Page 37 of Declan's Hope

Toby nodded vigorously before turning his attention to his seatmate. Maybe she’d found a way to better engage her little classroom bundle of fire. It wouldn’t be difficult to incorporate dinosaurs into her curriculum. Surely the other children would find that just as fun too.

The bus lurched forward, and she grabbed hold of the seat in front of her. What in the world? She stretched up to look over the rows of seats with the tops of her students’s heads just visible, as the gears ground and the whole vehicle shuddered. Seconds later, the ride smoothed out. Whoever this bus driver was, he must be new.

She cast her gaze over her quietly chatting—for the most part—students one more time. They seemed settled—most likely worn out. So she grinned and settled back in her seat and pulled her phone from the big pocket of her maroon jumper dress. She’d left her purse in her locker in the school’s breakroom. But she’d kept the phone on her in case of any kind of emergency and had felt it buzz a couple of times against her hip while she’d been busy.

Three messages.

The first was from Declan around 8:30. His short, Me too, probably shouldn’t have set her heart racing but it did. They were going out on an honest to goodness date. She grinned again. Maybe they’d end up back at his house.

Heat crawled up her neck and into her cheeks, so Hope quickly glanced up to make sure no one was watching her.

Next, she had two texts from Destiny at just after 9:00.

DESTINY: I’M STILL TRAUMATIZED LOL

Hope let out a quiet laugh over that, then went on to the next one not more than an hour before.

DESTINY: CALL ME WHEN YOU CAN

Hope glanced around. It wouldn’t hurt to give her friend a short call. She hit Destiny’s number on speed dial and ducked her head so no one could see she’d just broken her own rule of no phones on the bus—not that a bunch of 5-year-olds had them. But you never knew. Destiny picked up on the second ring.

"Hey, what’s up" Hope whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" Destiny whispered back, obviously on her car’s speakerphone.

"I’m not supposed to be on my phone."

"Ah, bad teacher," Destiny said with a chuckle. "You could’ve waited until after school to call me back. It wasn’t that important."

"Honestly," Hope said on a sigh. "I’d appreciate the adult conversation."

"Gotcha." A long breath from Destiny filled her ear. "Something’s happened that I’m not quite sure how to handle."

Hope tensed at her friend’s serious tone.

"Are you okay?"

"I’m fine. But…" Destiny paused for several seconds. "Mr. Shaw wants me to help him host a fundraiser here at the estate."

"Oh, that doesn’t—"

"As his date."

"Oh." That was unexpected. "Um, Destiny?"

"Yes."

"I think that constitutes being important."

"Yeah. You’re right. You… Hold on." Destiny grumbled something under her breath. She couldn’t make all of it out, but whoever she had in front of her had to be going too slow for her speedy friend. "Come on," Destiny groaned, the sound of her car shifting into high gear came at her loud and clear. "So, this is why I’m out running errands in town for him. I needed to think. What am I going to tell him?"

"It depends on—"

"Ms. Danford?"

"Hold on," Hope covertly told Destiney before turning her lowered head toward Toby’s frowning face across the aisle. "Yes?"

"My mom turns that way to go to school," he said pointing toward the window.

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