Chapter 5: Coffee With Willa

Willa tapped on my window with one knuckle.

I rolled it down, and my whole body felt like it belonged to someone else.

"Cal Penrose," she said. "Are you spying on second graders?"

"First graders."

"Are you spying on first graders?"

"I'm lost," I said. "I keep ending up here."

She laughed, but it was a careful laugh.

Her eyes went over my face, the untouched sandwich, the quizzes in the back.

"You're not lost," she said. "Come on. I'm buying you a coffee."

"Willa, you don't have to."

"I wasn't asking."

She had parked at an angle with one wheel on the curb, and she didn't move it.

She just started walking, and I followed, because I couldn't think of anything else to do.

She stopped on the sidewalk and looked at the gray sedan parked across from the school.

"Is that Lydia's car?"

My heart went hard against my ribs.

"It's a gray Honda with a hospital sticker," Willa said. "That's definitely Lydia's."

"She drives by sometimes," I said.

It was out of my mouth before I could think.

"On her lunch. To see the kids. I think she misses them."

Willa's face softened all at once.

"Oh, Cal."

"I know."

"That poor thing. Why wouldn't she say something? I'd have let her volunteer in the library."

"She's private."

"She's proud," Willa said, and tucked her arm through mine.

We walked to the corner coffee shop with her arm in mine.

It was a plain place with six tables and a cracked mug on the counter that said BE KIND.

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