Page 44 of Dust Storm

“Getting my backpack!”

“Kitchen’s closed. Meet me at the truck,” I said before turning to Cassandra. “Get a move on, Princess. Can’t be late for school.”

“You said we were going into town,” she bristled.

“We are.” I grabbed a thermos from the cupboard and filled it with the rest of the coffee. “After we take the girls to school.”

Cassandra’s unemotive face never wavered as we loaded up in the truck and headed into town.

Gracie’s mouth ran faster than the truck as she filled Cassandra in on the happenings of the middle school.

Cassandra volleyed back with minimal, barely interested acknowledgements until something piqued her interest.

“What did you say?” Cassandra asked.

Gracie was staring out the window. “What? The part about pajama day where we get to build a fort in the classroom and read books all day?”

I white knuckled the steering wheel as Cassandra shook her head and dismissed Gracie’s excitement.

She and I would be having a very blunt conversation once the little ears weren’t listening.

“No. The other thing about your science class,” Cassandra said.

“Oh.” Gracie’s giddiness faded. “When I said the teacher made me desk buddies with Dylan even though I don’t like Dylan.”

“Gracie,” I chided. “Choose nice words.”

“Why don’t you like this punk?” Cassandra pressed, still craning over the center console so they could be eye to eye.

“We don’t call children ‘punks,’” I hissed.

Cassandra cut her eyes at me. “I’m not a parent. I can say whatever I want about them. Sometimes you gotta call a punk a punk.”

Gracie huffed. “He bothers me during class. Ilovescience and hehatesscience so he just goofs around the whole time and distracts me.”

“Did your teacher put you with him intentionally?”

I peered in the rearview mirror to get Gracie’s reaction to Cassandra’s interrogation, but she didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Yeah. She says it’s my job to get him to focus. And since I’m good at science, I should be able to help him.”

“Absolutely the fuck not.”

“Miss Parker,” I stated, slamming my palm on the top of the steering wheel to catch her attention. “Youcannotswear around my girls.”

“You swear in front of us all the time, Dad,” Bree countered.

Just fucking great.

Cassandra snorted. “I don’t think I’m contributing to the delinquency of a minor by saying the F-word, when she’s probably seen cows doing the deed since she could walk.”

“Sometimes,” Gracie said without a care in the world. “But sometimes the cows are artificially incinerated.”

“Inseminated,” I corrected.

“Like I’m the one corrupting them,” Cassandra muttered before putting her game face back on. “Talking about livestock insemination istotallynormal.”

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Cassandra put on a smug smile and let out a quiet breath.

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