“That sounds good to me,” Mrs. Gregory said. She looked at Mrs. Carpenter who was nodding along. “All right then, kids. Thank you for coming. Take a cookie for Sophie, won’t you dear?”
Valerie smiled and wrapped a cookie up and stuffed it in her coat pocket.
“Be careful going home,” Alec said, smiling at the older women as they stood to put on their coats and collected their belongings. Valerie was checking her phone, so he took his time picking up his pen and notepad, hoping to have the chance to walk her out. Once the older women were gone, he slowly stood and slipped his coat on.
Valerie let out a sigh and shoved her phone into the opposite coat pocket of the cookie. She came to her feet and pulled the coat off of the back of the chair, running one arm through and then the other. The
