Waiting Fate Read Free Page B

was a massive understatement.
    “Lots of people will have babies. Just not at school. And neither will you, so you have nothing to worry about,” Bev said, prying Desee’s spoon from Ivy’s hand. “Eat.” She nodded toward Ivy’s soggy breakfast.
    Ivy shoveled in another bite, trying to swallow around the lump in her throat.
    “Besides, you look like you’re eighteen. No one’s gonna realize you’re divorced with a kid,” Kim said, leaning a hip against the kitchen counter while she watched Ivy with amusement, her bright blue eyes sparkling mischievously. She played absently with her waist-length brown hair, hair that Ivy had always been just a tad jealous of. It was thick and not stick-straight like Ivy’s. My poor hair is so thin I’m practically balding.
    “I’m not divorced yet,” Ivy mumbled.
    “You’re in the process. Good enough.” Kim shrugged. Ivy pushed her dark brown hair over her shoulder and bit her lip. Kim laughed, rolling her eyes.
    “You’ve gotta go,” Beverly said, taking away the half-eaten bowl and handing Ivy the cereal box.
    “This brings back memories.” Ivy couldn’t help but smile. In high school, she could never wake up on time, but rather than let her youngest daughter skip breakfast, Bev had sent her with a glass of milk and a box of cereal, and Ivy would eat it right out of the box on her way to school. “Good habits die hard,” she said as she snatched her bag up off the floor and planted a kiss on Desee’s cheek.
    “You’re sure you’ll be okay?” she asked Bev as she walked backward toward the back door.
    Bev heaved a long-suffering sigh and rolled her eyes. “Yes. I managed to raise three daughters of my own, you know.”
    “I know, but —”
    Bev held up a hand against Ivy’s objection. “We’ll be fine. It’s three hours.”
    But Ivy hadn’t been away from Desee for more than naptime since she had come home to Utah, over two months ago. Desee was warming up to Grandma and Grandpa. It would be fine. It had to be fine, since Ivy couldn’t very well take a toddler to school with her, so she blew Desee another kiss and raced out the door.
    Climbing in the car, she fought tears, told herself she was ridiculous, and fought more tears. “Hey, on the bright side, I haven’t heard from Vick in months. That’s good, right?” Oh yes, she knew she was having a conversation with an empty car, but hearing herself speak out loud calmed her... which probably meant that she was a complete lunatic. She jammed the key in the ignition. “So yeah. Insane. But that’s our secret, right little car?”
    ****
    Her hands were shaking and her knees were weak when she tried to climb out of her car in the campus parking lot. Since all her classes had been online, she hadn’t actually attended school on campus since her first semester after high school. That was right before she’d made the stupidest decision of her life — and gotten married. Of course, school hadn’t come first, so she had missed… a lot. And failed... a lot. Now she was spending years making up for it.
    She hesitated by her car door, watching kids several years younger than she was hurrying off, their lives full of prospects and hope and not shattered, like hers. “You can do this,” she muttered, slamming the door resolutely. She melded with the other students flooding across the parking lot toward the buildings, grateful for maybe the first time ever for being so short she could blend right in and disappear.
    After hiking all the way down the hill, she found her first class with minutes to spare and snuck into a seat in the back. She dug her book and notebook out and set her pencil on top of them, then leaned forward so her hair hid her face while she tried to control her shaking. The class filled up, and she noticed that most of the students seemed a little nervous — just like her. For one panicked second she thought maybe it was because the professor was some sort of a monster, but the man