I finished writing out the carefully worded email to Hunter’s father and read it for what felt like the thousandth time since I’d started writing it that morning. I didn’t want it to come across in an accusatory way. I wanted this guy to say yes to this meeting, after all, and that wasn’t going to happen if I came at him all guns blazing and blaming him for not being more involved in his kid’s life. I had tried to find the mother’s email first—they were often more responsive to this kind of thing—but I had come up with a dead blank on that front and had swiftly given up. No point pursuing what wasn’t there.

Satisfied that I had been about as diplomatic as I could possibly be, I pressed send on the email and leaned back in my seat with relief. Okay, that was done. That was the hard part.

I stretched and got to my feet, cricking my neck from side to side. I knew I spent too much time with work, that I should have been taking this time to myself to actually relax now that I had finished up grading papers and preparing my lesson plan for the next week, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Hunter, poor, sweet little Hunter sitting all by himself with those other kids ignoring him like he wasn’t even there. He was like a ghost to them, floating through the school, and his reticence meant he didn’t leave an impression.

I couldn’t help wondering where that came from. What was his family like? Hopefully, I would get to know firsthand soon enough. I was a little nervous. These kinds of meetings were rarely fun, after all. Still, it would be for the best. For Hunter. Which was what all of this was about at the end of the day.

My phone buzzed, and I snatched it up at once, somehow assuming it must be Hunter’s parents calling me up directly even though they didn’t have my number. I looked at the screen and found Zoe’s name, instead, and answered at once.

“Hey,” I greeted her.

“Hey.” She yawned down the line. “You feel like going out for lunch? I just woke up, and I don’t feel like cooking any time soon.”

“Sure thing.” I grinned. “Usual place?”

“You know it,” she agreed. “See you there in fifteen?”

“Twenty?”

“Deal,” she replied, and with that, she hung up the phone and left me to gather myself to meet her. The place we were headed was the same one we had gone to celebrate getting the job at the school in the first place. We had happened to be together when we got the news, and she had insisted on taking me out for a drink to revel in our victory. At the time, I hadn’t known her so well, but after that long, boozy lunch, I felt as though she was my best friend, and I couldn’t imagine life without her.

Before I headed out the door to Mamas, I noticed the screen of my laptop was lit up like it was trying to tell me something. I turned to check it out and found a fresh email. From Hunter’s father.

I quickly clicked it open and scanned through the lines, grinning when I saw he was agreeing to meet me tomorrow at the school as I had first suggested. I would have made it during the school day, but I didn’t want to take time away from my day to speak to a parent. Besides, if one of the other kids caught on that Hunter’s father was there for a reason, it might make the divide between him and the rest of the kids even more pointed.

I made my way down to Mamas to meet Zoe, who was already sitting there with a green tea in front of her when I arrived.

“Hey.” I gave her a quick hug. “You all right?”

“I indulged in a glass too many of wine last night,” she admitted. “So I think I’m going to avoid the champagne cocktails for now and stick to detox. How about you?”

“Yeah, I’m actually really good.” I nodded excitedly. “I got an email from Hunter’s father. You know, the quiet kid in my class?”

“Yeah, I think I know the one.” Zoe furrowed her brow as though searching for him in her memory.

“Well, I messaged him right before you called to ask if we could have a meeting to check in on how his son was doing,” I explained. “He’s not bad or anything, but he seemed a little out of place compared to the rest of the kids.”

“Yeah, of course,” Zoe said. “Have you met them before?”

“No, that’s the thing, the parents have never come to the school before,” I shook my head. “Or at least as long as I’ve been there. That’s weird, right?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty weird,” Zoe agreed. “Why? Did they have a reason, or do they just not turn up?”

“I think they usually have some kind of reason, but it never seems much,” I admitted. “Mostly just work. In fact, I’ve never heard from the mother at all. We don’t even have her email on file.”

“Maybe she’s not around,” Zoe pointed out, and I furrowed my brow and leaned back in my seat. I hadn’t even thought about that, but it was a strong possibility. Maybe it was just his dad around at home, and maybe that would explain his quietness. Sometimes, with single fathers, kids didn’t develop the same kind of emotional literacy they did with both parents. Or maybe he was dealing with abandonment issues and didn’t want to let anyone get too close to him.

