“I’m sure she’d come back here if we called her,” Mrs. Kinkaid says.
“She’s shown up enough since the fire,” I tell her.
“Okay, then. Let’s go get your girl.”
I slide into the front seat, handing the crutches out to her.She puts them in the back, climbs into the driver’s seat and turns the key.
“Now, how did that speech go?” she asks me. “Something about being patient with you because you’re an idiot?”
I chuckle. “That’s the gist of it.”
I pull up my email app on the drive to Hallie’s and compose a response to the FEMA job offer telling them I’m honored to be considered, but am removing myself as a candidate for the position.
Mrs. Kinkaid pulls up in front of Hallie’s house. She turns to me and says, “You always were a man of action, Greyson—even as a boy.”
“I almost blew everything,” I tell her. “I meant well. I was going to take a bullet for them.”
“You always were stubborn too,” she says with a wink. “I’m glad you let yourself off the hook.”
Then she gets out of the car and comes around to my side. She opens the door and helps me out, handing me one crutch at a time from the back seat.
“Her van’s not here,” I say, looking around.
“Ice cream?” she says.
“That was hours ago.”
“Well, this is anticlimactic,” Mrs. Kinkaid says with a pout.
I start to make my way down Hallie’s walkway, toward her front door. Mrs. Kinkaid walks alongside me.
Jonathan comes out onto his porch and waves at us. “Y’all looking for Hallie and Margie?”
“Yes!” I shout back to him.
“They ran to pick up pizza for dinner. Should be back any minute.”
“Thank you,” I say, right as Hallie’s van rounds the corner at the end of the street and heads our way.
The van comes to a stop and the back door slides open.
Mrs. Kinkaid is at my side, just like Zach would have been.
Mia hops out exclaiming, “Coach G! What are you doing here?”
Avery steps out of the passenger seat, carrying two boxes of pizza and eyeing me with suspicion. “Yeah, Coach G. What are you doing here?”
“Can I talk to your mom alone?” I ask Mia.
Hallie rounds the front of the van. “Greyson? What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be out and about.”
“I’m going inside, Mommy,” Mia says, skipping past me.
Avery stands there, unmoving.
“Ave,” Hallie says. “Could you give us a minute?”
Mrs. Kinkaid leans close to me and says, “I’ll be in my car if you need me.”
