Finally (Neighbor from Hell 12)

She wasn’t ready to say it, not yet.

Chapter 30

“I can’t do this, Daddy. I just can’t,” Abbi whispered with a sad shake of her head as she looked down with a barely-there sniffle as she wrapped her small arms around her backpack.

“Why is that?” Devin asked, biting back a yawn as he reached over and unbuckled Dustin.

God, he was fucking exhausted, he thought unable to help but smile as he thought of the reason why he’d barely managed more than a few hours of sleep over the past two days.

Charlie.

He hadn’t been able to get enough of her and thank god, she didn’t seem to mind. He’d lived out several of his fantasies over the past few days and a few that he was ashamed that he’d never thought of before and…

He couldn’t wait until he could pull her back in his arms, but he was going to have to because he had other things to take care of. During the day, he’d focus on his children and work and then at night, he’d be able to focus all of his attention doing all of those things with Charlie that he couldn’t seem to get enough of.

“It’s against my religion,” the little smart ass said, reminding him that it was time to focus on his children, the same ones that had their teacher sending him an email last night, asking him to come in early for another meeting.

“It’s against your religion to have a meeting with your teacher?” he asked, handing Dustin his backpack as he climbed out of the car.

“I’m afraid it is, Daddy,” Abbi said with a heartfelt sigh and a sad shake of her head.

“I see,” Devin murmured as he closed Dustin’s door and made his way around the car to find his daughter frantically trying to lock the car. This was just fucking sad, Devin thought as he pulled his keys out of his pocket and hit the unlock button as he reached over and opened her door.

“You want to tell me what you’re afraid your teacher is going to tell me?” Devin asked as he unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed her before she could dive into the front seat.

“But what if she doesn’t mention them? Then I’d be tattling on myself and you told me that tattling was wrong,” Abbi mumbled sadly, making him bite back a smile as he threw her over his shoulder. God, she was a fucking handful, Devin thought as he grabbed her backpack, closed the door and headed towards the school with Dustin by his side.

“Then you should definitely tell me,” he told her as they made their way to the front door.

“That just sounds wrong, Daddy,” Abbi said as Devin shifted his attention to Dustin.

“You’re being quiet this morning. Is everything okay?”

Shrugging, Dustin didn’t say anything as he reached over and pushed the doorbell. Before he got a chance to ask his son what was wrong, the door was opening and their principal was there, ushering them inside.

“Good morning, Mr. Bradford, how are you?” she said with a warm smile as they walked inside.

“We’re good,” Devin said although he wasn’t so sure about Dustin at the moment.

“Why don’t we go talk in my office?” Mrs. Haskins said before shifting her attention to Dustin. “Dustin, why don’t you and your sister go upstairs and see if you can help your teacher set up for morning crafts?”

“We’d rather stay with Daddy,” Abbi said as Devin placed her on her feet.

“And I’d rather find out why your principal needs to talk to me,” he said, handing Abbi’s backpack to her.

“Me, too, Daddy,” Abbi said, nodding solemnly, “Me, too.”

Narrowing his eyes on his baby girl, he said, “Go.”

“Fine,” Abbi sighed heavily as she reached over and took her brother’s hand and started heading towards their classroom.

“Right this way,” Mrs. Haskins said, gesturing for him to follow her.

“What did my children do now?” he asked, throwing her a sympathetic wince that had her lips twitching.

“Many things, Mr. Bradford,” she said, smiling as they walked into her office. “But I actually called you in for a different reason.”

“And what’s that?” Devin asked as he took a seat.

“Well, I’m not sure if you remember, but in the beginning of October we suggested getting Dustin tested so that we knew what his strengths and weaknesses were so that we had a better idea of how we could help him,” she began as Devin sat there, trying to prepare himself for what was coming.

Dustin had always been quiet even as a baby. While Abbi would cry over damn near everything, his son…hadn’t. He’d simply smile, content to enjoy his bottle or watch Devin as he worked. At the time, Devin had been relieved that his son was taking it easy on him, but as Dustin got older Devin began to worry. He was more reserved than his sister, could happily sit for hours playing by himself, and didn’t seem to be interested in playing with children his own age. He-

“Before we get to the results, I’m curious about something. Does Dustin spend a lot of time with his cousins, Sebastian and Jonathan?” Mrs. Haskins asked, making Devin wince because he’d heard about the hell that the twins had raised when they’d attended this school.

Clearing his throat, Devin said, “We’re a close family.”

Nodding, she murmured, “That makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Devin found himself asking as he watched her pull out a stack of paper.

“Did you know that your son has plans for world domination?” Mrs. Haskins asked, clearing her throat as she visibly struggled not to smile as she handed what he now realized was a collection of papers that had been stapled together to create a book.

“I see,” Devin murmured, not really sure how he was supposed to respond as he opened the first page and took in the surprisingly neat and well-organized drawings depicting his son’s plans to take over the world.

“He plans to set you up in a mansion on a tropical island,” she said, making his lips pull up into a pleased smile before adding, “because he doesn’t think that you’re going to be able to handle the pressure that comes with running the world,” making him glare.

“He feels that it would be better for everyone concerned if you weren’t involved in things,” she said, sounding really fucking amused as Devin sat there…seething.

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“What were the test results?” Devin asked evenly as he tossed the booklet back on her desk, refusing to waste another minute talking about his son’s world domination plans since they were clearly faulty.

Chuckling, she picked up a piece of paper off her desk and handed it to him. “Now, normally we would have a group meeting to discuss these results and we can still do that if you want, but I felt that it was important to meet sooner rather than later so that we can discuss options.”

“We actually have a few. Your son scored very high,” she said, pointing to a number at the top of the page. “That’s his I.Q.”

“One hundred and thirty-two?” he asked, sending her a questioning look.

“I believe it would have actually been higher if Dustin hadn’t become bored with the test and decided to take the opportunity to discuss the limited lunch selections in the cafeteria,” she explained, making his lips twitch. “The test is timed. I’d actually be curious to see how he does in a few years when he’s able to focus better.”

“What does this mean for him?” Devin asked as he sat there, trying to process everything.

He came here expecting a problem, but instead they were discussing his son’s I.Q. and plans for world domination, which they were going to discuss because they both fucking knew that he would make a wonderful asset.

“The concern was his reading, but his teacher has told me that he’s made a great deal of improvement since October so whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. He’s quickly catching up with his class, doing his classwork, and from what his teacher tells me, most days he finishes his work early and likes to read. We’d like to see him socialize with more children his own age, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she said with a helpless shrug.

At his questioning look, she said, “They annoy him.”

“Of course, they do,” Devin said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face.

“If he can continue making progress and he is willing to work with us over the summer, we have a few options that we’d like to discuss next year. We’re debating having him skip a grade or have him enroll in our gifted program, possibly both.”