Who's the Daddy (Crescent Cove 3)

Wes finally reentered the classroom and I quickly ushered him back out into the hall. “Can you tell me what happened, Mr. Kramer?”

“No.”

I crouched down in front of him to look him in the eye. “Why not?”

“Because you won’t care anyway. It’s just stupid.”

“Of course I do.”

“No you don’t. Just what princess Laurie says.”

“You can tell me.”

“It don’t matter. Can I just go back inside?”

“Wes, you can tell me.”

Instead of answering, he just put an even more mutinous look on his face.

“I thought you and Laurie were friends.”

“Used to be. Not anymore. She likes Jeffrey better. Whatever.” He brushed by me and into the room.

“Weston.”

My warning tone didn’t seem to deter him. He just walked faster into the room.

Sighing, I stood up. Parent-teacher night was tonight. Just in time.

I touched the splatter on the doorjamb. “Dammit,” I muttered.

More yogurt. Perfect.

“Did you say a swears, Miss Kelsey?”

I slammed my molars together as Olivia stepped in front of me. Of course it had to be this one who overheard me. “Weren’t you supposed to be eating your snack?”

“I have to wash my hands first, Miss Kelsey. I don’t want a sick tummy like Jessica yesterday.”

“No, you’re right.” Three of the kids had been out with the stomach flu this week. I’d used it as a germ lesson and a lot of the kids were taking it to heart. “All right then. Off you go.”

It was going to be a very long afternoon. I followed Olivia to the sink to wash my own hands and glanced over at the room as a whole. My kids—because yes, even after only a few weeks they were my kids—were eating quietly. There were a few snickers as Weston took his seat.

He simply folded his arms and stared downward.

Laurie stood next to Jeffrey as she played with the tail of her braid. She kept tossing pissed looks at Wes. Not that he looked up at all. He kept frowning at his desk until his brows snapped down over his blue eyes.

I blinked.

I’d seen that look before. But where?

“Miss Kelsey?” I turned my attention to Olivia and assisted her with pulling off a clean paper towel.

The niggling faded into helping three of the kids with their juice boxes. Making sure they were all still eating, I glanced around the room one more time and moved to my desk to check the roster of parents.

Not only was I too tired to think, I also had my first parent-teacher night to contend with. I’d taken over the last kindergarten class, so I hadn’t had to worry about doing that before. It was a whole new experience in a Catholic school. The first half of them were coming in tonight, the other half on Monday.

I sat down and sucked in a grateful breath at the moment of quiet. I snuck my phone out of my desk and shot a quick text to Ally about bringing a change of clothes for Laurie. Helped to be friends with her mother. I also skimmed for more details on the baby shower for Sage.