. tired. Especially during tax season. And tax season ended today.”
Darlene tossed her purse on the couch and crossed the living room to enter the kitchen. “Where’re Chad and Grace?” She pulled a pound of hamburger from the freezer.
“Chad’s upstairs. Grace didn’t ride home with us.”
Darlene stopped pulling the wrapper from the meat. “What? Where is she?”
Ansley shrugged. “She said she’d walk home.”
Darlene looked at the clock on the wall. “School was over almost two hours ago. She didn’t say why she was staying late?”
“Nope.” Ansley added her two brown eggs to a store-bought carton with four eggs left in it. “Wish I would have had these to decorate at Easter a couple of weeks ago.”
“You kids haven’t wanted to decorate Easter eggs in years.” Darlene placed the hamburger meat on a plate and put it in the microwave to thaw.
“That’s before we grew our own eggs.”
Darlene smiled. “Grew our own?”
“You know what I mean.”
They were quiet for a few minutes. Darlene cut up an onion. Ansley poked her head in and out of the refrigerator until she finally settled on a piece of cheese.
“I hope Grace is okay.” Darlene paused, thought for a moment. “It’s almost five miles from the school to home. Maybe I should send Chad to go look for her.”
“Good luck with that.” Ansley giggled. “Since he’s got a girl upstairs.”
Darlene’s stomach roiled as she spun around. “What?”
“Cindy Weaver. He’s been trying to hook up with her since we moved here.”
Darlene didn’t wait for an explanation of “hook up,” but instead moved quickly to the stairs, taking them two at a time. She paused at Chad’s closed door and knocked.
“Yeah, come in.”
Darlene eased the door open, unsure what she’d been afraid of. She’d never had to tell the kids that members of the opposite sex weren’t allowed when she wasn’t home—she’d always been home. “Hey,” she said as relief washed over her. Chad and Cindy were sitting at opposite ends of Chad’s bed with books and papers laid out in between them.
“Hey, Mom. This is Cindy.” Chad didn’t look up from the book he had his head buried in.
“Hi, Mrs. Henderson.” Cindy looked up and smiled, and Darlene silently blasted herself for suspecting that anything other than homework might be going on.
“Nice to meet you, Cindy.” She smiled before turning to Chad. “Do you know why Grace stayed after school?”
Chad still didn’t look up. “Nope. She just said she’d walk home later.”
Darlene folded her arms across her chest, thought for a moment. “Okay, well, if she’s not home by six, I want you to go look for her, okay?”
Chad sighed. “I guess.”
“It’s no problem, Mrs. Henderson. We can go look for Grace. I know where some of the girls hang out after school.”
What a nice girl. Darlene smiled again. “Thank you, Cindy. We’ll give it another thirty minutes or so. I can see you two are busy with homework.”
“Yes . . . we are,” Chad said as he finally looked up at her with a scowl.
“Again, nice to meet you, Cindy.” Darlene backed out of the room, hesitating for a moment before she closed the door. Cindy was polite, well groomed, and very pretty. She recalled some of the girls Chad had dated back in Houston and shook her head. She was pleased to see him dating a nice girl. Most of Chad’s friends back in Houston had avoided Darlene and Brad.
“Wow, that was close.” Cindy reached underneath Chad’s bed and pulled out her open can of beer. Then she leaned down again and pulled out his.
“Thanks,” he said as she handed it to him.
“Your mom seems nice.” Cindy took a big gulp from her beer.
Chad tapped his thumb against the can. “Yeah, she’s cool.” He took a sip. It didn’t taste so good anymore. It was hard to forget everything he’d gone through back in Houston. But Cindy Weaver was worth a few steps backward. He had no plans to fall in with the kind of kids he’d been running around with before. They’d snuck out of the house, partied until they threw up, and did things Chad never thought he’d do.
But all that was behind him. Cindy was a straight-A student, one of the most popular girls in school, and she didn’t dress all grungy like the kids he used to hang out with. She was pretty. Classy. And she wanted to spend time with him. He’d taken her home from school before, and she lived in a big house close to the square