Savannah stepped away from her mother and swallowed hard before confessing. “I did lose my job,” she whispered. “That part is true—but I didn’t hurt anyone.”
Hayley and Juliet came closer, their faces filled with warmth and sympathy.
“I was chaperoning,” Savannah continued, her voice shaking slightly. “A church youth-group thing. They asked me to come along because they knew I had experience skiing. So I said yes.” She paused, taking a deep breath before explaining further. “I was in charge of a group of teenagers, and one snuck out after lights-out. She went skiing where she wasn’t supposed to and then...she fell into a hole in the snow at the base of a tree. By the time they found her, it was too late.”
Her sisters gasped.
“That’s terrible,” Hayley murmured. “But why did they blame you?”
Savannah sighed. “Because of angry parents and a group of vocal people who thought their kids should have been watched more closely,” she said. “We didn’t post guards on them all night like they were prisoners. They knew what the rules were. They weren’t children. Sadly, she paid for breaking those rules with her life.”
“Oh, honey. You should have told us. It wasn’t your fault. Maybe this will all blow over soon,” Mom said, folding Savannah’s quilt and neatly stacking it at the end of the bed.
“Not if Candace is involved.” Savannah slipped her hoodie over her head. “I don’t know why she felt obligated to share my past mistakes with Mr. Schubert and all of Opportunity. I never talked about it much because the girl was at fault, and I didn’t think it right to spill the story of her tragic mistake everywhere I went. There’s nothing I can do except move and start over. Again. Because I sure don’t belong here.”
Mom’s eyes filled with tears. “That is not true. Of course you belong here.”
“I’m done fighting for something that isn’t meant to be,” Savannah said. “I can’t take the small-town nosiness any longer.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Juliet insisted. “I know it’s hard, but you can stay here and find another job—or at least try to work things out with Levi.”
Savannah shook her head. “No, it’s too late for that. Everyone in town thinks I’m guilty of something I didn’t do, and Levi sided with them.”
“So where are you going to go?” Hayley asked.
Savannah shrugged. “I need a fresh start somewhere else. Somewhere new where people don’t have any preconceived notions of who I am or what kind of person I am. Maybe Fiji? Or Honolulu? Maybe I’ll finally take that gap year in Europe like I always dreamed of.”
Juliet shot her a disbelieving look. “You’re really just going to buy a one-way ticket and completely walk away?” she asked, her voice cracking. “What about Wren?”
“I’ll miss Wren dearly,” Savannah said, as the tears kept coming. What would Levi tell Wren about her now that everyone had already made up their minds without listening to her story first?
Hayley grabbed her arm gently. “Just give it some time, please. Don’t do anything rash. Like Mom said, maybe this will blow over in a few days.”
Savannah bit back a snide remark and turned away. “I told you, folks have already decided for themselves what they want to believe.” She made space in the suitcase for her flip-flops and her hiking boots, then yanked the zipper closed. “The school district will never hire me now. And without a job, I can’t afford to stay here.”
With her heart aching, she stood her suitcase on its wheels, stacked her duffel bag on top and then forced a brave smile. “Who wants to drive me to the train station?”
Levi loaded two more boxes of energy bars onto the hand truck and toted them off the loading dock and into the stockroom at the back of the store. He added them to the shelves, noted their quantity and their arrival date on his clipboard, then returned to the loading dock. The driver of the delivery truck added three more boxes of apparel to the stack before passing him the tablet.
“That’s the last of your order on this shipment, sir.”
“Thanks, man.” Levi quickly scrawled a signature on the digital tablet, then handed it back. “See you next time. Safe travels.”
“Sure thing.” The guy tucked his tablet under his arm, slammed the door on the back of his truck, then jogged to the driver’s side and hopped inside. A few minutes later, he beeped the horn before pulling away.
Levi loaded the first box of clothing onto the hand truck and turned toward the store. Jasper blocked his path.
Oy. “Excuse me. I have work to do.”
“Come on, man.” Jasper braced his hands on his hips. “Don’t be like this. I just want to talk.”
Levi sighed and tried to keep his patience in check. Jasper had been bugging him all week, and he was getting fed up with it. He had work to do and no time for chitchat with family—especially not right now, when he was running late for a meeting with one of the vendors.
When Jasper didn’t budge, Levi gritted his teeth, angled the hand truck around his twin and wheeled the load toward the store’s back door.
“Why aren’t you answering my texts?” Jasper called after him.
“Simple—I don’t want to talk to you.”
Jasper followed him into the storeroom. When Levi stopped the hand truck, Jasper grabbed the first box and shoved it into an opening on the bottom shelf.
“Wait. I have to inventory those.”
“So inventory them.” Jasper shrugged. “We can talk while you work.”
“In case you missed it, I don’t have anything to say.” Levi grabbed his clipboard and marked off the long-sleeve shirts and T-shirts from his list.
Jasper watched silently as Levi worked. He seemed to be searching for words, but he didn’t speak until Levi had placed the last item on its shelf.
Finally, he cleared his throat. “Look, I know you’re upset and you think that what Savannah did was wrong. But I—”
“What she did is wrong,” Levi said. “I’m still trying to figure out what—or if—I should tell the social worker about this. Hiring a babysitter who had a student’s death in her past.”
“And I don’t want you to get any angrier than you already are—”
“Jasper, no.” Levi threw his pen and his clipboard down on top of a stack of cardboard boxes and shoved his fingers through his hair. “What have you done?”
“I did some background investigating.” Jasper stepped back with both palms held up in self-defense. “Hear me out, please. If Candace can make calls to Colorado, then so can I.”
