Trial & Error ✓

06 | yachts & hots

0 6

yachts & hots

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THE BEACH WAS the perfect place to be right now. Sure, Jack was sick, but that was okay because I had gotten him all cleaned up in the bathroom and he was okay now. Now, it was just the two of us lying in the sand together, both blowing off our responsibilities without a care in the world. I had found us both pairs of cute sunglasses being sold at a booth, so we had our eyes shielded as we sat there, looking like a pair of divas and for a second, I felt like I was a part of Jack's wealthy world.

"So," I asked, lifting my virgin piña colada to my lips to take a sip and then lowering it. "This is so much better than going to boring old school, am I right?"

"Yes, Marilyn," he beamed, looking up at me in admiration. But then his expression darkened and his lips curled downward. "Wait, but what if mommy finds out I'm not at school and what if I get in trouble? I'm scared, Marilyn."

I sighed and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him closer to my side. "None of that is going to happen — at least not the trouble part," I assured him. "Hey, come with me."

I got up from the sandy ground, picking him up and holding him to my chest with one hand while the other one held my phone. "I'm just going to call your mother to see what I should do in order to not get fired, okay?"

He nodded nervously, but he still nodded so I took it as my cue.

I wanted Selena not to know about this, but I needed to stay in her good graces — and George's since he was coming back — if I wanted to keep this job and use it to my advantage to help Teddy nail this case. So I pressed the dial button by Selena's name and held the phone to my ear in waiting.

After the third ring, I wasn't met with the usually crisp and calm greetings that she usually started her conversations off with, but a more frantic, "why the hell is my child not in school?"

Call it mother's intuition?

"The headmistress just called me, telling me that Jack wasn't there," she said, proving my original hunch wrong. "What in the hell are you doing? Are you trying to sell my child?"

"No," I said, scandalized, "of course I wouldn't sell Jack, he's the only one of you guys that I — okay, forget what I said. But no, Jack just got sick, so I'm taking care of him. That's all, ma'am."

"Mrs. Gates," she corrected, making me glad she wasn't here so I could roll my eyes as much as I wanted. "And okay then, just make sure to call the headmistress — I'll send you her number — and tell her that, and remember to pick the kids up at seven. The house should be ready by then."

I shuddered at the thought of what she and George would be doing for nearly twelve hours, but I held firm, answering "you got it," to Selena's commands before hanging up. Jack was watching me expectantly, waiting for me to tell him the details about what happened on the other side of that call.

"Hey, kiddo," I said as I used my free hand to tussle his hair. "What do you think of your school's headmistress? Is she a sweetheart or is she a crab apple?"

"She's a top notch bitch," he said, making me choke on the air I was breathing in.

"Where did you learn language like that," I said in surprise. "Don't ever say stuff like that, that's inappropriate."

"Jacob taught it to me," he said innocently, cocking his head to the side and giving me those eyes that he knew I couldn't refuse. Jacob taught it to him, my foot. He was lucky I didn't have a bar of soap with me.