What I didn’t expect was the host of other bodies in the room. The dean of Wilson-Jacobs was there with her grandson, who attended Stacy’s pre-school, and behind them was another little boy who I recognized as Pastore. He’d been at Stacy’s school the year before and was on Kiran’s soccer team. He was well-liked with our kids. What I didn’t expect was to find William Chan with him, because he wasn’t the boy’s father.
Stacy and I greeted the dean and the kids, but we both refused to acknowledge William. His eyes settled on me anyway, looking me up and down in a way that mademe too self-conscious of my paint-splattered jeans and Darren’s old T-shirt, even when they were more appropriate than his expensive suit in the dust and dirt of the barnyard.
“Mommy! Come hold one,” Hannah said. I eased over to where my daughter had sat down with the chick. Her top hat hid her face as she stared down at the baby bird who was almost lost in the soft fabric of Hannah’s shawl. I sat down on the straw-covered barn floor with her, trying to ignore William’s gaze, which I could feel still hovering over me.
The three boys were in deep discussion about the chicks: how long it had taken them to hatch and what they would look like as they grew, which drew my eyes back to the boys. William was standing over them with his hands shoved into his dress pants pockets, looking like the one thing that didn’t fit in the picture.
I held back a laugh.
He moved away from them toward Hannah and me.
“I’m glad to see you,” William said to me. “I was going to stop by the store later, but now I don’t have to.”
My blood pulsed and pounded, wanting him to go away, wanting him to stop talking before he said something I didn’t want anyone to hear. I didn’t have that kind of luck.
“I wanted to let you know we’re starting foreclosure proceedings,” he said, not even trying to be subtle.
“Excuse me?” I asked, glaring at him.
“You’re in default,” he said.
Anger filled me at more than just the fact that he would dare to try and take my grandmother’s store from me. Anger that he thought nothing of broaching it in front of my daughter, my friend, and others. That he would say it in the middle of this moment that was supposed to be sweet and happy.
“Grams missed one payment before—” I glanced at my daughter and couldn’t say the words. “And I missed one after, while I got the paperwork and estate sorted. We’re hardly in default.”
“You can take care of it by paying the loan in full,” he said with a casual shrug as his eyes were drawn to something behind him. Brady and Emerick entered the barn, laughing. “Maybe your hero can save the day once more, but then again, maybe he has his own ideas for tearing down the place after meeting with my sister about Kincaid’s.”
My veins tingled with awareness as Brady drew closer, but the entire suggestion that Brady was somehow swooping in to save me only fanned the flames of my fury and disgust. The knowledge that Brady had looked at Kincaid’s added fuel to the fire in my belly.
Before I could respond, Brady stepped in.
“William, surprised you’re here. Don’t you hate everything related to dirt?” he asked, eyeing William and me. I knew my face reflected my irritation. It was impossible to hide, even if I was trying to keep it in check so Hannah and Stacy’s kids wouldn’t be sucked into a grownup rampage.
Wesley joined Hannah and me on the ground with his own chick while William ignored Brady’s jibe with a glower. Brady turned to the dean with a wide smile. “Dean! It’s really nice to see you.” He hugged her. “What are you doing here?”
“My grandson, Wesley, wanted to see the chicks, of course,” she responded with a smile at the boy with Hannah.
“That cannot be Wesley! Didn’t Dolores just have him?” Brady joked, looking at the child with a bold and beautiful Afro. When they were together, Wesley and Hannah looked like aThat 70’s Showrerun. It usually brought a smile to my face, but today I was having a hard time coming up with one.
The dean laughed. “Time flies when you’re having fun, it seems.”
Pastore looked up at William from the bird in his hand. “Uncle William, do you think we can buy one of the chicks and bring him home?”
“Chickens belong on farms, Pastore, not in a house,” William responded with a clipped tone.
“We could build a coop for him.”
“No, we couldn’t. We don’t live like?”
“Like what?” Emerick cut William off.
William frowned. “Animals belong on a farm, not in the middle of town.”
“When did you become such a dick?” Brady asked William.
“Excuse me?” William stiffened.
“Gentlemen, can I suggest you take this entire discussion and your passive-aggressive male testosterone somewhere else,” Stacy said, glancing at all the kids before settling back on William and Brady.
