Page 39 of Summer With You

“I’m sorry, Mommy!” Summer cried, her body quivering under our gaze.

“This isn’t your fault, baby, but Mommy and Daddy are going to fix this, okay?” She nodded with glassy, blue eyes.

A few minutes later, the principal walked in and looked down his nose at us. “I believe you’re demanding my presence?” he asked.

“Have you seen my child?” I screamed, standing from the chair that I had been sitting in after Ace told me to sit.

“Of course, Mrs. Danvers. You were told to collect her and take her to the hospital. What has prevented you from doing this?” Ace grabbed my hand, pulling me to his firm body.

“You have,” Ace told him, his tone darkening. “I want to know what is being done to the child who did this to mine. There has to be consequences for this behavior, otherwise, I’m pulling my two kids and hiring a lawyer to sort this out.” I curled into Ace’s arms, feeling a knowing pain in my lower belly, but I ignored it to focus on the principal. I needed to make sure there would be consequences for the other child. God, and the teachers. Where in the hell had the teachers been while this was going on?

“Let’s not jump to extremes here, Mr. Danvers.” Ace growled. “The child has been suspended and will be moved into a different classroom, so the two children won’t have any interaction without supervision.”

Ace nodded, looking at Summer for clarification that this was okay. “I want her to apologize to my daughter the day she comes back.” The principal nodded, and finally, I felt like I could sink back into my chair and breathe, but that wasn’t the case.

“We need to get her to the hospital, Ace,” I murmured, looking at Summer over his shoulder who was falling asleep. “Please have Charlie brought here so we can take him with us.”

Another pain rolled through my belly causing me to suck in a sharp breath that caught Ace’s attention. His hands gripped my hips, his eyes boring into mine. “What’s wrong?” he asked me, his thumbs brushing the sides of my belly.

“Just a little cramping,” I whispered, softly rubbing my belly.

“Are you sure?” He looked from Summer to me.

“Positive,” I assured him. Our child was more important. “Worry about our child. I’m okay.” Within a few minutes, Charlie was brought to the office where he immediately ran to his big sister to examine her injuries with excitement. Of course, Charlie thought it was cool.

Charlie went with Ace in the truck while I drove with Summer in my SUV, glancing at her every few seconds to see if she was still awake. “Keep those pretty eyes open, big girl,” I called every time she began to doze off. With a concussion, she didn’t need to be sleeping.

The whole drive to the hospital, I tried and failed to ignore the intensity of the cramps growing in my stomach. Ace’s intuition had never failed him. Something was wrong, but my other child was coming first.

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