Page 66 of Thin Ice

They came back in. Linda carrying the pie dish on a folded towel, Liam behind her with three plates and forks balanced in his hands. He set them on the coffee table, and his mom cut a slice and handed it to me.

"Gas-station pie," she said.

I took it. Looked at it. "This looks incredible."

"It is," she said, settling into her armchair and tucking her feet under her.

I took a bite. It was absurdly good. Too sweet, too much filling, not enough crust. Perfect. I closed my eyes at the first bite.

"Oh my god," I said.

"Told you," Linda said.

Liam sat beside me on the couch. His knee against mine. He was eating his pie and looking at the tree, and something in his face was soft and private, like he was having a thought he wasn't ready to share.

We ate in silence for a few minutes. The morning light through the front window and the smell of bacon still in the air from earlier.

Liam's mom set her plate on the side table. Stood up. Walked to the kitchen. I heard a drawer open. She came back holding something small in her hand.

"Alex."

"Yes?"

She was standing in front of me. She held out her hand and opened it. A single house key on a plain metal ring.

"There's a home here for you," she said.

The zero on my phone. The hold on my registration. The attorney's email in my pocket. And this woman standing in front of me in her robe and slippers, holding out a key to a house that was worth less than my father's watch, and it was the most valuable thing anyone had ever given me.

My jaw locked. My eyes burned. I took the key from her palm and held it, and I could barely speak.

"Really?"

"Yes, you have a home here."

"Thank you," I said. My voice broke on it. "Thank you so much."

She smiled. Stepped toward me. I stood up, and she wrapped her arms around me, and I was taller than her by almost a foot and my face went into her shoulder and she held me the way mothers are supposed to hold their children, without conditions, without a folder on the desk, without a deadline.

"You're welcome, honey," she said. "It's going to be okay. We're here for you."

I held on. Longer than I meant to. When I pulled back, my face was wet, and I wiped it with my sleeve, and she squeezed my arm once and went back to her armchair like it was nothing. Like giving someone a home was just what you did on Christmas morning.

Liam was watching from the couch. His eyes were glassy. I went and sat next to him and he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and I leaned into him.

"So," Alex said. "I have to say something."

Liam looked at me.

"I don't have a gift. For either of you." I looked at Liam's mom in her chair. "I didn't have time, and I don't have money, and you got me all this and I have nothing to give you back."

Liam's mom looked at me over her coffee.

"I'll pay you back," I said. "For everything. The food, the room, all of it. I don't know how yet, but I will. When I figure out the school stuff and the money stuff I'll—"

"Alex," Linda said.

I stopped.