“And the governor’s wife is doing this?” Kiersten asked. “And that TV-anchor lady?”
“That’s right.” Piper leaned back in her chair. “Nikki Lassiter and Ainsley Bradley. They started it last year. It’s called Project Runaway, and I think it’ll be a great place to work.”
Kiersten grabbed a chocolate chip cookie from the plate on the patio table. “Remind me how you heard about this job?”
“My friend Edna Chavez. She’s a detective with a small department out in Maryland. Nikki and Ainsley wanted someone with a law enforcement background on staff to help build a case against the traffickers. And they need someone to develop security protocols to protect the building and the girls themselves. Bad guys aren’t happy they’ve created a shelter for runaway teenage girls, and they’ve had threats.”
“Listen to you, on a first name basis with television anchors and the first lady of our fine state,” Rosamund teased.
Piper raised her iced tea with her pinky extended. “I’m sure I’ll become far too cool for Beaverbrook Lane potlucks.”
“Do you have any regrets about turning down that promotion?” Kiersten wiped her fingers on a cloth napkin. She’d started using her grandmother’s lace napkins during “high iced tea” every Friday afternoon on her front porch with Rosamund and Piper. “Wouldn’t it give you a lot of satisfaction to boss around the people who put you on administrative leave in the first place?”
Piper’s reinstatement had been expedited, thanks to her role in uncovering an illegal sports gambling ring and a money-laundering operation, not to mention solving a sixty-year-old murder. She’d been offered a promotion and turned it down.
“No regrets,” she said with an emphatic shake of her head. “I’ll be doing important work in an office full of moms with a flexible schedule. It’s perfect. And that’s not all.”
“There’smore?” Rosamund asked.
Piper grinned. “This morning, I also received a backhanded semi-apology from my mother-in-law.”
“Noway.” Kiersten had met Piper’s mother-in-law at Christmas. This was quite possibly the most shocking development of all.
“She wants to take the girls to Europe this summer and build on the interest they’ve developed in history during our home school experiment, thanks to you, Rosamund.”
“It takes a village,” Rosamund said with a modest shrug as she reached for another cookie. “How about you, Kiersten? Are you going to be our new school nurse?”
Kiersten nodded. “Head lice and strep throat, here I come.”
“Sounds like the hardest job on the planet,” Piper said.
“Oh, I don’t know.” Kiersten smiled. “I like taking care of people. And little people with tummy aches at school need all the care they can get. Plus the hours are perfect. I’ll have the same schedule as the kids. And if we get one of those giant tourist-bus passenger vans, I can drive all our kids to school in the morning and home again in the afternoon. You guys will never have to sit in the pickup line again.”
“I’m going to miss the Beaverbrook Academy for Inquiring Minds,” Rosamund said wistfully. “But Guinevere is excited to go back to school in the fall. Now that she has friends.”
They gazed out at the street where the older kids played kickball while Johnny and Bella whacked each other with pool noodles.
“Do you think ...” Piper’s voice trailed off.
“That we’ll be able to hold the line?” Kiersten finished.
“Yeah.” Piper nodded.
“I do.” Kiersten set her iced tea down on the table. “Because I learned something from the Beaverbrook Academy too. I learned about this crazy, old-fashioned concept calledbalance.”
“Easy to say now, before the next school year has even started,” Rosamund warned.
“True,” Kiersten admitted. “But all those things I did before ... I did them because I was afraid. Afraid of the future. Afraid my kids would be left behind if I strayed from the path taken by everyone else. But now I know my kids are resilient, loyal, curious, and strong,no matter what their report cards say. That fear is gone. You guys erased it.”
“I feel the same way.” Rosamund stirred a packet of sugar into her iced tea. “We dropped out, and the world kept spinning. The kids not only survived, but theythrived. So I feel confident about droppingback in, but slower this time.”
“With balance and boundaries,” Kiersten said. “My kids will play on a travel team for one season. Then they play a different sport on a rec team the rest of the year.”
“Balance and boundaries,” Piper repeated. “Amen to that.”
“Isn’t that what you’re doing too?”
Piper nodded. “We’re still doing dance but at the studio down the road. No more epic trips across time, space, and the DMV to study at a certain studio or with some special instructor.”
