Page 108 of What Doesn't Kill Her
“And shot at.”
They were muttering at each other, looking around, arms crossed, backs to the tree.
“I’m not getting an assassin vibe from any of the new hires,” Kellen said.
“No, but—”
An old van stopped at the end of the driveway.
The door opened, and a small, bright, brilliantly pink figure hauling a dirty pink backpack darted up the driveway yelling, “Daddy! Mommy! Daddy! Mommy!”
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Kellen and Max converged on their daughter.
Max picked her up and kissed her, then set her on her feet.
Rae hugged Kellen’s hips, made kissing noises at Kellen’s face and demanded, “Did you bring my bag?”
“I did. I told you I would.” Rae’s smile made Kellenfeellike ThunderFlash, and in turn, her smug smile at Max made him roll his eyes.
Win-win.
Predictably, Rae started talking. “Today we had show-and-tell and I told them about the Triple Goddess and being chased around the mountains by bad guys and sleeping outside and getting shot at and my ride in a helicopter.” She started toward the house.
Max stood, stunned.
Kellen followed Rae. “Sweetie, maybe you shouldn’t have told them that. It was all sort of secret.”
“It’s okay. I don’t think my teacher believed me. She said that was quite a story.”
Max caught up. “That’s good if your teacher doesn’t believe you, right?”
Rae shrugged, and Kellen thought she wasn’t quite as nonchalant as she appeared.
Rae continued, “Then we went to art to paint our pottery and Martin said nobody shot at us and I was a liar and everybody knew it. So I used my words like you told me, Daddy.”
“That’s good,” Max said cautiously.
“I told him he was wrong, that Mommy was shot and she had stitches and she passed out. He said his mommy said my mommy wasn’t a soldier, she was a hooker, and nobody would come to my birthday party because I had a bad mommy.”
Kellen got a sinking feeling. “What did you do?”
“I did like you told me to when someone is mean to a friend. I socked him right in the sternum. He fell down and hit his head on the ground and cried. He had a big smear of yellow paint on his shirt, too, because I was painting the sun. Wait.” Rae put down her backpack and dug around, then handed a piece of paper to Max. “I have a note from the camp director.”
Max opened it and read it, and winced.
At the same time, Verona walked out of the old-fashioned farmhouse, slammed the screen door behind her and shouted, “Rae Di Luca, I just got a call from Martin’s mother!”
Max started doing what Max did; handling the situation. He shoved the note into his pocket, took Kellen’s hand and Rae’s hand, and together they climbed the stairs up onto the porch. “Now, Mother. Calm down. Kellen and I can deal with this.”
“Do you know what they do to bullies? In camp and in school?” Verona opened the screen she’d just slammed and gestured at them to enter. “She’ll be expelled!”
“No, no.” Max had his soothing voice on. “I got a note from camp and they’re asking her to apologize to Martin.”
“I will not!” Rae pulled her hand out of his and stomped inside.
Max continued, “Kellen and I have to take a class on raising a child who knows how to negotiate rather than use violence.”
