Page 38 of Tell Me Again
He made his way to his daughter’s side, the school moms’ vicious whispers swirling in his head. “Grace, your friends are looking for you over by the cookie table.”
She gave him a curious smile and nodded toward a group of kids standing directly behind the band teacher. “They’re standing right there,” she said, as if he was blind and stupid.
Neither Sam nor Mr.Madsen acknowledged that he’d joined their cozy circle, a fact he found disturbingly irritating.
“Other friends,” he told his daughter.
“What friends?”
“Grace, just get some cookies, ok?”
Her eyes widened before narrowing. Sam smiled at the band teacher and then gave Trevor a questioning look out of the corner of her eye. Josh Madsen continued to stare at her, an awestruck look on his face that Trevor recognized from how he felt when Sam’s attention was on him.
“Fine,” Grace said on a huff of breath. “Whatever.”
She moved away to join her friends, and they disappeared into the crowd, presumably heading for the refreshment table.
“Good cookies, huh?” Sam asked, her grin widening.
“I wouldn’t know,” he muttered.
Her smile disappeared and she bit down on her full lower lip before turning back to the band teacher. “Josh, do you know Grace’s dad, Trevor?”
“We met at back-to-school night,” the man said, extending a hand. “I’m really glad Grace decided to stick with clarinet this year. She’s doing fantastic.”
When Trevor didn’t take his hand, Josh jammed it into his pocket.
“Grace’s aunt and I were talking about the importance of music education for teens,” he said.
Trevor snorted. “I just bet you were.”
He felt Sam stiffen next to him and realized he was making a fool of himself but couldn’t manage to stop.
She shifted so that she faced Josh with her back to Trevor. “Thanks again for answering my questions. I don’t want to monopolize your time.”
“It’s no problem,” Josh offered.
“None at all,” Trevor whispered under his breath.
“I’ll call you next week,” Sam continued, even though Trevor knew she’d heard him. “It would be great if you could find time to stop by camp and check out what we’ve got going on.”
“Happy to do it,” the man answered. Sam glanced over her shoulder at Trevor. “I really do enjoy having Grace in band,” Josh said, then turned and was immediately engaged in conversation with another family.
“More like happy to do you,” Trevor said as Sam whirled to face him.
Color bloomed on her cheeks. “Excuse me?”
“Is this your big plan to get popular with the moms at school?” he asked, taking a small step toward her so that no one around them could overhear the conversation. “Make a date with the band teacher?”
A sliver of pain flashed in her eyes before she hid it. Trevor had the sudden understanding that he might be both blindandstupid.
“I asked him for advice on starting a music program at Bryce Hollow,” she said, her voice so low he had to lean in to hear it.
“You should think of how that looks to people.” Shut up, he told himself. Shut your stupid mouth before you go too far.
“Me speaking to a man?”
“He’s single,” Trevor told her, as if that made a difference.
