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“Grace?”
At Mom’s voice, both Mr. Howard and I leapt guiltily apart and turned to face her as she approached us with a leery scowl directed the counselor’s way. He and I exchanged glances, mine saying, See what I mean? She doesn’t trust any adult male anymore.
He gave a regretful sigh, which told me he was going to give in to my request, but didn’t want to. At all.
He forced a tense-looking smile. “Hello again, Mrs. Indigo.” Then his eyes flared. “I mean—” He choked, looking stuck as he realized her name was still Struder until the divorce was finalized.
“Indigo’s fine,” both Mom and I answered together.
Shoulders settling, he gave a relieved smile and nodded.
When Mom didn’t answer his greeting but hovered even closer to me as if she wanted to snatch me away from a potential threat, I cleared my throat. “Mom, did you meet Mr. Howard when you enrolled me into Southeast? He’s the school counselor.”
“Oh.” Mom visibly relaxed and even offered a fake smile. “That’s right. I’m sorry. I don’t know where my brain is.”
“Quite all right,” Mr. Howard murmured, though he glanced down at his shoe as if he didn’t want anyone to see how her forgetfulness hurt him in any way.
“Actually,” I jumped in, wanting to make the poor man feel better in some way, “Mr. Howard told me he went to high school with you and Dad.”
Eyes widening, the school counselor speared me a look that told me he’d like to strangle me. But Mom perked to attention, squinting, as she inspected him closer.
“Howard.” She repeated the name until finally her face lit with recognition. “Matthew Howard,” she finally exclaimed. “You’re Matthew Howard.”
His chest expanded as he smiled and nodded.
“Yes, I remember you, Matthew. I’m so sorry.” Relaxing even more, Mom ventured from my side to take his hands. “You came to Daniel’s funeral. With your wife and daughter, right?”
Mr. Howard’s smile faltered a hitch before he answered, “Yes. That’s right. And I still have the daughter.” He motioned behind us.
Mom and I turned together to spot Ryder still chatting with Laina. Ryder glanced my way as if to check and make sure he still needed to distract her while I spoke to the counselor. But when he saw us staring, he led Laina our way.
“Laina’s in the same grade as Grace,” Mr. Howard explained, his face glowing with pride as his daughter approached.
Mom nodded. “She looks a lot like you.”
Beaming again, Mr. Howard glanced at me before he sobered. After clearing his throat, he said, “I don’t know if Grace told you, but she talked to me about…about…”
“That jerk I married?” Mom muttered.
The counselor winced. “Yeah. Him. And I was…well, I was wondering if I could, uh, speak to you for a quick minute.”
“Yes, of course.” Mom jumped forward, eager to help me any way she could.
As Mr. Howard led her off to another corner, Ryder and Laina finally reached me.
“Everything all right?” Ryder asked.
Grasping his hand and needing his support, I chewed on my lip as I watched Mr. Howard talk and my mom repeatedly nod. After a second, they both paused and glanced at me before he began talking again.
Then Mom nodded and actually hugged him. For a moment, he looked stunned but finally hugged her back. As she pulled away and started toward me, she smiled even as she wiped at her eyes. Behind her back, Mr. Howard met my gaze, gave an iffy grin and then flashed me a thumbs up.
I breathed out a breath and finally looked up at Ryder. “Yeah. I think everything’s going to be just fine.”
His green eyes sparkled as he smiled. “Good, because I just found out some great news.” Motioning toward Laina, he said, “I showed Alaina your photographs, and guess what?”
I crinkled my brow, curious about the grin he flashed. “What?”
“It’s her glove.”
