“Hang on, I’ll ask my parents.” I shoved my phone into my pocket and headed toward the family room.
The twins were playing a video game, Noah was building a small tower with a set of wooden blocks and babbling to himself in the playpen, and my parents were both reading books while lying on the sofa. Mom had her legs draped over Dad’s lap, and he was rubbing her feet with his free hand.
The only person missing was Emmett.
A sharp pain ricocheted through my chest.
I missed him so much…
“Hi, honey. What are you up to?” my mom asked.
“Hey, Mom, Dad, would it be okay if I went to a movie with my friend Willow? She wants to celebrate how well I did at tryouts today.”
Mom set her book down. “Oh, I don’t know, honey. It’s a school night.”
“I’d be home by eight thirty p.m.” I gave her my bestplease let me gosmile. “I’m still pretty hyped from my relay run, too.”
Dad gave me a small smile. “I think we could make an exception this one time, right, Christine?”
“Aw, sure. Go have some fun, sweetheart.”
“Thank you.” I raced back into my bedroom and grabbed my cell from my pocket. “Okay, I’m in.”
Willow cheered from her end of the line. “I’ll pick you up in thirty minutes, okay?”
“Sounds good.” I glanced down at my pajamas. I’d showered after tryouts, but I definitely needed to change into something different. And with this splint still on, it was going to take three times as long to get ready as it regularly would.
“See you soon,” Willow said, then hung up.
I threw on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. Movie theaters were always cold, so I grabbed a big scarf that I could open up and use as a mini blanket if needed.
My train of thought drifted back to tryouts. I had nailed the hand-off from Aanya. Plus, I’d run my ass off—I wasn’t far off my personal best. The corners of my lips tugged into a smile.
Not to mention, Preach had been really excited for me. I thought about the first time that happened and the kiss that had followed.
Sam brought it up again on the way home from tryouts, too. She kept urging me to give him a chance. Part of me wanted to say screw it, but every time my hand throbbed or I caught a glance of my splint, I saw his face, and it felt like a bomb filled with chards of glass went off in my chest.
Mostly with anger about the crash, but also with fear. I couldn’t take any more heartache right now.
That being said, I really did miss my rides to school and home with Preach.
Focus, Grace.I ran a brush through my hair, threw on some makeup, then sped through the living room quickly enough to grab some money from Dad and my coat. Willow’s silver SUV pulled into the driveway as I was hustling through the door.
“Hey, girl, hey,” Willow said as I slid into the passenger’s seat.
“Hey,” I responded. I fumbled with the seat belt as pain shot down my elbow and into my fingertips.Ouch!
Willow grinned. “Congrats on kicking ass out on the track today!”
“I think I did pretty well. There are a lot of good runners at Woodhaven. Is there something funny in the water here that produces epic athletes?”
“It’s certainly possible.” Willow laughed. “I’m glad you could come tonight,” she added. “I’ve been meaning to ask you to hang out for forever, but with Preach falling off the rails and Brodie and me getting in a fight last weekend, I haven’t had much time to do anything else besides school and workout.”
“Are you and Brodie okay?” Those two were like Woodhaven’s golden couple. The town would probably go into mourning if they ever broke up.
“Yeah, we worked through it. The whole Preach thing didn’t help. I think we were both on edge, and instead of coming together, we started bickering.” Willow shrugged. “Luckily, we figured things out, and we made up.” She laughed as her fingers brushed against her lips.
“Glad that things are better between you two.”