Oh, for fuck’s sake. Now was not the time. Now was soincrediblynot the time. “Sadie, you—”
“Mom!” Brooke beckoned frantically at her, shouting in a yell-whisper clearly pitched to avoid alerting the neighbors to their business. “Come here!”
“Just a minute!” Anne called out up toward the house.
She couldn’t rush this with Sadie, not when they were just beginning to make a way forward. How could she make sure Sadie understood that Anne believed in her just as much as Sadie believed in Anne?
In the space of an instant, she made a decision. “Sadie, I’ve got to go, the kids are—look, I’m going to leave your phone on the welcome mat, okay? And something else, too. ”
“Something else?” Sadie sounded surprised.
Anne fumbled inside her front pocket for the note she’d kept, the one she’d given Sadie on her book’s release day.For the bravest woman I know. A.“You said earlier that you were a coward. You’re not. I’m giving you a reminder of that.”
Before she could start to rethink it, she placed the folded note on top of Sadie’s phone, then put them both down on the mat.
It wasn’t more than a hundred feet between the tiny house and the back porch where Brooke, Hal, and Colton were waiting, but the crossing felt like a lifetime. Halfway there, she heard the tiny-house door opening, and as Anne kept walking, her back burned from what she knew was Sadie’s stare.
“Well, hi, everyone,” she said once she’d reached the porch, offering them all a practiced smile. Colton was the only one who bothered to return it. “How are—”
“Okay, Mom?” Brooke shoved the sleeping baby into Hal’s arms, then reached down to muffle Colton’s ears. “What the f-u-c-k is going on with Sadie? What the f-u-c-k is going on with you? Why is Sadie refusing to talk about—whatever it is? Hal and Claire and I have been totally in the dark for hours, and because you wouldn’t call me back, I had to drive all the way over here, with all three kids—”
“I can hear you,” Colton interrupted, looking up at his mother. “You spelled f-u-c-k. That means it’s a curse word.” He sounded it out with kindergarten confidence. “Fuuuu—”
“I didn’t—you know what, you got me. Mommy’s a terrible influence who really needs to remember you know how to read now.”
Letting go of Brooke’s waist, Colton attached himself immediately to Anne’s and squeezed.
Anne, not exactly sure how to react to this unusual display of affection from a child who wasn’t much of a hugger, briskly rubbed the top of Colton’s head.
“Colton,” she said, prying one of his fingers loose to establish exactly how sticky it was, “what do we always make sure we do before we put our hands on Grandma Anne’s very expensive clothes?”
“We wash them with the soap,” Colton recited. “I did! Did you know, um, did you know that Aiden’s dad doesn’t live at hishouse now? Because of divorce. Aiden knows everything about divorce.”
“Me, too,” Anne told him, having no clue who Aiden was. “Maybe we’ll start a club. Colton, why don’t you go inside and make sure your hands are clean while Hal and your mom and I talk about some grown-up things?”
“I wanna stay,” Colton said instantly.
“Go find your big brother inside,” Brooke said, mercifully stepping in. “But don’t run. Make good choices. I trust you.”
I trust you. Anne would never have said that to her own children, much less meant it.
“Can I have candy?”
“When we’re in the car,” Brooke told him just as Anne said, “No sugar before dinner.”
Annoyance flashed over Brooke’s face.
“You really shouldn’t let them ruin their appetites. It’s not good to—”
“Mom, my kids, my decisions, okay? When I want you to parent them, I’ll ask you to do it. Promise.”
Anne shut her mouth, chastened. Was that how Brooke saw her advice? Interfering? She’d just wanted to help—
But she’d wanted to help Brooke do itright.
Exactly the same way Anne had always done everything right.
Oh.