Melting Into You (Due South Book 2) by Tracey Alvarez

Author:Tracey Alvarez [Alvarez, Tracey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Icon Publishing
Published: 2014-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

“Mrs. Willis says you’re doing well.” Ben stretched his legs under the dining table as Jade shut her spelling book.

“Yep—and she gives me a chocolate at the end of each session. I like her.”

In the two weeks since Jade’s first assessment and report of having mild dyslexia, he’d managed to get her in with the same specialist who’d helped him. Kezia also worked with her one on one, and she’d offered to give Jade a little support writing her first book report this evening. During both visits to Mrs. Willis on the mainland, Ben hadn’t broached the subject of his own dyslexia. Something held him back. Awkwardness? Pride? Fear of exposing his vulnerability? Whatever. His ego wouldn’t do Jade any good.

He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “She helped me as a kid too.”

Jade’s eyes widened. “She did?”

“Yeah. I’m dyslexic as well.”

He’d only ever admitted that out loud to Kezia. And now he’d told Jade.

She played with her spelling book, creasing and un-creasing the corner. “Mum said I had her looks and my daddy’s brains. When she told me you were my daddy and not Simon, I figured you must be dumb like me.” Her clear hazel eyes bored into his, completely guileless. “But you’re not dumb.”

Ben forced his lips to turn up into a smile, though it felt like someone had punctured his heart with a rusty pickaxe. “No. And neither are you. So your mum’s right—you’re pretty and smart.”

She ducked her chin, but her mouth kicked up at the corners.

“Did Marci ever take you to someone like Mrs. Willis?”

“Nope. Mum argued with Mr. Edmunds at my old school. I got sent to his office a lot for being naughty.” She looked up at him from under her lashes. “She told him I was a problem child, but there was nothing wrong with me.”

“She said that in front of you?”

“I had to sit in the hallway, but I heard her. She was yelling.” Jade picked at the notebook some more. “Mum told me Blake is the smart kid, and I’m the pretty one who’s good at art. She says I don’t need to be smart to paint pictures and find a husband.”

Ben’s gut clenched until her snarky tone and eye roll registered. Thank God the kid really had inherited some of his brains. She obviously could spot bullshit from ten paces.

“What a crock. You can do whatever you like when you grow up, you know that, right?”

She nodded.

“And at eight years old—”

“Nine soon—”

He waved a hand. “And at nine years old, you’re too young to worry about getting married—I won’t even let you date until you’re twenty-five.”

“As if.”

“What? You like boys now?”

Her nose crinkled. “No way—boys suck.”

“Exactly. So about this dyslexia thing. Don’t stress it, kid. We’ll get you ready for vet school one day—if that’s what you want—with Mrs. Willis and Kezia’s help.”

Jade twirled her pencil against her chin. “So you can read and do stuff okay now, Dad?”

“Mostly. Some days the letters and numbers won’t behave, and I get really frustrated.

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