“Eames. Colin Eames.” The mother held the hands of a young girl who danced waist deep in the kiddie pool. A boy of perhaps four or five played by the knees of his father, pushing a sailboat around. Both parents were blond, tall, with ready smiles and clear gazes. “Hi.”
The father rose from his seated position and offered Colin his hand. Like he was meeting an adult. “Very nice to meet you, Colin. I’m Ethan and this is my wife, Alexi. And that’s Noah. Can you say hello to the young man, Noah?”
The boy kept pushing his sailboat and did not glance up. “No.”
“And my little squealer there is Gracie.”
“I’m not a squealer. I’m a princess.”
“Hi.” Colin had no idea how old Mira’s parents might be. His judgment of adults’ ages was basically limited to nearly old, old, very old. But Mira didn’t fit with the rest of the family picture, the two blond kids, both with their mother’s crystal blue eyes.
Alexi patted the stone next to where her husband had sat. “Come join us, Colin. Can you stay with us, Mira?”
“For a few minutes, I guess.”
The mother didn’t even wait for him to seat himself beforeasking, “So Mira tells us you’re studying at Outer Banks Academy. Is it nice?”
He felt Mira’s warm presence settle on the pavement behind him. “It’s been really good to me.”
Alexi continued to hold her daughter’s hands, but her attention was now fully on him. “How long have you been there?”
“Going on six years.”
Her father wore a faded surfer’s T-shirt that partly hid vivid lines of old scars on his neck and right arm. The skin was deeply puckered, the indentations very pale against the man’s tan. Ethan said, “Mira says you live in one of their dorms.”
“It’s just the one house for scholarship students. They call it Sojourn. There are fourteen of us in there now.”
“How many students does Outer Banks Academy have?”
“A little over four hundred.”
He did not mind their questions, or how they kept looking at each other over his head. They shared an easy comfort with each other, the same open familiarity he had found in Mira. There was no danger here. Nothing to run from.
Ethan said, “Mira told us something about UNC Wilmington?”
He nodded. “I start there next week.”
Mira said, “He’s meeting the dean of admissions this afternoon.”
Colin said, “My adviser at the academy thinks it will all go okay.”
Ethan asked, “What do you want to study?”
Colin felt himself begin to rock in place. It was not like him to trust people. Especially a family he just met. But there was something about them, not the individuals, but theunit.Plus there was the simple, unassailable fact …
He needed help. And he didn’t have much time.
Colin built on the partial confession he had started with Mira. “Integral and multivariable calculus. Real analysis. Statistical logic and probability.”
The news was greeted with silence, finally broken by Mira saying, “Told you.”
Alexi said, “Your parents must be very proud.” When Colin did not respond, she asked, “Do you have family?”
He thought back over the previous night’s dinner and quietly replied, “Not really.”
Another silence, then Mira said, “Daddy probably knows some of the stuff you’ll be studying.”
“Not like he’s talking about. I’m a CPA. An accountant.”