“Yeah, I guess you could be right,” I agreed. “Either way, I’m glad I’m going to get to meet this guy once and for all. Feels like it can only be a good thing for Hunter.”

“You’re a really good teacher, you know that?” Zoe reached across the table and patted my hand. She was, most of the time, this wisecracking bundle of sarcasm, but occasionally she would come out with something so sincere and so sweet that it would catch me completely off-guard and mean even more thanks to the incongruity. I smiled back at her.

“Thanks, Zoe,” I replied. “You know I think that about you too, right?”

“Yeah, but I’m not the one taking time out of my weekend to take care of a kid who needs extra attention,” she pointed out, and I chuckled.

“I’ll probably be the one nursing the hangover the next time we go out,” I warned her. “It’s probably going to be a difficult meeting.”

“Yeah, there’s likely a reason he’s been avoiding you so long,” She arched an eyebrow teasingly, seeing a chance to get me shifting in my seat with nervousness. “I mean, why wouldn’t he come into the school all that time? Maybe he doesn’t exist. Maybe Hunter’s a figment of your imagination.”

“And yours,” I reminded her. “Your hoodoo act doesn’t work when you told me you know who he is, remember?”

“Darn,” she snapped her fingers like a dastardly villain whose plan had been foiled at the last moment. “I forgot about that.”

“What do you think his father is actually going to be like, though?” I wondered aloud. “I mean, he’s never come in before. That’s weird, right?”

“It’s weird,” Zoe agreed with me. “But I don’t think it’s automatically something to be freaked out about. It could be a lot of reasons.”

“Right.” I nodded, glad for her here soothing me before I dived too far down the rabbit hole of overthinking all of this.

“Or he could be a psychopath who doesn’t understand human emotion and doesn’t want to have to fake it in front of his son’s teacher,” she jibed, and I shot her a look.

“Oh, come on,” I fired back. “You really want me to go in wondering if he’s an android? That’s going to help nothing.”

“Maybe you could check for bolts and wires.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. “Single father, remember?”

“We don’t know that,” I reminded her, but I couldn’t help feeling a small flutter deep in my chest. If anything was my weakness, it was men who were good with kids. They just made me swoon. I thought they were the damn sexiest things in the world. There was nothing like seeing a big, masculine guy get down and goof around with their child, nothing like it in the world.

“Let’s talk about something other than work,” I suggested, and we spent the rest of the brunch talking about a book I had loaned her that she was loving and the movies coming out that month that we wanted to see. I found my mind pleasingly lifted from the worry about what was going to come in that meeting the next day. At least, until I got home.

When I opened my laptop, that email was still sitting there staring me down, and I frowned as I looked at it. I read it through again, trying to find some kind of hidden meaning in the lines, a hint of tone or indication of emotion. But that was impossible through email. This guy was brusque and to the point and wasn’t trying to sugarcoat anything, which might have been good or could have been… well, could have been bad. Really bad.

As I got undressed, took my makeup off, and slipped into a bath, I found myself wondering what kind of man Hunter’s father was going to be. If he hadn’t made it to one meeting before this one, I had to assume he wasn’t that involved with his kid’s upbringing. Not that it exactly surprised me. More and more parents these days, by choice or not, had to hand over the childcare to other people, whether it was the teachers at the schools or their families and friends. I didn’t blame them for that. But something about Holden, Hunter’s father, gave me a different kind of vibe.

I closed my eyes, imagined him, and found my mind conjuring up the image of an old, rich man who mostly threw money at his son’s upbringing to make sure it went as smoothly as possible without him getting directly involved. That was how he liked it, for sure. But at least he had agreed to come in and meet with me. That was a start, and I had to hope Zoe was wrong, and he wasn’t actually a psychopath or an emotionless android in disguise.

And even if he was, I promised myself then and there, I would do everything I could to invest him in the life of his son. Hunter was a sweet kid, and he deserved the people around him to care about him, to feel as deeply as he clearly did. I smiled as I went to apply a face mask, satisfied that by this time tomorrow, I would have done some good in this young boy’s life. And I would have done it without quite as many Bellinis in my system as I had right now.