Read Online Facing the Music by Andrea Laurence - Free Book Online Page A

apparently.”
    “Ivy,” her mother said, reaching out to cover Ivy’s hand with her own, “we all have our challenges and battles. But you are first and foremost a southern lady, and you need to act like it. You’ve only been home two days—we can’t have you in bar fights! People talk.”
    “Why don’t they talk about how mean Lydia is?”
    “You have to be the bigger person. Understand that she does all this because she’s jealous of you. She has been since you got that solo in the sixth-grade Christmas pageant.”
    “What?” Ivy had never heard this.
    “Her mother told me how broken up Lydia was about it. She’d been taking voice lessons and practiced for weeks. Then you tried out on a whim and got the part instead. She got her feelings hurt over it.”
    “You’re telling me I went through six years of drama with Lydia because she decided I didn’t deserve to sing the verses of ‘It Came upon a Midnight Clear’ instead of her?”
    “Apparently,” Sarah said with a sigh. “Things seem more dire at that age than they really are.”
    “I don’t know, being labeled as white trash is pretty dire at any age.”
    “You aren’t white trash!” her mother said, aghast.
    Ivy chuckled. “Are you sure? She’s called me Thrift Shop since seventh grade.”
    Sarah frowned. “Girls are so cruel to each other. Maybe I should call her mother.”
    “Ugh, Mom. No. Just let me deal with her myself.”
    “Okay,” Sarah agreed reluctantly. “Just try not to make a scene.”
    Ivy didn’t answer, putting a bite of chicken in her mouth instead. She’d certainly try, but she wasn’t promising anything.

    Blake was supposed to have dinner with his family, but he made an excuse not to go. He wasn’t interested in sitting at the dining room table while the whole Chamberlain clan playfully ribbed him about Ivy’s return. Instead, he drove to the high school and left his cell phone in his truck.
    Slinging his bag of footballs over his shoulder, he headed out to the field. It certainly didn’t look like the field he’d played on more than seven years ago. The tornado had not only leveled the gym but damaged the football stadium as well. Half the bleachers had been ripped from their anchors and left in a mangled ball of aluminum. One of the goalposts was found across the street in the used car lot.
    The goalpost had been reset, and they had temporary collapsible bleachers set up for the season. The school could only seat about 60 percent of the fans it could normally accommodate, a problem that only compounded the school’s cash flow problems. In the South, high school football was a way of life. Hopefully the fund-raiser would earn the money needed to rebuild.
    Today, neither the bleachers nor the goalposts were necessary. He was just out here to throw some footballs and blow off steam. He’d walked out of Woody’s last night angry and turned on, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Being ugly to Ivy wasn’t helping. Neither was thinking about her in that bikini. It was better that he walk away and stay away.
    But that left him restless and irritable. His standby had always been running to relieve tension. He would run until his muscles burned and his lungs ached and whatever pissed him off was a distant memory. But he couldn’t run anymore.
    Just one more thing he’d lost because of Ivy.
    Logically, he knew that wasn’t entirely accurate, but it felt true. That song had put things in motion and before too long, his life had fallen apart. His senior season was ruined. His unstable record ruined his draft chances. He was drafted as a second-string quarterback by the Houston Texans—a team with no playoff chances and a weak offensive line. When the starting quarterback got hurt, Blake finally got a chance to play. Things started looking up; his team started winning. It was his chance to shine and make up for what he’d lost. Then the offensive line failed to protect him and his career was over in a