Finding Love in Ivy Falls

Chapter Twenty-Three

TESSA

Sinister Omen

The car ride to school was a silent one. There wasn’t enough time to explain to the girls what was happening. Why their father, who seemed like a phantom in their lives, had suddenly returned.

After Mrs Vanderpool left, I rushed back to my room to change. My clothes from last night were scattered across the floor. I picked them up, and they still smelled of Manny. That heady scent of soap and steel.

I’d never expected things to go as far as they had with him, but I didn’t regret a moment. Showing all of myself to him, letting him touch me, caress me in all the places I ached, was like placing the right book with a reader. We fit together perfectly, and, if I was being honest, I knew the moment we decided to let go of our fears, finally touched each other, it’d be hot. But now, I couldn’t help but wonder where things stood between us. How Billy reappearing felt like some sinister omen.

Both girls still refused to talk or look at me. They ate the granola bars I’d brought along, their lower lips set in firm pouts every time they swallowed.

We drove past the square, through the single light, and down two more streets to Merriweather Lane. I took a left and proceeded to the end of the cul-de-sac that ended at the school. The small patch of acreage backing up to a big swathe of woods had housed Ivy Falls Elementary since the early 1990s. The school was all cream stucco, and red brick, with a wide front lawn. Behind it was a massive playground, and a large field used for recess or PE during the months when there wasn’t ice or snow.

Once inside the office, I bent down and gave each of them a hug. They mumbled something like a goodbye, and my heart shriveled. Damn Billy.

I waved to Miss Marta, the principal’s secretary, who’d been close friends with my mom. She and her tiny little legs scurried in my direction. Her favorite color was orange, and she always tried to work a hint of it into her clothes. Today she was wearing a navy sheath dress with a pin covered in orange sequins in the shape of a heart a few inches below her left collarbone.

‘Running late today?’ she asked.

‘Yes. Issues with my phone alarm.’

Her mouth puckered in concern like she already knew about the scene in the square. That my ex was back.

‘Have a good day,’ I said, turning for the door.

‘Tessa, honey,’ she called out before I could make my escape. ‘Did you hear about Lou?’

That stopped me in my tracks. She glanced over her shoulder to the principal’s closed door and waved me forward.

‘You just missed Manny,’ she whispered. ‘He had to take Lou home.’

‘Is she okay?’

‘Can’t say much. Supposed to keep things private around here.’

I quirked a brow at her. Miss Marta loved gossip about as much as she loved her husband of thirty-plus years.

‘But you and Manny are…’ – her eyes went a little mischievous – ‘ close , so I don’t feel bad sharing.’

All right, maybe Manny and I didn’t hide our attraction very well.

‘At recess before school, the playground aide brought Lou in to see Natasha – I mean, Principal Vogel. I guess Lou had a scuffle with a girl in her class.’

‘Do you know what it was about?’

‘No, but it must have been bad because Natasha had to suspend Lou for the day.’

‘Why? Lou’s never been in trouble before.’

‘We have two automatic suspension policies. One is for bullying,’ she said with a shaky breath. ‘The other is if you put your hands on another student.’

‘Neither of those sound like Lou.’

She pulled off her cat-eye glass and dabbed at her dark lashes with a tissue. ‘Lou’s teacher,’ she sniffled. ‘Well, she says Lou’s been struggling since the start of the year. She’s tried to talk to Lou about it, but apparently, she’s as tight-lipped as Barb and Susan when they’re creating a new cookie for the café.’

A door creaked open at the back of the office, and Principal Vogel called to her.

‘I gotta go, but don’t forget I’m waiting on that new Joanna Shupe book. You know how I love those Gilded Age men.’

‘It doesn’t come out until later this month. I’ll be sure to hold a copy for you.’

She smiled, hesitated, and then lowered her voice again. ‘I heard there was an accident in the square last night. You okay?’

‘Yes,’ I sighed, not surprised that news of Billy’s return was burning up the Ivy Falls rumor mill.

‘Baby means everything to Greta… Mrs Vanderpool,’ she went on. ‘I think that dog is what has kept her alive all these years after she lost her beloved Leroy. Billy may have a lotta strikes against him in this town’ – pity flashed across her watery eyes – ‘but finally, for once, that boy made a good choice.’

Principal Vogel walked out of her office. Her stern look swerved between me and Miss Marta like she knew I’d probably gotten some kind of intel out of her.

I said a quick goodbye, and as soon as I was outside, I dialed Manny’s number. It rang twice before going straight to voicemail.

Billy was still waiting for me at the house, but I steered my old Volvo in the direction of Manny’s. My mind darted between Miss Marta’s story about Lou and the situation with my own girls. They’d already been through so much, and now, sadly, that black tide was rising for all of them again.