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“Come on,” Lynn said, patting the end of the bed. “Have a seat and let’s chat a bit. It was a different kind of day, and I’d like the company, too,” she said.
Nodding, Maddie climbed up to sit cross-legged on the end of the mattress, pulling at the hem of her pajamas instead of Lynn’s bedding.
“You were amazing today, Maddie,” she said. Lila had called a gathering in the rec hall that night. She’d had Maddie and Kara sit up front with her. She’d invited Maddie’s parents, as well, but they’d been tired and eager to get back home.
She’d told everyone how Maddie had helped them find Kara and Darin. And then talked about the fact that there were rules at the Stand for a reason, emphasizing how mandatory it was that they all follow the rules as a contingency to their residency with them.
She didn’t name names. But Lynn knew that Kaitlynn, the new dance teacher, had received her warning. If the young woman had simply made a mistake, she’d learned from it. If she’d been disrespectfully careless, she wouldn’t be with them long.
“I’m going to be in trouble,” Maddie said. She chewed on her lip and picked at her clothes, but she wasn’t wild-eyed any longer.
“I’m pretty sure you already learned your lesson about breaking rules,” Lynn said, knowing that Lila was not going to bring up Maddie’s infraction. Maddie wasn’t a prisoner at the Stand. She could leave if she wanted to.
But Lynn needed the other woman to know that the rules were there to protect her—and everyone else. She needed to know that Maddie’s breaking of the rules was a onetime thing.
Or she couldn’t entrust her daughter to her anymore.
She couldn’t risk another debacle like the one they’d had that day.
“It wasn’t your rule-breaking that was the problem today,” she said slowly. “It was Kaitlynn’s. She didn’t keep Kara safe. She let her go after you. Do you understand?”
Eyes wide and serious, Maddie nodded. “Yes, Lynn. Kaitlynn could’ve got Kara hurt really bad. I started to cry when I dropped her off, but I didn’t know she ran out behind me,” the other woman continued. “If I knew she ran out behind me, I would’ve taken her hand and walked her back to her class.”
“I know.”
Folding her bottom lip over her top, Maddie continued to pick at her hem.
“So, we’re agreed?” Lynn asked. “No more breaking of the rules. Even for Darin.”
“I won’t break the rules again,” Maddie said. “I won’t sneak away. If Darin wants me to go someplace with him, I’ll tell him yes but I have to let you or Lila know first.”
She didn’t want Maddie leaving with Darin. But she had a much better chance of preventing them from going out alone as long as she knew ahead of time that they planned to leave. So Lynn nodded.
“Are you tired now?” she asked, thinking about calling Grant.
She’d hoped he’d call her.
“I’m not tired, Lynn, because I have to have an appointment with you.”
She frowned. This was a new one. “An appointment with me?”
“Yes, Lynn.”
Maddie didn’t seem panicked. But she did seem…different. Because she’d been brave today and grown stronger from the experience?
Because Darin had kissed her on the lips when they’d arrived back at The Lemonade Stand from the beach that afternoon?
“Why do you need an appointment with me?”
“Because I missed my period.”
Jaw dropping, Lynn told herself to be calm. This was Maddie. Her heart pounded, anyway.
“You missed your period,” she repeated in lieu of the words she’d have liked to find.
“Yes, Lynn.” With a very strange peacefulness, Maddie looked straight at her.
“You were due a week ago,” she said, knowing Maddie’s cycle because women’s cycles were her business, because Maddie spent so much time at her house—and because their cycles were pretty much the same.
“Yes.”
She tried to think back. To remember if Maddie had had her usual few hours of cramps. If there’d been extra trash in the bathroom can, or things used from under the counter.
