Spring Secrets - Allie Boniface Page 0,64
the back of the bus, where the other two teachers sat with their students. “Everything okay back here?”
Harmony looked up from her phone with a bored expression. “Sure.”
Polly nodded. Sienna glanced around and then slid into the seat beside her. “Can I give you some advice?”
Polly gave her a puzzled look. “About what?”
High-pitched shrieks of excitement filled the bus. Sienna grabbed the seat back and leaned in closer. “Don’t listen to your friend when it comes to men.”
Polly didn’t answer at first. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Listen. We both know Harmony’s got this whole I-have-to-find-the-perfect-rich-husband-or-I’ll-die thing going on.” Sienna looked over her shoulder. Harmony had put her phone away and was reapplying her lipstick.
“She’s not really like that,” Polly began, but she picked at a cuticle and fell silent.
“Polly, there’s no such thing as the perfect guy. And being rich doesn’t mean he’ll be the perfect husband.” Sienna tried to figure out her next words without betraying Mac’s confidence. “If you meet a guy you like, and he doesn’t make a million dollars or own a yacht, don’t immediately write him off.”
“What are you, the Whispering Pines relationship expert?”
If you only knew. “Believe me, I’m not. At all. I just hate seeing people miss chances. Or pass up really good guys because they’re worried about what their friends might say.”
Polly glanced up.
“Like Mac Herbert, for one,” Sienna said casually, as if the thought had just occurred to him. “I’d definitely go for someone like that, someone who’s nice and has great hands and who could build me a dream house from the ground up.”
Polly’s cheeks turned pink.
“Miss Cruz, we’re here!” came a voice from the front of the bus, and Sienna stood. Give him a chance, she mouthed. She hoped Polly actually would.
The bus pulled into the stadium parking lot, and chaos ensued. Forty sweaty bodies pressed for the door, and it was all Sienna and Dash could do to keep their five students headed in the right direction. Polly and Harmony had tickets for the opposite side of the stadium, and in a moment, they were gone.
“This is a little like herding cats,” Dash said as they approached the main gate.
“More than a little.” She pulled the tickets from her purse and handed them to the attendant. “Everyone in Miss Cruz’s class, eyes on me!”
They froze in place, little statues with wide eyes and mouths. Sienna dropped to one knee in front of them. “What did we talk about in class? About staying together?”
“We stay together all the time,” Billy and Bailey said in unison.
“What if you need to go to the restroom?”
“We ask you or Mr. Dash.” Caleb tugged on Dash’s pant leg as if in emphasis. “We never go anywhere alone.”
“Right.” Sienna gave Dawn a pointed look. “Never go anywhere alone.”
As usual, the girl didn’t say anything, but she met Sienna’s gaze with a steady one, and Sienna hoped that was enough.
“All right then, team, let’s go.” She took Dawn’s tiny, warm hand in hers and led them through the maze of concrete walls. Dash followed behind with the boys.
“Miss Cruz, look!” Caleb pointed at the Silver Valley pitchers warming up in the bullpen. Two young men, one a head taller than the other, wound up and let the ball fly in a steady rhythm. The catchers squatted at the opposite end of the bullpen, returning the pitches and pounding their fists into their gloves.
They stayed and watched for a few minutes, the boys rapt, Dawn less so. Sienna turned around for two minutes to tie Silas’s shoes, and when she stood up again, she saw that Dawn had wandered over to a kiosk selling programs, hats, and giant foam fingers. The guy behind the counter leaned down and asked her something, but she just stared and pinched her hands together. He frowned and made a comment, and Dawn’s face fell. Sienna walked over as the girl’s bottom lip pushed out.
“Come on, come on,” Billy called, almost delirious with excitement. They walked inside the gate, and he pointed at the enormous red signs hanging overhead. “We’re in Row F,” he shouted, and was about to dart away before Dash plucked him by the sleeve.
“Wait for everyone else, buddy.”
They managed to find their seats along the first-base line, third tier up. They had a decent view, and if a foul ball made it this far, Silas might even have a chance at catching it. The crowd settled in around them, and soon the players trotted out