Romantically Perfect: A Friends to Lovers Romantic Comedy (Perfectly Imperfect Love Series Book 3)

by S. E. Rose

  “You asked for it,” he says.

  C-Dog comes to my rescue jumping in front of Kent. “I’ll save you!” he yells like a valiant knight before turning around licking my cheek.

  “You little fucker!” I cry out as I run after him.

  After five minutes of this, all my siblings end up lying on the floor of our old playroom staring at the ceiling. A few Superman balloons are still half floating around the room. Kent had the chore of popping and disposing of most of them.

  “Why did Mom let us draw on those tiles?” Lanie asks, breaking the silence. When my parents put in the basement playroom, they had made a drop-down ceiling. I’m not totally sure how it started, but one day, Kylie pulled down a tile and painted on it. Pretty soon, all the tiles were adorned with our individual artwork. My favorite is still the one I bedazzled.

  “Come on, that woman still has some of our piss-poor artwork framed in the hallway,” Kent says with a laugh.

  “I can’t fucking believe you are going to be a dad,” I say.

  “Do you think the hospital will let you take the kid home? I mean, I wouldn’t trust you with a baby,” Clark teases.

  Kent punches his arm. “Fuck off.”

  “I can’t wait to meet our new family member! Ash is so stoked!” Lanie says.

  “Crazy, it’s just crazy. When did we, I mean all of us but Clark, start becoming real adults?” Kylie asks.

  “Screw you! Just because I haven’t graduated college yet, doesn’t mean I’m not a real adult, jackass,” Clark protests.

  Lanie and I snicker. “Actually, that’s exactly what it means,” I tease.

  Clark gets a pouty look on his face. After a minute, he starts laughing. Our baby brother can be so annoying, but he’s also a giant love bug.

  “OK, so what about Di? Did we resolve your love life yet?” Lanie asks.

  I groan. “Well, I have decided not to give up on love. I just need to balance my life a little better. I’ve been taking this cooking class with the girls, and I’m really enjoying it. I might take a baking class next.”

  “Good for you,” Kylie says.

  “And Garrett?” Kent asks.

  I shrug. “I mean we had to spend quite a bit of time together today. It was a little awkward, but maybe eventually, it’ll be better. I don’t know.”

  “So, you don’t like him anymore?” Lanie asks.

  I blush and am glad everyone is still staring up at the ceiling or they would see right through my answer. “I mean, we just aren’t compatible. I don’t want to waste my time with someone who’s going to be constantly poo-pooing love and romance. I want them to embrace that part of me. I want someone who will make an occasional grand romantic gesture. And, I just don’t think he wants that.”

  “Have you actually spoken to him about it?” Clark inquires.

  I groan. “Not ready to do that right now. I just need to get through the next two weeks. I have so much going on and now this whole money disappearing thing.”

  “Wait, what?” Lanie asks.

  I retell the story for what I feel is the thousandth and second time today.

  “Shit,” Clark mutters.

  “Yeah, that sucks,” Lanie agrees.

  “We’ll figure it out. Caris is sure it’s a kid, so come Monday, we’ll see if we can guilt trip it out of one of them,” I explain.

  “I hope so. I just…it makes my mom heart hurt if some kid felt they needed to take that money,” Lanie says with a sigh.

  “No shit,” I agree.

  Clark suddenly sits up. “Wait, shouldn’t we have a celebratory cake?”

  “What?” all of us reply at once.

  “I mean, ’cause of the baby. We should have cake!” he announces as he gets up and heads to the stairs. “I’ll go pick it up if someone will give me their credit card.”

  Kent groans and reaches in his pocket, tossing his wallet at Clark. “Do no spend some asinine amount of money on it.”

  “So, five hundred is acceptable?”

  Kent throws a stuffed animal at him and Clark raises his hands in surrender. “OK, OK. I’ll keep it to a cool two hundred and fifty then.”

  Kent launches another stuffed animal as Clark laughs on his way upstairs.

