Page 12 of The Grump I Loathe (The Lockhart Brothers #3)

EDDIE

I hurled myself out the front door of the massive skyscraper, plowing past two guys in fancy suits.

“Sorry!” I tossed over my shoulder as they made various disgruntled noises.

Cassie honked, waving from the street where the car idled. She got out and we switched sides as I threw myself into the driver’s seat.

“Did you run all the way down the stairs?” she asked, buckling into the passenger seat.

“No. I took the elevator. It’s just that the lobby is like half the length of a football field,” I complained, out of breath. “Connor’s gone out to some meeting, so I need to get this done now.”

“Did the school say what happened?”

I tugged on the front of my borrowed blouse. “Only that Alannah was in some sort of trouble, and they couldn’t get a hold of Dad or Valentina.”

“The nanny?” Cassie wondered .

“She has a new one.” I tugged on my blouse again. “Apparently, she doesn’t have all her paperwork in order yet to be allowed to pick her up. Where am I taking you?” Cassie needed a drop-off at a furniture store since I was taking the car.

“Granite’s,” she said. “Head downtown.”

“You think what I’m wearing is professional enough for the office?”

“Yeah, why?”

I grimaced. “Connor told me my job apparently comes with a wardrobe budget. But the way he said it was like my business attire wasn’t good enough for him.”

“Excuse me, you look amazing,” Cassie insisted. “Maybe his problem is you look too amazing.”

“Pretty sure it was meant as an insult.” Gah! Dealing with him was giving me whiplash. One second, he seemed like he might be reasonable, giving in on the idea of team meetings, and the next he was complaining about my clothes! “I don’t even know why I care. I can hardly stand the guy.”

“Maybe because he doesn’t annoy you as much as you’re letting on?” Cassie suggested. “Maybe all the sniping you two do is your weird way of flirting.” She nudged me. “Are you actually enjoying your little back-and-forth with the boss?”

I snorted. “Connor and flirting can’t even exist in the same sentence. This isn’t some playground bullshit.”

Cassie smirked, tugging on my hair. “He’s like a boy pulling your pigtails, and you’re the girl putting sand in his lunchbox.”

I merged into the left turn lane. “The guy wouldn’t know flirting if I ripped my shirt off and shimmied across his desk.”

Cassie burst out laughing. “Now that would probably get you fired. ”

“I’m serious! He’s the least-fun, most buttoned-up person I’ve ever met in my life. And he’s the one who instituted the no-dating policy in the office.” Darius had walked me through the code of conduct. “So I have no idea why he’d be trying to flirt.”

“Okay, well, maybe the comment was just a throwaway.”

I grumbled.

“Why do you care, though?” Cassie said, echoing my own question. “You’ve never talked about any other boss this much before.”

I considered the way arguing with him made my heart pound. I didn’t want to unpack that or the way I could have picked his ass out of a fitted trouser lineup from staring after him so often. Instead, I cranked the radio. Cassie gave me a look. “What? I love this song.”

“You just don’t want to admit that your hot, grumpy boss is?—”

I turned the volume up even higher, elbowing her until she gave up and started singing along. We sang at the tops of our lungs until I pulled up outside of Granite and Cassie hopped out. A huge, yellow clearance sign filled the window.

“Good luck,” Cassie said. “Tell Alannah there’s emergency chocolate in the glovebox if she needs it. That always helps.”

I raced up the stairs to St. Orwell Prep and was greeted at the door by a security guard who escorted me into the main office.

A secretary with a phone jammed between her ear and shoulder pointed me toward a door.

The nameplate said Denise Marilyn - Vice Principal.

Shit . The door was slightly ajar, and I knocked before hearing, “Come in. ”

“Sorry. I got here as quickly as I could,” I said to a stern woman who sat behind a large wooden desk. “I’m Eddie. Uh, I mean, Edith Sheppard.”

Alannah glanced at me over the back of her chair, on the verge of tears.

I gave her a comforting squeeze to the shoulder.

Next to her sat a girl who looked remarkably like the kid who’d played Alterbot at the con and…

double shit ! My eyes almost bugged out of my head as I locked eyes with Lord LockMill himself.

“Holy mother of unskippable cutscenes,” I muttered under my breath. What were the chances that Grace went to the same school as Alannah? Connor’s usual scowl deepened. Maybe it had just dawned on him that I’d snuck out of work to be here.

Well, if that bothered him, he’d just have to get over it. After all, he’d clearly done exactly the same thing.

“Miss Sheppard, if you could take a seat,” Ms. Marilyn said, pointing one thin finger at the chair next to Alannah’s.

