the baseball field, talking to a man. Goddamn it, Maddie, she was alone with a stranger in the dugout. Who knows what could’ve happened!”
Maddie’s world tilted. “What?” She whirled around, searched out her daughter just to reaffirm that Bree really was all right. Still had a hard time catching her breath even when she saw Bree sitting cross-legged on the grass, her elbows on her knees, her chin in her hand.
“No. She said they just talked.” His face was drawn and she saw beneath his fury to how worried, how frightened he really was. “But he could have. Christ, Maddie, what if I hadn’t found her?”
“But you did.”
“I wasn’t there.” Neil’s voice shook, his eyes were haunted. “I wasn’t there to protect her.”
She grabbed his hand. Squeezed. “Yes, you were. You found her. She’s okay. She’s safe. I’ll talk to her. Explain what she did was wrong.”
“She doesn’t need a lecture, she needs to be punished,” he said, formidable and obstinate. “No TV and an early bedtime for a week.”
Maddie pursed her lips. Considering Bree couldn’t care less about television, that might not be the best way to go. “Why don’t we—”
“And she can forget about that trip to the amusement park this weekend,” he added.
“What?” Bree scrambled to her feet. Good to know her hearing was top-notch. “That’s not fair,” she said, storming up to them. “Mom, tell him that’s not fair.”
“Well, I—”
“If it was fair,” Neil said tightly, “it wouldn’t be a punishment.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” Bree cried, adding a foot stomp for good measure.
Maddie stepped between them. “Let’s all just calm down....” And what parallel universe had she stepped into where she was the rational, reasonable one in this mix? “We’ll go get a cool drink and—”
“I don’t want a drink,” Bree said, her face red, the tears back once again. “I don’t want to calm down. And I don’t want him to be my dad anymore!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
HER DAD STEPPED FORWARD, looking mad and sort of scary.
Big deal, Bree thought, angrily wiping away a tear. She wasn’t scared of him. She sneaked another glance at his face—all hard and dark, his eyebrows lowered—and swallowed. Okay, so maybe she was a little scared...but he wouldn’t hurt her. Not with her mom right there and Uncle James inside.
And she didn’t care if he was frowning at her. He was never happy. Not ever. Not even when he saw her after months and months and months. She blinked and another tear fell. When she’d been a little kid, she’d run to him, smiling so big it’d hurt her face. She used to try so hard to make him smile, or better yet laugh, as if it was her job, her mission in life: make Dad happy. Make him love you.
But he didn’t love her. And she was done trying to make him happy. He should try to make her happy for once.
“I guess it’s too bad you don’t get a say in the matter,” her dad said in his stupid deep voice. “Isn’t it?”
“It is too bad,” she heard herself mutter. But then she realized that she was tired of muttering, tired of holding back what she really wanted to say. Why should she? He never cared about saying the right thing to her. “It is too bad,” she repeated, her voice loud and snotty, but instead of feeling bad, she liked how she sounded. Strong. Like her mom. “It is too bad. As a matter of fact it...it sucks! You suck!”
Her dad looked supermad, his eyes were sort of glowing and his lips were a thin line. But he didn’t yell at her. Didn’t tell her not to talk to him that way, that he would always be her father. That he would never let her go.
“Whoa, whoa,” her mom said, staring at her as if she’d never seen her before, and Bree felt sick to her stomach. Her mom crouched in front of her, beautiful even in jeans, T-shirt, heavy work boots and tool belt. She smoothed Bree’s hair back, held her face in her hands. “What’s wrong, honey? This isn’t like you.”
“You always tell me that sometimes people have to stick up for themselves. That I can’t be afraid to show some backbone.”
“That’s true,” her mom said slowly. “But I didn’t mean—”
“You said it’s okay if I get mad.” She stepped back and her mom’s hands fell away. “If I’m not all happy and sunshiny all