The principal pointed toward the other two boys. “You two can sit on those chairs. Our ISS director, Mr. James, will be here in a few minutes to take you to his room.”

Lester and Martin slumped down into the chairs, folded their arms over their chests, and scowled at the principal. Mr. Wallace followed Mack and Lily out of the room and closed the door behind them.

“You’ve got a good kid there,” he said. “I just wish he would have come to me before things escalated to this point.”

“I’ll remind him again about that this evening.” Lily could almost breathe again. Her chest didn’t ache as bad, and the thumping noise in her ears was slowing down. A tiny bit of guilt over the fact that she didn’t even know that Holly and Braden were practicing martial arts still plagued her, but she was sure glad they had.

“Thanks for not putting him in ISS with them,” Mack said.

Mr. Wallace chuckled. “When everyone in school hears that they got their plow cleaned by someone Braden’s size, I imagine they’ll be glad to hide in ISS to avoid the shame.”

“Should I warn the high school principal that my daughter, Holly, has taught herself some martial arts, too?” Lily asked.

“Might be a good idea,” Mr. Wallace said.

Mack put his arm around Lily’s shoulders, and they left the building together. When they were outside, he chuckled and then laughed out loud. “Why didn’t you tell me we had a couple of lethal weapons living in the house?”

“I didn’t even know. Just goes to show that I needed to get out of Austin and get more involved with the kids,” she answered. “Why is that funny?”

“You’d have to be a boy to understand.” Mack walked her to her car. “I’m just glad he took up for himself, and even more glad that he wanted me to be there.”

Our daughter—should I have taken his earlier comment as a premonition about them both? She got in her car and drove back to work. After she’d figured out that Mack was there for support and not to fuss at Braden for breaking the rules, his presence had been a big comfort.

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty