside Juno’s classroom?”

His strong, heavily stubbled chin jutted slightly to the side.

“I’m here for career day,” he declared. “Juno called. She wants me to talk to her class about going into the military.”

I blinked up at him.

“You didn’t know?” he asked.

No.

I.

Did.

Not.

Know.

That.

My.

Daughter.

Asked.

Augustus Hero.

To talk to her class on the same day I was going to talk to her class!

How did Juno…?

Why did Juno…?

What the hell?

“Her father isn’t coming?” I asked Auggie.

He shook his head once. “No clue. I just know I’m here and now you’re here. That’s all I know.”

I stood there, staring at him, at a loss for words because my daughter had somehow found a way to call Auggie and ask him to come and talk to her class during career day.

She did not have a cell phone.

As far as I knew, she didn’t use my mobile.

Though, we were one of the last of a dying breed that had a landline, also as far as I knew, Auggie’s phone number was not a part of the collective conscious.

How did she call him?

Further, I didn’t know if she had a quota on how many people she could ask to come speak to the class, but if she did, and considering the fact that her father was not there, that meant possibly she’d picked Auggie over Corbin.

Even if Corbin was a cheat and an asshole and I had many (what I thought were) serious questions about his concept of parenting, Corbin was good-looking. He was confident. He dressed well. He had encyclopedic knowledge of Bruce Willis films, Seinfeld and The Office. And he was indeed baller at real estate. So he was interesting, could hold a conversation and probably had motivating tidbits to share with a third-grade class.