Читать книгу A Cowboy In Her Arms - Mary Leo - Страница 9

Prologue

Joel Darwood tried to take in what Mrs. Bradshaw was saying about his daughter, Emma, being disruptive to the class, causing the teacher to have to reprimand her after she bonked Jimmy Slater in the head with her baguette during lunch. He knew exactly where this conversation was heading. This was the third preschool his daughter would be expelled from, and she wasn’t even five years old yet. What would happen when she was in regular school?

“Fortunately, no one was hurt during the attack,” Mrs. Bradshaw said, looking as though the baguette could have caused immeasurable damage.

“It was a baguette, still fresh from this morning when I picked it up at the bakery down the street. I hardly think we could consider it a weapon.”

“Maybe so, but she struck him.”

“Jimmy is a full two inches taller than Emma, and if I have the story right, he swiped her Juicy Juice box and was taunting her with it.”

Mrs. Bradshaw grinned, seeming self-righteous as she intertwined her fingers, then rested her hands on the desk in front of her. “That’s hardly a reason to smack him with her lunch. Plus, as you know, this isn’t the first time Emma has disrupted the class. There were two other incidents that were far worse.”

“I wouldn’t call asking for seconds on orange slices or refusing to go outside for recess when it was windy and snowing disrupting the class.”

“It might not have been so bad if she had simply told her teacher she didn’t want to go outside, but she inspired the entire class to rebel. Her behavior is quite unacceptable. Emma needs to learn how to follow rules, and so far, your child demonstrates signs of becoming a rabble-rouser, something we cannot abide here at Mission Academy. Therefore, I’m afraid, Emma is no longer welcome at the academy.”

“So you’re expelling her?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so.”

“No need to be afraid. We’ll leave peacefully. I already ate my baguette on the way over.”

“Excuse me?”

Joel stood as a grin tightened his lips. “There is no excuse for you or this restrictive school. Good day, Mrs. Bradshaw. Oh, and by the way, I’d rather my daughter be a rabble-rouser than a complacent doormat. And if that’s what it takes to be part of Mission Academy, you can take your school and...”

But he didn’t finish the statement. Instead, he widened his grin, spun on his heels and marched out of the room, careful not to slam the door behind him.

As he walked to his SUV, all he could think of was how he and his daughter needed a change...a big change. One of those start-over kinds of changes that inspired new beginnings in new surroundings. Heck, he needed it as much as his daughter. Neither of them had any reason to remain in Boise, especially now when Joel’s position at his dad’s accounting firm seemed to be going nowhere fast.

Unlike his dad, Joel had never been all that interested in crunching numbers. He only majored in accounting in college because his dad had expected him to. Joel had found his job incredibly tedious and would try to avoid doing anything too complicated by handing off some of their best clients to one of his contemporaries. Joel was more of an embarrassment rather than the prodigal son who would one day inherit the business.

A change of venue might be exactly what the doctor ordered.