Page 24 of Eight Years (The Trident Trilogy 1)

“No. Not at all. Unless you want to,” Miss Dunning said. “Millie has a carefree spirit that I see fade in so many kids around this age as their parents get more serious about college scholarships and athletic excellence. All of that is important, but I really feel like kids need to be kids as long as they possibly can.”

Mack understood why Millie liked Miss Dunning as much as she did. He wanted Millie to keep that spirit well beyond her childhood days.

Mack left the classroom and headed down to the cafeteria to meet Millie. He opened the door to find the chaos had returned. Kids were flying around everywhere. He couldn’t see Millie, but he saw Carol over in the corner of the room and joined her.

As they discussed the results of their respective parent-teacher conferences, Mack located Millie across the room talking to a few girls her age. He saw a boy trying to get her attention. She was ignoring him, but he was being pesky. Mack watched as the boy grabbed Millie’s ponytail and pulled her hard toward him. Mack leaped out of his chair, ready to grab the kid and throw him across the room. Carol raced after Mack and positioned herself in front of him. She put her hand lightly on his chest.

“Mack, Mack, no, no, no. She’s fine,” Carol said quietly. “They’re just playing, just roughhousing. Millie’s strong. She can take care of herself.”

Mack stopped just in time to watch Millie efficiently put an elbow in the boy’s gut and return to the group of girls without missing a beat.

Hell yeah, she can take care of herself, Mack thought proudly as he allowed Carol to gently herd him back to the adult side of the room.

“Sorry,” he said as he sat down next to Carol. “It’s just instinct.”

“I know. You’re all good,” Carol said. “Just remember, you’re at a grade school, not in Iraq. I know it’s hard to separate them sometimes.”

Mack tried to smile, but she had no idea how hard it was. No one did unless they had experienced war.

“Mack, you know, if anything ever happens to you, I love Millie. I know you have other friends, but I’d be happy to take care of her. At least I’d be better than Camille,” Carol said.

Mack managed a forced smile again. He hated thinking about how Millie would fair without him.

“Thanks. I really do appreciate that. And, yeah, you’d definitely be better than Camille,” he said, patting Carol’s hand. “I’m going to get Millie. It’s about time to go home.”

Mack gave Carol’s hand a final squeeze as he walked over to Millie.

“Hey, Mills, are you ready? We should probably head home,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulder while glaring at the ponytail puller who was still nursing his gut.

Millie grabbed Mack’s hand as they walked out of the building towards the parking lot.

“Daddy, do you love Miss Carol? Are you going to marry her?” Millie asked.

“What? No, Millie, I don’t love Miss Carol, and we’re not going to get married,” Mack said as he playfully pulled her toward him and gave her a bear hug. “Why do you say that?”

“You were holding her hand,” Millie said. “I saw you.”

“I wasn’t holding her hand. I was touching her hand. There’s a difference. She needed comforting, and that’s all I was doing.”

“You kiss me when I need comforting,” Millie said. “You should try that with Miss Carol.”

“Maybe it’s time for you to stop talking now, Millie,” Mack said, laughing as he squeezed her tighter.

---