Page 54 of Quiver

Fletcher rolled her eyes. “Kylie has a flare for the dramatic. I don’t hit the qabaq all the time.”

“Will you do it next time?” someone called from the back of the group.

“I usually save that for the showcase, but we’ll see how things go. Gabrielle needs more practice.”

The students seemed content with a possibility and started chatting among themselves even before Fletcher formally dismissed them. Kylie hung back as they scattered, and watched parents bundle everyone up before wandering back into the snow. She steadfastly avoided Ava as she collected a few extra quivers, and Bear trotted along at her heels with his tongue lolling, but once they got back into the barn, she gave Winston’s reins a little tug only to take a single step and bump into someone else.

“Sorry,” a man’s voice said right over her shoulder, and she turned to see one of the dads with a few bows tucked under his arm. “I always was a klutz around you.”

She inspected his face a little closer, searching its vaguely familiar features. “Bobby?”

He grinned. “Bob mostly these days, but yeah.”

“Wow.” A few months ago, she couldn’t have conceived of a world where she literally bumped into her tenth-grade chem lab partner again. “How are you?”

“Great. I mean, not as great as you in a lot of ways, obviously, but not bad. I married Lana Martin. Our daughter Jenny was riding with you at the end there.”

“Really?” She found every part of the idea absurd. Bob managed to overcome his shyness enough to woo a woman, they’d had a kid, and the daughter was now old enough to ride horses and shoot arrows the way they had as teenagers.

“Yeah.” He laughed. “Time has a way of running off. I have to say, I was pretty surprised to hear you were hanging around again.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it hanging around. I’m training mostly.”

“Sure.” He nodded. “It looks good on you, and it makes me feel a little younger watching you and Fletcher telling tales about the old days.”

She cocked her head to the side. Was that what they’d been doing?

“I don’t know what happened between you two all those years ago, but I’m glad you patched it up.”

They hadn’t, but she didn’t want to say so, probably for a thousand reasons, but not the least of which being it felt nice to live in Bobby McEnroe’s high esteem once again even if she hadn’t earned it.

“Dad,” Jenny called from the door.

“Coming.” He grinned at Kylie. “She’s bossy like her mom, and I love it. See you next week?”

“I’ll be here as long as it takes.” As she watched him go, she realized for the first time since coming back, she didn’t resent that fact.

Ava squeezed Fletcher’s arm as they passed by one another in the narrow central aisle of the barn, and the contrast between the easy touch and raw nerves nearly made her jump out of her skin. She gritted her teeth against the urge to jerk away, but even in that second, she remained aware she didn’t want to edge closer, either. She was walking a tightrope, and any emotional stimuli carried the risk of shaking her tenuous balancing act. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it up.

“Things went well today,” Ava said in a soothing tone.

“Did they?”

“All the kids seemed to have fun, and a few of the older ones took to the archery station, at least from what I saw.”

“No. I mean, yes.” She shook her head, but it still felt fuzzy. “They did. It’s a good group. Thanks for helping.”

“I didn’t do much, but it’s always fun to watch you work. You’re in your element when you’re sharing what you love.”

She definitely didn’t feel like she’d been in her element today. Not when Kylie upended everything with her little outburst, and not when she’d relayed some of Fletcher’s most cherished memories to near strangers. But after the toll those two encounters took on her mental state, she didn’t think she could handle any more emotional processing, so she merely said, “Thanks.”

“All the students are gone. I’m heading out”—Ava glanced over her shoulder—“unless you want me to stay?”

Fletcher tried not to follow her gaze to where Kylie was putting away Winston in his stall. “No. I’ve got work to do. Then I’m going to crash.”

“Sure.” Ava forced a smile. “I’ll be in touch about next weekend.”

“I’m looking forward to it.” Fletcher injected as much gusto as she could summon and held her smile all the way until Ava slipped out of the barn door. Then she steadfastly refused to meet Kylie’s eyes as she entered the tack room. She set about loosening bows and sorting arrows, thankful for rote tasks to busy her hands without taxing her mind. She may have let herself get a little lost in the mundane, because she didn’t hear Kylie approach until she spoke.