Balancing Act – Lara Norman

I hugged her, and she lingered for a second with her arms around me. “And you smell marvelous.” I took her hands and squeezed, then kept one in mine as we were led to a table in the back. The atmosphere was sophisticated without being stuffy, the noise a murmur of voices and the waitstaff in simple white dress shirts and dark pants. I set my phone on the table face up in case Hazel needed to reach me, but I wasn’t looking at it right then.

Focusing on Callie sitting across from me in the intimate booth, I couldn’t say I felt comfortable, exactly, but the butterflies had settled down. A server came over to get our orders, and I leaned back to take a breath and study Callie’s face more closely. She looked relaxed, maybe even happy to be there. I tried to match her mood, finding it came more naturally than I’d expected.

“Tell me about yourself,” I said when the waiter moved off. “Well, I knew from an early age I wanted to be involved in childcare. That meant teaching at first, and the idea stuck with me through high school and college. When I saw the open position of administrator at the center, I almost didn’t apply.

It wouldn’t involve daily interaction with a group of children as I’d wanted.” I nodded. “But I took the tour with the current director, seeing how I could make a difference. I accepted the job and haven’t looked back since.” Callie brushed her hair behind her shoulders and set her hands in her lap. “That’s admirable.” I shifted in my seat. The way her hair waved gently around her face was something I wasn’t used to seeing on her.

“I changed some rules, made it so I could spend time with each classroom if I chose. And I do. I wind my way through each of them every day, monitoring the teachers to ensure they meet the requirements of my standards. Especially the new teachers.”

She jumped in surprise and immediately looked down at the floor. “What have we talked about?” Frustrated, I stalked over to her and grabbed the crayon from her hand. Squatting, I attempted to look her in the eye. “We color on paper, Zoey. Nothing else.” “Sorry,” she mumbled, poking her fingers into her mouth. Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair. “We’re late. Please get your backpack.”

Instead of complying, Zoey looked up at me with tears swimming in her soft blue eyes. “What is it?” I snapped. I looked where she pointed to find the contents of her backpack dumped out on the floor. “Zoey!” She began to cry in earnest then, aggravating me further. Muttering under my breath as I gathered her things, I stuffed them back in the backpack. I’d be later than I’d thought, and it would be the third time that month. I would lose my mind if not my job, that was for damn sure.

“Come on.” Zoey trotted to keep up with my long, angry strides. We hurried down in the elevator and out to the car where I strapped her in without meeting her gaze. She merely sniffled. The entire ride to the daycare center, guilt ate at me as I ignored her.

She was only three, after all, and it wasn’t her fault I was running late that morning, even though I would have been right on time without the extra trouble my daughter had given me. “Zoey, no complaining when we get there. Daddy’s running late, so it’s a quick goodbye so I can get to work.” I glanced in the rearview mirror at the miniature version of myself in time to see her nod. Her cheeks were tear-stained and her lower lip puckered out.

Pulling up to the front doors, I didn’t bother to park properly but left the car running as I hefted Zoey out of her booster seat. I carried her so I could A walk faster and nearly ran down the hall in the direction of her classroom. “Mr. Humphries,” I heard from behind me before we’d gotten very far. Crap. I almost didn’t slow down; almost pretended I didn’t hear her. Resigned, I turned. “Yes, Ms. Bradford?”

Her face was a mask of pleasant patience. “As we’ve discussed previously, please refrain from parking in the loading zone.” Flashing my most dazzling smile, I said, “I know. Sorry. Running late.” “Mr. Humphries,” she repeated as I began to walk off again.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 05fb0d4b58b34df9
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 642,818 bytes (0.613 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781393566922
• Pages: 60
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 76.11 minutes
• Total Words: 15,223
• Total Characters: 82,789
• Average Words per Page: 253.72
• Average Characters per Page: 1379.82

Most Frequent Words

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