Page 18 of Second Start: Family
He nodded, solemn-eyed.
“What are your favorites?”
“Octopus,” he shouted suddenly.
“That’s not a whole story.” Lizzie brought the first bowl of ice cream to Kenzie.
Molly put the next one at her father’s place. “He said that because he just learned the word. He likes new words. We read him stories and all our homework.”
Another trip by each of the girls, then Hall brought the last two bowls.
Throughout it, with a few questions from Kenzie, they described the things they read to Bobby, with punctuations of repeated words from Bobby, along withoctopusthrown in.
The only other interruption was when Hall looked up and said, “This is really good, girls. You have a hit on your hands.”
They beamed.
He met Kenzie’s gaze for a moment, and she read thanks in his for her face-saving suggestion.
In that instant, his look changed.
And she felt something vibrate in her with the same change.
No.
No way on earth.
No.
She jerked her head around, searching for something to say, something to smother, deny, eradicate the change, even as the vibration held on.
“Sharing stories with your brother is not only generous, but it helps you two learn,” Kenzie said to the girls. “To explain something to someone else, you have to understand it yourself, so it’s making you both better at doing your homework and reading.”
She searched for a way to include the older boy. Somehow. It was too obvious she wasn’t talking to him, or involving him in the conversation. Sure, he wasn’t her student, but … she had it. “And you can do that with your older brother, too—” she smiled in his vicinity. “—while he’s studying for the scholarship test to—”
Hall interrupted. “What scholarship test?”
“If you’d bothered to talk to Miss Otter you’d know,” Dan grumbled.
Hall ignored him and demanded of Kenzie. “What scholarship test?”
“The state-wide test. For the program in Cheyenne.”
“No.”
She blinked. It didn’t change his hardened face or his dour word.
The man who’d smoothed things for his daughters was gone.
“It’s a wonderful program. And Vicky — Miss Otter says your son is exactly the sort of fine student it’s designed to help and—”
“My son doesn’t need that sort of help. He’s not leaving home.”
The clatter of wood on wood jolted Kenzie like a shot. Dan stood, his chair upended on the floor behind him, hands fisted, chest heaving, glaring at his father.
“You couldn’t make anything of yourself so you won’t let me, either! You’re a bastard. A fu—”
The father stood, the movement stopping the boy’s words. Across the angle of the table, they stared at each other. “Daniel, you will apologize to our guest and your sisters. Then you will go to your room.”
