Page 12 of Beautiful Crazy
“Now it’s yours!”
“Well, thank you, Sutton.”
It’s a baseball card. Getting choked up over being gifted a card is silly, but here we are. Sutton walks away, and I glance over at Gemma again.
“Oh, you’re his favorite person now,” she murmurs, her grin wide.
I return the smile, and for a moment, we just watch each other. I forget we’re standing at the open door, or that I’m supposed to be leaving. Her eyes on mine feel like a physical touch over my entire body.
After I get back home, I tuck the card away in a safe space, and spend the rest of the evening with Gemma’s smile at the forefront of my mind.
Six
Gemma
“Oh, Beau and Sutton are in the same class,” Grace murmurs as we walk down the hall. “How fun.”
“Windward,” I read off the name on the paper in my hands. “I don’t recognize that teacher. Do you?”
My sister shakes her head. “No, but I heard Mrs. Taylor had to leave the district last minute, so I knew they were probably bringing on a new teacher.”
“Is Ethan working?” I ask, referencing Beau and Blakely’s dad, and Grace’s ex-husband.
“Yeah, he gets back into town in the morning.”
“Mom, it’s right here!” my niece, Blakely, calls out as the kids round the corner.
It’s Meet the Teacher night at their school, and it’s a pain in my ass. I understand why they host the event, so the kids and parents can meet the teacher before the start of school, but every year, it’s a shitshow. There’s entirely toomany people walking the halls of the school, and when you meet the teacher, it’s only, like, a two-minute thing, if that. I dread it, which is probably awful to say as a parent, but it’s true. And I can’t imagine it’s any more fun for the teachers either. Their nervous systems are probably fried by the end of the evening.
The five of us head into the classroom that will be Blakely’s for this school year, and I stand off to the side with Beau and Sutton as Blakely and Grace chat with her new teacher. Ms. Kennewick has been with the school for years. She used to teach kindergarten back when Beau and Sutton were that young. It’s nice having kids around the same age with my sister because it allows us to do these things together. When Dylan, Sutton’s dad, died, the idea of handling all the parental responsibilities on my own was overwhelming, to say the least.
It was comforting to have Grace. In our own way, it’s like we co-parent, leaning on each other whenever we need a breather. Our family is also a huge help, but having somebody, like Grace, who is experiencing the same things I am, helps. Grace’s situation is different from mine, as far as her kids’ dad goes, but she is still a single mom like I am with her own set of struggles.
“Auntie Gem,” Beau whispers up at me. “Can we get ice cream when we’re done here?”
“I’m sure we can, bud, but we have to eat dinner first.”
His eyes brighten as a smile spreads on his face. “Yesss!”
Grace and Blakely finish meeting her teacher, and we all leave the classroom in search of Sutton and Beau’s room. The boys run ahead of us, dipping into the classroombefore we can reach it, and a moment later, Sutton zips back out with a smile on his face.
“Mom, you’re never going to believe who’s in there!”
“Who?”
“Everett!”
My heart beats heavy in my chest hearing that name, but confusion furrows my brow. “He is?”
As far as I could tell, he doesn’t have any kids.
Rounding the corner, the classroom comes into view, and sure enough, our new next-door neighbor is standing in the middle of the room, chatting with Mr. and Mrs. Reese. Dressed in a pair of navy-blue slacks and a white button-down, he looks relaxed with one hand stuffed in his pocket, the other gesturing toward the row of tables behind the parents.
Holy shit.He’s the teacher.
He’s Windward.
“Oh my god,” I hiss quietly, turning toward my sister. “That’s our new neighbor.”