I moved faster. I could feel his eyes scanning me until my walk felt ungainly; my head, odd. “Hold on,” he called, jogging to catch up. I heard the jangle of keys in his hand. Since the afternoon two weeks before, when we’d met with the president of academics and the dean, Thom and I had not talk...
Plus, Ida Mae needed her help preparing the store for Christmas in the Brier—the town’s annual tradition where every shop owner keeps his doors open long after closing and attempts to lure new customers in with the same kind of complimentary powdered cider, store-bought pound cake, and chewy popc...
He smiles, showing a gap where his front teeth should be, but doesn’t offer me any support. He just lights a cigarette and leans against the side of the schoolhouse with his right boot propped up on the log siding behind him—the outline of his face chiseled rough like an arrowhead, his smoke twis...