Page 17 of Something Like That

“Nice to meet you—” he glanced at her nametag, “—Angie.”

“You too,” she said, and her smile softened into a genuine one, and not the fake customer service one she’d probably perfected over the years. She turned back to Em and Alex. “The usual, or are we changing it up today?”

Em tapped her bottom lip with the tip of her finger, giving the question some serious thought. He couldn’t help the way the side of his mouth quirked up. What an awesome kid.

Alex lowered the menu and looked up at Angie. “I’ll have a spinach salad today and a diet soda. Em?” She turned to her daughter.

“I’ll have the fish and chip with a strawberry milkshake, please.”

All eyes turned to him. For some reason, he felt self-conscious. Which wasn’t helped when his stomach gave a super loud growl.

Em laughed and Angie smiled. Alex ducked her head, but he could see the corner of her mouth was tilted up.

He chuckled. “I’ll have a side salad with ranch dressing on the side, a side of whatever steamed vegetables you have, and the chicken carbonara.”

“Anything to drink?”

“Just water, thank you.”

Angie nodded and then hurried over to get their order in. The place was quite busy, which wasn’t surprising, given it was lunchtime.

He turned to Em. “How did you break your wrist? Rogue slap shot? Bench clearing brawl?”

Her cheeks turned bright red, along with the tips of her ears. He was never going to get used to that, from either of them. She glanced over at her mom, who just sat there with her forearms resting on the table, her expression blank. Oh, that couldn’t be good.

Em sighed and pursed her lips, her shoulders bending in slightly. “No, nothing like that.”

He waited for her to continue, but she just sat there looking miserable. A little prick of guilt jabbed him right between the ribs. “Never mind,” he said. “Forget I asked.” If she didn’t want to share, he wasn’t going to push.

Alex, apparently, wasn’t quite so forgiving. She nudged Em with her elbow. Em looked over at her, and Alex raised an eyebrow. It was a very motherly look.

Yeah, this was weird, now that he remembered her as a teenager. He could barely keep himself alive on most days, he couldn’t imagine trying to keep another, mostly helpless little person alive, as well. And she’d been young. Math wasn’t his strong suit, but she had to have still been a teenager herself when Em was born. Man, what an amazing woman.

Em gave another sigh, this one more annoyed than anything, and semi-rolled her eyes. It was almost like she started, but at the last second, caught the glare Alex tossed her way, and changed her mind. He swallowed down a chuckle because he was pretty sure neither of them would appreciate it.

Em rubbed the back of her neck with her good hand and lifted her gaze to his. “I was… umm… there were these girls in my grade who thought it would be fun to… umm… who decided to… well, they wanted to break into the school and have a sleepover. They asked me if I wanted to do it too…”

“Let me guess,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “The most popular girls?”

Em nodded and chewed on her bottom lip. “They needed someone to climb through the high windows in the gym, so they could unlock the doors from the inside. I volunteered, but when I was near the top, I slipped and fell and landed on my arm.” She held up her casted wrist.

He sucked in a breath between his teeth. That had to hurt. It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn the gym windows were ten to fifteen feet off the ground.

“What happened next?”

Alex crossed her arms over her chest and pressed her lips together so hard, they turned white around the edges. Oh, this was definitely bad.

Em cleared her throat, rubbed the tip of her nose with her finger. “Most of the girls freaked out and took off.”

“They left you there? Injured and alone?” Anger bubbled up inside him. What the actual fuck?

“Welllll…” Em stretched out the word, no longer quite meeting his gaze.

“Yes, they did.” Barely leashed fury coated Alex’s words.

Em gave Alex a quick, angry look that held a hint of guilt underneath. “Not all of them.”

“Yes, Hannah was kind enough to wait there with you until the police showed up.”