Unless Mia or Tommy had told her, which—in the loving name of heaven—they absolutely had not and absolutely would not.
Not even Lea or Keyla would, not under torture, and Ashley had half-decided weeks ago that whatever Lea and Keyla had been up to lately was part of the same tangled net that she herself had now been officially caught in—
Speaking of which, why had those two been missing from school the last few—
"—Ashley?"
She blinked.
Looked up.
Her mother had extended her hand, and Eros was taking it.
The handshake was warm. Unhurried. The kind of handshake that actually meant something—not a formality, not a performance, a small serious exchange between two adults who had come to terms with a thing that had been sitting between them and had decided, each in their own way, that the thing was acceptable.
Ashley had completely missed the decision.
Her mother was already mid-sentence. "—and I want her to call me. Every day. Not a text. A call. I want to hear her voice."
