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“Mr. Yates. Miss Indigo.”

Ryder and I turned to find the school counselor and his daughter approaching.

“Laina!” I exclaimed. “What’re you doing here?”

She pointed at the tag below the bird picture, which proclaimed her the artist. “My dad wanted to see my art project,” she said before rolling her eyes. “Though I’m not sure why. He saw it at school, like, every day.”

“It wasn’t every day,” Mr. Howard grumbled, pausing beside her. “I only stopped in once or twice to take a peek.”

I grinned. “I had no idea you took an art class too.”

Laina nodded. “Art 3. I’ve been in it since I was a freshman.”

“Well, I love your birds.”

“I can’t believe anyone can manage so much detail with watercolor,” Ryder added. “How the heck do you keep the colors from running together?”

Laina blushed at his praise and ducked her head but answered, “With a really small brush.”

As Ryder asked more questions about mixing colors, I glanced at Laina’s father and bit my lip.

“Can I talk to you a moment?” I rushed out the question before I could change my mind.

He’d been standing quietly beside his daughter, his coat hanging from his clasped hands he’d folded together in front of him. But he gave a quick nod and answered, “Of course.”

I didn’t feel like I needed any kind of counseling. Mom, however, thought I was all kinds of traumatized. She had been ready to pay some professional to talk to me when I stopped her, saying I’d try the school counselor first. So I’d spoken briefly to Mr. Howard about the whole Barry incident. He’d been very helpful, which surprised me because I hadn’t even thought I’d need to talk to anyone.

Now I hoped he could help me with one more thing.

After waving Laina and Ryder off, we stepped to the side, our heads bent together.

“Let me guess. You don’t want to leave Southeast at all and would like to transfer back to us?”

He hadn’t wanted to see me return to Hillsburg, pleading I was good for his daughter.

I smiled and shook my head. “It’s my mom.”

His teasing grin dropped flat, reminding me how he’d confessed to having a crush on her years ago.

“I’m worried about her.”

He stepped closer. “How so?”

“I don’t think she wanted to move on with her life after my dad died. But these past couple of years, I started pressuring her about going out more and meeting new men. I just didn’t want her to be alone after I started college.”

“Well, that’s understandable.”

“But what if she hurried to find someone to marry because of me, just to make me happy? And now that he turned out to be totally evil, what if she’s all man-shy now, and it’s my fault?”

“No, Grace. Nothing is your fault.”

I pressed my fingers to my temples. “I just think…if I could only get Mom through this hard time, then everything will be okay again. But I know it’s going to bother her forever and she’ll refuse to get herself help and—” Sighing, I stared up at him, my eyes pleading. “Do you think you could talk to her? Like you talked to me?”

Her jerked back, horror filling his gaze. “Me?”

I nodded, puckering my bottom lip just a bit to add to my begging gaze. “My mom is suffering through some major guilt issues. She’s all worried she has destroyed my entire life by bringing him into it, as if I’ll never be able to trust another man again. But there were signs, a certain intuition that he wasn’t as good as he made himself out to be. And I just ignored them. So now I’m convinced that if I only pay attention and listen to my gut, I’ll be able to judge people better. I’m not so sure my mom has the same confidence though. Barry’s pretty much the first guy she brought home since my dad died.”

He shook his head, backing a step away from me. “Grace, I don’t think I’m the person you need. I mean, I…I…I’m awful with adults. That’s why I work with teens. I don’t—”