Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
She’d made it through the entire week, and Ivy had been on her best behavior, only coming by in the afternoons to complete her school coping-strategy checklist. She hadn’t been late to a single class, and she’d gotten a couple more A’s on her end-of-year assessments.
In a strange way, Nora missed seeing Ivy during the day. She tried not to let her absence impact her, however. The girl’s willingness to participate in school was a good thing. Even though things felt quiet without her, and she found herself getting excited to hear about Ivy’s classes, she had to look forward to her summer with Gram. Gram was all Nora had, and she couldn’t wait to escape for a while. She just had to get through the end of school.
Ivy hadn’t wanted to meet with Emma again—she’d really dug in her heels—so they were back at square one with a family counselor. Ivy was doing well with only the afternoon meetings with Nora, but Nora worried that Ivy was masking her issues in an effort to lay low until summer.
With one more period to go until the teen came for her after-school session, Nora worked on her student forms.
“Miss Jenkins?” her intercom sounded.
“Yes?”
“I have Blaze Ryman on the phone. Can I put him through to you?”
She sat up straight. “Sure.”
Her office phone buzzed. She mentally prepared herself for the shift from the task at hand and answered the phone.
“Hello, this is Nora Jenkins.”
“Hi, Nora. This is Blaze.” His smooth voice came through the phone.
“Hi,” she returned.
“I wanted to let you know that I think I’ve found a family therapist.”
“Oh, really?” Had Blaze found a counselor himself? Wow.
“Yeah. Her name is Blythe Coats and she can start once school’s out.”
Nora toyed with one of her pens, drawing little lines on a pad of sticky notes. “Has Ivy met the counselor?”
“She spoke to her on the phone last night. She said the counselor was ‘decent.’” A huff of humor escaped through the phone line, making Nora smile in response.
“That’s a step in the right direction,” she said, surprised Ivy was willing to go so far as to call anyone decent .
“Well, it’ll be tough to replicate the rapport you have with her, that’s for sure. But Ivy’s willing to give her a chance.”
Absentmindedly, Nora scratched B-L-A-Z-E on her notepad and then realized what she’d written and scratched through it.
“I’m not sure why she connects with me,” Nora said.
“It’s a natural thing. You have just the right personality for her. You’re a quiet force, and a lot like her mother, Candace.”
Her pen stilled. “I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, it’s true. I’d love to have a conversation about Ivy and her mother with you. Would you be willing to meet me for coffee?”
She dropped her pen. “Um. What?”
“I also need some tips and advice on things I’d really rather not discuss in front of Ivy.”
Meeting a parent off school grounds?
“I’d come in after school, but I thought it might be nice to treat you to a coffee instead, since you’d be on your personal time anyway.”
Before she could finish a thought, he was giving her his personal phone number. She quickly wrote it down on the sticky note.
“Why don’t we go to Java House near Music Row?” he suggested. “It’s out of the way, and most people know me around there, so they’ll leave us alone.”
“When did you want to go?”
“Would you be willing to meet tomorrow afternoon? My treat.”
Saturday? Her wild doodling stopped once more.
“I won’t keep you. But I want to make sure I’m responding to Ivy correctly, and I’d like to figure that out sooner rather than later. I’m out of my element here.”
Would meeting Blaze on the weekend be crossing any lines? She was uneasy about it, but the teachers she knew did all kinds of things after hours for kids, and she’d do a favor if it meant making things better for Ivy. Given how difficult it was to get Blaze to meet, if his schedule had opened up it might be worth working outside school hours. And, really, did people tell Blaze Ryman no?
“I’d be happy to meet,” she said. She jotted down the time and got off the call just as Kim walked in.
Kim leaned against the doorframe. “I was in the office when Blaze Ryman’s call came in. I had to come get the scoop.”
Nora gestured for her to come in and shut the door.
Kim tucked her long dark hair behind her ear and sat down at Nora’s table. “Dish.”
