Page 103 of That Reunited Feeling

“No, you won’t.” She tries to pull my arms loose, but on this one I’m certain I know better, and she’s staying right here with me. “If you sort it out, I’ll end up on a flight to Kathmandu or something. Let go. I need to do it myself.”

“I’m not letting go.”

She stops struggling, and her eyes land on mine. They’re glossy and red-rimmed, on the verge of tears.

“You don’t need to do anything. I’m going to order a private jet, and you and I will get on that. Together. And we’ll go back and sort everything out. Together.”

“But you have to see Gareth in a couple hours. No one else but you can make him sign that agreement. You have to nip something like that in the bud. Show him who’s boss.”

“I don’t care.” I tug her against my chest and bury my face in her hair. “The most important thing to me is you. And that means there’s another most important thing—Dylan.”

Her son’s name has barely fallen from my lips before she circles her arms around my waist. Thank God. She’s finally listening to me, letting me help her.

“And if your supermom powers say you need to be back with him right now, then I will move heaven and earth to get you back with him as close tonowas is humanly possible.”

Hannah’s hold on me tightens as she presses the side of her face against my bare chest and her body heaves one big sob.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

31

HANNAH

“I

t’s not fair,” Dylan says for the bajillionth time since I walked through the door two hours ago.

“Well, I’m very pleased they’ve suspended you for a week.” I’m not. I’m furious. But I’m not going to let Dylan know that. “Hopefully it’ll teach you a lesson to not steal things, not play with dangerous substances you don’t know anything about, and to respect property.” I count the three things off on my fingers.

“I did not steal it,” he says, balling his fists and screwing up his face in frustration that I don’t seem to be able to grasp that fact.

I do grasp it. And I do believe him. And that’s why I’m enraged he’s been suspended for the same amount of time as the other two kids whodidsteal it.

“It was Ryan and Karl who took the stuff from the chemistry lab.”

“And you mixed the concoction with them in the corner of the library. Thelibrary.” Turns out it wasn’t a classroom at all. It was worse than that. They’d started a fire in the one placethat’s packed floor to ceiling with fucking paper. “The most combustible room in the whole school.”

“But I put it out as soon as it started. With my jacket.” He points at his charred jean jacket that’s lying in a heap on the doormat. “We’d had a fire safety movie a couple weeks ago and there was a part that showed you how to throw a blanket over flames to put them out. It starves them of oxygen,” he says with pride in his newly acquired firefighting expertise. “So I thought I could use my jacket as a blanket.” Clearly, he expects me to be impressed by his attention to the film and his quick thinking.

“Dylan, if you hadn’t started the fire, you wouldn’t have had to put out the fire, would you?”

He looks down, and his shoulders sink.

I could cry. I could. For him and for me. But there’s no other parent for backup here. No partner to shoulder the discipline responsibilities. It’s all me. I am the provider of all the love and all the tough love.

“Anyway. While you’re suspended, there’s also no video games for the week.”

“What?” Now his eyes are as wide, his expression as horrified, as if I’d told him I’m going to burn all hisOverlord Hybridsposters. Although at this rate, there’s a danger he might do that himself.

“Consequences, Dylan. Choices have consequences. Actions have consequences.”

I head toward the front door, suddenly aware I might be talking as much to myself as to him.

“Can I have more guitar lessons with Tom while I’m off?” he says behind me.

The anger and frustration spin inside me and turn me around to face him. “Are you kidding me? Of course you can’t. Suspension isn’t a vacation for fun times. It’s a time to considerwhether you want to be on the right path in life or the wrong one.”

“What am I supposed to do all week, then?”

---