Page 53 of Stand

“I’m not going to talk about this with you,” he said, twisting farther in his seat to look at Matt. “What happened with your mom and me has nothing to do with Sam.”

“Why won’t you talk about it with us?” Matt insisted. “We’re her victims, too. We deserve to know how to avoid women like her in the future.”

Ty groaned and rubbed both hands over his face. She couldn’t help it. She had to step in. Even if she didn’t quite believe Ty when he said she hadn’t anything to do with him getting mixed up with Julia.

“He’ll tell you. One day. We’re talking about my missteps right now.” She sighed. She was throwing herself into the lions’ den by agreeing to this. “Who will I call first?”

Distraction achieved. She swore Alyssa’s glare burned holes through the headrest. “Noah,” the girl said.

“You don’t have to,” Ty said one last time, but she knew she’d won this round.What do we have for our winner? Five to ten minutes of humiliation and crow-eating, Bob!

“No, she’s right. Can you get him on the phone at this time of day?”

Ty pulled out his phone and hit a couple of buttons. He was also staring at her, but Sam pretended she couldn’t see him. She wished Cairo was up front with her so she could bury her hand in his fur and get a hit of his uncomplicated love.

“Dude,” she heard Noah’s voice say. “Where are you? Change of plans? You flying instead of this crazy road trip with Queen B?”

Now Sam groaned. Ty laughed. “Yeah, about that. She’s right here. And she wants to talk to you.”

“What?” Noah yelped, but Ty had already hit the speaker button and held the phone up to her.

“You’re on speaker,” Ty said. “The kids are here, too.”

“Uh,” Noah said.

Time to pay the piper. “Hello, Noah,” Sam said. “Queen B here.”

“Uh,” Noah said.

Sam was grateful for the road ahead as a place to focus her gaze while she talked. If she looked at Ty or the kids right now, she didn’t know if she’d make it. “So, listen, Noah,” she began. “I was—I mean, I know I—ugh.” She shook her head. “Okay, sorry, Ty, but Noah, I was a shit to you in high school, and I deeply, deeply regret it.”

“Oh” was all Noah said.

“I ignored you or dismissed you. You and a bunch of other kids. It’s too late to say it now, but you didn’t deserve that at all. You were truly talented. I didn’t understand then. I didn’t have the bigger picture. I focused on what I thought was important and dismissed all the rest. You became part of that. You are way more valuable than I made you feel, and I’m sorry.”

There was a long, long pause, during which Sam’s nerves began to screech like a wet finger on an out-of-tune glass.

“And,” she said, “you could paint your nails way better than I could.”

Ty and the kids let out shocked gasps that turned into laughs. Noah said, “Well, um.” Ty was looking at his own hands. He’d worn black nail polish too. She’d noticed.

“You noticed more than you let on,” Ty said.

“Maybe. Nothing important, though.”

“I dunno,” Noah said unexpectedly. “My nail game was pretty hot. And it was part of the way we were. So you seeing that means it worked, even with the mean girl.”

“It wasn’t enough,” Sam said.

“No. You were a shit. Sorry, kids.”

“You think me and Lyss have never heard the wordshitbefore?” Matt said. “Jesus. Adults are stupid.”

Ty threw up his hands. Sam felt herself beginning to smile. Which was not appropriate. “I was,” she said, fighting the twitch in her lips.

“On the other hand,” Noah said. “You helped out my boy, Tyler. And he tells me you’ve been good to his kids. And you’re driving them to me right now, which I’ve been trying to get Ty to do for years.”

“You can’t thank me for that,” Sam said. She wanted to add “Thank Julia,” but not in front of the kids.

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