Nora filled her in on Blaze’s suggestion for coffee tomorrow. “Kind of weird, right?”
Kim propped her feet up on the bottom of the chair in front of her. “I mean, he’s one of those creative types. They work any time they want to. He probably isn’t thinking that you’d care what day it was or that there were any rules to your workday.”
Nora sat down opposite her and Kim pulled her feet back.
“To be honest, I don’t really mind,” Nora said. “It’s just coffee. I’d get coffee on a Saturday, right?”
Kim waggled her eyebrows. “Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless he’s choosing Saturday because he really just wants to get coffee with you .”
Nora threw her head back and laughed. “I seriously doubt that.”
“Not all of us get weekend coffee requests from a famous producer dad. You know he made Nashville Magazine ’s ‘Most Eligible Bachelor’ last year? I’d think you’d welcome the idea that he’d want to take you out.”
“I do not want to date anyone, especially Blaze.” If a regular Joe like Carson could have a wandering eye when dating her, spending time with Blaze and all his glittery distractions certainly wouldn’t end well. She was sure that if Blaze did have any interest in her, he’d realize in about ten minutes she wasn’t anything special.
Nora checked the time. The bell was about to ring, and Ivy would show up any minute.
Kim stood. “All I’m saying is that I’d be sure to have on your mascara and a little extra lip gloss.” She giggled on her way to the door. “I can’t wait to hear what happens—Oh! Our monthly teacher happy hour is next Friday. Tell me then! I’m sure everyone will want to hear.”
“Nothing is going to transpire except discussion about Ivy,” Nora assured her.
“Are you going next Friday?”
“I’d planned on it.”
“Great! I’ll make sure my whole night is free for this conversation.”
“There will be nothing to tell,” Nora insisted.
With a hopeful shrug, her friend left. Would the meeting with Blaze look like a date to others? Was she doing the right thing, meeting him? Why couldn’t they chat on the phone or have another meeting on school grounds? Surely this was about Ivy… Right?
Ivy appeared in her office when the bell rang.
“We made it to Friday,” Nora told her. “That means we have fewer days until summer break.” She opened her laptop to the slides she’d made on school coping strategies and pulled out Ivy’s paper checklist they’d been using from her desk drawer, setting both on the table. “Aren’t you even a little bit excited about summer?”
“It’s not sandy beaches and ice cream for all of us.” Ivy dropped into the chair.
“You might be surprised how refreshing the time off could be. Maybe you could buy one of those novels you were looking at in the library and sit by the pool.” Nora handed her the checklist.
Ivy shrugged as if the Olympic-size pool with fountains in the back of her house was the furthest thing from inviting.
Nora considered asking the girl what she thought an entertaining summer looked like, but that was the wrong question.
“What was summer like with your mom?” she asked instead.
Ivy chewed her lip, visibly falling into better times. “When my parents split up, Mom and I moved back to her hometown of Fair Hope. She worked as a server in a restaurant, and she got off pretty late, since she worked the dinner shift, but she said it was worth it because the restaurant was the best one in town, and the tips were enough to keep us afloat. I was little—only four—so I’d stay with a neighbor until she got home, but once I got older I stayed by myself. Summers were her busiest season because that was when the out-of-towners came in.”
Ivy scooted her checklist out of the way and rested on her forearms. “In the summers the restaurant would cook way more than usual to manage the big crowd. Mom would bring home all the leftovers from the dinner shift and put them in our fridge. The two of us would each have one meal ourselves as a treat, but that was it. She’d heat up the rest of the food, and we’d take it down to the women’s shelter in the next town and serve the ladies. They’d all mostly gotten out of rough relationships and things like that, and my mom being a single mom would talk to them and listen to their stories while I played with the kids, doing kickball or helping the girls braid their hair. That’s one of my favorite memories of summer.”
“What did you like specifically about that time with your mom?”
