Page 19 of Trouble Comes in Threes

She shook her head but stayed quiet.

“What about Mrs. Pritchard?”

She shook her head again.

This part somewhat matched what I’d seen. Something had happened, but I could understand why she didn’t want to talk about it right now. “How about we get the little kids and head home?”

She hugged me again and mumbled, “Okay.”

I asked the daycare teacher to pull Mikey from the playground while I checked Hope and Liam out of their respective rooms.

Liam was thrilled to see me. When I picked him up off the floor mat, he wrapped his arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. My heart melted as he murmured, “Momma,” and gave me wet kisses on the cheek.

After I grabbed his bag, we headed to the three-year-old room to get Hope. She and Daisy were playing in the kitchen, pretending to cook something at the stove. Daisy was wearing a pink tulle skirt, a pink long-sleeve T-shirt, and a pink headband with sparkles. She definitely took after her mother—while Hope was in her brown turtleneck and a pair of striped leggings. Daisy seemed more excited to see me than Hope, who ran to Ashley and gave her a hug.

“Is my mommy coming too, Aunt Rose?” Daisy asked in a sweet little voice.

“She’ll be here any minute.” I squatted next to her and tucked a blond strand of hair behind her ear. “We’ll get to see you again tonight at Mikey’s soccer game.”

“Will Uncle Joe be there too?”

“Yep, and Nana Maeve too.”

“Yay!” she exclaimed in glee, and Liam mimicked her, although I was pretty sure he didn’t know what he was excited about.

I hurried the kids along to snag Mikey, and then we headed home, where I let Muffy out and got the kids going with their afternoon routine. Mikey didn’t have any homework. While he and the little kids were playing in the living room, I found Ashley at the kitchen table and decided to take advantage of the alone time.

I sat next to her and folded my hands together on the table. “Did anyone bother you today?”

She kept her gaze on her math worksheet. “No.”

“Was Mr. Caldoni or Ms. Klaas in your class all day?”

“Yeah, but everyone knew they were there because of me.”

“Wrong.” I leaned forward and placed my hand over hers. “They were there because Oliver and his friends said unkind things, and Mrs. Pritchard didn’t stop them.”

She glanced up at me. “But everyone thinks it’s because of me.”

I wrapped my arm around her back, and she leaned her head on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Ash. I wish I could make this better.”

“I know, Aunt Rose. You tried.”

“This will blow over soon. I promise. Okay?”

She looked up at me with teary eyes. “Okay.”

Mikey shouted that Liam was slobbering all over his stuff, so I ran to the living room to see Liam practically French kissing Mikey’s soccer ball.

Before we left for the game, I had everyone change—Mikey into his uniform of a red T-shirt with the soccer organization’s name on the front, a pair of black shorts, and a long-sleeve black T-shirt underneath. The girls were excited to wear the shirts Aunt Neely Kate had gotten them, but Liam wasn’t thrilled when I tugged a warmer shirt over his head. It was cool, and it would get even cooler outside as we came closer to sundown.

I packed extra snacks for the two littles, along with more diapers for Liam, then told everyone it was time to head out again.

“Can we bring Muffy, Momma?” Hope asked. Muffy sat next to her, giving me a pathetic look.

“No, sweet girl,” I said, shoving a shoe back on Liam’s foot. “No dogs allowed at the soccer game.”

“But she’s sad,” Hope said in a small voice. “She misses us.”

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