“Polly.”
“Polly! What a pretty name.” Momma turned to me with an innocent smile on her face. “Don’t you think?”
I narrowed my eyes, she and Sarah looking more alike in that moment than ever before.
I didn’t have the time to deflect Momma’s question because Ryla came tearing out of the bushes just then, screaming her head off, hands moving frantically above her head.
“Spider!! SPIDER!! Jace! Max! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIIIIIVES!!!
I jumped up. Saved by the Ryla.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-NINE
POLLY
I know that the whole point—the only point—is to find the things that matter, and hold on to them, and fight for them, and refuse to let them go.
Lauren Oliver, Delirium
Ryla?” I asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror, seeing a face full of chocolate. I knew she’d been too quiet on the ride. It was no surprise that Ryla, the little deviant who squirreled away Hershey’s Kisses in her backpack, had been eating them without me knowing. I’d been more preoccupied than usual on our way to Young Will’s practice. Ryla and Max had also been busy filling me in on stories about Jace’s parents, baseball, and cuckoo clocks after Max’s counseling session this afternoon. I’d stopped quickly at a red light and was almost rear-ended by an idiot driving a black SUV who’d been following us way too close but luckily, we made it to the high school for Young Wills practice in one piece.
I turned around, facing the backseat. “Did you, by any chance, eat chocolate on the way here?”
“No.”
I raised my eyebrows. “No?”
“Nope.”
I looked to Max, but he was absorbed in his graphic novel. I turned my gaze back to Ryla.
“How’d that chocolate get on your face then?”
She covered her face with both her hands, her voice coming out all muffled. “Eet mufft haf bem dere sins yunch.”
“I see.”
I searched the car for something I could use to wipe off her face, finding a wad of extra take-out napkins stuffed in the center console. Wetting them with a water bottle, I turned back to Ryla.
“Look—" I stopped short, almost laughing when I realized what I just said. I tried again, my tone a bit softer this time.
“If you want to walk into Young Wills with chocolate on your face, confidence blaring, I’m all for it. Honestly, no one should judge you for what you look like. If you like chocolate on your face, I like chocolate on your face. You can either choose to wipe it off with this”—I held up the napkin—“or leave it on your face. It’s your decision. You go, girl!”
I followed up my vintage saying with the ancient rock-on hand symbol, despite the fact that she probably had no idea what it meant. I was probably only five years away from her calling me “cringe” and asking me to drop her off around the block.
Plucking the napkins from my grasp, she started to wipe her face without a word.
A minute later, we’d disentangled ourselves from the car and were walking through the parking lot to the high school auditorium entrance. A little thrill went through me at the thought of seeing Jace. Except for seeing him briefly this afternoon when he’d dropped the kids off at Max’s therapist’s office, I hadn’t seen him all day. It seemed almost silly to miss him already when we’d spent the entire night together; and yet, here I was, an extra spring in my step and butterflies in my stomach.
Max grabbed my hand on our way inside. I squeezed it twice and he squeezed it back. “The three amigos are coming!” Ryla shouted as she grabbed my other hand. Ryla had picked up the habit of calling us the three amigos since Giselle left. She’d seen a TV show with the reference and asked me what it meant. I told her it was a group of three friends, who protected and loved each other. The reference to the actual movie went completely over her head, but still, she liked it so much that she’d yell it out on occasion whenever the three of us walked hand in hand.
It had felt as if it was us against the world, this year, keeping our heads above water one day at a time.
Jace had been waiting for us; he came outside when we were only halfway across the lot, jogging over to meet us.
“You made it! I was just checking to see if y’all were here.” Jace fell into step beside Ryla, who held out her hand to him.
“Hi,” I responded, a little breathless. A slow smile took over Jace’s face and he opened his mouth to say something when Ryla made a noise and held out her hand more insistently. Settling for winking at me, Jace took her hand and started to swing it as we all took off once again.
