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Even though I felt a sadness anticipating the loss of their company, of course Clara was right.
“I’m not sleepy,” Katie announced loudly.
Clara unsnapped Katie’s booster harness and I scooped the kid up and put her on my shoulders for the walk to the door. She cackled with glee and whooped.
“Careful,” Clara said.
“He won’t hurt me,” Katie assured her.
“I was more worried about Sly,” Clara said, meeting my eyes. “He doesn’t want to get hurt doing silly things, then he won’t be able to play hockey.”
“Speaking of hockey,” I said, craning my neck to see Katie above me as we reached the front door. “Would you guys have time tomorrow afternoon to meet at the rink in town? I could give you your first lesson, Katie.”
A squeal answered me from above, but it was Clara I was waiting for. She unlocked the front door, pulling it open and switching on the lights inside, and then reached for Katie, pulling her off my shoulders as I ducked my head.
“Can we, Mommy? Silllvesssterrr is gonna teach me to skate!”
Clara put Katie down and smiled at her. “Yeah, I suppose we could.”
My feet were suddenly lighter. “I’ll be there pretty often this week. We’ve got an exhibition game in Wilcox three weeks out,” I explained.
Clara was staring up at me, an expression on her face I couldn’t quite read. “What time?”
“Around two? Or three? Whenever you can.”
She nodded. “Do we need skates?”
“We can borrow some there if you don’t have your own.”
A soft smile lit her face. “We don’t.”
Just then, headlights flashed across where we stood on the doorstep as Mom and Dad pulled in next door.
Any hopes I was harboring that there’d be a good night kiss or anything else were slowly fading. Clara had Katie to worry about, and Mom was hustling across Clara’s grass in our direction.
“Did you kids have a nice night?” Mom called.
“Yes!” Katie confirmed loudly.
“She’s all hopped up on chocolate cake and sparkling cider,” I told Mom.
“Glad to hear it,” Mom said. “Clara, I’m so glad you both could join us. Please do save the date for the wedding, too. The actual save the dates will be out this week, but it’s August thirtieth. And did you hear that Sly will be staying with us all summer? So you two can attend together.”
I stuffed down a groan. Mom had stolen my thunder.
“I didn’t hear that,” Clara said, her eyes finding my face and narrowing slightly as if trying to figure out why I hadn’t mentioned it. “That’s great.” I wasn’t sure she believed the words. Had I misread things? “Thank you so much for including us, Violet. We’d better get this one off to bed!”
And just like that, the night was over, leaving me full of anticipation pinging around inside me. It wasn’t far off from the way I’d felt in high school when a tenth-grade Clara would come over twice a week to help me work on math, which had also been Mom’s idea.
I wrapped an arm around my mother’s shoulders as we crossed the lawn and headed home. Maybe Mom had known something all those years ago that I hadn’t.
When we got inside, Dad had already gone to bed, and I followed Mom to the kitchen, where she put on a kettle for tea.
“I’m so glad you’re here, honey,” she told me, setting two mugs out on the counter and dropping bags into them.
“Me too, Mom.” It was a little close, being back at my parents’ place, but it was nice being home again.
“You and Clara are getting along well,” she said, as if this was just an innocent observation.
