“Can we look at the rest of your mocked-up manuscript pages while you’re gone?” Mom asked.
Toni was rather proud of those few pages, especially since Logan had approved of them.
“Sure. They’re in the folder labeled manuscript pages,” she said before steering Birdie out of the conference room and hunting down the nearest restroom.
“I think Mom liked your hard work,” Birdie said as Toni packed her nostril with toilet tissue to stem the flow of blood.
Toni smiled. “I think so too.” It felt great to have won her mom over to her side. And she was pretty sure Mom liked her ideas because they were sound, not because her flesh and blood had come up with them.
“That other lady is not nice to you.” Birdie gave her a comforting pat on the arm.
“I noticed.” Toni doubted anything would convince Susan that Toni knew what she was doing. She hoped that Mom didn’t head back to Seattle and immediately cave to the outspoken editor’s wishes. She liked to think that her mom was made of stronger stuff than that, but Susan was as persistent as she was opinionated.
“Are you coming home with us?” Birdie asked, her inquisitive brown eyes enlarged by her thick glasses.
A pang of guilt twisted Toni’s heart. She stroked Birdie’s cool cheek. “I still have work to do.”
“Mom said if I rode on the plane like a big girl, you’d come home.”
So that was how Mom had gotten Birdie on the plane. “I’ll come home in a few more weeks.”
“It’s too long.”
“I know it feels like a long time—”
Birdie shoved her away and stomped out of the bathroom. By the time Toni returned to the conference room, Birdie was already sitting cross-legged in the corner and writing bold angry words across a page. Probably things like Toni is a jerk and I wish Susan was my sister.
“I think we’ve seen all we need to see,” Mom said from the end of the conference table. The sample page Toni had made about band promotion was displayed on the screen at the front of the room. Susan was conspicuously absent. Thank God. “Continue with your vision for the book.”
Toni’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Is Susan in agreement?” She wasn’t sure why she cared. The woman’s opinions never meshed with Toni’s.
“Not exactly,” Mom said, “but let me worry about Susan. I’m impressed with how much you’ve accomplished already.”
“You are?” Mom didn’t hand out compliments regularly. Toni couldn’t help but smile.
“I am,” she said. Turning, she called out, “Birdie, how’s your nose?”
“It’s fine!” Birdie yelled. “Leave me alone.”
“She’s mad,” Toni said as she moved to the table to shut down her laptop and disconnect the projector, allowing it to cool down so she could stow it away again.
“Why is she mad?”
“Someone told her that if she rode on the plane, I’d come home.”
Mom bit her lip and rubbed at an eyebrow with one finger. “I did tell her that. I figured you’d be more useful at home than here. I was wrong. We’ll figure something out to make this work.”
“Are you coming with us to the track?” Logan would be almost as happy as she was that she was staying and completing the project as she envisioned it.
Mom laughed. “To watch your boyfriend play with his bike?” She shook her head. “I think I’ll pass. I can get some work done before we have to catch our plane.”
“Is it okay with you that Birdie comes with us?”
“Of course.”
“Birdie,” Toni called to her sister, who was sulking in the corner, “are you too mad at me to go watch Logan ride his dirt bike?”
“Yes!” Birdie said.
“Logan will be sad. He wanted you to see him do a trick. I thought you were his friend.”
It was probably wrong of her to manipulate her sister, but Birdie would get over her anger quickly if she was having fun. And who could be around Logan for more than ten seconds without having fun?
“I’ll go,” Birdie said. “But I’m not sitting by you.”
“Don’t be cross with Toni,” Mom said as she rose from her chair. “I’m the one who told you she was coming home.”
“I’m not sitting by you either!”
“This should make our flight home interesting,” Mom said under her breath as she walked toward the door. “Make sure you’re back here before three.”
Toni nodded and sent a text to Logan. Meeting is over. Went well. I’m bringing my equipment and my sister to our room. You might want to hide the toys.