Page 78 of Challenged by the Single Dad

“I don’t want to go back to school,” Silas whimpered. “Carnation is so mean. And what if Griffon, Jake, and Aya aren’t there next time? I don’t want to kiss her. Why would I want to kiss someone who is mean to me?”

“Why, indeed,” Vica said softly.

Dom’s gaze flicked to hers briefly and they shared an unspoken conversation. He rubbed his son’s back. “I’ll make you a deal, hmm?”

With new tears on his cheeks, Silas blinked watery eyes at Dom. “What’s that?”

“We’ll play hooky tomorrow. How’s that sound?”

Silas lit up. “For real life?”

Oh Bluey. The way that animated blue heeler from Australia had woven her vernacular into all the children. He smirked. “For real life.” Then he held up his index finger. “But …”

Silas did the same and held up his index finger. “But …”

That made Dom smile. “I still need to work. Which means, you’re not just staying home eating saltines and watchingThe Price is Right.”

“What’s that?” Griffon asked.

Dom ignored the question because he didn’t feel like being reminded of how old he was. “You’re going to be put to work. You’re coming down to the pub and you will roll cutlery, wipe tables, and help out wherever we need you. Deal?”

Silas loved coming to the pub to help Dom. Dom knew this was a no-brainer offer. “Deal! I wasn’t looking forward to that eighty percent chance of rain anyway. The school is almost always hit with it because it’s behind the mountain.” He glanced at Vica and his cousins like they should totally understand what he was saying. “Orographics. You know.”

“Nobody knows that besides you,” Griffon said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

Dom and Vica both snorted with mirth.

Dom sucked in a deep breath through his nose. “On Monday, I’m going to go to the school and have a little chat with the principal, the teacher, and if I have to, Carnation’s parents as well. Because this is getting out of hand. That child needs to be stopped.”

“Aya tried,” Griffon said off-handedly. “And look what happened there. She was sent to the principal’s office because when she pushed Carnation, Carnation skinned her elbow.”

“Because she wasn’t wearing a coat,” Silas added. “And it was cold out and raining. Seventy percent chance today with gusts up to twenty miles an hour. I don’t know what she was smoking.”

That last bit made Vica and Dom both snort again.

“Where’d you hear that?” Dom asked his kid.

“Uncle Jagger said it one time and I thought it was funny.”

“Good old Uncle Jagger,” Dom muttered. He inspected the back of Silas’s head. “How’s your head after she yanked you to the ground?”

“I had a headache for the rest of the day. And when I told the teacher about it, she just told me to drink more water.”

Dom fiddled with Silas’s hair, pushing it to the sides to see. Sure enough, there was a big cut, now dried with blood, on the back of his kid’s head.

Fresh, angry heat bubbled up through his veins until his fists bunched and his nostrils flared.

And Aya was the one to get in trouble?

Fucking hell.

“Did Carnation get in trouble at all?” Vica asked, voicing the question on the tip of Dom’s tongue, he was just too irate to get out.

All three boys shook their heads.

“They didn’t even take Silas to the first aid room,” Jake added. “Even when we told them what Carnation did. They thought we were lying. That because we’re family, we’re going to gang up and stick together.”

“Because you fucking are,” Dom spat out. “But you’re still telling the goddamn truth.” He motioned for Silas to stand up, and Dom slid to his knees. “Let’s check the rest of you, seeing as nobody at the school fucking did.”

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