Page 9 of Edge of Unbroken

Heavy rain drops hit the fabric of my jacket and I look briefly around for Summer and Zack, only to remember that Summer has already left for her Christmas vacation in Colorado and Zack had planned to spend the afternoon in the film lab working on his college admission movie, which, he explained to us, would be an exposé of us—his closest friends—minus the painful details of Ronan’s life.

I take a deep breath, readying myself to get absolutely drenched, then start toward the gate at a semi-jog. My shoes and pant legs are soaking wet before I even reach the sidewalk. At this rate I’ll be dripping wet by the time I get home. And what makes this situation worse is that it’s really freaking cold today, my warm breath like white fog against the frosty air. Winter is on our doorstep.

“Cat! Do you need a ride?” I hear Drew call to me.

I look around and spot him sitting dry and warm in his dark-blue Camaro, window down, a friendly smile on his face. “Oh my gosh, that would be fantastic,” I call back through the noise of the rain and people leaving campus, sprinting to their cars, the bus, or just toward their homes.

Drew leans over and opens the passenger door for me, allowing me to quickly slip into his car and slam the door shut behind me. “Did you not finish your dinner last night?” he asks with a grin.

I take off my sodden jacket and place it on the backseat of his car, noting his huge bag holding his hockey goalie gear. “What?” I ask, utterly confused.

He chuckles. “My mom always says that weather like this is the result of us not finishing our dinner.”

I laugh. “I’ve never heard that.”

“Yeah, sorry, my family’s weird, I guess,” he says with a laugh and pulls away from the curb. “Do you mind if I stop by the elementary school really quick? I need to pick up my sisters and drop them off at home before hockey practice.”

“Yeah, of course,” I say, eternally grateful for the ride. This weather is atrocious. “I didn’t know you had sisters!” I hold my hands out to the vent, letting the warm air thaw out my frozen digits.

“Three of them. But we’re only picking up two. The baby’s home with my mom.”

“Do you have brothers?”

“No, just three little sisters. But trust me, they keep me in check,” he laughs.

“I bet. I have a little brother and a little sister.”

“Man, we’ve been hanging out for almost a year now and I never knew this about you,” he says with a sidelong glance at me.

“I know, weird. I guess it just never came up in conversation. How old are your sisters?”

“Janie is eight—she’s in third grade; Daisy is six and in first grade; and then there’s Marie who’s eight months old.”

“Oh, they’re all a lot younger than you.”

He nods at me. “Yeah, so, they’re actually my half-sisters. My dad skipped out on my mom right after I was born, and it was just her and me until I was eight. Then she met my stepdad, they got married, and, well, you know how it goes,” he says with another throaty chuckle.

“How’s hockey going?” It had been my intention to watch hockey games this season, but that was when Ronan was here, when it was really him I was going to see. I haven’t watched even one game—the ache of missing him has been too overwhelming.

“Meh,” Drew says, making a face. “Not super great. I mean, we’re doing fine, but not as well as my coaches had hoped. We’ve lost some key players, you know? With, like, Shane and Steve graduating and then Ronan leaving…” He trails off, glancing at me. “So, my coaches had to pull a bunch of kids up from JV and it shows. Hey, you should try and make it to a game after break.”

“Yeah, maybe I will,” I say, my heart stinging in my chest. The last time I stepped foot in the rink was to watch Ronan at conditioning last summer, just days before our world was turned upside down. I still remember how easily he moved on the ice, how thrilling it was to watch him, even though I finally understood Shane’s comments about the physicality of the sport. When Ronan got checked or thrown into the boards, it always made a gnarly sound, though he didn’t seem too affected by it. I remember how pleased he was when he was named team captain just the day before his mother almost beat him to death. Now he may never get to play hockey again.

We pull up to the elementary school located only a couple of blocks away from the high school, and I immediately see two little girls running toward Drew’s car. He throws his car in park and gets out of the driver’s side to move his hockey gear to the trunk and open the back door for his younger sisters, who slide into the backseat with a squeal of delight.

“It wasn’t me,” the younger one says to her bigger sister. “I finished all my mac and cheese last night. Maybe it was Marie.”

“Marie gets a bottle; I’m pretty sure she finished that,” the older sister says confidently. It dawns on me that they must be talking about which of them failed to eat all of their dinner, causing the bad weather.

“Told you,” Drew says to me with a grin as he buckles himself back into his seat. “I have a weird family.”

“Hey, who are you?” the younger of the two sisters asks, leaning forward in her seat, poking her index finger into my upper arm.

“Hi, I’m Cat,” I say with a giggle.

“Hi, Cat, I’m Daisy. This is Janie,” she says, pointing first at herself, then at her bigger sister sitting right behind me.

“Hi Daisy and Janie,” I say, turning around in my seat.

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