Dream Keeper (Dream Team 4)

“That’s hitting my gratitude journal tonight for sure.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You have a gratitude journal?”

“As much as it appears it’s going to disappoint you, I was joking.” He studied me a second then asked, “Do you?”

“I journal every day and I begin each day’s entry with three things I’m grateful for from the day before.” I reached out and patted his hand. “But it’s okay you don’t have a journal. Christmas is coming.”

He laughed again.

I smiled again.

His humor didn’t totally leave him even as he said, “Corbin’s gonna pull out all the stops to reunite his family.”

I wasn’t feeling so jaunty, even as I joked with words that were the truth, “Clearly, you’re a good judge of people.”

“He’s not hiding it.”

He wasn’t.

“This is doomed from the start since, because of him, we never really were a family.”

“Sweetheart,” he murmured.

“We weren’t, Auggie. Let’s be crystal clear on this. We weren’t. And that means there’s nothing to go back to because there was never anything really there.”

He nodded.

“Do you believe me?” I asked.

“Even if I didn’t, if you looked like you were considering it, Juno might go in search of a voodoo practitioner and have them put a hex on the both of you.”

“This is a concern,” I said mock gravely.

Auggie wasn’t hiding his amusement, but it faded before he said, “What it is, is double trouble, baby. Because if he doesn’t get his head out of his ass, it’s going to upset her. And he’s so intent on what he wants, he’s not paying any mind to his girl.”

I pulled in a big breath and let it out on a massive sigh, because that was the truth.

“I get involved in school stuff that Corbin isn’t involved in, though this isn’t normally my thing,” I told him. “I only went tonight to be with you and make sure it was all cool for you. She wasn’t supposed to be there to see me. It’s going to be rough, being at the school then going to work. Ian is going to have to schedule me so I can come in late for the next few weeks.”

“Then don’t do it, I’ll do it. You don’t have to be there.”

“Auggie—”

“It’s every weeknight from seven to nine. You work. You can’t do it. She’ll understand. And it takes you out of Patrick’s space.”

“Maybe I should come for this week, so I can have a minute to explain it to her.”

“Your call, she’s your daughter. But don’t take this in a bad way, it might be a relief for her, you don’t show.”

This was something to ponder, because he might be right.

He grinned to take any sting out of his earlier words and teased, “She didn’t hide it messed with her master plan, her dad bringing her tonight.”

“We Hannigan girls don’t like our master plans thwarted,” I concurred.

He reached out and took my hand. “It’s all gonna be good, baby.”

I rubbed the apple of his palm and mumbled, “Yeah.”

And in another stroke of luck that night, that was when the waitress showed with our food.

It was a stroke of luck because I was done with this conversation and thinking of Corbin. I wanted to think about Auggie.

But also, I was hungry.

And El Tejado’s food was amazing.

Chapter Twelve

Energy

Juno

Is everything okay, sweetheart?”

Juno got worried that Mr. Cisco answered the phone that way.

Not that he didn’t again answer real quick.

And it wasn’t about the words he said.

Just that he sounded like her mom sounded when Juno asked her a question and she was doing something, like making a grocery list.

“Are you busy, Mr. Cisco?” she asked, phone to her ear, covers pulled up on that side, eyes peeking out and aimed in the direction of her closed bedroom door.

She was being careful, even if her dad never came to check on her after he made sure she brushed her teeth and hair and got in her jammies, had her book bag sorted and got into bed.

It was lights out, so he probably thought she was sleeping, and he was downstairs, doing whatever he did when Juno was in bed.

Still, he might hear her talking.

“Give me just one second, Juno,” Mr. Cisco replied.

Juno gave him that one second, though it was more than one.

Finally, he came back to her and his voice was different.

He wasn’t writing his grocery list anymore (or whatever).

“Okay, honey, is everything all right?” he asked.

“Dad’s ruining everything.”

Now it was her voice that was funny. All bumpy and hitchy.

“Juno, take a deep breath for me, okay?”

Her mom would say that to her when she got upset about something.

So she took a deep breath.

Like always, it helped.

“Now, what’s happening?” Mr. Cisco asked.

“Well…” she began, then told him about how her dad somehow found out about the Thanksgiving show, and even though he never, ever, ever did anything like that, he showed up at the school and took Juno with him.