CHAPTER ONE
Naomi
“Whatdoyouthinkhe’s going to be like?”my cousin, Raina, asked me as she pulled into a parking spot at the elementary school.Our other two cousins, Gabrielle and Danica, were in the backseat.
“I honestly thinkanybodyis going to be better than the fuckwad we had before,” I said, opening the front passenger door and stepping out.“Ding-dong, the ding-dong’s gone.Off the island and out of our lives for good.”
“All thanks to our badass cousin doing her super lawyering,” Danica said, rubbing Gabrielle on the back.The four of us fell into two-by-two formations as we, and a bunch of other parents, made our way toward the front door of the school.
The new principal had arrived when the old one, a horrible human being in every single way, finally retired—after Gabrielle essentially forced him to.
And, this new principal, by the name of Lennox Paul, had politely emailed all the parents and invited us to an informal meet and greet with him the night before his first day at the school.
So, of course, we were all eager beavers to get a glimpse of the new administrator and see what kind of principal our kiddos would be getting.
But as I said before, nearly anybody besides maybe Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer would be better than Otto Pickford.
Several vehicle doors closed behind us, followed by a “Hey!”.
Raina instantly spun around, her face lighting up when her boyfriend, Jagger McEvoy, made his way to catch up to us.He still had a slight limp after an incident earlier this year that had caused his knee to shatter, but he was moving faster and didn’t have a grimace on his bearded face anymore.
He looped an arm around my redheaded cousin and kissed the side of her head.
“You don’t have any kids,” Gabrielle said to him.“Why are you here?”
He jerked his head back and made a face of mild indignation.“I have six nieces and nephews, and Marco is basically my stepson, and all your kids are basically my stepnieces and nephews.I’m heavily invested in who is going to help shape the great minds of tomorrow.”He smirked, then whispered out of the side of his mouth, “I’m alsohellacurious.”
His brothers were right behind us, and we all funneled into the school and made our way toward the gymnasium together.
The island was so small that I knew every face in the crowd.I waved at Julianne Millican, who was one of the women that co-owned Twisted Sister Cider.She sat with a couple of the other single moms who she owned the orchard and cidery with.
Danica waved at Cameron Arendelle, who co-owned Hardwood Distillery with three other single dads.His daughter Francesca was good friends with Danica’s daughter Sam, after bonding over their love of animals, particularly horses.
We managed to find four seats all together, but Jagger had to sit behind us with his brothers.
The last time all the parents congregated in the gym like this, Gabrielle’s daughter, Laurel, was one of several students reading an essay about someone they admired.Obviously, Laurel wrote about her mother.But then she went further to tell her mother that she needed to stop being stubborn and go to Maverick—since at that time, she and Maverick had broken up.
I glanced across Danica at Gabrielle.“This bringing back memories, Gabs?”
My cousin rolled her eyes.“You mean when my child and my cousins all announced to half the island that I needed to go chase down the man—fifteen years younger than me—who I was in love with, because I was stupid and let him go?”
Raina, Danica, all the McEvoys, and I said, “Yes,” at the same time.
Gabrielle smirked, and a gentleness entered her amber eyes.“Yeah, it is.”
The gym echoed with the sound of a hundred different conversations all at once.It was overstimulating, but when I glanced at my smartwatch, it said that the meeting with the new principal was going to start in two minutes.
A wave out of the corner of my eye pulled my attention.
“What the hell isshedoing here?”Raina murmured beside me.“She doesn’t have any kids at this school.”
As if she heard Raina speak out of the side of her mouth, Jolene Dandy, also known as “The Island Mouth,” and a woman well into her seventies, stopped in front of us, even though we were three rows back from the front.
“Hi, Jolene,” Gabrielle said in her sweetest voice.“What brings you here?”
The old bird puffed up her chest a little in her green and blue patchwork jacket.Her coppery-brown eyes were sharp, and while not unkind, held a level of arrogance—not confidence—that tended to rub a lot of people the wrong way.“While I may not have children at the school any longer, Iama member of the Island Elders Council, as well as a concerned citizen.I would very much like to know who we have joining the island, the school, and therefore, in charge of the children’s education.”
“A pinecone for a principal would be better than the yellow-mustached waste of skin we had before,” Jagger murmured behind us.
