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“Dad said Robert Maxwell might pay him a lot to get his hands on my baby.” A tear spilled down Mandy’s cheek.
“That’s illegal.”
“And terrible. Now my dad hates me ’cause I w-wouldn’t cooperate. He’d figured this would be his meal ticket for life.” She stood and started edging toward the door.
“Please, stay. I can help you. We can talk about what you want to do with your life. School, a job, whatever. I’ll provide prenatal care at no cost.”
Mandy’s chin lifted in defiance. “I can’t accept charity.”
“Then work at the clinic, if you want to. Maybe we could even check out the classes at the community college in Rapid Creek. You could take classes online or commute and still have a job and a place to stay.” Jolie raised her hands in supplication. “Give your baby a chance, Mandy. You need good medical care. A chance to make something of yourself.”
Mandy stopped at the door, her head bowed. “I could work for you? Really?”
The glimmer of hope—and fear—in her voice nearly broke Jolie’s heart. “Absolutely. We can talk about it right now. But first let’s grab some of those cookies, okay? I’ve been craving chocolate chips for a week.”
DAD ROLLED HIStruck window down. “Remember what you learned at the hospital, Annie.”
Like I could forget.She’d gone to the hospital in Bozeman Thursday afternoon and hadn’t gotten out until Sunday evening. Her head still reeled from all she’d had to learn, and do...and accept, for the rest of her life. She felt like a heavy anchor was pressing on her chest.
She swung her backpack over a shoulder and trudged up the sidewalk to the school.
Several groups of boys loitered near the front entrance. A cluster of girls—the most popular girls—sat to one side of the broad front steps, laughing loudly together.
Walking past them into school every day felt like passing through a gauntlet, and she felt almost invisible to the other kids who hung around the school before the bells rang.
Dad’s words echoed in her thoughts.“Sometimes kids misinterpret a little shyness...”Was it her fault, maybe?
Swallowing hard, she nodded a greeting to Sara Forman, one of the kids from fifth-hour math, who reached the front door at the same moment she did. Sara’s dad owned the hardware store in town, and Annie had seen her working there after school. “Uh...get that math assignment done for today?”
Sara’s eyes flared wide with surprise, then her mouth wobbled into a tentative smile. “Um...yeah. I think so.”
Annie scrambled for something else to say, but Sara beat her to it.
“Was that your dad who dropped you off?”
“Yeah.”
“I got to help him once at the store. Even when I mixed up his change, he was really nice.”
“I guess.”
“You wouldn’t believe how rude some people are.” Sara rolled her eyes. “Hey, did you get those last three problems in our assignment? I was sick the day we went over that stuff.”
Sara might be one of the most popular kids, but she was a whole lot nicer than the rest of them. Trying not to seem pathetically eager, Annie murmured, “Maybe I could help.”
“Super. Can I have your number?”
“Yeah.” Annie dropped her backpack to the ground, fished out a piece of paper, jotted down her phone number, and handed it over.
Sara stuffed it in a front pocket of her own backpack. “We’ve lived here forever, so we’re in the phone book.” The earsplitting five-minute warning bell rang above their heads. “Gotta run—my locker’s on the third floor.”
In a flash, she disappeared into the crowd streaming down the hall. Annie fell in step with the others. To her right, one of the girls, Gina—Annie couldn’t remember her last name—who hung around with Sara, gave her a curious look, then offered a smile.
After all this time in Garrett Bluff, Annie felt a glimpse of hope. Maybe she would make some new friends. She opened her mouth to speak.
And ran straight into the tall, rock-solid, most gorgeous guy in the whole school—Clint Heath, the oblivious object of her first-ever crush.
His voice was deeper than any of the other boys in eighth grade, and he looked like he ought to be in the movies, with that wavy chestnut hair and those green eyes. He was even taller than his older brother, Jerry, who sometimes picked him up after school in a really cool red Mustang. Not that Annie paid much attention.
