Page 67

Chapter Sixteen
BECKETT
My phone rang, and I smiled when I saw it was Wren. “Miss me already?”
“I’m sorry. I’m too frantic to come up with a sexy response right now,” her frazzled voice clipped out.
My heart raced, and a slight tremble rocked through me while a million horrible scenarios of my daughter hurt flashed before my eyes. “Zoey?”
“Oh no, Beckett. I’m so sorry. I should have led with that.”
“It’s okay. I just need a second for my blood pressure to drop back down.” I wasn’t kidding. The idea of Zoey getting hurt or in danger made me want to wrap her in bubble wrap for the rest of her life.
“I know. And I should have thought about that when I called you out of the blue in the middle of the day,” she fretted.
“It’s fine,” I said, my tone stern, hoping she knew I wasn’t angry at her. She was beating herself up for nothing more than a misunderstanding. “Wait. Where are you?” The school day hadn’t ended yet.
“I’m sitting in my car. I have my lunch break right now.”
Had the principal said something to upset her? Is this why she was calling me from such an unusual spot? “Tell me what happened,” I demanded. It didn’t matter that there wouldn't be much I could do from here, but I would try if there was a way for me to slay her dragons.
“It’s the field trip to the aquarium tomorrow. I had three chaperones call me and drop out. They’re all sick. I’ll have to cancel the trip if I can’t find one more to replace them and keep our adult to child ratio at the level we need.”
“Are you asking me on a non-date field trip?” I hoped my tone came off as teasing. She was obviously stressed and I wanted to help, but I wasn’t going to let the opportunity for levity pass us by. Especially if it made her smile.
She laughed. “This would be the most non-date in the entire world.”
“Give me a second to see if I can move a few meetings.” I quickly emailed my assistant, Sarah, to see if she could shift things around for me.
“Beckett, if you can’t, it’s all right. I have a few more parents I haven’t reached out to.”
It irked me that I was practically last on the list of people she called. “Next time, you get in touch with me first if you need something.”
“I almost did, but I didn’t want you to think I was angling to see you again.”
“Why not?” I sure as hell was counting down the minutes until I saw her.
“I know you’re not looking for a relationship. I’m not either, but calling you so soon after made me feel like you might think I was trying to get more from you.”
“Wren, you can call or text me whenever you want.” I was surprised at how much I meant this. I’d likely be running in the opposite direction if it was anyone else, but I wanted her to count on me.
“Okay. Same.” She let out a relieved breath.
“Just so we’re clear, if I hadn’t heard from you today, I would have called. We’re both adults and set our own rules. This means we’re not playing that wait a day or two before calling bullshit.”
“This is new for me.” I heard the smile in her voice. “And you’re right. We can make this whatever we want it to be.”
I checked my email, noticing Sarah had already gotten back to me. “We’re a go for tomorrow. What time do you need me?”
“That’s a loaded question,” her throaty response made me want to tell her to ditch work and meet me at my house in thirty minutes.
I groaned.
“Come in at 7:45. when you get here with Zoey. We plan to leave right at 8:00 a.m.”
“Anything else?”
“That’s it for now. I hate to run, but my lunch time is almost over. I have just enough time to grab a granola bar from the break room before the kids return to class.”