Avery’s mother is waiting outside.
She sits on the bench with Jacob’s mom. Johnny stands between his mother’s knees. He’s the only one who smiles, waving in that little boy way where he opens and closes his fist. For a moment Avery thinks the women will start talking again, dismissing him entirely. He’d like that.
But then his mother frowns. It’s her disapproving frown, the one he knew she would wear when she saw him. “I told you to wait for me,” she says. It’s her way of saying hello.
Avery sighs. “It’s okay.” Behind him the door shuts quietly. “I’m not…” The one in trouble, he almost says. But a quick glance at Mrs. Smithson, worry etched into her face, keeps him silent. “It’s okay.”
“If it’s okay,” his mother says, “then I wouldn’t be here, would I?”
Each word is clipped, short. H