  “I swear to God, if my kid turns out like Clark, I’m going to have to send it to him to raise because I can’t deal with that,” Kent huffs as he stands up.

  “Well, Ashton is already clearing space for a bassinet in his room in case his cousin wants to have a sleepover, so you know where you can send the baby when you need adult time,” Lanie laughs.

  We all get up and slowly make our way back to the kitchen to graze on more food. Tabby is sitting at the breakfast table chatting with Mom and our grandmothers, who are clearly all super-excited about her news.

  I stand back and look at my family, smiling as I do. Garrett was right, I really am so very lucky.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Garrett

  It’s been six days since the race, and we still haven’t solved the money mystery. Caris and the other principals at the high school and the middle school put out warnings that the student should come forward with the money and that if it was a momentary lack of judgment, the money could be dropped off at their offices, no questions asked.

  It was a bold move on their parts, but I didn’t question their approach. However, now that nearly a week has gone by, I’m seriously doubtful about getting the money back. I hate to have to file a police report, but it’s looking more and more like that will be happening.

  I glance up and see most of my students are still working together on their small group projects. I need to fill my water bottle up, so I stand. All their eyes turn to me.

  “Keep working, guys, I’m just going to the water fountain for thirty seconds.” I glance around the room. “Eleanor, you are in charge.”

  She beams at the mention of her name. Eleanor is one of the best students in my class. She’s still kind at an age where the kids tend to become holy terrors toward each other.

  I walk out into the hallway passing into the fourth-grade section because our water fountain is out of service again. I swear the plumbing in our school needs to be completely redone. As I’m filling my water bottle up, I see Ashton exit from Di’s classroom. He looks both ways and then makes a beeline straight toward me.

  “Hi, Ash. Everything OK?” I ask him.

  He shakes his head. “Can I talk to you?” he asks, looking around again like he’s under government surveillance. I sigh because he should be going to Di.

  “You can’t talk to your aunt?” I ask, motioning back to his classroom.

  He shakes his head again.

  “OK, let’s go in Ms. Jenkins's classroom; they are on a field trip today,” I say as I usher him into the nearby third-grade classroom.

  “What’s up?” I ask as I shut the door.

  “I know who took the money,” he mutters, looking down at his feet.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” I ask, partly because I can barely hear him and partly because I don’t believe the words coming out of his mouth.

  He looks up at me. “I know who took the money,” he says more clearly this time.

  My eyes widen. “Who?”

  He looks back down and shuffles his feet. I squat down so we are at eye level. “Ash, you won’t get in trouble, I promise. I need to know who did it though, OK?”

  He nods but doesn’t look at me. “It was Trevor.”

  “Trevor Larson?” I clarify.

  He nods again and slowly raises his eyes to meet mine. “He didn’t know what else to do. I saw he had a lot of money in his book bag yesterday and I asked him. At first, he said his mom won the lottery, but then later while we were walking home, he told me the truth. He snatched a bunch while you were helping that kid at the race. You must have not locked the box yet and he was able to grab some without anyone noticing because they were all watching you. He feels really bad about it. He didn’t really understand that t
he charity actually helps kids just like him. When Principal Kennedy said that the charity wouldn’t get to help as many kids whose families are going through tough times, I noticed he turned red and he was wiping a tear away even though he said he wasn’t crying when I asked him. Anyhow, you know about his family, right?”

  I nod.

  “Plus, his dad moved out two weeks ago. His mom is having a really tough time and now his grandmother who was helping watch him and his sisters, Heidi and Daphne, got sick. He’s having to watch them and get groceries for food, but he used up the last of the money to buy them lollipops after school. He didn’t know what else to feed them. So, when he saw your money, he figured there was so much that no one would notice. I don’t think he knew how much he grabbed until he got home and then he got scared.”

  I sigh. “OK, we need to go talk to Principal Kennedy about this. You know you could have told your aunt.”

