Page 71 of His Greatest Treasure

Princess: Almost done. Thank you for sending Rebecca. I’ll come by the station in a few to get Nova.

Me: Take your time.

It’s almost dinnertime, but after eating half a box of donuts, I don’t think she’ll be wanting real food anytime soon. My bad.

“I win! I win!” Nova shouts, voice piercing when I open the gym door and head back to them.

“Only because you took all of my matches and I had to start over!” Patel mutters.

“Don’t be a sad loser,” I tell him gruffly, taking my seat again. “Your mom is coming to get you in a few minutes, peanut. Do you have one more game in you?”

“Can it be just you and me this time?”

I glance at Patel and wait for him to notice before saying, “Did Adams finish laundry?”

“I’ll go check. Thanks for the game, Nova,” he says.

She smiles at him and starts gathering all the cards into one pile. We’re left alone as she attempts to shuffle the deck but ends up flinging cards all over the table.

I stack them all back into a pile before separating it into two. “Here, watch me.”

Bending the two decks, I show her how to use your fingers to move the cards until they’re flipping into one pile. She watches and then tries again, coming closer to doing it this time.

“I couldn’t shuffle cards until I was fifteen.”

“That’s old.”

“You’re already way ahead of me. A few more times and you’ll have it down pat.”

“Thank you, Ollie.” She grins at me, and I smile back.

“One more game, and then we’ll get all our stuff together for your mom.”

“Okay.” Her grin falls, and her eyes dim.

Alarm steals my breath. “What’s wrong?”

“I was mean to her before school. Is that why she didn’t pick me up?”

“What? No, Nova. She’d never leave you at school because of that. Your mom loves you.”

“I didn’t try to be mean.”

“I know. It’s never nice to be mean to someone, but sometimes we do it on accident. We just have to try not to make a habit of it,” I try to explain.

I’m severely lacking in the teaching life lessons skill, and it’s more obvious now than ever. With no practice, I don’t think I’m ever going to be any help in these situations.

That stings. If I want a chance with Avery, I have to prove that I’m someone she can count on. It has to be more than picking up her daughter when she can’t. I’ve got to prove to her in other ways that I can be someone she trusts to have in her and her daughter’s life.

“I don’t mean to be mean to her,” Nova whispers, bottom lip quivering.

“She knows. It takes practice to handle emotions. My brother, Jamie, used to get so hyper he would work himself up so badly that he hated being told no. He’d shout and throw fits, but he learned that instead of acting out, it would be easier to use his words to explain why he was upset. Once he started talking things through, everyone knew how to help him. If you tell your mom why you were upset and apologize, she’ll understand why you acted the way you did.”

She blinks up at me. “Really?”

“Really.”

Shoving her chair back, she smiles despite the two tears on her cheeks. I don’t have time to open my arms before she jumps at my chest and hugs me. She presses her face into my shirt, and I pull my arms out from between us and hug her back.

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