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Before she could say another word, Luke had slipped out of the classroom. Allie stared after him having the strangest feeling that this wasn’t going to go over all that well with Molly.
No, the young girl wouldn’t come up to her and complain, but there were days when Molly definitely showed her displeasure in the form of a cold shoulder. Out of most of the children in Allie’s classroom, Molly was one of the bubblier personalities. She brought light and life to the discussions they had in the classroom. She had the imagination of a fantasy author, and even more. Allie didn’t want to mess with that dynamic in her classroom.
Well, that was too late.
Allie sighed as she dropped her head to her hands and took in a deep breath before releasing it. That was when she realized her hands were shaking. She dug her fingers into her hair, but the motion did nothing to quell the nerves she was experiencing.
She was the teacher. She was expected to report on the good and the bad. Sometimes the parents didn’t do much. But apparently there was another end of that spectrum where, like Luke, the parents were going overboard.
“Allie? Is this a good time?”
She snapped her head up so quickly she nearly gave herself whiplash. These had to be the next parents in line. They belonged to one of the boys in her class.
Allie forced a smile and -gestured toward the seat that Luke had vacated and the one beside it. “Jim and Patty. Glad you could make it. Please have a seat.”
CHAPTERFOUR
The whole wayhome from the school, Luke couldn’t help but feel defeated. Already, he was struggling with wondering if Molly needed more than he was providing. Now, heknewshe did. She should be paying attention in school. He did have high expectations but now he was trying to figure out when he stopped making that clear.
Where had he gone wrong?
He gripped his steering wheel a little tighter, his hands turning white from the pressure. What more could he do? He’d worked his tail off to make sure he provided for his family. He’d made his family’s ranch a household name. He’d been a good dad, hadn’t he?
But one thing was still missing.
Molly didn’t have a mother.
Sure, she had several women in her life to help lead her the best they could. But they would never be a replacement for Shellie.
His heart constricted as his late wife’s face filled his thoughts, accosting him with memories he’d all but buried. Emotions burned behind his eyes, and he rubbed at one with the heel of his hand. He couldn’t do this now.
Nine years ago, she’d left this realm but it wasn’t her absence that caused him the most pain. Luke was struggling to handle the insecurities of being a single father to a child who would soon be a teenager.
He took a deep breath and shoved away that terrifying thought. One step at a time. For now, he needed to focus on the future. There was no telling what his life with Molly would have been like if her mother had still been alive. And it was just borrowing trouble to linger on that thought.
Luke would always miss her, but there were more important issues—like his daughter and his job. There was only one good thing about his meeting with Allie today. She’d seemed sure that Molly was going to be okay. Granted, she’d mentioned that Molly was being raised by a single father and because of that, she could have been worse off.
That statement rubbed him the wrong way more than it should have.
He heaved a sigh as he pulled up to his brother’s home and stared at the front porch. The light overhead made the railing appear as if it were glowing, but then again, that could be the white paint. The farmhouse had a classic look, one that could have been dropped in any time period and remain just as beautiful. Once upon a time, he had thought this home would belong to his little family. But after Shellie died and Brent got married, it just didn’t make sense.
Molly was inside somewhere playing with her cousins, waiting for him to come home. How was he supposed to bring up the problems he’d discovered during the parent teacher conference without making her feel like she was the problem? Molly could be so sensitive sometimes.
Luke climbed out of his truck and shut the door. He closed his eyes, drawing on all the strength he had before he headed toward the house.
The weathered steps creaked with his weight. Screeches and laughter filtered through a window that had been opened a crack.
He smiled. Even if he didn’t have Shellie anymore, he still had a strong family unit. He couldn’t be more grateful for that fact. His hand wrapped around the doorknob and he turned it, pushing the door open to find three children staring at a television screen with video game controllers in their hands. They tilted and ducked as if their movements would help their cartoon characters race around the track with more accuracy.
“Hey!” Danielle hollered when her older brother dropped an object in her way. “That’s not fair.”
Casey snickered and jumped up from the floor, the intensity in his eyes increasing.
“That’s okay, Dani. I’ll get ‘im.” Molly’s thumbs clicked more feverishly than before.
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to get them to quit their game before they finish this round,” Jackie murmured behind him. “They’ve been at it for the last thirty minutes and no one can beat Casey.” She laughed softly. “It’s too bad, too, because I was really rooting for a girl to beat him.”
Luke glanced at the television screen. The cartoon characters darted and swerved. “Things are so different from when we were kids.”