  He bites his lip and his face turns pink. “I thought I’d get in trouble because I’ve known about it since Tuesday but was too afraid to say anything. Aunt Di is nice, but I’ve seen her get mad, and it’s scary.”

  I press my lips together to keep from laughing. “OK, let’s go.”

  I walk us by my classroom first and poke my head inside. “I just need to drop something off in the office. I expect every group to have three ideas written up on the board by the time I get back, OK?”

  They all nod. I head back down the hall with Ash in tow. When we get to the main office, I look over at our two office assistants. “Is Principal Kennedy available?”

  They look up at us and then at each other. “Uh, yes, go ahead and knock on her door,” says Mandy Snyder, the older of the two women.

  “Thanks,” I reply as I tap on Caris’s door.

  “Come in,” she answers.

  I open it and push Ash inside. “Hey, Ash and I wanted to talk to you.”

  Her eyes meet mine, and I give her a subtle shake of my head to indicate that Ash isn’t our thief.

  “Sure, have a seat,” she states, motioning to a small round table in the corner of her office. We sit, and she walks over to join us. “What’s going on?”

  “Ash has something he’d like to tell you. Ash, why don’t you tell Principal Kennedy what you told me, OK? Again, you aren’t in any trouble.”

  Ash bites his lip again before slowly starting to tell her the story, including that Trevor bought new shoes with some of the money. When he finishes, his eyes finally raise to meet her gaze.

  “And you are sure of this, Ash?”

  He nods, looking back down, his face turning pink.

  “OK. Thank you for telling me. I’m going to meet with Trevor now, but I will not say who told me, alright. I know you two are friendly.”

  “Thank you,” he says in a barely audible voice.

  “Why don’t you get back to class now. We’ll just say you didn’t feel well and visited the nurse,” she offers as she moves toward her door.

  Ash nods and leaves. I hear Mandy giving him a hall pass.

  “Wow,” Caris says to me once she shuts her door.

  I nod, running a hand through my hair. “I feel awful. Poor Trevor. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I don’t want to punish him. That poor kid has been through enough.”

  Caris sighs as she leans against her desk. “Garrett, he’s going to have to be punished, but I think I might have an idea.”

  “You do?”

  She nods. “Let me make some calls. And then I’ll talk to Trevor.”

  “Well, I guess let me know what happens,” I say to her as I leave.

  “I’ll call you to come back in once I have things sorted out. You deserve to hear the truth straight from him.”

  My mind is spinning as I head back to my classroom. I’m partly relieved we found the money and partly horrified about how bad things have gotten at one of our students’ homes. Having students going through difficult times at home has always been the hardest part of my job. It’s hard for kids to concentrate on learning when they don’t have enough food to eat, or if they are stressed about sick family members or where they are going to sleep at night. I decide to go talk more with Caris after school today. I want to find ways to help Trevor and other kids like him at Charles Elementary School. There must be more ways to help these kids.

  Chapter Thirty

  Di

  Ash has been fidgety since he returned to the classroom. What started as a bathroom break ended up with him in the nurse’s office, according to his hall pass, but he won’t say why.

  It’s five minutes until gym class, the final class of the day for my students.

  There’s a knock at my door. I see Caris through the window.

  “You guys finish up your spelling word sentences. I will be just outside,” I tell them as I walk over and open the door, slipping into the hallway.

  “What’s up?” I ask her.

  “When you take the class to the gym, can you grab Trevor and head to my office?” she asks.

  “OK,” I say slowly.

  She sighs. “He took the money.”

  My eyes widen in shock. “Trevor?”

  She nods. “Ash saw Garrett in the hall and told him and then they both came to my office.”

  Well, that explains the nurse's office note.

  “I’m not going to tell Trevor that Ash ratted him out. Ash did mention that Trevor bought himself some new tennis shoes, God knows he needs them, but it gives me a good reason to question him.”

  I nod and glance back in at my students. Trevor’s eyes are on me. I look away and turn my back to the door.

  “I can’t believe it,” I murmur.

