Real Men Knit(58)

Val made a face. “No, but you could have done a bit of cinching. Don’t you remember what I said about shooting your shot?”

Kerry started down the hall toward the art room. “And who am I shooting it with? Class 3B?”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Val answered. “But know I’ll be stopping by the shop and spot-checking. I mean it. You need to come out of that shell of yours and get your swerve on.”

“I swerve plenty. Thanks.”

Val stopped walking and stared at her. “Woman, please. You ain’t swerved in damned near a year.”

“It hasn’t been that long.”

“Maybe not, but you can’t count the past mistakes you’ve been with as anywhere close to a good swerve.” Kerry tilted her head as the thankfully now-faint memories of Paul and Brice before him filtered through her brain. Ugh, seemed she was barely any better than her mother when it came to partners. Another reason she should firmly and forcefully not listen to her heart and for sure not her body when it came to matters with Jesse. Better to stay safe and stay in her lane. Swerving was for drunks. And she didn’t need any more DUIs on her record.

“So from the looks of your outfit,” Val continued as they started back down the hall, “and the fact that you’re here on time, I can assume you got to bed nice and early and alone last night?”

Kerry gave her a look. “I guess I can say the same about you.”

Val laughed. “Okay, I get your point. Still, I didn’t even text you last night because I was hoping you’d not waste any time and dive in feetfirst and be too busy to answer.”

They walked into the classroom and Kerry stored her things. There were only a few minutes before the first kids would arrive. She’d already heard the early ones in the cafeteria, enjoying the free breakfast service. “Well, the early to bed part was right. I was pooped out after the weekend.” She smiled. “But I am excited about all Jesse’s plans for the shop.”

Val looked immediately bored. “Good for you.”

Kerry laughed. “Sorry this story isn’t going the way you’d hoped.”

Her friend shrugged. “Well, you could have called me. You knew I’d be wondering.”

“What are we, thirteen?”

Val made a face. “And what’s wrong with that? If you can’t be thirteen with me then who can you be thirteen with?”

She had a point. Val was just about the only person she could let her hair down with. Yes, Val was judgy and pushy, and she couldn’t give a crap about yarn and knitting, but her friend always had her back, and she had for years. That counted for something. She knew Val had her best, if not misguided, interests at heart.

Val sighed. “I guess it’s only me who’s stuck in the teen hormonal stage as a full-grown woman, because if I was under that roof, I’d be going crazy.”

“So why are you so hell-bent on torturing me if that’s how you feel?” Kerry asked.

Val looked at her guiltily. “I don’t know. I guess I figured one of us should have the time of her life. You’ve been around all those fine-assed men for all those years—it’s about time you tasted that forbidden fruit. Take one for the team.”

Kerry rolled her eyes. “Seriously, this is ridiculous, and none of their fruit is all that forbidden. Trust me. Each one of them has gotten around plenty. Hell, there was one woman I had to practically pull out Mama Joy’s all-straw broom yesterday to chase her off the porch. Luckily Jesse came back in time before things got heated, and he got rid of her himself.”

Val paused from where she was sorting supplies for the day. “Wait, he got rid of her? Are you telling me Jesse turned away another woman for you?”

“No, of course not for me,” Kerry said. “It was just that he’d brought us chopped cheese and the sandwiches were getting cold.”

Val grinned. “He bought you dinner?”

“Chopped cheese is hardly dinner.”

“You ate, heifer, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I ate.”

“Was it your last meal for the night?”

Kerry frowned. “Yeah, it was.”

“Did you pay? Did he ask you for sandwich money?”

Kerry didn’t like where this was going at all. “No, I didn’t pay, and no, he didn’t ask me for money, but—” She was cut off when Val raised a hand to her face.

“Well then, he bought you dinner. That’s it, you and the cheap pretty bastard had a dinner date, and he dumped a surefire booty call to make it happen.”

Kerry was left blinking and stunned to temporary silence over Val’s logic as she watched the kids pile in for their morning lesson.

Most were happy and bubbly, but it was Errol’s slightly off demeanor that pulled her attention to full alert. She greeted each child but watched him especially as they worked on their summer reading murals. Thanks to Emily and her diligence, the kids had made their reading goals, and many had surpassed them, so they had lots of materials to pick from for their murals. But Kerry could see that Errol wasn’t himself, less talkative with both the girls and the boys. Even his answers to her were polite but shorter than normal when she’d asked why he’d chosen his book and subject, Benjamin Banneker. She wondered what was wrong but didn’t want to press him after he assured her all was fine.