Page 105 of The Genius
“Nothing is going to happen,” Willow insisted. “Mila said that he hasn’t even responded to her invitation.”
I didn’t have to ask whom we were talking about; it was obvious that Hunter was nervous about Solo coming to the reunion.
“Do you want to talk about what happened between you and Solo?” I asked Willow, but Hunter shut us down by taking off with such speed that we were pressed back in our seats. Willow and I exchanged a glance and she mouthed a “later.”
It took a little over three hours to get to the island on the west coast where the school was located. It had grown with more buildings and a proper soccer field.
“I thought there weren’t supposed to be any students at the school?” Willow said when two handfuls of children stood ready to welcome us. “Oh, look at them – how cute.”
“They’re not students. At least not all of them. They look too young,” Marco pointed out and then the door swung open.
Marco had told me about Hunter’s fame, but it was something else to see how the kids surrounded him and screamed his name. A few of them were talking so fast that I couldn’t understand a thing.
“Finally, you are here.” Female voices made us look up to see Pearl, Laura, and Christina walking toward us.
“Kids, give Hunter some space. He just arrived,” Laura instructed.
“Will you play soccer with us?” a boy who looked to be around ten asked Hunter while pulling at his sleeve.
“You must be Indiana,” Hunter replied. “The last time I saw you, you were around six; do you remember?”
The boy shook his head before Christina hugged him from behind and gave Hunter an apologetic shrug. “Sorry about that. The kids have been waiting for hours for you to arrive.”
Laura laughed. “That’s right. You were supposed to be here three hours ago. I thought that drone of yours was one of the fastest in the country.”
“It is. Problem was that I had a mandatory practice session that I had to go to,” Hunter explained. “We came as fast as we could.
“So will you play with us?” a boy in front of Laura asked, and with his impressive height and his hair color being the same rich one as Laura’s, I figured he had to be her and Magni’s son.
“Patience, Mason.” Laura patted the boy’s shoulder. “Hunter can beat you in soccer later – right now I want you to help carry the luggage and show our guests to the campsite.”
Three of the boys argued about who should have the honor of carrying Hunter’s bag.
“Those two are mine too,” he said and pointed to Marco’s two bags. The problem was solved when the three children carried one bag each, with proud expressions on their faces.
Willow and I hugged all three women and walked with them up to the school.
“Our children have been allowed to stay for a few hours to meet you all,” Pearl explained to me and Willow as the three of us were walking behind the others. “I figured they would help ease some of Hunter’s tension about coming back here.” Pearl smiled a little and hooked her arm under Willow’s. “And yours too of course.”
“Thank you, the children are wonderful and sweet.”
Pearl chuckled. “Don’t let the boys hear that you called them sweet. Things haven’t changedthatmuch up here in the Northlands.”
“Is Khan here too?” I asked.
“He and Magni will be here later.” Pearl placed her free hand around me. “Shelly, I’m so excited to catch up with you. Tristan told me that you have been a great inspiration for his public transportation project.”
I smiled back at her. “And here I thought he dismissed my ideas as crazy.”
Before we could talk further old friends started calling out to us, and Willow was picked up and twirled in the air by Raven, who had a large grin on her face. It looked funny because Raven was shorter than Willow.
“It’s about time you people showed up. We were starting to think that you had gotten cold feet.”
Willow grinned back at Raven “Of course not, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“That’s the spirit,” Raven exclaimed and turned to me. “Long time no see, Shelly Summers. Come get a big hug.”
“Can I get your attention?” Kya was standing on a chair and clapping her hands. Her dark curls, chocolate-colored eyes, and caramel skin made her look as pretty now as she had been ten years ago. Only now, she was even curvier, and Archer stood close to her with his hand on the small of her back, sending a not so subtle signal to his former male students, who were all grown men now, letting them know that Kya was still his woman.
