How she comes to every game to support June in her role as our equipment manager. How she sits on her hands at every game like she’s afraid if she makes any noise at all, she’ll mortify her daughter.
We’ve nodded or said hi in passing—which happens more than I want it to, but I rent the house at the end of her driveway, and she’s now the PTA president’s right-hand woman at the school. It can’t be helped.
There’s been no more mention of what she’s doing with the ranch.
Not from her, anyway.
Aunt Opal loves the idea of her putting a couple of small homes out there for wayward souls once she gets the rest of the ranch updated and renovated.
So do half my coworkers at the school.
Brad at the hardware store.
Johnny, the local painter.
Annabelle, the local electrician.
Kory, who’s excited at the idea of supplying more beef to the hobby ranch turned practically unused land next door.
Everyone.
Everyone.
I’m still holding out to see what winter brings before I get excited about the possibility ofmorenewcomers.
Turns out I have some curmudgeon in me.
Never thought I did until I met Maisey Spencer.
If I could get her out of my head, maybe I’d be happy about what she’s planning too.
But I can’t.
And tonight, it appears I can’t avoid her in person.
“Your mom’s not answering?” I ask June for the seventh time.
We’re hanging out at the soccer field after an evening home game on a Wednesday night. June’s the only student left. Her mother, who’s never missed a game before, is nowhere in sight.
“I need a car,” she grumbles.
“You have your license?”
She shoots me a look that could meanMy mom won’t let me get it, or it could meanI’m secretly afraid to drive, and I don’t want to tell you, so I’m going to let you think this look means that my mom won’t let me get it.
See the latter option more often than you might think. Good 10 percent of any given junior and senior class these days voluntarily don’t have their licenses.
She lifts her phone to her ear one more time, and this time, I shake my head. “I’m going where you’re going. C’mon. I’ll give you a lift.”
She squints at me, her lips pursing exactly like her mother’s. “I’m not supposed to get in a car with a grown man all by myself. I shouldn’t even be here with you right now all by myself.”
I stare at her.
She stares right back.
And that’s how I end up driving June home with my aunt riding shotgun.
“How’s school, Junie?” Opal asks. She’s changed her hair again, and now it’s purple. Sometimes I think my students go easy on me because they think I have such a cool aunt.
