AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She looked out the window as we drove. “What do I tell the school?”
“Nothing,” I said. “You tell them nothing because if you tell them anything about Mom, they’ll get CPS involved and that’s a whole mess we don’t want, okay?”
“She drove off with my books!”
“I’ll go in Monday morning and talk to your principal. Books can be replaced.”
“What are you going to say?” Waverly asked.
“I’ll tell him that you left your backpack on the bus and it was stolen. If we can get through the next couple of months without them knowing Mom bailed, we have some time to figure stuff out before the school year this fall.”
“So, you want me tolieto my teachers and my principal?”
“Yes.”
She grinned. “Okay. I can do that.”
I pointed a finger at her. “Just no lying to me, yeah?”
Waverly grabbed my finger and gave it a little tug. “No lying to the big sister who is buying me Swedish furniture that’s impossible to assemble.”
“We better get going. We still have to hit the grocery store.”
“Can I drive home from the grocery store?” she asked, her blue eyes wide and pleading.
“Yes. But no speeding.”
“I don’t speed.”
“Waverly.”
“Fine. No speeding.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Waverly said.
I forced a smile. “This isn’t for you. This is for me.”
“When did cheap furniture become so expensive?” Waverly demanded as we strung up the twinkly lights. We were in the middle of turning the biggest bedroom in the house into a fairy fort like I’d done for Waverly’s seventh birthday.
“No idea,” I said.
“We should’ve just asked Duke.”
“We should’ve just asked Duke what?” I queried.
She raised her brows.
“Is that expression supposed to mean something to me?”
“You don’t think I heard your breath hitch when you handed over your credit card for the mattresses? We bought the lowest end twin ones and they were still a lot of money.”
“And you think, what, if we asked Duke for some financial help we’d be better off?”
“Wouldn’t we be? He’s got the money. You know he does.”
“I don’t know anything about Duke’s finances,” I lied. “Besides, friends don’t ask friends to loan them money. And I don’t want you worrying about money. I’ve got it covered.”
“I worry about money because we’ve always had to worry about money,” she pointed out. “Mom really tried to pitch the idea that living in an RV would be an adventure, but that thing she bought… An RV is only an adventure if it’s actually nice and you take it to see cool places—which I guess is what she’s doing now with some random guy instead of us.”