  “Did you know his dad left two weeks ago and his grandmother is sick now?”

  My mouth opens and closes. “I…no. I didn’t know that.”

  I suddenly have the worst case of teacher guilt ever.

  Caris gives my arm a squeeze. “There’s no way any of us would have known that if Ash didn’t say something and his family didn’t mention it.”

  “I mean, his mom canceled her parent-teacher conference next week saying something about scheduling, but I had no idea. I was going to give her a call and chat with her.” I turn to head back into my classroom.

  “Well, we’ll be calling her later. I’d like to meet with her in person next week.”

  “I’ll see you in a few minutes.” I frown and turn to her before going back inside my classroom. “Why didn’t Ash tell me this?”

  Caris shrugs. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him that yourself.”

  She walks back toward her office, and I take a moment to compose myself before heading back inside to help my students finish their classwork.

  “OK, folks, let’s get these turned in, you can put them on my desk as you line up for gym class,” I announce. My students scramble to their feet and get lined up by the door. We are far enough into the year that they know the drill by now.

  Trevor stands near the end as we go in order of the seating chart when we line up. I stand back near him as I give the order to head on out toward the gymnasium.

  “Trevor, you and I are going to visit Principal Kennedy, so you can wait outside the gym door when everyone goes inside, OK?” I say to him. I watch him turn ashen as we walk.

  “It’ll be OK,” I say to him as he waits outside the gym door.

  We walk to the principal’s office in silence. Caris is waiting for us with her door open. Once inside, I see Garrett is already at her table.

  “Have a seat,” she offers to us. Trevor sits down and lowers his head.

  “Trevor, I can’t help but notice you have some new shoes,” Caris says.

  He grunts a “yes.”

  “They look expensive.”

  He shrugs.

  “Anything you want to tell us?” she asks.

  He shakes his head, but as he does, I see one big tear slide down his cheek.

  “Trevor, I promise you, if you took the money and tell us r
ight now, it will be much better than if the police have to get involved,” Caris states.

  Trevor looks up at her, tears flowing down his little cheeks. “Police?” he repeats. The look on his face breaks my heart.

  She nods.

  “I-I’m s-sorry. I-I didn’t know w-what else t-to d-do,” he says as he starts crying. Unable to help myself, I wrap an arm around him and he buries his face against my chest. I pat his back and give Garrett and Caris a pained look.

  “Trevor, I’m going to get you a juice box, OK?” Caris states as she gets up and walks to a small refrigerator in her office. He nods against my chest.

  I lean my head down to his ear. “It’s going to be alright.”

  He pulls back to look up at me. “No, it’s not,” he says as tears continue to stream down his cheeks.

  I reach for a tissue and hand it to him. “It is. Now tell us what’s going on. Let’s see what we can do to make it better.”

  Caris sets the drink box in front of him. He greedily drinks it in a few slurps, and I wonder when he last ate.

  After blowing his nose, he looks around at us. “You promise that I’m not in trouble and that they won’t take my sisters away?”

  Caris clears her throat. “I can promise you this, Trevor, everyone at this table wants to help you, and we will do whatever we can to fix whatever is wrong.”

  He takes a deep breath and wipes the tears from his cheeks.

  “My dad left a few weeks ago. Granny was helping us, taking Mom and Heidi to their physical therapy and going grocery shopping for us. She was going to move out of her apartment and come live with us. But then she got sick. The doctors say it’s cancer.” He looks around nervously. “Ya know, boob cancer.” We all try to nod our understandings while keeping straight faces with his sadly adorable explanation. “I heard Granny tell someone that. Anyhow, she gets these injections to fight it and they make her really sick. She doesn’t have the strength to move right now and she is too sick to help us out. I heard her friend tell Mom that we are all making her sicker because we don’t let her rest.” His eyes fill with tears again. “I felt really bad about that. I don’t want Granny to be sick because of us. And Mom can’t afford a driver or the special pedals on her car so she can drive. I heard her tell someone they cost a lot.”