Page 7 of Breaking Rules

“Yes?”

“The other teachers, when it’s not their turn to have lunch with us, they go somewhere else. I don’t know where.”

My annoyance at Lumen faded as quickly as it’d come. It’d been foolish of me to think she’d been neglecting her duties. This entire situation had sent my brain into a tailspin. I was doubting people who had done nothing to deserve that doubt.

The text tone for my phone broke me from my thoughts. The message on the screen answered one question, at least.

“It looks like school is canceled for the rest of the week.” I didn’t add the explanation that the text had contained, that the police were investigating what had happened, and that the school would be offering counseling at a place to be determined at a later date. There were no known injuries and no other details being released at this time.

“That sucks.” Evanne stuck out her bottom lip.

“Mo chride.” I made my tone a warning one. “You know your mother doesn’t like you saying that.”

“Sorry,” Evanne said, “but there’s nothing else that describes how I feel.”

The serious and overly dramatic statement was enough to make me crack a smile. There was a reason I used the endearmentmo chridefor my daughter. It meantmy heart,and that was what she was. She was everything.

“What would you say about going to visit your grandparents for the next few days?”

“Yay!” Evanne threw her hands up in the air. “When?”

“I’ll need to make a couple calls, but I believe we can leave tonight.”

“I’ll go pack.”

With that, she ran off. I’d need to go through her bags before we left and make sure she wasn’t taking only toys. She had plenty of those at her grandparents’ house.

Before I called for a private plane, I had one other person I had to contact.

“Text Lumen.” I waited a moment and then continued with my voice-to-text, “’Evanne and I are going to visit my parents for the week. I’ll let you know when we’re back.’”

Maybe it was a bit abrupt, but this wasn’t exactly a normal situation. That was what I needed, what going home would provide. Normalcy. A solid place with solid people where Evanne and I could find our footing again.

Four

Lumen

Evanneand I are going to visit my parents for the week. I’ll let you know when we’re back.

I read it again, now half-convinced that I had some sort of masochistic tendencies since the only thing that re-reading accomplished was annoying me more. I tried not to be hurt.

It was nice of him to let me know what was going on, after all. I wasn’t his girlfriend, not exactly, anyway. Sure, he’d given me a key to his place, and we hadn’t discussed labels, and we weren’t at a point where we had to let each other know what we were doing all the time.

Maybe the key was why he’d told me at all. If I hadn’t known they were going away, I might’ve shown up at the house and found them gone. Alec texting me that they were going out of town for a little while was courtesy that he hadn’t needed to extend.

All of that reasoning, however, didn’t make me less hurt that he’d decided to take Evanne and go without even asking me how I was doing. I understood his initial concern being entirely focused on his daughter, but it would’ve been nice to have gotten a simple ‘how are you?’

That thought was followed by a rush of guilt every single time. I hadn’t been injured. Hell, I hadn’t even seen what had happened. I’d heard some gunshots. That was it.

I’d been frightened, of course, but I was an adult, able to cope with the myriad emotions triggered by the event. Evanne was a child, and a child who’d recently been uprooted from her routine. That alone would’ve been enough to freak her out. For all I knew, Alec had spent the entire rest of the day comforting Evanne, and they were going to visit his parents so they could help him with the aftereffects of such a stressful day.

What sort of horrible person was upset with a man for taking care of his daughter?

Honestly, once I got my head out of my ass, I had to admit that if he hadn’t put Evanne first, he would’ve lost some of my respect and admiration. A man whose daughter was his priority was actually, well, sexy. I knew all too well what it was like tonotbe the priority.

And I was going to be okay with it this time, I decided. I could handle this on my own. I’d handled everything else on my own. Evanne would never have to know what that felt like. She would grow up safe and become independent without the fear that came with never having a safety net. She might have to struggle with an overprotective father, but too much love must be better than too little.

I wouldn’t know what one was like, but I knew the other well enough to know that it wasn’t anything good.