“Love you, baby girl,” I whispered.
She turned her head so she trapped my hand against her neck.
“Love you too, Mom,” she whispered back.
I gave her neck a squeeze, slid it away then bent and kissed her cheek.
I left her, closed the door and went to my son’s room.
At my knock, he called, “Yeah?”
I opened it and went in.
His room was dark but I closed the door behind me and moved to where he was lying in bed.
“Just wanna say goodnight, my handsome boy.”
He shifted so he was sitting and looking up at me.
“’Night, Mom. Sorry the day was all drama. Mickey probably thinks we’re all whacked.”
“It’s over and tomorrow’s another day.”
“Yeah, you and Scarlett O’Hara are all over that.”
I decided to take that as a compliment.
I bent, took his hand and held it tight.
“You did right, trying to protect your sister after what had gone on with your dad. You went about it wrong, but the impulse was right.”
“’Kay,” he muttered, sounding embarrassed.
“Mickey was the one who pointed that out to me,” I shared.
He sounded incredulous, but in a good way, when he asked, “Really?”
“Yes, kiddo.”
“He was pissed I cursed at you,” he noted hesitantly.
“He likes me. Like you with your sister, he was protecting me.”
“It won’t happen again,” he promised.
“That’d be good.”
His fingers gave mine a squeeze. I took it and took the hint, letting him go and moving to the door.
“Mom?” he called.
In the doorway, hand on the handle, I turned to him.
“Yeah, honey?”
“I knew about Polly. Everyone at school knows about Polly. That’s why I wanted to talk to you alone. Just Pip, you and me. Ash isn’t right. She’s living her own thing. I didn’t know who she was. Not being mean, but she’s a freshman. Junior guys don’t pay a lot of attention to freshman girls. I would see her in the hall but had no idea she was Mickey’s girl and never saw Polly go at her. But I’ve seen Polly pulling her crap and the freshmen might live in fear of her, but the upperclassman think she’s a pain in the butt. There’s gonna be a takedown, thinking as a freshman she can lord over the school, and that’s gonna happen soon. I’ve been trying to talk to Pippa about her to get her out of target range, but she wasn’t listening. We’ve been going around about it for a while. It’s been ticking me off.”
Yes, my son was a good kid.
And perhaps I had an explanation of why his patience was shorter with his sister lately.
Further, it appeared a small town didn’t extend to the bubble of the high school world.
“Okay, Auden,” I said when he stopped talking.
“That’s why I wanted to talk alone,” he continued. “I figured, you and me both having a go at her about Polly, she might actually listen. It sucks she had to go through that today, but you were right not to back down. If she’s in on it, that’s not cool. But it’s still a good thing it happened because she needs to be far away from Polly when the real mean girls make their move to show that girl her place.”
I forgot how many political minefields there were in high school.
This was a good reminder. I had two kids in it and three and a half years left of guiding them through it.
I felt badly for Polly, and her mom, who I liked, who would be next in line to deal. But Polly needed to learn a lesson too.
I just hoped the timing was right that my baby girl didn’t get caught in the crossfire.
Then again, if her past association drew her in, I had a feeling her brother would be at her back.
“You make me proud,” I told him. “You being you but also you looking out for your sister.”
“She isn’t a bully,” Auden told me, his voice softer, telling me my compliment meant something to him. “Pip and me talked after you went to bed and she told me Ash didn’t know Pip was your daughter because her name is Moss, not Hathaway. And she didn’t know Ash was Mickey’s, because, well, no one knows who kids’ parents are until they meet them or see them with them.”
“I should have probably shared more information with you before the meeting,” I admitted. “I was just nervous. I’ve never done this before. It didn’t even occur to me they were in the same grade and might know each other. My main focus was it all working out, you all getting along, making it safe for you, all of you, my two and Mickey’s two, when we tried blending. It’s a big thing, honey,” I said softly. “It means a lot to me, to Mickey, to all of us. So I guess I didn’t think beyond that.”
“It isn’t your fault, Mom,” he assured me. “We get that. This isn’t about you messing up. What I’m trying to say is Pippa was tight with her friends back home in California. She missed them. Dudes they adjust. New guy, they take him in. She’s a girl and it’s hard to find your way into a posse and they got so many games going on, it’s harder to know which is the right one. She messed up. Now she knows that and she’ll get it together.”
“I know she will,” I replied.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Thanks for sharing all this with me.”
“No probs, Mom.”
I waited to see if he had more and when he didn’t say anything, I said, “Okay, kiddo. I’m gonna leave you alone. Goodnight, sweets.”
I started to turn the door handle when he called, “Mom?”
“Right here, Auden.”
“Love you.”
The weight that had been lifting since Mickey called disappeared completely and I was again walking on air.
“Love you too, baby,” I replied and shifted out the door, closing it behind me.
I moved through the hall of my house toward my bedroom and did it shouting, “’Night, Lawrie. Love you.”
“’Night, MeeMee,” he called from the log room (more masculine, I’d put him in the beach room when he was there after he hooked up with Robin). “Love you too. Now stop shouting!”
I heard a giggle from Pippa’s room, a loud snort from Auden’s.
And my world was again happy.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Stem the Bleed
I was in my kitchen in slouchy, drawstring, gray yoga pants and a soft green lightweight sweater that drooped off my shoulder and had sleeves so long they had a hole in them that I could hook over my thumb.