Page 3 of I'll Carry You
This time, Kevin had screwed him over worse than ever. And not just him. If Jason lost control of the company, it would be only a matter of time until all those employees he’d known for years lost their jobs, too.
Jason turned his back to the window, facing TJ. Rage boiled in his stomach. “I have. And it means there’s a good chance we’re not the only ones who know about this kid.”
ChapterTwo
The cramped officewas meant to look bright and cheery, yet it was anything but. Jen shifted in the hard folding chair, holding Colby closer.
Her knee bounced, a leftover habit from her youth that anyone in her family would appreciate as a sign of her nervousness. She stilled it and smoothed a lock of Colby’s blond hair from his forehead. His hair was still so light that his pink scalp was visible under it.
She set her chin down on the top of his head. His hair smelled like watermelon kids’ shampoo. Wrinkling her nose, she focused on how soft his hair was. She’d never liked watermelon-scented anything, but her mom had bought it for him, so here they were.
Either way, her soft, watermelon-scented child shouldn’t be in the principal’s office.
The door opened, and the preschool’s principal, Miss Tierney, walked in. She gave Jen a polite smile and sat, her chair creaking. “I had asked for an appointment without Colby.” She gave Colby a friendly smile that overcompensated her statement, her white teeth contrasting with the brown of her skin.
“I didn’t have a sitter.” Jen set Colby down. She fished into her purse for her cell phone. “Here, baby, take Mama’s phone.” She slid it open and clicked on a game, all the while feeling Tierney’s eyes on her.Great. Now she probably thinks this is how I parent.She felt heat climb up her face. “He rarely gets to play these games, so he won’t even pay attention to us.”
Colby took the game happily and sat on the floor, his eyes instantly glued to the screen.
Tierney observed Colby for a few more moments before folding her hands. She didn’t look pleased, but she sighed. “I’m concerned about Colby’s behavior. There’s been a lot of hitting lately. The other day he drew blood when he pinched one of his classmates.”
Jen had already heard about the incident from her friend Lindsay who was Colby’s preschool teacher. Lindsay had apologized for having to report the incident about twenty times. Not that Jen blamed her. If Colby had shown up with a giant welt from being pinched, she would have wanted to know which kid had done it, so the other parents probably felt the same way.
“He’s been having more nightmares again, but his therapist says he’s doing really well.” Jen glanced at Colby, her heart falling. How could it be that her angelic son was capable of such violent behavior? He never seemed to fight with his cousins this way.
“Unfortunately, we can’t really have him here without an immediate improvement in behavior.” Tierney leaned forward, setting her hands on her desk.
“The problem is”—Jen lowered her voice, eyeing Colby—“I need him to be here. I can’t keep taking off work while he’s on these timeout days.”
“If I can make a suggestion, I would look for in-home, one-on-one care. With the issues Colby has right now, he’ll face similar challenges everywhere.”
No kidding. And other places didn’t have her best friend as a preschool teacher. “Unfortunately, I can’t afford that.”
Tierney bit her lip and pulled out a file. “You can’t really afford us, either, Miss Klein. Gina says you’re delinquent on the last two payments.” She turned the file so Jen could look at the ledger.
Jen’s heart rate kicked up a notch, the back of her neck breaking out in a cold sweat. She didn’t need to look at the ledger. The invoice amount had caused her to avoid Gina’s phone calls a week earlier.
But Christmas was approaching. For the past three years, since Colby had been born, she’d approached the season with dread and anxiety. She couldn’t afford this time of year. Hell, she couldn’t affordanytime of year, but Christmas made that disparity clearer.
Jen lifted pleading eyes to Tierney. “Can you give me another month? I have a lot of overtime coming my way from my jobs during December.” That much was true. But it also meant having somewhere to drop Colby off on the days Mom couldn’t watch him.
“Look, Miss Klein, the truth is we’re all pulling for you. And if it were just about the money, that might be something I could wiggle around, but this is the fifth incident this month. The fifth time I’ve had furious parents at other conferences. We all love you and love Colby, but this isn’t the right place for him.”
Jen swiped tears from her burning eyes. She nodded a few times, then stood. She didn’t need the added humiliation of crying in front of Tierney. “I’ll . . . uh . . . we’ll go then.” She gathered her purse and squatted beside Colby, whose concentration remained unbroken on the phone. “Ready, bubba?”
She lifted Colby and set him on her hip, not wanting the scene of trying to wrestle the phone away from him. Because he rarely got to use it, trying to take it away was always a process. She was embarrassed enough.
She let herself out and hurried down the hall of the small preschool. The walls were plastered with art projects from the different classrooms. Stopping by the door to Lindsay’s room, she knelt in front of the cubby. She shifted through it for the gallon-sized plastic bag holding the spare set of Colby’s clothes.
Through the open doorway, Lindsay caught her eye. She motioned to the assistant and crept to the doorway, her dark eyes filled with concern. “What happened?”
Jen found Colby’s bag and stood, lifting her son once more. “They kicked us out,” she whispered. She pasted a tight smile on her face. “But we’ll talk about it later.” She didn’t want to attract any attention to herself. Open-door policies meant any of the teachers from the nearby classrooms could see.
Lindsay gave her a mournful, sympathetic expression and pulled her in for a tight hug. “I’m so sorry. I’ll come over after work?”
Shaking her head, Jen shifted. Colby was getting heavier these days, his ankles showing below his pants leg hems. It seemed like he had skipped sizes three and four entirely and gone straight to size five. Another thing she couldn’t afford. “I have a night shift at the cabins tonight. Luckily, my mom can take Colby tomorrow so I can work at the café. Maybe after I get off?”
“Don’t you have a date with Brad tomorrow?” Lindsay gave her the eager look that she used whenever Jen mentioned a possible romantic attachment. Her best friend’s loyalty was heartwarming. Lindsay seemed to want Jen to find a boyfriend more than Jen did.