Page 93 of Play Book

“Honey, you’re not alone, okay? I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”

“You didn’t even pick up tonight! I called and called…”

“I fell asleep and didn’t hear my phone. I’m sorry. From now on, I’ll make sure the ringer is on and the phone is next to me.”

“You were with Saylor.” She says her name almost accusingly.

“Yes, I was, but that’s not why I didn’t pick up. We were sleeping. I have practice in the morning, so we went to bed early, which is what I would have done even if I was here at home. I’m not used to leaving my ringer on, and I apologize for that. It won’t happen again.”

“Okay.”

“Tomorrow we’re going to talk about school. If you really hate this school, there’s another one we can go to. But it’s farther away and I don’t know that it’ll be any better. There are going to be rich mean girls anywhere you go.”

“Do I have to go to private school?”

“Yes. Because I’m a local celebrity and it wouldn’t be safe for you to go to a public school. But let me get some sleep. In the morning, I have practice so I’m going to drop you off at Autumn’s, and then when I’m done we’ll go to lunch and talk about a plan.”

“What kind of plan?”

“I don’t know yet. I need to think about it, but I’m going to fix this situation at school.”

“You promise?” She eyes me as if she doesn’t believe it.

“I promise.”

I lean over and brush my lips over her forehead.

Then I slip out of the room wondering how the hell I’m going to keep that promise.

I’m exhausted at practice and it’s hard to think about anything but Ally.

She left me and now I’m sad and lonely.

I’m pissed at Carly all over again because everything happening is her fault.

Her fault for not believing me when I’d told her what Shawn had done.

Her fault for cutting us off.

Her fault for overdosing and leaving her child an orphan.

And definitely her fault my life has been turned upside down.

“You all right?” Marty asks me after practice. “You were definitely not yourself out there today.”

“Becoming a guardian to a sad, grieving eleven-year-old is not for the faint of heart,” I reply, yanking a T-shirt on over my sweats.

“It’s rough, huh?”

I shake my head. “Beyond rough. Last night she was talking about her mom. She overheard her mom telling someone on the phone that she was sad and lonely. So then Ally says, ‘yeah, so she left me and now I’m the one that’s sad and lonely.’ Or something like that.”

“Damn.” Gabe overhears us and grimaces. “Poor kid.”

“She was at a sleepover last night and the little bitches she goes to school with googled her mom and told Ally she’d been a crack whore.”

“Jesus.” Marty shakes his head. “Kids suck.”

“Girls are tough,” Gabe agrees. “My daughter Brandi has had some trouble this year too. Her mom went down to the school and raised hell.”

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