Offsides - A Forbidden Summer novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Devin's POV: The Dish

Devin's POV

Katie's grandmother stayed an hour on Saturday, and she did not eat a bite of her own coffee cake.

At the door she took my face in both of her cold hands, which she had never done in three years.

"I'll be at that final tomorrow," she said. "All of us will. And I'll hear it from Renee's mouth."

Then she drove away at exactly the speed limit.

I'd spent the rest of the day fixing the porch step, which was not broken.

By ten at night, the sun was gone and the screen door hung open on the warm dark.

Katie sat on the top step in my sweatshirt with her bare knees drawn up.

I sat down one step below her, so that I had to look up.

"Tomorrow's going to be ugly," I said.

"Tomorrow's going to be loud."

"Are you scared?"

"Of my mother in front of forty people?" She tilted her head. "Yes. A little. I'm going anyway."

"I know you are."

She rested her bare feet against my back, and I reached up and held one ankle.

I'd rehearsed this part all afternoon on the ladder.

I had made a list, and the list was in my head, and I couldn't read it.

"I have to ask you something," I said. "And I want you to answer it honestly, not kindly."

"Okay."

"You start the job in Chicago on September second."

"Yes."

"That's six weeks away." I looked at the yard. "I don't know what this is to you. Maybe it's a summer, and a good one. If it is, I'd rather know before tomorrow than after."

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