her to speak again. “I’ve never been so mad. I completely forgot I was playing it low-key to keep her out of my business.”
“Does she suspect we’re trying to find your dad?”
“Not yet. I hope we find him soon, though. I need—”
“Hi!” Josh slid into the seat beside Missy. He eyed their hot chocolates with envy. “Sorry I’m late. I had to wait for Dad to get home, and then he told me I had to empty the recycling. That took forever. I’m just glad it’s his early day off so I didn’t have to babysit.”
“We ordered nachos,” Kristen told him.
He brightened but then dropped his gaze. “That’s okay. I ate at home. I’ll just get a hot chocolate.”
She knew Josh’s parents were struggling financially. For the first time since she’d had her argument with her grandmother, a tiny bit of Kristen’s anger faded. She’d lost Mom and things were upside down at home, but she wasn’t the only one struggling. Mom used to say, “It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.” Kristen was pretty sure Mom had read that in a book somewhere, but she liked it anyway.
She told Josh, “We ordered an extra-large, so there’s plenty for you.”
“With extra jalapeños,” Missy added. “You might as well eat some. Kristen and I can never finish an extra-large.”
Josh looked happier already. “If you guys aren’t going to eat all of it, I guess I could help. Did you ask for extra sour cream?”
He looked so hopeful that Kristen had to smile. “Of course we did.”
Josh rubbed his hands together. “I love nachos. If I could eat just one thing for the rest of my life, it would be—”
“Enough about the nachos!” Missy said impatiently. “Kristen has A Situation.”
“Oh?” He looked at Kristen. “What did she do now?”
Kristen opened her mouth to answer, but Missy was quicker. “She snuck painters into the house while Kristen was in school and had them ruin Kristen’s mural.”
Josh looked so horrified that Kristen’s heart eased yet more.
It was funny, but his genuine outrage stilled some of hers. “She didn’t sneak painters in. She just hired them. And to be fair, she didn’t realize Mom had made me Wonder Woman. I doubt Grandma Ellen ever really looked at that mural. It’s not her style.”
Missy set her hot chocolate down with an indignant thunk. “How could she not recognize you?”
“I don’t know, but she was surprised. Really surprised.”
Josh rubbed his chin. “Maybe you should have told her.”
“I’d already told her how much I loved the mural. I thought that was enough.”
“It should have been,” Missy said stoutly. “She had no right. That’s your house.”
It didn’t feel like Kristen’s house. It hadn’t felt like hers since the day Mom died. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m too mad to go home right now.”
“Stay at my house tonight,” Missy offered. “My mom asks about you all the time, so I know she’d love to see you.”
“I didn’t bring any clothes.”
“You can wear those jeans again, and I’ll give you one of my sweatshirts. We’re about the same size.”
Josh turned a skeptical look at Missy, his gaze measuring her plump figure and then Kristen’s rail-thin one, but he wisely didn’t say anything.
The nachos came, and Missy kept them laughing as she talked about an argument she’d had with her science teacher about an assignment she’d sworn she’d turned in but really hadn’t. When Missy set her mind to it, she could be very persuasive, and she’d finally managed to convince Mr. Vickers that maybe—just maybe—he had lost it and needed to give her an opportunity to do the assignment over.
“So now you have homework,” Josh pointed out.
“That’s better than a zero.” Missy pushed the half-finished plate of nachos toward Josh. “Finish those up. I don’t know about Kristen, but I can’t eat another bite.”
Kristen had barely eaten anything, but she shook her head when Josh looked her way. “I’m stuffed.”
Josh pulled the plate in front of him and loaded a chip with chili and jalapeños. “I guess we need to start the daddy search pronto.”
Missy cut him a hard look. “Kristen has had a rough day already.”
Kristen agreed. She felt as wrung out as a dishrag.
Josh piled a final jalapeño on his chip. “If her grandma’s already having the house painted, then Kristen’s almost out of time. My mom said that once that house hits the market, it’ll get snapped up. It’s on a great street.”
Missy almost choked