“Well, she’s a live wire, Annelise,” he allowed diplomatically. “A real crackling little person. Very inventive. The recess game where they all pretended to be tomato worms, for instance, was her idea. Though she wasn’t one of the brawlers.”
Annelise’s Hummingbird troop had learned all about tomato hornworms during an agricultural excursion on Mac Coltrane’s property up at Devil’s Leap—and had decided to play Battle of the Tomato Worms at recess. Apparently the mock battle had become a real battle, and a few Hummingbirds had wound up in the principal’s office for kicking and pulling hair. Annelise may have thoughtupthe game, but she hadn’t turned it into a riot. Like her beloved cat, Peace and Love, Annelise was kind of a pacifist. Probably because she didn’t have any siblings to brawl with. Though she wrestled like puppies with her Uncle Jesse when he was back in town, which wasn’t enough to suit any of the people who loved him. He was forever traveling on behalf of Redmond Worldwide.
“So what you’re saying is I can count on a few more visits to the principal’s office over the years,” she concluded.
The principal grinned. “Ah, we’ll just take it as it comes. She’s an awesome kid. A total delight. Her teachers love her. And it’s a privilege to watch her thrive and challenge herself academically and in the world.”
Eden was tempted to lean into these words like a flower leaned into the sun—what mother wouldn’t?—and yet she was perversely reluctant to be charmed. It was like the first time she’d put big-girl shoes on Annelise. Leesy had beenastounded, as outraged as though she’d strapped anvils on her instead of little sneakers. And she’d refused to take even a single step forward without being tugged like a water-skier, howling.
Of course, now the girl wasnutsfor shoes.
But yeah. Principal Gabe probably said these kinds of things to all the moms. God only knew complimenting a kid was a foolproof ingratiating and disarming technique. She wondered if they taught that tactic in the SEALs.
For some reason, the wordwe’llwas echoing in her mind. Like something she wanted to hoard and take out to mentally caress later.
“You can call me Mr. Caldera, by the way,” he added. “‘Principal’ isn’t often used as an honorific.”
He was actually giving her shit! The nerve!
She liked it alot. She all but loathed reverence.
“Wait—so what you’re telling me is it’snotlike Your Excellency?” She furrowed her brow in mock confusion.
“I’ll happily answer to Your Excellency, if that’s what you prefer. It’s not like the shoe doesn’t fit. My friends—and maybe one or two, let’s say, overconfident others—call me Gabe. So feel free to call me any of those things.”
Interesting. She was pretty sure this was a subtle dig at Jan Pennington. But he’d said it with such humor and subtlety that she could take it any way she chose. A canny man, this Gabe Caldera.
She liked this, too, which was probably unworthy of her. And maybe this was also unworthy of him. But he was making it clear where his allegiances lay.
“Well, I’ll take my options under advisement,” she said.
“Great,” he said, smiling.
“Great,” she parroted brightly. For no reason. Unless it was because she hadn’t had a frivolous exchange with a hot man in ages and in the interim she’d become a dork.
Heat crept up the back of her neck.
“Great!” he echoed. Then looked startled and a little abashed, as if he couldn’t figure out why he’d said that.
Well, look at that. She’d infected the poor guy with her own dorkiness in mere seconds. And it was pretty difficult to imagine a circumstance in which he wouldn’t feel utterly in command.
She was tempted to touch him again, a gesture to take away his discomfiture. She thought better of it, given that her cells were still on vibrate from the last time she’d touched him.
But the image of him plucking that kid from danger flashed into her head again and... some gut instinct made her want to rescue him.
He rescued both of them. “I thought for a moment you were tempted to deck Jan with your handbag.”
Add mind reader to his résumé, she thought.
She gave a short laugh. “You know, I do understand her concerns. I mean, I probably wouldn’t love it much either if I heard my daughter belting that song out of the blue. I probably would have gone about addressing the issue differently, however.”
“What would you have done?” He sounded genuinely curious.
“I wouldn’t have gone straight to Your Excellency, let’s put it that way. I’m good at handling things on my own.”
“Of course,” he said easily, after a little pause. “No question. I can see that.”
“But that doesn’t mean I can’t wield this like nunchucks in a pinch.” She gestured with her plumply full handbag.