“You know what? They’ve got everything in hand. Come on into the office for a minute.”
“Sure.” He handed Luis the dishtowel he’d been using and lowered his voice. “Did you tell?—”
“Negative.”
Nodding, he followed his mom into the Foundation’s office, a spacious two-room setup off the living room.
“Close the door,mijo.”
He closed it and turned around. Her salt-and-pepper hair seemed longer, fluffier. “Are you letting your hair grow out?”
“No.” She ran her fingers through it. “Just haven’t had time to go in for a cut.” She paused, her expression softening. “Carrie called me yesterday.”
He started to sweat.Uh-oh.
“We’ve both been worried about Tracy, who hasn’t been acting like herself for weeks. We thought it was the breakup with Sean, but the night of the council meeting….” Her gaze became more direct. “We decided it was a kerfuffle with you.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Amazing how he could go from thirty to thirteen when she gave him that look. He resisted the urge to fidget. “We’ve had… some issues.”
“Are you working them out?”
“I…I’m not sure.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but judging from what I observed at dinner last Friday night there’s something going on besides friendship between you two.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“That would explain why only two single servings were gone from Carrie’s freezer instead of three. Tracy didn’t stay overnight with Mila and Claudette on Saturday, did she?”
“No, ma’am.” He caught himself torturing his earlobe and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“When Carrie and I put that together, we were both so excited we couldn’t stand it.”
He blinked. “Excited?” Not the reaction he’d expected.
“We’d given up on this ever happening and now it looked like it actually might. But then?—”
“You’ve beenhopingwe’d?—”
“For years, ever since third grade when you two fell in love.”
“Love? C’mon, Mom, we were eight.”
“I don’t know what else you’d call it. You were besotted and so was she. You didn’t accidentally get paired up for that diorama project. She asked to be your partner. “
“That can’t be right. The teacher?—”
“Trust me, you two were inseparable. When I got impatient because you kept begging me to take you over to her house on weekends, you decided to walk.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“You don’t? You used to wiggle under the fence at the same spot where your dad put in a gate.”
“Is that why the gate’s there?”
“No. By then you’d both decided hanging out with each other wasn’t cool. She spent most of her time with Mila and you chose to be with your brothers.”
“I don’t remember any of this. Sure, we liked each other, but?—”
