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Chapter 7
“I told it as a story, and it worked. And they clapped, Mom. Even Brittney. I saw her.”
The sheer happiness on her daughter’s face was like a glow feeding Hope’s heart. “I’m so proud of you for doing this. It’s not easy to compete and speak in public. And you won! Don’t pay so much attention to the applause. Focus on what you came there to do and say.”
“That’s what the judge said.”
“He did?”
Hannah went on to tell her about their conversation, and Hope swayed between feeling a new warmth toward the man who had supported her daughter when she wasn’t there to do it, and a strange pain in knowing that Jordan Delaney had witnessed her daughter’s hardships, as well. The warmth she felt cooled off when she remembered he was there because of his association—whatever it was—with Avery.
She didn’t tell Hannah that Avery had texted her during class. “Hannah stormed out in the middle of the simulation. We have to talk.” Her heart had sunk like the corn syrup had inside the water in the experiment she had been doing with her students at that moment. She couldn’t leave, though every instinct in her begged her to run and console her child. She had texted Chris, knowing he was there, but his phone must have been switched off.
She had rushed toward the small hall the minute she could, only to find a glowing Hannah. And it was thanks to the advice of the silver-tongued political advisor who made her wayward heart thump, rendering her able to utter only the two words that she had ended up saying to him.
Picking up Naomi from the second-grade hall, Hope smiled as the two girls chatted excitedly, walking in front of her toward the car.
“Mommy, can Lia come over today?” Naomi turned around to ask. “I want to show her the Barbie Dad bought me and tell her that Hannah is going to the regilands.” Naomi ended her sentence triumphantly. Her shiny, blonde hair bounced in a ponytail as she climbed into the car. This girl, who was conceived when Hope and Eric had tried to patch up the fragments of their marriage, looked so much like him, but where he used to augment someone’s insecurities, she reminded them of their wins and strengths. Hope was proud of both her girls.
“Sure you can, sweetie. Hannah, do you want to invite someone over? I can make chocolate chip cookies for everyone.” Happiness was contagious.
“I’ll think about it,” Hannah said, her eyes still glowing, her smile wide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Your future brother-in-law was at our school this week.”
“What was he doing there?”
“Avery invited him to judge at our Model UN.”
Libby tilted her head, narrowing her eyes in a skeptic grimace. “Really? Jordan?”
“Yes. I was surprised, too. Maybe she has good convincing skills.”
“I bet she does,” Roni said, sticking her tongue against her inner cheek and accompanying it with the relevant hand gesture.
They all laughed, but an uncalled-for icicle pricked Hope’s stomach.
“This is something I’d pay to see,” Libby said.
Roni burst into laughter and nearly choked on her drink.
“No! Not this!” Libby called out, snorting with laughter. “Oh God, no! Yuck! No, I meant Jordan judging in the school’s Model UN.”
Roni coughed and laughed, and while Hope laughed, the thought of Jordan in such a position made her sweat a little, despite the cool night air. But the additional image of Avery with him made the leek quiche that she had just eaten threaten to make its way back up her throat.
“He was actually really sweet about it,” she said to push the bile down. “He saw Hannah having a … difficult moment outside and helped her.” Hope lowered her voice. They were sitting in her backyard for their weekly meeting and, while the girls were asleep upstairs, she didn’t want Hannah to hear her in case she woke up to pee. “She says his advice is what helped her team win. But I think it was also the fact that she felt someone was on her side, that someone … saw her.”
“Sounds like he’s better at this than his teacher of a girlfriend,” Roni muttered from her place on the deck chair. “I can’t forget what she said to Hannah after the students council elections. What a bitch. And I’ll never forget that she once told Lulu to act her age. Bitch, she was acting her age! She was eight!” Roni’s temper flared fast on some topics.
“I don’t think she’s his girlfriend,” Libby said.
“What does Luke say?” Roni asked, cooling back down as fast as she had flared up.
“That Jordan has been pretty cagey about things ever since he came back.”
“Interesting,” Roni muttered. “Maybe he and Avery are like Luke and you?”
