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Beside her, Jax was opening his. She noticed that he did it the same way she had done hers and Pia’s, using the wrapper to prevent leakage. She was glad she hadn’t had to tell him. The teen wouldn’t want to be bossed around.
“So should we continue your usual dinner discussion?” she asked. “Since we didn’t get to finish earlier.”
“Me, me,” Pia yelped around her ice cream.
“Okay, Pia, go ahead,” Yasmine said. “Are you going to tell us what you learned?”
“I learned the water in the fountain is… recycled,” Pia said, pulling out the new word.
“Excellent, Pia,” Yasmine said. “And I learned that you guys have a fun streak a galaxy wide.”
Pia laughed.
“How about you, Jax?” she asked.
He just shrugged and looked down at his feet in the water.
She felt a pang of sympathy and wondered if he was thinking about the kid he had shoved, or his dad’s anger, or the comms that had cut off their family meal.
“What are you doing?” a voice boomed from the direction of the house.
“Daddy,” Pia whispered.
Yasmine turned and waved to her employer, feeling relieved that he had decided to check in with the kids again before bedtime.
But the look on his face was furious.
“This is a priceless piece of intergalactic artwork,” he thundered. “Not a wading pool.”
“We were just dipping our toes,” Yasmine said with a calm she didn’t feel as she pulled her feet out of the fountain. “It seemed like a peaceful way to end our evening.”
Pia was trying to scramble out so fast Yasmine was afraid she would slip and hurt herself.
“And it was my idea,” she added, offering the little one her hands.
By the time she had Pia out, Jax was already disappearing across the lawn toward the house.
“Of course it was,” Kreed growled. “The children would have more sense.”
Yasmine peeled off her sweater and used it to dry Pia’s feet before getting her shoes back on her. She tried to focus on her Tai Chi teachings.
Breathe. Find your center. Bring order to your thoughts.
But inwardly, she was raging almost as much as he was. After all, it was an outdoor fountain. There were probably birds and small animals in and out of it all the time. Were his children’s feet really going to ruin it somehow?
And was this really the biggest problem the leader of the world had dealt with today?
She wanted to tell him to try dunking his hot head in there to see if it cooled him off any.
But she needed the job, and the kids clearly needed her.
Breathe. Find your center. Bring order to your thoughts.
“How was your call?” she asked him as mildly as she could. “We missed you at dinner.”
She kept her eyes on Pia, who was looking like her heart was broken.
But she could feel Kreed’s red-hot energy cool almost instantly. As if her simple redirection had blown his mind.
