Page 64 of Castle's Cards

“Oh?”

“The address that you’ve moved to isn’t in our district. Unfortunately, that means I have to give you a notice of dismissal. If you haven’t moved back into district within two weeks, Isabella will no longer be able to attend school here.”

I blink. Move back into the district? Is this a joke?

“Are you serious? There’s only a few months left in the school year, and this is her senior year. You’re honestly telling me you can’t make an exception?”

“If I made an exception for one student, then I’d have to make an exception for all the students.”

I snort.

“Uh, no, you wouldn’t. If you treated all students the same, it would just be the rule. That’s why it’s called an exception.” I shake my head. “So I have to move back into the district just so she can continue here? Can’t I just fill out an out-of-district request?”

“Unfortunately all of our out-of-district request spots have been filled for this calendar school year.”

I take a deep breath and stare at Mr.O’Shaugnessy. The best course of action is to smile and nod, or else I’ll have to be dragged out of this office.

“Okay. Thanks.”

I turn and leave before he can deliver any more bad news.

The exchange is still on my mind when I walk out the front door for work a few hours later. I’m so distracted by it that I almost run smack into Carter on his way into the house. He smiles as he comes through the door, but concern etches across his face the second he sees my expression.

“Addy, what’s wrong?”

I consider lying, telling him that nothing is bothering me. But that wouldn’t be fruitful. And what kind of relationship is this if I won’t even be honest about the little things?

“While I was dropping Izzy off at school, the principal told me that because we no longer live in the district, Izzy can’t go to school there. She has two weeks left before we have to transfer her. She’s going to be devastated.”

Carter squeezes my arm sympathetically and kisses me on the forehead.

“I’m sorry, Addy. That really sucks. But there’s a great preparatory school only a few minutes from here. I’ll take care of everything to get Izzy enrolled. Take a little weight off your shoulders.”

Even though that solves the schooling problem, I know it won’t make Izzy feel better. But I still let out a small sigh of relief. Carter always has the answer for everything, which is one of the things I really love about him. I wonder if it comes with the territory of being older.

The older, the wiser is what they say, right?

“Thank you, Carter.”

“Anything for you and Izzy. I’ll let you head to work.”

I get up on my tiptoes and plant a juicy kiss on Carter’s lips. Then I wink before going out the door. I hear him groan as I leave, and I can’t help but giggle at the minimal amount of teasing I did. It takes almost no effort to get him going, and I love to rile him up. I think it makes it that much better, knowing we’ve been waiting for it all day.

Twenty minutes later, I pull up outside of work. I sigh and look at my reflection in the mirror. Not a hair out of place despite my stressful morning; I’m either incredibly talented at being presentable or super lucky.

As much as I enjoy my job, the morning I had is throwing me off so much that I want to turn around and drive right home. My stomach turns as I look up at the building in front of me. I take a few deep breaths before nodding to myself. This is my job, and I love it. There’s no reason to feel weird about going inside. Smiling, I flip the mirror up and get out of the car.

My heels click on the pavement and I tug down the tight red skirt I’m wearing. It’s a bit tighter than I remember it being, but I have been eating a lot better since Carter and I have gotten together.

Immediately upon stepping into the club, I’m overwhelmed by the sweet smell of smoke and drink syrups. I smile at another hostess before striding to the supply closet and grabbing a card shuffler and some packs of cards to distribute to the poker tables as well as some cleaning wipes before going to set up for tonight’s tournament.

I take a breath before opening the wipes, preparing for the grainy alcohol smell. Despite knowing the smell will be unpleasant, the scent wafting from the tub causes my stomach to do flips.

Despite taking a few deep breaths, I’m not able to quell the nausea and instead have to run to the employee bathroom. The second I enter the small stall I throw myself to my knees in front of the porcelain throne and expel the remains of the granola bar in addition to whatever bile is in my stomach.

“Ugh,” I groan out loud before flushing the toilet and sitting back, tipping my head against the wall. After a couple minutes someone knocks on the door. “Occupied!”

“Addy? Are you okay? You ran out of the game room so fast,” Cassie’s soft voice emanates through the door. I lean over and open the door so she can come in. Her eyes fall on me as she makes a noise of sympathy. “Yikes. Not feeling so hot?”

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