Page 77 of Pierced Pages
She wasn’t sure what to say. Wasn’t even sure exactly what had happened.
All she knew was that she’d been right not to trust that happiness.
Chapter 34
Danielle
Lila shifted uncomfortably and readjusted her socked foot on the desk seat in front of her. Danielle had taken her to work with her, since her and Lila’s schools were both off because of a professional development day for teachers across the parish.
The timing worked out well, since Danielle had taken her to the clinic for X-rays the day before. There was a tiny hairline fracture in her pinky toe, but the recommendation had been the same as Melanie and Kim said: ice, ibuprofen, and rest, tape it to the next toe if it was bothersome. They’d found her a small pair of crutches, and Lila was getting around pretty well on them. The biggest blow was the news that she couldn’t play soccer for a few weeks.
Since she’d wanted to keep her home a day or two anyway, having the development day was rather convenient since Lila wouldn’t have to miss any school. And Danielle didn’t mind having Lila at work with her, especially since she’d been in a workshop most of the morning. But Lila was already bored to tears by lunchtime.
“Did you finish reading your chapter while I was gone?”
Lila rolled her eyes. “Yes. And it was as boring as the last one. Why do we have to have required reading? Why can’t I just read what I want?”
“You can take that up with the Board of Education.” Danielle grabbed Lila’s lunch bag from behind her desk and handed it to Lila. Danielle had brought her own lunch, too, but didn’t bring her normal Monday potato soup. Between the clinic and the emotional stress and the subsequent migraine, she hadn’t had time to make a new batch the day before.
Lila unzipped her bag, but stopped short of taking out her sandwich. “Can I get a soda?”
“The vending machine is across campus.”
“So?” Lila grabbed a crutch and tapped it on the floor. “Isn’t that what these ugly things are for?”
She wasn’t wrong.
“How do you plan to carry the soda back and use the crutches?”
“I’ll put it in my backpack,” Lila said. “Please?”
She dragged out the word, and Danielle couldn’t blame the kid for wanting a change of scenery and a walk.
“All right,” she said. “But be careful. And take your phone.”
Not that Lila ever went anywhere without that phone. But she wanted to make sure she had it on her in case she fell. Lila was doing well with the crutches, but the whole experience was still new.
With a quick thanks as she slung her backpack over her shoulders, Lila hobbled across the classroom and out the door.
Danielle sat behind her desk and checked her messages for the tenth time that morning. Not that she expected a message. Or that she evendeservedone. She’d been the one to break things off with Morgan yesterday. There was nothing more to say. And she didn’t want to take the words back, because she obviously wasn’t ready for a relationship after all. But thethought of never seeing Morgan’s name on her phone again ripped her heart to shreds.
She was dabbing a finger underneath one eye when Gerri knocked on the open door and slipped inside.
“Did you get Melanie’s email about the next book club date? Because I don’t have—” Her brow furrowed as she crossed the room to sit in a chair in front of the desk. “Are you crying?”
“No,” Danielle said.
“Liar.”
“Trying not to. Happy?”
“Not at all.” Gerri grabbed a tissue from the box on a nearby bookshelf and handed it to Danielle. “Tell me what those tears are for. Although since you never answered my text about that wedding, I’m guessing it didn’t go well, and maybe that’s what this is all about. Am I close?”
In the chaos of getting Lila to the clinic then hunting down crutches on a Sunday afternoon and getting her to school with her that morning, Danielle had actually forgotten she never told Gerri about cutting things off with Morgan. Or even that there had been anything to cut off.
“Nailed it,” she said. “Saturday night went well. Too well.”
“Explain ‘too well.’ Because that makes zero sense from this end.”
