My lips twitched.
Since I was the one picking Asa up anyway today because he had a doctor’s appointment, I didn’t tell anybody that I had him.
I also wouldn’t let this cuteness get to his head.
“You know,” I said as I looked at my little buddy on the seat behind me. “I love you. And I love spending time with you, but if you’re not actually sick, you can’t be having us pick you up from school just because you don’t want to be there.”
Asa looked up at me through my rearview mirror and pouted.
“But…”
I shook my head. “No buts. I’m sorry. I love you, but you have to go to school. We sometimes have to do the hard things to get the good things.”
He grumbled something under his breath. “But she was being so mean! She wouldn’t even let me have any of her ice cream today!”
“So tell me about this girl?” I asked as I drove him to the store. Where, I wouldn’t admit, I got him some ice cream of his own.
Three hours later, we’d been to the doctor, seen our movie, I’d fed him, and I was pulling up in front of my house.
I was laughing my ass off at his rendition of the superhero bad guy we’d just watched on the big screen when Delanie came running out of the house as if her heels were on fire.
“Asa!” she cried.
Her eyes were pouring tears, and I was so confused.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, worried.
She glared at me. “Why didn’t you tell me that you had him?”
I frowned. “I… what?”
Dillan and Booth were slower to arrive, but they were both in extremely bad moods, too.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“Something happened.” Delanie stood up, her arms around Asa. “Yes, something happened! You happened! You didn’t tell me that you were picking him up early!”
I blinked.
“What?” I asked.
Had I heard her correctly?
“We got a call,” Booth said, his voice serious and low. “From her father.” He pointed at Delanie. “Asking us if we knew where our kid was. All cryptic-like, too. Then hung up and refused to answer the phone. When we tried to find Asa, we realized he wasn’t at school. And no one could tell us who had him.”
I remembered the front office ladies being gone, and since I’d already spoken with the nurse about taking him, I hadn’t thought it was a big deal to sign him out twice.
“I… the nurse knew,” I said. “She was the one who called me.”
Delanie was shaking now.
“Asa,” Delanie said as she gestured toward the door. “Head inside and change your clothes.”
Yeah, so the kid had ice cream all over him. And when I say all over him, I meant all over him. His shirt. His pants. His face. He’d made a huge mess.
But I could tell that it’d just been one more thing to upset her.
“We didn’t know,” Delanie said once Asa was inside. “We didn’t know, and we should have.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“I didn’t think that I needed to call,” I admitted. “It was only about an hour early. You knew I was going to get him this afternoon. Y’all were in the lawyer’s office. In an important meeting.”
Why did I feel the need to keep repeating myself?
I didn’t really feel like I was in the wrong here.
“You should have!” Delanie snapped. “You should have called! He could’ve been really hurt! And we didn’t know.”
I instantly felt badly.
But still…
“Next time, I’ll call,” I said. “Just sayin’, but something is wrong there when the office didn’t know where he went. They were the ones to call me and tell me he needed to be picked up. Next time, I’ll be sure to sign him out in the office and the nurse’s office, though.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Delanie snapped.
Booth stiffened slightly.
Dillan looked torn.
“What?” I asked, my tone deadly quiet.
“There won’t be a next time,” she ground out. “Next time, they’ll either call me or Booth. I told them that today when I called back for the fourth time. That was absolutely ridiculous that they couldn’t tell me where my kid had gone.”
I frowned. “You’re telling me I can’t pick him up anymore?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to answer.
Which pissed me off.
“I’ve been picking him up from school, and before that, daycare, for his entire life. You’re going to revoke my privileges of picking him up because of something stupid like this?” I asked. “That’s ridiculous. He was fine!”
“Booth…” I started, looking at my brother. “What the fuck?”
I mean, I could tell that Delanie was pissed. I would have been, too.
But still.
Refusing to allow anyone but those two to pick him up? That was ridiculous. Especially seeing as Delanie had been gone so much lately and Booth was a police officer like I was. Sometimes it just wasn’t feasible for them to be the only ones. Like today, for instance.