Her Secret Life

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“I MEANT I WANT to believe that Willie’s teachers and principals see his potential,” Michael said, interrupting Kacey’s self-flagellation. “That they respect me and aren’t just acting out of pity. I do believe in my little brother,” he clarified. “And in you.”

Wow. She felt...kind of like that time in high school when a boy she’d had a crush on had told her he loved her. He’d only wanted sex, which he had not gotten, but still... It had been the first time a guy had said he loved her.

“I don’t think it’s just a person’s potential that I see,” he continued, uncharacteristically longwinded. “I see who they are.”

Maybe. She’d like to believe that. Would love to really believe she was the woman he said he saw in her, rather than being a woman who hoped she was on the way to being that woman—on the way to reaching her potential. “Except when it comes to you, right?”

“Isn’t that the way it is with all of us?”

Leaning her head back against the chair, she looked up at the sky. “Which is why we need a close friend who can see us as we really are and remind us when our own mirrors get fogged up.”

“Yes.”

“So what are you going to do if they don’t let Willie back in school?”

“Get him signed up to take his GED.”

“Will he stay with you?”

“Possibly.”

“And what if they do take him back?”

“What do you mean?”

“This is the second incident in as many weeks, Michael. It could be that, the closer it gets to graduation, the more escalated his behavior will become. If you just send him back to class, chances are he’ll do something else. Probably next week. At least, if you’re right about why this is happening in the first place.”

She picked out the Little Dipper, remembering when her father had lain on the beach with her and Lacey and helped them see the constellations in the mass of stars above. They’d been about five at the time.

She’d picked out the Big

Dipper before Lacey had and was so excited, dancing around and celebrating fiercely, kicking up sand. Even then, as a little kid, she might not have noticed Lacey still lying in the sand, searching for it, but she’d felt her sister’s pain. She’d lain down next to her, pointing until Lacey saw the constellation, too.

“So...what would you have me do?”

Answers sprang to mind. She always knew how to push forward.

But this was Michael. She had to get this right.

“I’d think there should be some accountability,” she said. “Not in terms of punishment, but in terms of...I don’t know...babysitting, for want of a better word. He needs help, Michael. He can’t go to school like he always has and be expected to just have learned his lesson and perform up to the ability you see in him. He doesn’t see his own ability, right? So how can you expect the self-explosive behavior to change?”

She felt like she was channeling Lacey. Was it possible she’d listened a lot more than she’d realized over the years? Lacey would say so, but then Lacey saw Kacey with rose-colored glasses.

“You’re suggesting some kind of private tutoring that would see him through to taking his finals and allow him to graduate? Or someone he has to account to after every period and sit with during lunch? Something along those lines?”

Her idea hadn’t been that concrete until he spoke.

“Exactly, and here’s another thought,” she added, thinking of the struggling teenage boy. “Maybe instead of pacing by the pool, you should go in and play video games with him. It’s what started this whole thing, right? The fact that he wanted to show you that he was good enough to play with you?”

His pause made her long for FaceTime again.

“When am I going to see you this weekend?” His question came out of the blue.

“Tomorrow at the Stand.” She’d wait around if he wasn’t back from his meeting with the superintendent by the time she was through.

“And after that?”