“It was just the two of us, and we were a team. Mom and I could feed a whole place and make everyone happy. We’d talk about it all the way home.”
Ivy’s story warmed her. “That’s a wonderful memory. You know, your dad mentioned possibly getting you involved with mission work this summer.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “You’re both missing the point.”
“How so?”
“Yes, I like to help others, but it was the time I spent with Mom that kept me going. Dad wants me to do mission work on my own when he should want to do it with me.”
Ivy had a point. And there was nothing Nora could do about Blaze’s choice not to participate, even though she wished he would. She leaned in. “But what if your mother has given you exactly what you need to carry on her work? She didn’t have anyone to help her get started. She followed her heart and did what she thought would help. What if it’s your turn now?”
Ivy sat silently, gazing around as if digesting this new idea. “I didn’t think of it that way.”
“So armed with a new perspective, maybe it’s time for you to choose what’s calling your heart. What mission would you be most passionate about?”
“I’ll have to think about it.”
“Maybe that can be your homework for the next two weeks: decide what you want to do to honor your mom and fulfill yourself.”
“You make everything feel so easy,” Ivy said.
“Maybe you’re just easy to talk to when you let people in.”
Ivy didn’t answer, but the small lift at the corners of her lips told Nora she understood.
* * *
Later that night, after her evening conversations with Gram had dwindled and they’d retired to their rooms, Nora lay in bed, her mind buzzing with what she was going to say to Blaze over coffee tomorrow afternoon. Her mind was so busy, she was unable to sleep, so she got up and typed notes into her phone about how she planned to advise Blaze, assuming she had an idea of the exact topics he wanted to discuss. She was guessing he wanted information for the counselor about specific strategies she’d used, so she was listing them and retrieving various scenarios from her memory to support each one.
Once she’d made the list, she opened a social media app and typed in Blaze’s name. His page came up, and she clicked on it to see if there were any new posts. Of course, there were. He was sitting in what looked to be a recording studio, next to some woman she’d never seen before with perfect skin and pouty lips.
The caption read: “Keep an eye on socials for this album to drop. It’s going to knock your socks off.”
She tapped the photo and the tag came up: Gracey Lane. She clicked over to Gracey Lane’s page and the woman had one hundred thousand followers. The same photo was on her page as well, with the caption: “Blaze Ryman is the real deal. My career just exploded under his watch.”
She couldn’t help but wonder if Blaze found the woman attractive. Surely he did; she was beautiful. But Nora checked herself. Blaze could find Gracey Lane attractive if he wanted to. It was none of Nora’s business.
And why did she feel completely inferior, looking at the woman? She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but Carson’s infidelity had wrecked her self-esteem. She wondered what had been so wrong with her that she hadn’t been able to keep Carson’s attention. Why had he even bothered to propose? Was there something about her that he hadn’t known prior to the proposal, but little by little, as more of her authentic personality came through, she’d driven him away? She’d tried to talk to him about it, but he had no answers. Not having an explanation was worse than getting one; she didn’t know if there were flaws in her personality she needed to fix or if she was just generally not as interesting as other women.
She went to Blaze’s other pages and clicked on his stories, thoughts of Carson floating away. Blaze was barefoot, head down, by his pool, strumming a guitar. It was impossible to pull her eyes from the video. His fingers moved effortlessly over the strings, creating the most serene music she’d heard in a long time. It was so good she wondered if he’d ever considered playing music instead of producing. When the song finished he looked straight into the camera and smiled, sending heat through her cheeks. It was as if he could see her right through the screen.
Even less drowsy now after seeing that, she clicked off her phone and tossed it onto the floor. Then she stared at the ceiling, willing herself to sleep, but she continued to toss and turn. She flipped the pillow and yanked the blankets closer to her chest. The whole time she wriggled around she couldn’t shake her disbelief that she was going to have coffee with The Blaze Ryman tomorrow. What in the world?