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All Hope could do was moan softly as Ava’s thumb traced circles at the base of her spine.
“Mum, mum!”
Hope slowly stepped away. “Dinner first,” she said, though her voice was still shaking.
Ava grinned and followed her into the kitchen.
“Mum, this is Ava Stanford from next door,” said Hope.
“She’s my teacher,” added Alice from where she was arranging books on the kitchen table.
“Of course,” Caz said with a wide smile. “We’ve met, but not formally. It’s nice to have you. Can I get you something to drink? I could open that nice wine you brought?”
“Just a glass of water would be lovely,” Ava said.
“Ms. Stanford, I brought my new library books to show you,” Alice said.
“Al, not now, it’s almost dinner time,” said Hope.
Ava smiled. “There’s always time for reading,” she said. “Isn’t that right, Alice? Why don’t you come over here and we’ll be out of the way and you can show me your books?”
Hope watched as Alice skipped over to the armchair in the corner of the kitchen and Ava sat down with Alice by her knee. Ava’s red-gold head bent down next to Alice’s dark curls as they both peered at the book that Alice was showing, Ava rapt with interest so that Hope bit her lip.
This is what it was supposed to be like, she thought. Comfortable. Home-y. Safe and warm.
The oven dinged and she rescued the garlic bread and Caz leaned in and gave her a nudge.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Caz whispered. “Just well done, that’s all.”
“Well done?”
“A date that can connect with your child, well, a single parent can’t ask for more than that, can they?”
“It is her teacher, mum.”
“Yeah, but still,” said Caz. “Look at the two of them.”
But Hope didn’t need to. The picture of Ava and Alice in the armchair was seared into her brain.
“WELL, THE PETITION is filed with the council,” Hope said. “I don’t know how much difference it’s going to make, but I’m pretty sure every parent signed it.”
They were sitting around the dinner table, empty plates in front of them. Alice had been dispatched off to take her bath and brush her teeth with promises that she could come down to say goodnight later.
“They’ll take it into consideration, I’m sure,” said Caz.
“Yeah, but do you think that the other two schools haven’t done exactly the same thing?” Hope said. “I mean, none of us want to close.”
“Is it common to close schools?” asked Ava, toying with her water glass.
Hope shrugged. “Getting more so, I’d say. The problem is that all of us little towns and villages have always had our own schools. Then a fair few years ago, the government decided that education needed to be standardized and equalized, so we all got the same basics wherever we went, state or public.”
“State or public?” asked Ava.
Caz laughed. “Over here, state means public and public means private.”
“Obviously,” Ava said.
