Wild Tendy (IceCats 2)

“I won’t be in town. I have games, so I can’t drive you guys. But I got you both tickets for this thing, a hotel, and a car to take you since it’s a forty-minute drive and I don’t want you to put the miles on your new car. I know you have to work, but her talk is Sunday, which works out perfectly. You guys leave Saturday night and come home Sunday night.”

Tears rush down my face as I close my eyes. “Nico.”

“Shit. You’re mad?”

“Not at all,” I say as I inhale shakily. “I can’t believe you did this.”

“I think you need this. I go to conferences and therapy, and it helps me. I want to help you,” he says simply. “And I think you and Callie need it.”

I can’t agree because I’m holding in a sob. “Okay.”

“So, you’ll go?”

“Yes, I’ll go.”

“Awesome. You’re going to love Lacey King. Check out her site. I’ll send you the link.”

“Okay,” I say, wiping my face. “I’m going to suck you raw when you get home.”

He pauses for a moment and then starts laughing uncontrollably. I can’t help it; I’m laughing just as hard. He makes me extremely happy. “I’ll take you up on that for sure.”

We continue to laugh as the door flies open, and Callie comes running toward me. “Aviva!”

I stand up, alarmed. “What?”

“You’re never gonna guess it, but someone called the gym and paid off my bills. Like, for the next two years. We owe nothing! Can you believe it?”

I blink. “What?”

“Yeah! Look!” She hands me a paper that says we’re paid in full, and then it shows a credit for what I assume covers for the next two years of her career at the gym. “Amelia was stunned. They didn’t even know the person. They just called and paid it!”

My heart is pounding in my chest as I read the paper over and over again.

“What’s going on?” Nico asks, and I clear my throat free of emotion.

“Someone called and paid Callie’s gymnastics bill.”

“Oh, that’s cool.”

“I don’t know who would do that,” I say, staring at the paper. “Was it you?”

“Nope,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’m not stupid.”

I want to laugh, but I’m stunned. It couldn’t have been Jaylin; she knows better. But then, who? Who would do this for us? “Do you think it was Dad?”

Callie shakes her head. “No, he wouldn’t spend the money he stole from us on me.”

She isn’t wrong. But who?

And there’s that shoe. I think it’s about to fall.

On my face.

Chapter Twenty-One

Aviva

“I don’t know why you’re making such a huge deal of this.”

I flash Callie a dark look as we cross the parking lot. “I don’t know why you’re not. Two years of tuition and back pay? That’s a down payment on a Lexus. That’s insane. I need to know.”

“Why? So you can yell at them?”

Yes. “No. So I can tell them to take their damn money back!”

“Ugh! This is great for us, Vee. Let it be!” Callie yells at me, trying to keep up. She’s a shorter gymnast, so it’s hard for her to match my steps. “Why can’t you just accept this?”

I reach for the door handle of GymMasters. “Because good things don’t happen for me.”

Callie slams her palm into the door to stop me. She holds up her other hand and, counting off on her fingers, says, “Not getting cancer. Me. Jaylin. And Nico. All good things that have happened to you.”

Why is she such a pain in my ass? “Other than that,” I say, pulling hard on the door and going inside. The place is packed with their rec classes, so I pass people and move around them to get to the offices. I can see Dominica is in her office, and I go straight for her. I knock, and she looks up.

“Oh hey, Aviva.” She looks worried but not surprised. She probably knew I’d come in. I was going to come last night, but by the time I had closed, the team coaches were gone.

“Hey, Dominica. Listen, I need to know who paid off Callie’s account.”

She shrugs. Fucking shrugs. “I don’t know. They called, I ran the card, and they hung up. They didn’t give me a name.”

“You didn’t need it to run the card?”

She shook her head. “No. I just needed the numbers.”

I make a face. “So, you just take random money from strangers over the phone?”

She smiles. “If it results in me getting paid, yes.”

I can’t blame her there. “Will you please send it back? Refund it?”

“You want me to refund that amount of money so you can maybe pay it?”

I press my lips together. When she puts it that way, I feel this conversation won’t end the way I want. “Yes.”

“No,” she says simply. “I asked three times if they were sure, and they were demanding to pay this money.”