“See you at school?” she asks. In her voice, I can hear what she’s not saying.Meredith isn’t mad at you anymore. We can hang out again.
“Yeah.” I can’t hide the hope in my voice. “Sounds good.”
She grins, linking her arm through Meredith’s, and they pass me to go sit with Carlton.
I walk back over to Zayne, who cocks his head in the direction I came. “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” I say, and I mean it. I lace my fingers through his, swinging our hands as we walk. “Everything is great.”
Zayne and I spend all our nickels over the course of two hours. We play all the games in the arcade, and I lose every time. Still, there’s a giant grin plastered on my face as I get in the car.
That is, until Beau starts calling. He knows I’m out with Zayne so I can’t imagine what would be important enough to justify him calling, but I answer the phone. “What’s up, Beau?”
“You need to come home.”
His words send my mind into a stir. “Why? We’re about to go eat.”
When he answers, his voice drops, like he’s trying to keep our conversation hidden from someone. “Mom is here.”
My stomach does a flip. “What?” I must have misheard him. He couldn’t have possibly just said what I think he did.
“Mom came home a day early.” He annunciates each syllable with emphasis. “She says she wanted it to be a surprise.”
I hang up the phone in a complete daze. I stare out the windshield at the fresh dusk, my eyes wide. When I turn to Zayne, my voice sounds like a whisper. “My mom is home.”
It takes a moment for the words to sink in. “Seriously?” His curious expression transforms into a huge grin. “Dot, that’s awesome!”
“I know, but we were supposed to go eat?—”
“Are you kidding?” He shakes his head at me. “It’syour mom, Dot. This is huge. Hasn’t it been like, months since you’ve seen her?”
“Almost six months,” I say, my voice drifting off into a whisper.
“Exactly.”
I reach over and grab his hand. “You’re the best.”
He lifts our joined hands to kiss my fingers.
Time flies by as we drive. My thoughts whirl in my head as Zayne turns onto my street, and when he parks in front of my house, I take a deep breath. He takes my face in his hands, rubbing my cheek with his thumb. His warm eyes stare into mine, filling me with steadiness and determination. “She’s going to be so happy to see you,” he murmurs.
“I know. Sorry about our date.”
“Don’t be. We can eat together anytime.” He brings my face to his and kisses me. My heart flutters, sending adrenaline surging through my body. I glide my hands along his neck and deepen the kiss until the only audible sound in the car is my pulse hammering in my ears.
We break away at the same time, but our faces are still close, our eyes still partly shut. “You should go,” Zayne whispers. I nod but make no move to do so. He laughs softly and lets go of me, grinning and shooing me away with his hand. “Go, Dot.”
I open the door and step out. “I’ll text you.”
And then I run to the front door, my heart leaping with every step that brings me closer to it.
When my hand is hovering over the knob, I wait a few moments, standing there and catching my breath. I’m winded from kissing Zayne and from the anticipation coursing through my veins, wondering if what Beau said could possibly be true.
“You got this,” I whisper to myself. “You got?—”
The front door swings open and standing on the other side, she’s right there—tall and strong, with a bright smile just for me.
“Mom!” I leap over the threshold and wrap my arms around her waist. To my surprise, she feels skinnier. I lean back to get another look at her. She looks the same as she always does, but there’s a bead of sweat pooling on her upper brow despite the winter chill.
