Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

Ivy

Ella’s expression when she glances at something on her phone is cat-eat-the-canary, but she doesn’t comment on it.

Just locks the screen and sets it face down on the table.

“Do I want to know?” Nova asks.

“Nope.” Ella picks up her apple turnover. “I mean, maybe eventually, but until then…” She mimes locking her lips and throwing away the key.

Laughter bubbles up in my chest.

Nova sighs but clearly knows her friend well enough to not push the issue. She turns to me. “What time do you have to grab Evie?”

Not just her friend—Ella’s mine too.

And Nova. And Jolie.

I have friends. I have more.

Evie and I…well, we’re building that family, that place where we belong.

And all of us—minus Evie, who’s at the aforementioned school—are chowing down on apple turnovers that are the size of our heads, though I did get the girls to pair the yummy treat with an equally yummy vanilla protein shake. Together, they taste like apple pie a la mode and they’ll sustain us through lunchtime.

See?

Planning ahead.

Looking after them in my own special way, the same as they’d looked after me.

“She’s going to Blake’s house after school for…” I trail off, not finishing my sentence because?—

“What is it?” Ella whispers, concern etched into her face as she reaches across the table and takes my head.

I inhale and lift my chin. Then exhale my anger.

I need to be calm, steady. For Evie.

For me.

“The principal at Evie’s school,” I tell them.

Ella’s anger isn’t so easily dispersed. “The bitch who was trying to suspend her?”

I nod, clench my back teeth together because maybe my furious Mom Rage isn’t so easily displaced either. But calm. Steady. A breath and then I deliberate slap a neutral smile on my face. “Oh, hello Ms. Hearst,” I say pleasantly as she pauses by our table.

Her beady, snake-like eyes narrow. “Are you happy with yourself?”

My mouth drops open, eyebrows shooting up, and I don’t know where the hell my next words come from, except to say that I’ve been hanging around Ella a fair amount of late and that rage…it burns deep enough to unlock my inner snarky bitch. “I mean, I always say that there’s room for improvement, but yeah”—I shrug—“I think I’m doing pretty well.”

Nova chokes.

Ella’s fingers spasm around mine.

Jolie glances down at the table, but not before I see the smirk on her face.

Ms. Hearst’s eyes widen, then narrow again. “Excuse me?”

I just hold her stare. “You heard what I said.”

“Care to join us for a coffee?” Nova offers. I’m not sure if she’s trying to diffuse the tension or attempting to get Ms. Hearst to realize that she interrupting so she’ll go away.

One look at the coolness in Nova’s green eyes and…yeah, it’s the second.

I sip my protein shake. “She probably has to get back to doing her job.”

Ms. Hearst gasps. “How dare you?”

The genuine outrage has me freezing, setting the bottle back down, and frowning. She’s far more upset than I’d expect, even given our last interaction.

She glares at me. “I can’t believe you have the gall to say that after what you did.”

“What I did?” I ask, my confusion giving way to anger again. “ You’re the one who tried to suspend my daughter.”

“And because of that, you saw fit to get me fired?”

I freeze, my eyes going wide. Because, I mean, I wouldn’t mind getting her fired, but also…I hadn’t, unless?—

“Yeah,” she snaps. “Exactly.”

And she starts to storm off.

“I didn’t?—”

She turns back.

I lift my chin. “I didn’t do anything except tell the truth to the people who cared to make a difference.” I hold her eyes. “It’s not me who didn’t do my job.”

“Those parents—” She clamps her teeth together.

“What?” I ask. “Make more money than me? Had more pull—or so you thought? Would make more of a fuss than me?” I place my hands on the table and push up to my feet. “Well, you were wrong. I trusted my daughter to your care, and you returned her to me bruised and scared, and wanted to punish her for it! Of course, I was pissed! Of course, I did everything I could to keep her safe!” I exhale. “But I didn’t get you fired. That’s on the school district. That’s on the superintendent. That’s on you. ”

She glares at me. “It’s not fair.”

“Neither is punishing an innocent child.”

Her chin lifts. “All these parents are so damned entitled these days, sticking their noses in where they don’t belong, thinking they know better?—”

“Right. Well, if anyone thinks they’re entitled then it’s certainly not me.” I drop back into my seat, turn away from her.

