All I knew was that it was on a constant loop in my house. In fact, Netflix stopped asking if I was still watching. Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but even I knew the dialogue at this point.
And now this crazy redhead who had invaded my brain with her outrageous mouth and stupidly perfect body was responsible for molding my kid. That sounded about as wrong as something that might’ve come out of Kelsey’s mouth, but holy fuck.
I stepped into the room and resisted the urge to tuck in the white button down shirt I’d put on instead of the dingy uniform I lived in at the shop. Parent-teacher night always put me in a mood. The nuns were forever looking at me as if I was less than because there was no wife at home.
I mean, there was my mom to help out, but Wes’s mom had been out of the picture for almost half his life. And for the nuns, a single dad practically equated with “do we need to call social services on you?”
I took care of my kid, for fuck’s sake.
I cleared my throat. “Is there a problem?”
“Dare.” Her huge golden eyes were more than a little startled. She gave me a quick once over and I was glad for the shirttails hiding the bulge in my fucking jeans. It didn’t matter that I was pissed at her, my dick was ready to play.
“Ohhh.” Ally looked between us then she pressed her lips together and stifled a laugh. She hid it well enough behind a cough, but she definitely knew we’d hooked up. Women loved to fucking talk.
It wasn’t like I was hiding the fact that I’d spent time with Kelsey on more than one occasion, but it wasn’t anyone’s business if we’d hooked up. At all.
“Laurie’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Ally patted my arm as she passed me. “They’re just in a little fight.”
“Over wha
t?” I didn’t want to ask. I didn’t want to discuss any of this, but I knew I had to.
Kelsey licked her lips as she twisted her fingers together. “I tried to talk to Weston about—”
“Wes.”
Her brow furrowed. “Yes, Wes.”
I wasn’t going to let her put him in a troublemaker box. He was a good kid with a shit ton of energy. I tried not to think about his teacher last year who tried to convince him to put him on Ritalin or some shit because he didn’t pay attention. He didn’t pay attention because he was bored, and that was it.
I bunched my fists in my pockets and stared her down.
Ally glanced at the door. “Do you want me to stay or—”
Kelsey sighed. “It’s okay, Ally. I have this.”
“No, I want her here to figure it out between us,” I said, well-aware my voice sounded defensive. But if there was an issue, I wanted it settled now.
Kelsey smoothed her palm over the side of her leg. “It was a silly little misunderstanding. I tried to talk to Wes about it, but he wouldn’t talk to me. I’m not exactly sure on the particulars other than the fact that yogurt ended up down the back of Laurie’s hair and uniform.”
“Yogurt?” I was dumbfounded. I’d figured he’d thrown Play-Doh at Laurie or something. “He loves that shit—stuff. He’d never waste it. I can’t get him to stop eating it, for God’s sake.”
“I have a feeling it was an accident, but he was very embarrassed and angry. I can’t help him if he won’t tell me what’s wrong. And if it was an accident, we could have fixed it much easier.”
“Yeah, well, he’s prideful.”
“Shocking,” Kelsey muttered.
Ally let out a bawdy laugh. “Sounds about right. And Laurie overreacted, I’m sure. It got in her hair and that girl loves her hair.” She waved it off. “Again, it’s no big deal. She’ll forget all about it by tomorrow.”
Kelsey nodded at Ally. “Thanks for understanding. And coming in.”
“Feel better. I’ll see you Sunday unless you’re not feeling up to it.”
Kelsey twisted her long hair into a tumbling mass of silk over her shoulder. “I feel much better.”
I frowned. What did that mean?