Page 43 of Hot Four Teacher (The Lawson’s #4)
Chapter forty-two
Veronica Lawson-Pure Elegance
Michelle
“ I can’t believe you’re kid-free right now, and you’re spending time with your sisters instead of banging the hot teacher,” Ronnie says to me before taking a bite of a mozzarella stick.
“Well, Dane had to go to Portland for a little while, but believe me, when he’s back, I’m leaving you bitches in the dust.” I say the words jokingly, but they’re probably true.
Dane and I have managed to see each other a couple of times in the past few weeks, but it still has been hard to carve out a chunk of time for one another.
Liz asks, “How are you guys doing?”
“Pretty good,” I reply. “The whole secretive thing is hard.”
Leah jumps in. “It sounds kind of sexy.”
“It gets us all riled up for sure, but it sucks not really ever being able to go out together. We can’t go on a walk or out to dinner…unless it’s far away from Lilly Leaf Falls.”
They all nod while continuing to devour the platter of appetizers that sits between us.
Ronnie taps her finger on the table. “Why don’t you guys get out of town for a few days? You can go somewhere where no one knows who the fuck you are. You can bone and then go get a steak.”
Veronica Lawson–pure elegance.
“Well, Ronnie, while that sounds lovely, I don’t think that’ll work.”
She shrugs. “Why not? Go on a weekend.”
I exhale an exasperated sigh. “It’s not exactly that easy. I have no money, but I do have a teenage daughter. Weekend getaways are hard.”
She sucks something out of her teeth before speaking.
“Okay, how about I take Eve for the weekend? We will go to a spa or something. As for money, I have a ton of points on my credit card. Pick where you want to go, and I’ll book you a nice room with the points.
No one will have to spend a dime. Boom. Two problems solved. Anything else you want me to solve?”
Liz pops a fried pickle into her mouth. “If you could work on that whole world hunger thing, I’m sure everyone would be grateful.”
Ronnie points at her. “Give me a few days. I’ll get back to you.” She turns her attention to me. “Now, do we have a deal on the weekend away?”
“Ronnie, I have to ask–why are you so interested in my relationship?”
She leans her elbows on the table and looks me in the eye.
“Because ever since you got pregnant, I’ve watched you put someone in your life ahead of yourself.
You have taken a hell of a hard road, and you’ve done it without the help of the no-good asshole who fathered your daughter.
Out of all of us, you were always the one who believed in love and happily-ever-after.
Over the years, I’ve watched that belief start to fade and your light slowly dim.
Then, you met Dane, and for once, you’re doing something for you, and you’re so happy.
I’ll do anything in the world to keep that going. ”
We all just look at Ronnie for a second. Our sister is loud, brazen, and fearless. She never shies away from letting you know how she feels, and she chases her own pleasure every chance she gets.
But she also loves with every fiber of her being. That’s true with her family, friends, and now her boyfriend and his son. She would do anything for the ones she cares about. That's one of the many reasons it’s so easy to love her.
“Okay,” I finally say. “I’ll talk to Dane and see if we can make it work.”
She grins. “Perfect. Let me know when and where, and I’ll take care of the accommodations."
Liz and Leah look at each other before Liz asks, “Ronnie, do you want to take our kids for the weekend?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Why not?” Leah asks.
“Because you have two toddlers. I can do diapers for an hour, maybe two. That’s it. There’s no way I could keep them alive for a whole weekend.”
We all laugh. Ronnie probably could keep them alive, but it wouldn’t be pretty.
Liz asks, “So, how is Eve doing after the Danny fiasco?”
“Okay, I guess,” I reply. “She’s back to hanging out with her friends instead of with me, so I guess that’s a good thing.”
“Have you heard from Danny?” Leah asks.
“Nope. Eve went as far as blocking his number. She doesn’t want anything to do with him.”
Liz says, “Wow. Good for her. Do you think he will reach out to you to see if you’ll fix things?”
“I don’t know. This time seems so different than it ever has before. He has a new wife and new kids. You should’ve seen him. He was so cold and callous. When he talked about Eve, it was like he was talking about someone he hated.”
Ronnie says, “It’s a good thing I wasn’t there. I would’ve kicked his ass. Hell, I still might go kick his ass. I’ll even kick his wife’s ass after she pops out the kid.”
I shake my head. “She didn’t do anything. Danny is the asshole in all of this. I don’t care about his wife.”
Leah says, “I’m sorry, but he has a kid that he is willing to cut out of his life. That would be a huge red flag for me. I don’t know that I could be with a guy who did that.”
“Me either,” I agree. “But it sounds like she’s had crappy men in the past, so I’m not sure she has much for comparison. And she’s not the one who said awful things about my daughter. That was all Danny.”
Ronnie asks, “How does Dane feel about the whole situation?”
“It pisses him off, but he also doesn’t overstep. He listens to me vent without trying to fix the problem.” I say the words while also knowing that if Dane ever met Danny, he’d probably pummel him into the ground.
I decide to change the subject. I know my sisters are merely concerned, but I don’t want to feel like I’m gossiping about my kid. “So, where’s Jo at? I didn’t know she left town again.”
Liz replies, “She left a couple weeks ago.”
“Where’s she living now?”
“Arizona.”
My face scrunches up. “Arizona? She’s not outside of Vegas anymore?”
Ronnie rolls her eyes. “She’s shacking up with some asshole.”
“Why is he an asshole?” I ask.
“He called while she was home. I heard how he talked to her. He didn’t seem to appreciate how awesome she is.”
Leah says, “She’s only like twenty-five. I think we all dated guys like that in our twenties.”
Ronnie mumbles. “I just hope he doesn’t fuck her up mentally in the process.”
I think we all worry about that. Jo is a lot like Ronnie, but where Ronnie has a thick skin and lets things go, Jo appears to have a thick skin but feels things more deeply than she lets on.
Moments later, we have moved on to another topic. Meanwhile, I glance at my phone, anxiously awaiting a text from Dane.