Then he tipped his chin and looked at my fingers curled around his forearm.

He looked back at me when I squeezed his sinewy flesh and snapped, “Auggie! Is something wrong? Is Juno unsafe?”

At my question, his face changed.

In my panic, I hadn’t really registered his expression before, but now it couldn’t be missed that it was hyper alert.

I was already hyper alert but I did not take it as a good sign he’d gone hyper alert even if it wasn’t a surprise, considering all that had been swirling around the Dream Team for nearly a year.

That Dream Team being Evie, Ryn, Hattie, Lottie…and me.

The Dream Team’s men being (in order to the women) Mag, Boone, Axl, Mo…and as mentioned, Auggie was supposed to be (however was not) mine.

Like she’d tried to do for Auggie and me, Lottie had fixed up all the others. Since, there had been weddings, engagements, moving in and buying houses together in that mix.

My fixup just didn’t work.

And yeah, that was on me, because, again, my daughter had to deal with my family and the revolving door of women that Corbin introduced into her life.

She was not going to put up with that from me.

And it was important at that juncture to mention that all the drama that had been swirling around the Dream Team included death and dirty cops and kidnappings and stalking and shootouts, and it bore repeating…death.

As in murders.

So…yeah, Auggie Hero, Badass Extraordinaire standing outside my daughter’s classroom freaked me.

Big time.

His voice—something I particularly liked about him, it was deep but smooth (not silky and elegant, instead soft and calming)—came at me.

“Is there a reason Juno wouldn’t be safe?”

My voice was rising. “I don’t know! You tell me.”

“Pepper, I didn’t come up to me and ask if Juno was safe.”

Okay…

Wait.

What?

“Then why are you standing outside Juno’s classroom?”

His strong, heavily stubbled chin jutted slightly to the side.

“I’m here for career day,” he declared. “Juno called. She wants me to talk to her class about going into the military.”

I blinked up at him.

“You didn’t know?” he asked.

No.

I.

Did.

Not.

Know.

That.

My.

Daughter.

Asked.

Augustus Hero.

To talk to her class on the same day I was going to talk to her class!

How did Juno…?

Why did Juno…?

What the hell?

“Her father isn’t coming?” I asked Auggie.

He shook his head once. “No clue. I just know I’m here and now you’re here. That’s all I know.”

I stood there, staring at him, at a loss for words because my daughter had somehow found a way to call Auggie and ask him to come and talk to her class during career day.

She did not have a cell phone.