Page 67 of Falling for the Forward

“What if I told you your hair will still dry? It’ll just take longer.”

“It’ll dry frizzy, though! I can’t go to school with frizzy hair.”

I shrug, finishing the last lunch container of mandarin oranges, nuts and dried cherries for Charlotte’s lunch. “Can you borrow Charlotte’s dryer?”

Charlotte snort-laughs as she walks out of the pantry holding a half-eaten Twinkie. “I’m not high maintenance. I don’t own a hair dryer.”

“Can I borrow Suki’s?” Olivia pleads.

“Yeah, I’m sure she won’t care, but you only have six more minutes until I leave you behind and you miss school.”

She sighs dramatically and races back upstairs.

Fifteen minutes later,I’m glaring out my windshield, my car idling in the driveway while I wait for Olivia.

“I don’t want to be late for school,” Charlotte grumbles from the back seat.

“Leave her here,” Hallie says.

“How does Suki get you guys out of here at exactly seven forty every morning?”

“She doesn’t sit on the toilet as long as you,” Charlotte says.

I fight back a smile because that’s completely true. But I’ve been starting my day with fifteen minutes of toilet time for more than a decade; I’m not changing.

Olivia runs out to the car, her expression frantic.

“Sorry,” she says as she gets in, her hair dry and a giant Stanley cup in hand.

I turn on Taylor Swift and start the drive to school, glad today is just a practice day and I don’t have to be at the arena until nine thirty.

“Uncle Carter, when is Suki coming back all the time?” Hallie asks.

I glance at her in the rearview mirror. “Hopefully soon.”

“Why doesn’t she want to see you?”

It’s a punch in the gut to hear it put that way. “We just needed a break from each other, Hals.”

“Just apologize for whatever you did,” Charlotte says.

I balk. “How do you know it was my fault?”

“Who cares whose fault it was?”

I don’t have a comeback for that. We listen to Taylor singing “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” for around thirty seconds without talking.

“You could buy her a Taylor Swift shirt,” Hallie suggests.

Her sweetness makes me smile. If only it were that easy.

“Maybe I should.”

“Or you could get her a new plant. I saw one on my iPad that she doesn’t have. It’s called you licked a puss.”

“What?” My jaw drops.

“Hallie!” Olivia scolds.

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