Page 67 of Second Start: Family
Kenzie stood in her trailer, jacket still on, staring at the two framed photographs from her home state.
But her mind went to an encounter she’d had in North Carolina that neither photo showed.
On the coast, hiking with a friend, she’d once gotten into some quicksand.
It never threatened her life, sure wasn’t as dramatic as in the movies.
But it wasn’t pleasant.
It was like the past, sucking, pulling you down deeper. Dragging yourself out of it was almost impossible. Best you could hope for was to not sink any deeper.
You needed someone else to pull you up. Someone on firm ground, and with a good grip. Even then, that moment when the quicksand finally let go of you, gave a sucking, popping sound, it hurt — physically hurt — with the escape to freedom.
Her past.
Hall’s past.
Could they possibly pull each other?
*
With the little kids back to sleep after Zara left and his dad not home yet, Dan called his aunt.
“Aunt Naomi, I’m not sure—”
“Don’t lose heart now. Not now of all times. I’m more optimistic that we’ll win our petition than ever. So’s my lawyer. Then you can live with your uncle and me while you go to school here in Cheyenne. Isn’t that wonderful? Aren’t you excited?”
“Sure, but—”
“And we have your friends the Keverys to thank.”
“The Keverys? Why would we thank them? Mr. Kevery wants Evan to get the scholarship. Evan wants it, too. Why would they do anything to help me get it?”
She chuckled, “Not intentionally. That Prentiss Kevery — a blowhard if there ever was one — called me, trying to intimidate me into not having you live here with me. Kept saying that second teacher, Kenzie Smith, wouldn’t back you because Hall objected and there’s something going on between them—”
“That wasn’t—”
She didn’t let him finish saying Ms. Smithhadsupported him for the scholarship before she and his dad … whatever.
“—but that he — Prentiss Kevery — had a lever to pry her loose, so he could get both teachers to back his son, and we might as well give up.”
Evan and his father, always talking about how Dan should give up. “A lever?”
Another chuckle came through the phone. “Yes. The man didn’t say what, of course, but with his heavy hints and then when he started going on about his son being a whiz with Internet searches—”
“Evan?”
She didn’t pause for his incredulity. “—it wasn’t hard at all for my lawyer’s office to find out all about Ms. Kenzie Smith’s past at her previous teaching post.”
Something weird happened to Dan’s gut. “But she wasn’t— It wasn’t like she was arrested or—”
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Especially by the time my lawyer stokes the flames.”
“Aunt Naomi, that’s—”
“Now, don’t you worry about a thing. It’s all taken care of. I’ve got this, Dan. You will be in high school in Cheyenne before you know it.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
