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“Are you going to bemyteacher?”
“No, buddy,” I said, finally finding my ability to speak. “Layla teaches high school. She’s an English teacher.”
“Oh, cool. I speak English.”
“You sure do,” Layla said.
“But I know some Spanish, too. Wanna know what I know?”
She giggled and stooped lower, putting her hands on her knees. “Tell me.”
“I knowholameans hello,amigomeans friend,adiósmeans goodbye, andbañomeans bathroom.”
“Good job, buddy. You can string all of that together and ask your friend where the bathroom is, huh?”
“I don’t have any friends here yet. But Dad says I’ll make them right away at school because I’m really friendly.”
He beamed up at me and I winked, even though my heart was in my throat watching him and Layla talk. Man, what had I done?
“Well, your dad’s right. Youarereally friendly. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble making friends on the first day.”
“Thanks,” he replied, giving her a little wave before hopping over to me. “What’s next on the list?”
“We haven’t gotten your backpack yet. Do you wanna go pick one out?” I hooked a thumb behind me at the wall of backpacks that lined the shelves.
“Yeah, sweet.” He nodded excitedly and took off.
I angled my body so I could still see him while also staying in the aisle with Layla. A lot of the backpacks were already gone since we’d waited so long to shop, but there were still quite a few left, and I knew he’d take his sweet time picking one out.
“So,” I said, pointing to her cart, “getting stuff for your classroom?”
It was a dumb opening line since she’d already said that, but I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t expected to see her here, and I was a little rattled after nearly running her over.
“Yep,” she replied, fidgeting with the zipper of the crossbody on her hip. “Work started for me earlier this week, so my regular shopping was already done, but Ms. Hattie stopped by and practically shoved me into my car with a donation for supplies. Since teachers have to buy so much throughout the year, I couldn’t turn her down.”
I stood straighter, sensing shenanigans. Grayson and I had run into Ms. Hattie in the parking lot behind her shop when we were leaving to come here. He’d cheerfully told her all about our back-to-school shopping plans, and she’dspecificallyasked me where we were going.
Clearly, her offer to help me fix things with Layla had been more of a formality than anything else. It seemed she was trying to take things into her own hands whether I wanted her help or not.
I let out a breath. “Wow, that was … nice of her.”
“Yeah, a little strange, but nice.”
Awkward silence enveloped us, and I shuffled my feet, then glanced back at Grayson to make sure he was still close by. Maybe I should just say goodbye to Layla and join him at the backpacks. I knew where we stood. I’d messed up—big-time, bigger than I’d ever realized—and she wasn’t interested in giving me another shot. Why stay and torture myself?
“You should get the store brand of these,” she said, pointing to a pack of dry erase markers in my cart. “They’re a lot cheaper, and they’re just as good.”
“Thanks, I’ll do that.”
“Great.”
Taking a look inhercart, because it seemed like the next step in this ill-advised chitchat situation she’d started, I nodded at some acrylic paint. “You still doing portraits?”
“What?” She followed my gaze, then let out a nervous chuckle. “Oh, yeah. I got roped into … ah, well, I shouldn’t say it like that. Sorry. I mean, Shelby’s mom commissioned a portrait of Aria and Will at their wedding as her gift to them.”
I wasn’t sure if she was uncomfortable with the portrait thing or if it was just because she was talking to me, but I chose to ignore it. “Sweet. Look at you, getting paid for your art.”
“Yeah. You’re right, it’s pretty awesome. I’ll just focus on that. It’ll be great.” She bit her lip and looked away.
