Choose the state home over him.
He swallowed. “You’re right. Her wanting us to come along seems like a good sign.” Either that or Amelia just really wanted to leave school for the day.
“Is that your dad?” A boy’s voice whispered from two rows back, near where Amelia sat.
Linc fought the urge to turn, scowl at him. Nosy little scamp.
Amelia’s voice was low in return. “Yeah.”
“He’s so…big.”
Okay, maybe the kid wasn’t all bad. Linc grinned.
Zoey nudged his arm. “If your head gets much bigger, I’m going to have to open the emergency exit window.”
He grunted. “Like you even could. You’re so behind on your pushups.”
The eighth-grade teacher, wearing turquoise wire-rimmed glasses and looking like school had been in session for a whole semester instead of just a week, made her way toward them. A paper airplane bounced off her hair as she sank into the empty chair beside them. She smiled. “So you’re Amelia’s parents?”
“Stepmother, yes.” Zoey shook her hand. “Zoey Lake—Zoey Fontenot.”
Hmm. He liked that. Even if theirs wasn’t a typical marriage, it sounded…nice.
“Penny Thompson.” The middle-aged woman shook Linc’s hand next. “I’m glad you were able to come. Amelia said you insisted.” She smiled. “That’s so nice, really. And rare for this age group.”
Insisted? Linc frowned. That was hardly the way it went.
Another airplane bounced off the teacher’s head and this time stuck in her curls. Zoey snatched it free, tossed it on the floor. “Amelia said that?”
Penny patted her hair. “We didn’t need chaperones for this trip, since it’s only a few hours and a small group. Principal Vaughn meets us there too, and the museum provides an escort. But it’s so refreshing to see parents who want to get involved!”
Uh-huh. Linc turned, caught Amelia’s eye. She grinned, wiggled her fingers.
He spun back around. “We’ve been set up.”
Penny frowned. “Pardon?”
“Nothing.” Zoey elbowed him in the ribs. “We’re happy to be here.”
A boy in the back kept singing loudly, off-key. Someone behind him started burping the alphabet. The window ledge stuck to Linc’s arm. He nodded, feeling strangled. “Thrilled.”
With a confused smile, Penny went back to her seat. Two girls in front of them began taking a string of selfies on their phones, while two boys across the bus started an aggressive game of thumb war.
He nudged Zoey’s bag on the floor between their feet. “Got a time machine in that purse of yours?”
“It’s possible.” Zoey bent to retrieve it. “Which part of time would you like to go back and change?”
Good question. Maybe the part where he said yes to this field trip. There had to be a different way to connect with his daughter than in a bus of screaming kids, especially when he needed to be doing a dozen other things for work. He had been worried enough about getting the tour business off the ground even before he suddenly became responsible for two other people’s welfare.
Was this what parenting was like? Constantly choosing between the hard and the harder? The right decision and the best decision? What was more important—time spent bonding with Amelia, or time spent providing for her financially?
His head swam.
Zoey hauled her purse to her lap and began to paw through it, moving a screwdriver and a jump rope out of the way. “You might have to settle for some gum.”
A black-and-white photo slipped out the front pocket, and he went to grab it before it could fall to the sticky floor. And paused.
It was a picture of him, from the other week, when he was driving the boat. When he’d been thinking of her.
