I can’t help but grin. It makes me happy to see them succeeding with Breck’s contribution to the team.
When I get home, I don’t go inside right away. I sit in the silence of my car and scroll through old photos on my phone, stopping when I find the section of selfies I’d made Jay take with me after a football game freshman year. We’re both in uniform making silly faces, except for the last one where we’re both cracking up over something.
My heart remains still in my chest, not fluttering even once.
It feels so weird. Final.
I pull the keys out of the ignition and walk inside. Wallis bounces around me in his familiar enthusiastic greeting, but once he gets the attention he desires he pads away.
I set my book bag down by the stairs and wander into the kitchen. Peach is sitting at the kitchen table, my dad’s laptop perched in front of her. She’s wearing thin frames as she studies the screen. A pile of opened mail sits beside her.
“Hey!” she says. “I brought home some cupcakes from the bakery. If you’re hungry, there’s stew on the stove.”
I’m about to thank her when my eye catches the piece of mail at the top of the stack. It’s addressed to my dad, but I notice the return address readsCEDARVILLE HIGH SCHOOL.I pick it up, realizing that it’s my progress report.
I’m immediately infuriated. “Did you go through mymail?”
Peach glances up, startled. Then she notices the envelope in my hand.
My dad emerges from his room. “What’s going on?”
I cross my arms, glaring at her. It’s not enough that they’re infiltrating my home. She has absolutely no right going through my personal items.
My dad takes my progress report from me as Peach tries to explain. “Your dad wanted me to help him get some things in order. I’m filing all of it for—”
“Kira, you have a D in algebra?”
There’s anger in his voice, but I’m too mad to worry about that. Instead I turn to Peach. “You can’t just go through my stuff whenever you feel like it.”
“It was in your daddy’s name, I just assumed—”
My dad steps in. “That’s okay, Peach. I know you’re trying to help.”
I can’t believe it. My dad is actuallydefendingher. I thought we were on the verge of a breakthrough after we talked the other night on the way to Lucky’s.
My face heats up, and I feel my defenses rise. “It’snotokay. What about this is okay?”
I can tell by the look on my dad’s face that my outburst is not welcome, but I don’t care.
“Grams used to take care of the finances,” he says. “I needed a little help getting organized, that’s all.”
Peach stands up. “I—”
“No.” I don’t want to hear it. I’m tired of her always hanging around, worming her way into my life. “I don’t care what my dad says. I don’t want your help—I don’t want you here. You’renotGrams, and you’re not my mother.”
Silence.
Dead. Silence.
I can’t look at my dad. I know he’s furious, but he’s not the only one. I don’t even knowwhyhe wanted me to move back here in the first place. Not when he has his Sober Living friends that apparently make his lifeso much betternow.
“Kira, please apologize.”
His authoritative tone is back. I ignore it, taking the stairs two at a time, already aware that I’m going to be in huge trouble, but I don’t care. I close myself off in my room. All I wanted was a normal life with my dad.Mydad. Nobody else. I don’t need anyone taking Grams’s place.
Wallis scratches at the door. Sighing, I get up and let him in. He sniffs around my bed skirt before nudging my hand with his nose, urging me to pet him.
I remember Nonnie mentioning that she was the fourth person to adopt Wallis. It’s weird, because even though his prior families abandoned him, he still has this automatic trusting demeanor. He’s been cast aside so many times but gives each new person another chance.
