“That's why we have Nate,” Stella pointed out. She was suddenly so, so glad that she'd agreed to let Ken call him. Forget how relieved she was for herself, just the ability to reassure Eva was a blessing. “He's going to keep us both safe.”
Eva narrowed her eyes. “He better.”
“He will.” Stella was surprised to realized that she believed what she’d was saying.
She’d spent the last month terrified that there was no real way to get Todd to stop. Intimidation didn’t work. Telling him to get lost didn’t work. There was nothing for the police to do, since he hadn’t done anything illegal. Stella wasn’t about to try and do anything violent, or ask anyone else to do the same. So there hadn’t seemed to be any road out of the status quo, except for hoping that someday he’d get bored and stop.
And wouldn’t escalate.
But now...now nothing had really changed, had it? Except that Nate seemed confident that they could take care of the problem, and that confidence had infected her, somehow.
That was reasonable, Stella told herself. Nate was a professional. Ken, who’d been the one to organize how they’d driven off the rest of Todd’s pack, was confident in his abilities. It was okay to trust that Nate could take care of the problem.
She thought. She hoped.
Anyway...Eva didn’t need to see her worrying about any of this. She put on a smile. “So, how’s the college search going? Any good ideas?”
Eva sighed. “It’s hard to think about that when I’m wondering if Todd’s going to be climbing in the windows tonight, Mom.”
“Hey, Nate’s sleeping downstairs,” Stella said firmly. “He’s a badass Marine combat veteran. He probably wakes up if a mosquito sneezes by the window, much less Todd falling over the sill and landing in a heap in the kitchen.”
That made Eva giggle.
“So, college?” Stella prompted.
Eva shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, MIT would be really awesome. Or Caltech. But they’re super hard to get into.”
And expensive, Stella was sure. She was going to have to do some research on the Internet about how much good colleges really cost—tens of thousands of dollars, she knew, but beyond that it was a bit fuzzy.
“I bet you’ll blow the competition out of the water,” she said softly, smoothing Eva’s hair back from her forehead.
Eva wrinkled her nose. “Mom. You don’t even know who the competition is.”
“I know you,” Stella said. “You’re probably the smartest person I’ve ever met. You’re going to blow their tiny minds.”
Eva started giggling. “Mom. You’re ridiculous.”
“Don’t doubt me.” Stella made her best wise face. “I know things.”
Eva shook her head, still giggling. “Goodnight, Mom.”
She leaned in and kissed Eva’s forehead. She smelled clean and good, like comfort and home. “Goodnight, honey.”
Stella closed Eva’s door softly behind her and thought about that. MIT was in Massachusetts. Caltech was...southern California, she thought? They were both far, far away from northern Montana.
Eva was going to go away, somewhere far from Stella. That hadn’t quite sunk in yet—Stella had been picturing her in some other Montana city, maybe somewhere they’d lived before. Maybe Stella could get another waitressing job there, and they could save money by having Eva live at home.
And that still might happen, Stella told herself. Maybe Eva wouldn’t get into where she wanted to go, or she wouldn’t get enough financial aid and it would just be too expensive.
But now that Stella knew what her daughter wanted, she was determined that it would be possible...somehow. She’d make it possible. She’d work two jobs, she’d ask Lynn and Ken to buy her out of the house or give her a loan or something...
And then Eva would leave.
Stella took a long, painful breath.
It was right, she reminded herself. After all, she’d left home, and she hadn’t even been going to college, just starting out wandering and exploring. With a series of varyingly worthless boyfriends.
But it hurt to think about.