All It Takes (Romancing Manhattan 2)

“Shit,” Carter mutters as the next message plays.

“It’s Nora. The school called, and they want to see you. I know you’re in court, so I’m headed there now.”

“Thank God for Nora,” I say.

“There are two more messages,” Carter replies.

“Me again,” Nora says, her voice more hurried. “I have Gabby. Will tell you more when I see you, but she’s not hurt.”

“I guess that’s good news,” he murmurs.

“Hey,” Nora says through the speakers, “we’re back at the office. See you soon.”

“When did all this happen?” I ask as we pull into the garage.

“More than an hour ago,” he replies. We hurry up to the office, and I stick with him as he walks briskly to his own office. Nora is sitting at her desk just outside of Carter’s office door.

“The preteen drama queen is in your office,” Nora says with a grin. “She’s been suspended until Monday, and I already have her phone in my desk. But Carter.”

He stops and looks down at the pretty blond woman. I see the look in his eyes. I’m not blind or stupid.

He has the hots for Nora.

But my guess would be that he doesn’t want to blur the lines between personal and professional, which I totally understand.

“You really need to listen to her before you fly off the handle.”

“I don’t fly off the handle,” Carter replies, to which Nora just rolls her eyes.

“Of course. You’re completely calm at all times.”

“Thanks for taking care of things, Nora,” Carter says as he walks to his door, then turns to me. “You don’t have to be here for this.”

“Oh yeah, I do.” I smile widely. “I don’t have anything more pressing to do, and I want to know what’s going on.”

“Fine.” Carter marches into his office, and there’s Gabby, sitting in her father’s chair, her arms crossed over her chest, and a scowl on her pretty little face.

“Hey, munchkin,” Carter says. She doesn’t look up from whatever she’s glaring at on Carter’s desk.

“Hi.”

We both sit across from her, as if we’re the ones who have been called into the principal’s office.

“Wanna talk about it?” I ask.

Gabby shakes her head. “No. It doesn’t matter.”

“Pretty sure it matters,” Carter replies. “Since you’ve been suspended and all, sounds like it definitely matters.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she says, her eyes spitting anger as she turns them to her father. “I didn’t even do anything wrong, and I got kicked out of school. I don’t want to go back. I just want to be homeschooled.”

“You know that isn’t possible,” Carter replies, and I’m happy that he does sound perfectly calm and reasonable. “Gabby, explain what happened, and maybe we can help.”

She chews on her lip, then sighs and leans her head back on the chair.

“There’s this girl named Lily at school, and she’s not really very pretty, but that’s not a big deal because she’s super nice and really funny.”

I can already tell where this is going.

“I like her, and I always invite her to have lunch with us even though Claire can sometimes be a witch, except with the B instead of the W.”

“Yes, I’m following you,” Carter says dryly.

“So Claire is the B-word,” Gabby reiterates and I have to hide my smile behind my hand. Gabby’s trying to grow up so quickly, and she’s just dying to curse. “And we’re sitting at lunch, and everything is totally fine. We were talking about this new movie on Netflix, and how the guy is cute, and Lily said she thought he was so cute, and then Claire rolled her eyes and told Lily that a hot guy like that would never be interested in someone as ugly as her.”

Gabby’s eyes well with tears, and my smile is immediately gone.

“Claire does sound like a bitch,” I whisper, and Carter frowns at me, giving me the silent, universal signal that says don’t egg her on.

“She is,” Gabby agrees. “And she’s just plain mean. I mean, why does she have to say stuff like that?”

“So what did you do?” Carter asks, and now Gabby chews her lip again and shrugs one shoulder.

“Nothing.”

“No way,” Carter replies, sitting forward in his chair. “They didn’t suspend you for glaring at Claire the B.”

“Well, I was sitting next to her, across from Lily, and I sort of—”

We wait, literally on the edge of our seats, for her to continue, but now she’s gone all shy.

“Tell me you kicked her bratty little ass,” I say, earning another glare from Carter.

“I threw applesauce in her face,” Gabby says. “And then she pulled my hair, so I might have pulled her earring out of her ear.”

Jesus. Gabby’s a scrapper.

“You might have?” Carter asks incredulously. “Jesus, Gabby, you made her bleed.”

“She deserved it,” Gabby replies with big crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks. “She was so mean, and this isn’t the first time. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. Lily didn’t deserve it. She didn’t say anything bad to Claire.”