At the sound of my voice, Scout dropped the toy and came over to sit by me. I stroked his head and waited for Cutter. At the door, I patted Cutter’s shoulder.
The drive to his house was quick and quiet. He got out of the truck after thanking me. I followed, determined to give Brendan a piece of my mind or at least request a sit-down with Miriam. As Cutter’s coach, I had his best interests at heart.
The door flew open, and Antonia came storming out of the house. She flung herself at Cutter, clinging to him.
When she let him go, she cupped his cheek. “Please don’t ever leave like that again, and if you do, answer your phone. You scared the shit out of me. Got it?”
Cutter nodded.
“Go inside. I need to speak to your coach and let my emotions settle. We’ll talk about you leaving like this in the morning. You should probably call everyone on your contact list because I’ve spoken to all of them, been to their houses, and they probably think I’m weird.”
“You are,” he said, smiling. “Sort of.”
“Go,” she said, pushing him toward the door. She watched him walk toward the house and didn’t turn to face me until he was inside and the door was shut.
“I don’t get it.”
“Get what?” she asked.
“You seem to care so much for him, and yet you’re sending him to boarding school? Did you even think to ask him?”
Antonia sighed and muttered something unintelligible under her breath. She pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned. “Cutter isn’t going to boarding school.”
“But he is next year?”
“Not at all, and if he had stayed, he would’ve heard the rest of the conversation.”
“Well ...” I was at a loss for words. The last handful of hours could’ve been avoided if I had picked up the phone, but I was bitter over losing something I’d never had.
I pointed toward the house. “That boy is losing his mind, thinking you and your boyfriend are shipping him off to boarding school. He’s hurt, angry, and—”
“I get it,” she said, interrupting me. “I don’t need a lecture. What Brendan said isn’t how I feel. I’m already losing my best friend; I’m not voluntarily sending her kids away. Regardless of what you might thinkof me, I’m not cruel. I love Cutter and Nova as if they were my own children. I would never do that to them.”
Her words sank in. I’d never thought of her as cruel, and I wasn’t sure where she would’ve come up with such a notion.
I stepped forward, intent on wiping a tear from her cheek, but Antonia beat me to it, reminding me that she, in fact, was not single, and I needed to keep my distance.
“Tomorrow,” I said, clearing my throat. “I’ll stop by after practice, and we can talk about the travel teams.”
“Maybe it’s just easier if we do it at school since I have to pick Cutter up?”
“I’ll bring him home. If that’s okay?”
Antonia nodded. “Thanks. I’ll make sure he knows.” She turned to walk into the house. At her porch, she glanced toward me. “Thank you for being there when he needed someone to talk to.”
“You’re welcome.”
Antonia gave me a small wave, which I returned. I waited for her to go inside and shut the door, wishing like hell I could do more.
Chapter 20
Antonia
Sunday morning, I woke, got dressed, and made my way downstairs. No one was up yet, which was a little reprieve from everything.
As I stood at the kitchen window, I looked out over the backyard. There was a rickety fence that didn’t connect to anything else. Miri had planned to replace it and fence in the backyard so the kids could get a dog.
The backyard also had an old dilapidated chicken coop with no chickens, which had been given to Miri at some point. She’d wanted to raise Rhode Island Reds so she’d always have fresh eggs and could offer some to her neighbors. On one particular visit, Miri had taken me to a feed store to look at the chicks. They were cute, but I wasn’t on board. I had never given much thought to having pets. My hours didn’t really allow for it, and I lived in a penthouse where the outside access was the harbor.
