“Dad texted me,” Paxon said.“He has a table for all of us for dinner.I’ll go warm up the car.Who’s riding with me?”
“Me!”Toby said.
“I’ll take Justin,” I said.“We can wait.You guys go ahead.”
“Are you sure?”Bryan asked.“We can wait.It shouldn’t take him too long.”
“I wanted her to show me around the school while we waited,” Janice said.“I haven’t been here in a while.”
“It’ll be fast, I’ll let Justin know to meet us at the parking lot,” I said.“We won’t be far behind.”
“Okay,” Seth said, still not happy with the plans.“We’ll see you in a little bit.”He leaned over and kissed my cheek before standing up.
Toby gave me a quick hug and kissed my temple, grabbed everything he hadn’t eaten yet, and headed down.I was still amazed at how much food he was able to pack away.No doubt, he was going to eat a full meal at the restaurant and still beg me for some of mine.
“See you in a little bit,” Bryan said, giving me a warm smile.
Paxon was frowning when I looked at him, but he turned it into a tight smile rather quickly.
“Are you okay?”I asked.
“Of course.Justin kicked ass.”He reached out briefly and touched my arm before he chased after Bryan.
“I’m not being paranoid, am I?”I asked Janice as she put her coat on.
“About what?”
I looked back at Paxon, hoping he’d look at me, but he didn’t as they slipped out the door, leaving me standing there, feeling cold despite the warm damp air.
“Nothing.”I blew out a breath and pulled out my phone, sending Justin a quick message to let him know to meet us in the parking lot after their post-meet team meeting.“Are you ready to walk down memory lane?”
“Hell yeah.I haven’t been here in so long.I didn’t even know we had a pool like this.”
I laughed as we hooked arms and headed down the bleachers and out into the hallway.Janice couldn’t care less about the sports stuff, so we headed toward the hallway with a lot of artsy classrooms.
“They actually did it?”she asked as she peeked into a room.
“Did what?”
She pointed at it.“Pottery room.I was harassing Mr.Levre forever to get one.”
I pointed at the plaque that hung near the door.She went closer and read it, her eyes widening before she laughed.
“He really donated it?”she asked as she reached out and touched it like it was something precious.
“He actually did it not long after you left.He got his family behind it.We were all surprised when we realized how much money his family has.”I looked into the room, taking in all the pottery wheels, worktables, drying racks and shelves, and in the back, a massive kiln.
“Have you taken a class?”
I shook my head.“It’s really popular, but I’m not artsy in that way.”I wiggled my fingers.“I think Micah starts the class when we come back from break.I didn’t know you were into pottery?”
“Only as a hobby.There’s a place back at home that I go to every couple of weeks to just relax.There’s something therapeutic about using my hands and feeling the clay as I make what I want to make.Rowan already has a shelf full of random little things I made.”
Janice practically softened as she talked about it.
“Well, I’ll have to try it someday.”
“I’ll find you a class.There has to be something.Can we go in?”