I sank into it, glancing at Alannah out of the corner of my eye. She looked distraught.

“I assume everyone knows what we’re all doing here,” Ms. Marilyn said.

“Actually,” I said, thrusting my hand into the air. “I might have skipped a few lessons. Can someone jog my memory?”

Ms. Marilyn clicked her nails against her desk. “Grace and Alannah are deskmates, and they’ve been disrupting each other in class recently. Their teacher has already separated them several times, but now the disruptions have escalated to violence.”

“Violence?” Connor said, looking from Grace to Ms. Marilyn. I could hear the alarm in his voice .

Okay , I had to admit, violence sounded bad. “When you say?—”

“Hair pulling,” Miss Marilyn clarified, her eyes narrowing at the girls. “We have a strict hands-off policy at St. Orwell Prep, which is clearly spelled out in the school charter both girls sign at the beginning of every year. As such, you can be sure we are taking this very seriously.”

“I’m sure we’re all taking this seriously,” I said.

“That’s reassuring to hear, Miss Sheppard, seeing as both girls will be suspended?—”

“Suspended!” Connor and I cried in tandem. Grace sighed and looked at the floor. Alannah sank down in her seat like she was trying to melt into a puddle.

“—for two days,” Ms. Marilyn continued.

“Excuse me,” Connor said. “But doesn’t that seem a little extreme?”

I nodded in agreement. “It was just a little hair pulling.”

Ms. Marilyn’s sharp gaze cut from Connor to me. “The school has a zero-tolerance policy for violence.”

“But both of them being suspended?” I said. “Does the school not have any idea who started the incident?”

“Zero. Tolerance.” Ms. Marilyn rapped her nails against her desk so hard I thought the tips might come flying off.

I blew out a heavy breath. It didn’t seem like there was any talking our way out of this one.

“I will say this is very atypical behavior for both girls,” Ms. Marilyn said, eyeing them. “I wouldn’t expect this sort of acting out unless one or both of them was dealing with something particularly difficult. So if there are any issues at home the school should be aware of… ”

I started to shake my head, but Connor cleared his throat, running a hand around the back of his neck. “Uh, Grace’s mother is?—”

Grace snapped her head up. “This has nothing to do with Mom!” she insisted, scowling as she glared at Alannah. “I was minding my own business when Alannah started the fight.”

All eyes snapped toward me and Alannah. Well, shit . I knew I should probably say something. But where did I start? Alannah was stressed over her upcoming gymnastics tournament, and Simon and Valentina had been fighting more, and she got a C on a spelling test recently.

Any of those things might make sense of her behavior, but then I remembered what it was like to have my own parents talk about how I was too loud and too much, right in front of me, like I was a math problem they were solving and not a person.

I’d hated being talked about instead of talked to . Alannah knew exactly why she was here; I didn’t need to make up excuses for her. “Alannah can explain what she’s going through,” I said simply. “If she wants.”

Alannah grabbed my hand, tears in her eyes, clamming up. I couldn’t blame her. I swallowed down the tightness in my chest.

With a resigned sigh, Miss Marilyn turned to her computer, printing out two documents. “This is the notice of suspension. The apology statement both girls wrote is attached. They’ve promised this won’t happen again, and we’re going to hold them to that.”

I glanced at the papers she handed me. The apology statement consisted of two handwritten paragraphs explaining what happened and that they were sorry. Both girls had signed their names at the bottom.

“You can take them home now.”

We all got to our feet .

“Just remember,” Ms. Marilyn called after us. “This school always has a waiting list.”

Threat much? Alannah and I headed for the parking lot. The moment we’d cleared the office, I pulled her close. “Gosh, she gives me the willies.”

Alannah sniffed.

I kissed the top of her head. “We’ve got some things to talk about, but it’ll be okay.”

Alannah shook her head. “Mom and Dad are gonna freak. They’re gonna say I’m not allowed to go to the gym if I’m suspended.” Her sniffles turned to panicked sobs. “I’m not gonna have enough time to practice my routine before the tournament!”

“Hey, Lana, deep breath. I’ll help explain things to Dad and Valentina.”

Her little chin wobbled. “I need to move countries.”

The melodrama made me want to laugh, but I could tell she was serious, so I swallowed it down.

“Running doesn’t help, kid. And besides, if you do that, you still won’t get to practice your routine.

You’ve worked so hard—you deserve to see that hard work pay off.

” I led her outside. We’d almost made it down the steps when I heard my name.

Dammit . I winced, then turned around, spying Connor and Grace coming down the steps after us. I’d been hoping to avoid this awkward confrontation in front of two already upset kids.