Page 44 of Hot for the Hockey Player
I nodded and sipped my tea.“How was your day?”
She shrugged, opened up her backpack, and yanked out her lunch kit.“Mr.Gregory, the librarian, doesn’t think I should be reading Kurt Vonnegut.He says it’s too mature for me.”She made a confused face.“Then why is it in the elementary school library?”Pulling a sheet of paper out of her backpack, she handed it to me.“This is a letter you need to sign that says you’re okay with me reading books you’ve preapproved.”Her eye roll had me chuckling.“I typed it up after I finished my math.”
My mouth twitched, but I withheld my smile as I read over the eloquently written letter to my daughter’s librarian that was supposed to be from me.
It included a part that said any new books I’ve vetted, I am to email Mr.Gregory and let him know that they are “Laurel Safe” and he is to allow her to check them out.
“Can I get a new e-reader for my birthday?”she asked, pulling a yogurt cup out of the fridge and grabbing a spoon.“I love real books.Especially the old ones, and that old book smell.”Her swoony face had me chuckling.“But if I have to fight with Mr.Gregory, it’s not worth it.And Sakura keeps saying she’s going to get more books in the island library, but she hasn’t.”
“I’ll talk to her again,” I said, joining my daughter at the dining room table.She tucked a loose strand of her dark-brown hair behind her ear and peeled off the foil from her yogurt.“Good day otherwise?”
Another shrug.“Yeah.It was fine.Honor is so excited for Maverick to drive us to watercolor.I think she has a crush on him.”She smirked as she brought the full spoon to her lips.“I mean, he’s nice.But I don’t see the appeal.”
I was very glad my daughter and I did not have similar taste in men.That would have been …ick.
We chatted more about her day—a part of my day that I treasured more than anything.Laurel, while brilliant, had a shy side to her, and she opened up more to me when Damon wasn’t home.Not that her brother would tease her about anything, in fact, my kids were actually fairly close.But she just seemed to feel more comfortable filling me in on school, her friends, and her worries when her brother wasn’t in the house.
I sipped my tea, she ate her yogurt, and we bonded until the door opened and my fourteen-year-old with a thundercloud for a hat came inside.
“Hello,” I called from my seat.“How was your day?”
He took a moment to ditch his hoodie and shoes, before coming around the corner to show his face.“Fine,” he murmured.
“Just fine?”I probed.
His shoulder lifted.“Maverick came to the school today to meet my friends.”
My brows hiked up my forehead.“He did?Did you ask him to?”
Damon nodded and flicked his head so his hair moved out of his eyes.It was only temporary though, and quickly fell back over his forehead in emo-kid fashion.“Yeah.My friends were such …” He rolled his eyes, then growled.“I hate how small this island is.How small the school is.”
I met Laurel’s eyes and she twisted her lips like she didn’t disagree with him.
“And why is that, exactly?”I asked calmly.“Did something else happen?”
“The kids at school just suck.”He slumped into the seat at the end of the table.“The guys anyway …”
“Are they bringing up the stuff we discussed earlier this week again?”I asked carefully, not wanting to open up that can of worms if I didn’t have to.“Did Brad Vasser say something again?”
He shook his head.“No … he was … he was just embarrassing around Mav.Said some really uncool stuff.And I could tell Mav wasn’t impressed.He probably thinks I’m just like Brad because I hang out with him.”He looked at me pleadingly.“There’s nobody elsetohang out with.There are like twelve freshman and maybe eighteen sophomores.It’s slim pickings.”
What did Brad Vasser say that would be embarrassing?I wasn’t sure how many more questions I could ask before my son shut down.I could tell he was teetering right on the edge, and I was already elated at how much he’d opened up and that he was sitting at the table talking to us.
“Do you have homework?”I asked.
He shook his head.
Against my better judgement, I said what I knew would be best for my child, but ultimately terrible for me.“You can invite Mav over now if you’d like.Seeing as he’s taking Laurel and Honor to watercolor later.”
His gray-blue eyes got a bit of that spark I loved and missed so much.“Yeah?”
I nodded.
But then his face fell.“I dunno … I … what if he’s upset with me?”
“Why would he be upset?”
“Because of my friends,” he said with exasperation, like he’d just finished explaining everything to me in extensive detail.Why were men so cryptic?It seemed to be something from birth, something on the Y chromosome.Because as hard as I tried to get Damon to provide me with even half as much information as his sister did, it never seemed to stick.“Mav said he wants totalkto me.Have a little chat.”
