Like Family by Erin O. White

Author:Erin O. White [White, Erin O.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2025-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

Bex sat down in the folding chair next to Caroline and smiled at her. That smile! Somehow both cunning and guileless, and entirely disarming. And that was saying something, as Caroline prided herself on being impossible to disarm. She’d said that to Mike once, and he’d said, That makes it sound like you’re always carrying a weapon, and she’d said, In a way I am, and he’d left it at that.

“Luca is doing awesome,” Bex said. “I think he’ll be ready to join the Monday night Heracles class before spring.”

“Great,” Caroline said. “Is that Abe’s class?”

“Yup, but it looks like Abie will be moving into the Apollos after Christmas.”

Seriously? Caroline thought. There was another level? What were these kids preparing for? Living off the land by sixth grade?

Bex put her hand on Caroline’s leg. Wow, Caroline thought. Bold. But also so gentle, as though their hand were a leaf, or a flower. This was what she’d wanted to discuss with Ruth, the gentle boldness of Bex.

“He’ll be hunting rabbits in the woods with Abie and the rest of them in no time, don’t you worry,” Bex said.

Caroline wanted to say, Rabbit hunting is not my goal here. My goal is drinking wine on the patio with Ruth while Luca is occupied for more than fifteen minutes. But she didn’t want to say anything that might jeopardize the placement of Bex’s hand on her leg. “Can’t wait,” she said.

Bex jumped up. “Okay, gotta get this show on the road. Lovely as always, Lady Caroline.”

As class started, Bex and the other teacher corralled the kids into groups. Caroline pretended to be interested for as long as she could, practicing her anxiety-reducing breathing techniques as she watched a kid walk away from Luca while he was still talking. When it seemed like Luca was settled in a group and participating in the warm-ups, Caroline pulled out her phone. She scrolled Instagram for a while, did the crossword. She checked her personal email, and her work email. And that’s when she saw the email about the grant. The subject line was Tate Fund Grantees. She opened it. Thank you for your application to the Tate Fund. This fall, we received over fifty applications from Gorman professors, each proposal worthy of funding. Unfortunately…

Shit, Caroline thought, turning over her phone. She didn’t want to read the rest. She hadn’t gotten the grant. She hadn’t gotten the grant! She was a shoo-in for the grant. People always got the Tate. The application was just a formality. That’s what everyone had told her. Just a formality. But it wasn’t just a formality! Not for Caroline. Was this because she didn’t have her PhD? Was it because she’d balked at her department chair’s suggestion that she teach an additional class next year, on top of the three she was already teaching? Whatever it was, now Caroline didn’t have the money. She wasn’t going to Rome.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.