She sputters. “I?—”

Ella leans forward. “In case you missed it…that’s your cue to leave.”

“I—”

“Bye,” Jolie says, joining me in turning her back on Ms. Hearst.

My heart is pounding, and my hands are shaking, but I did it.

Said what I needed to say in this moment. Stood up for myself. For Evie. And then ended it on my terms.

Yeah, I fucking did it.

Ms. Hearst lets out an outraged sigh, but thankfully, storms off.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Nova says once she’s gone, bumping her shoulder against mine.

Jolie salutes me with her protein shake and a smile.

“Maybe I’m a dick”—I shrug—“but I’m happy she was fired.”

“Not a dick,” Ella says. “And I imagine you’re not going to be the only one who’s happy she’s gone.”

“No, I’m not,” I agree, filling them in on some of the things other parents had confided in me, what Brian, the superintendent, had told me, and the emails Tera from the legal department had helped me draft.

Nova’s eyebrows are at her hairline. “That’s…”

“A lot,” Jolie finishes.

“It is,” I say, rubbing the spot just above my heart, where a knot I didn’t realize I still had has just loosened. “ Was .”

“Yes, was .” Ella takes my hand, voice gentling. “You did amazing.”

“Thanks, Ells.” I grin. “Thanks to all of you.”

“You did good, kid,” Nova says.

“Definitely,” Jolie agrees. “That was prime snark and I’m here for it.”

“Oh, you are so totally stuck with us now,” Ella says, grinning wide.

“I had help,” I say. Help I accepted, and for the first time in my life, hadn’t been burned for. Help I could trust. “Because they definitely don’t want double the Adlers storming the school’s office as my backup.”

Ella winks. “We are dangerous.”

“Dangerously annoying ,” Nova teases.

“No,” Ella says. “ Dangerously annoying would be mentioning that you haven’t touched your apple turnover, which is unusual for a lot of reasons…” Her mouth twitches. “But paired with the fact that you also haven’t been partaking in any of our delicious mule combinations—not even your favorite, honey rosemary combo—I would be very dangerously annoying to mention the pieces I’ve put together.”

Jolie’s eyes are wide as they lock with mine, her words slow. “Is she saying what I think she’s saying?”

Nova scowls at Ella. “You’re unbelievable, you know that right?”

“Unbelievably hilarious, smart, and beautiful?” she asks, fluttering her lashes. “Why yes, I do know that.”

I chuckle.

Nova jabs a finger at me. “Don’t encourage her.”

I take a page out of Ella’s book and mime zipping my lips.

“All of this is your fault, you know.”

I lift my eyebrows in question.

Her nose wrinkles. “You fell for an Adler and thus encouraged this sort of behavior.”

I give up on the zipped lips and unleash my secret weapon—or at least what I noticed when I first arrived. “ I’m not the one hiding the baby-themed gift at my feet.”

Her mouth drops open.

Jolie cracks up.

I shrug. “Just because I don’t talk as much as an Adler”—though there are times where I really, really enjoy the talking, like, say, when Knox is murmuring naughty things in my ear—“doesn’t mean I’m not sneaky like one.”

For some reason that has Ella grinning.

But before I can ask what that smile with more than a dash of wicked is all about, Nova bends over, snags the bag, and thrusts it to Ella. “I was going to ask you to be a godmother, you brat,” she snaps.

All humor leaves Ella’s face and I don’t miss the way her eyes immediately tear up. “Really?” she breathes.

“Yeah. Who else?” But then Nova softens too, swiping away a tear that slides down Ella’s cheek. “You’ve been there for me forever, Ells.”

Jolie takes my hand, squeezing tight, and I’m thankful for the contact as they hug, their words becoming so quiet they’re inaudible. But it’s impossible to not feel the sentiment behind them—and that’s enough to make my eyes burn and tears clog up the back of my throat.

I sniff.

Jolie sniffs.

Nova and Ella are already lost to tears.

But even amongst all the damp eyes, it’s the happiness in the air that soothes my soul.

And maybe also, it’s the apple turnovers.