“Yeah,” I said softly. “I know.”
But as she turned toward her van, she hesitated — just long enough to look back over her shoulder.
“Tomorrow?” she whispered.
I felt my smile pull wide and helpless.
“Tomorrow.”
She ducked her head and hurried to her van, blonde hair swinging, leaving me standing there in the glow of the rink lights with my heart thundering like a teenager’s.
I locked up the rink exactly as Mel instructed.
And for the first time in a long, long time . . .
. . . I couldn’t wait for morning.
20
ELEANOR
By the time I pulled up to the school, my cheeks still felt warm from the rink. My whole body did, honestly.
I kept replaying it, the way Alex looked at me, the way he steadied me, the way his breath brushed my cheek when he whispered my name.
And then— my mother’s call. Reality. Cold water dumped over an open flame.
But even that couldn’t smother the warm, fizzy feeling curling in my chest.
Not today.
I made my way to the front office. Sadly, getting called into the school wasn’t new for me. I just wished they had tried my cell first. Darlene greeted me and nodded over to the other side of the office . . . Then I spotted her. She wasn’t bouncing. She wasn’t talking. She was just sitting there.
My stomach dropped.
Oh no.
Ava’s face was blotchy red, her eyes furious, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides. I was barely there before she ran to me, burying herself in my sweater.
“Ava,” I whispered, stroking her hair. “Honey, what happened?”
She didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Just shook against me like she was holding in a storm.
The principal cleared his throat delicately. “Mrs. Tremaine . . . we had an incident today.”
Of course, we did.
My mother materialized beside me, because she couldn’t resist a crisis if it meant she could perform handling it better than I could.
How was she even here? I’d come straight from the rink.
“Let’s step into my office,” he said as he held the door open, and we all entered.
“Anincident?” she demanded, her voice already sharp enough to cut through glass. “What does that mean?”
The principal shifted uncomfortably. “A physical altercation.”
My heart dropped. I thought we'd been doing so much better. I thought she was finding a home here with friends.
