The Bromance Book Club - Lyssa Kay Adams Page 0,34
a parking spot and jogged inside to pick up the girls. Preschoolers had to be picked up inside, rather than by the bus loop like older kids. And on days like this, it seemed nearly every kid in school was being picked up instead of taking the bus home.
Thea’s heart smiled, as it always did, at the sight of the girls sitting side by side on the bench next to the main office. Their little mouths moved at a rapid pace, chattering to each other about something Thea couldn’t hear over the shouts of other children, the conversations of other parents, and the general after-school chaos that vibrated through the hallways. Their connection was so strong—best friends already. They would always have each other, even if the rest of the world let them down.
After waiting to be buzzed in to the locked inner door by the school secretary, Thea strode in with a thank-you wave to the office staff. The girls jumped up at the sight of her, both extending colored-paper crafts.
“We made turkeys,” Amelia said.
“Nice job!” Thea adjusted Ava’s backpack, which had slipped down to her elbows. “Ready to go home?”
They ran ahead without answering. Thea reminded them to walk but couldn’t fault them their excitement. Kids were always squirrely the day before a holiday break. The thrill and anticipation of a holiday, of a day off, of a fun family tradition, made it hard to sit still.
Of course, it didn’t take long for Thea and Liv to realize their holidays looked a lot different than other kids’ in their classes. They’d spent one Thanksgiving hunched over TV dinners because their mother had taken the passive-aggressive tactic of refusing to cook a holiday meal to punish their father for some thing or another. Her parents never actually fought. They preferred the tense prison of silence.
Thea caught up with the girls on the sidewalk and took each of their hands. Their fingers were cold in hers, and Thea wished she’d thought to send gloves with the girls that morning. It was unseasonably chilly for this part of Tennessee.
“So guess what?” she said, unlocking her Subaru in the parking lot.
“What?” Ava asked, waiting to climb into her booster seat.
Thea bent through the back door to help her with the harness before rounding to the other side to repeat the process with Amelia. Then she looked at both girls with as big a smile as she could muster.
“There’s a surprise waiting for you at home,” she said.
“What is it?” Amelia asked breathlessly.
“Is it a kitten?” Ava asked.
“Nope, not a kitten.” Thea shut Amelia’s door and went around to the driver’s side. As soon as she got in, the girls picked up the guessing game again.
“Is it a hedgehog?” Amelia asked.
“Nope.” Thea started the car and eased out of her parking spot into the slow-moving traffic.
“Is it a giraffe?” Ava asked. Amelia giggled.
“Nope, not a giraffe.”
“A lion?”
“Nope.” Thea turned left at the stop sign. “It’s not any kind of animal.”
It was, in fact, something potentially far more dangerous. Nervous tension had been Thea’s constant companion since Monday night, and now that the day was finally here—the day of Gavin’s big return—she was a twitchy mess. She had no idea what to expect when she and the girls got home. She didn’t even know what she would say. She only knew what she had to do.
Which was to stay as far away from him as possible.
The girls picked up their earlier conversation in the back seat as Thea drove the rest of the way home. Crisp leaves fell from the trees and danced through the air as Thea turned onto their street. Even from several houses away, her eyes zeroed in on the dark SUV in the driveway.
Tension coiled around her lungs as she pulled into the driveway. She’d just shut off the car when the front door opened. Gavin strolled out onto the front porch with a casual wave, as if he’d never left.
Amelia spotted him first from her window and shouted, “Daddy!”
“Yep. Daddy’s home,” Thea said, swallowing hard.
“Is that the surprise?” Ava asked, and Thea couldn’t tell from her tone if she was disappointed or excited.
“That’s the surprise!” Thea forced cheeriness into her own voice. “Daddy’s home just in time for Thanksgiving.”
Amelia squealed, drowning out whatever response Ava might have had. But both were eclipsed by the roaring in her own ears as Gavin jogged down the porch steps and headed their way.
Two observations hit her at once. First, it looked like