Chapter 12: Throw It Back

Ivo caught up with me at the corner.

"Joelle. Please."

I kept walking. My ankle burned at every step.

"You are limping," he said.

"Not your problem."

"It is." He stepped in front of me. "Listen to me."

"No. You listen."

I stopped and looked up at him.

"Thursday you told me the rules. Work stays at work, and after six you're nobody's boss."

"I remember."

"Well, after six you were somebody's brother, and you didn't tell me."

His face moved. "I was going to."

"When? Before you kissed me, or after?"

"I wanted to tell you every day. I wanted you to know me before you knew my name."

"That sounds like a line."

"It's the truth."

"Then say the rest of it."

"The library," he said. "Fairmont. The winter you were a freshman."

"What about it?"

He opened his mouth.

Behind us, the glass doors of the Anchorage banged.

"Joelle!"

Tansy came down the stairs fast in her low heels, with her cardigan flapping.

Her face was not gentle.

I had never seen it without the smile. It was narrow and pale, and her round glasses were crooked.

"You think you're so smart," she said.

"Tansy," Ivo said.

"Stay out of this."

She jabbed a finger at me.

"You walked in there with your little pictures and ruined everything. Do you know how long I've worked on his mother?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Three years of Sunday calls. Three years of learning what she likes."

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