Page 31 of Keepsake

It was surprising to hear a curse come out of her mouth but I didn’t let it show. Instead, I shrugged. “I’m just the guy following orders, Jefa.”

Logan turned and hurried across the parking lot and up the steps to where Dash and the kids waited.

Trying not to think too hard about what she just told me, I followed her after a beat. To them, I was a stranger. Yeah, I knew that much, and I wasn’t trying to hide that fact from Logan. I just wasn’t in the business of airing my mistakes everywhere.

“Finally. Can we go in?” Dash was asking as I jogged up the steps.

Logan was staring at Lachlan, holding on to Dash too intensely, her eyes like a blaze until she nodded stiffly.

Dash didn’t seem bothered by the way she looked at him. He glanced up and snickered. “Lone Pine Academy?”

“It’s a good school,” she said, grabbing onto Vienna’s hand as I made my way and opened the door for them all.

Lone Pine Academy, even though it had a funny name, looked expensive. Grand. It was in the middle of the school term, as my mother couldn’t stop pointing it out, so the halls carried the buzz of a full school.

Pristine lockers and immaculate floors surrounded us. Logan led our group, with Vienna by her side. Her heeled boots echoing in the halls. After her was Dash, holding Lachlan, and I closed our group, my neck turning from one side to the other as I caught glimpses of the students.

It looked stuffy.

Real stuffy. But I liked living, so I wasn’t going to point out to Logan that Dash wasn’t going to adapt in a place like this. Vienna looked happy, practically skipping, making Logan turn her head and smile at the girl.

But Vienna had a mean streak. I knew that much. This school didn’t look like the type to tolerate it.

I said nothing, following quietly until we reached a big mahogany door at the end of the hall with a small golden sign that read Principal Godwick.

Logan knocked, squeezing Vienna’s hand and smiling. I scratched my beard and had a long look at Dash and Lachlan.

I could smell trouble.

“Miss Hart.” The door swung open.

“Hello, Principal Godwick.” Logan smiled, extending her hand to the principal.

The woman took Logan’s hand, closing the other one over it like they were familiar to each other. Then she waved the formalities off. “Please call me Kendra. Karl called just to tell me about you.”

Principal Godwick turned, leading us to her office of tall bookshelves in dark wood and right in the middle a desk with the comfortable leather chair she took, not before nodding for all of us to do so as well.

Logan sat, Vienna by her side and Dash with Lachlan in his lap, and finally I lowered down last. I looked at my youngest nephew. His big eyes looked all around the office before deciding he was not interested and cuddled into Dash once again.

“He told me they are very impressed with your work at Godwick and Sons,” she continued.

Hmm. We all looked at Logan at the same time, making her ears pink. She cleared her throat and nodded. “Kendra’s father is my boss.”

“The boys run the company. I always liked education. I was never interested in their business,” she said, now turning her head to look at the children. “Now, who do we have here?”

“This is Vienna Murphy,” Logan promptly replied. “Dashiell is the teenager, and the little guy is Lachlan.”

“Hello, everybody. It is great to meet you.”

Godwick’s smile looked genuine, even if her haircut looked severe and she sat with her back uncomfortably straight. Then again, we had a little robot in our party as well.

“And that’s Alvaro Castillo, the children’s uncle.”

I extended my hand to the principal. “Thanks for seeing us.”

“Of course.”

“Logan emailed me your records and I have to say,” she turned to Vienna, “what a brilliant little girl you are.”

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