“Where is it?”
I tried to think where I’d left it plugged in. “Try the kitchen.”
Hallie left the room and went downstairs while Luna hopped onto my bed, but instead of getting under the covers, she started jumping on it. “Are we going to get a cat today?”
“No.” I moved my lower body out of the way so she wouldn’t crush the family jewels. “We have church, and then we can swim, and then I need to go to the grocery store. There’s still lots of unpacking to do too. Plus, I haven’t yelled at you enough yet for disobeying me yesterday. And we need to make our emergency plan.”
Hallie appeared with my phone. “It’s seven-twelve,” she said as she handed it to me, then proceeded to join Luna in jumping on my bed.
“I see that.” I also saw that I had texts from Chip and from Naomi, who’d also called several times. “What should we do for breakfast?”
“Donuts again?” asked Hallie hopefully.
“How about bagels?” I frowned at the message from Naomi, which had been sent sixteen minutes ago.
I heard Luna had an allergic reaction last night at the party. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. Did you take her to the ER? CALL ME.
After a deep breath, I looked at Chip’s text, which had been sent around midnight.
Hey, I hope everything is okay.
Really sorry about the allergic reaction.
Our flight doesn’t leave until two so if you’re up early and have time for coffee let me know.
“Stop jumping, I have to type something,” I told the girls. “Why don’t you go get dressed? Nice clothes, please. Something that matches.”
They performed a dismount and raced for their room, while I shot Chip a quick note.
All good here.
We’re heading for church shortly, but maybe you could swing by here on your way to the airport? We should be back by ten-thirty.
I didn’t want to deal with Naomi before getting some caffeine in my bloodstream, but I forced myself to call her back.
“Why didn’t you call me?” she shrieked upon picking up.
“Morning,” I said, mostly to piss her off.
“Dexter.”
“What?”
“I asked you a question! Why didn’t you call me after Luna had a reaction?”
“Because it wasn’t that big a deal. All she needed was an antihistamine. I handled it.”
“I still had a right to know it happened! You should have notified me right away. Instead, I had to hear about it from someone at the bakery this morning.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Well, it was. I’m still their mother, even when they’re with you. I need to know about medical emergencies.”
“It wasn’t a fucking emergency,” I snapped.
“Watch your mouth—are the girls right there?”
“No. They’re getting dressed for church.”
“I want to talk to Luna.”
“You’ll see her at church.”
“Now, please.”
Deciding it wasn’t worth the fight, I took the phone into the girls’ room and handed it to Luna. “Your mom wants to talk to you.”
Luna put the phone to her ear. “Hi, Mommy. I’m fine. Yes.” She looked up at me. “Yes. Okay. I will. Bye.” She gave the phone to Hallie. “She wants to talk to you.”
Hallie got on while I crossed my arms over my chest. “Hello? Yes. It was fun, but we weren’t there too long.” She looked around the bedroom. “Yes. It’s nice. Uh huh. And the neighbor lady is really nice too. Her name is Winnie, like the Pooh, and she has a cat named Piglet.”
“Okay, give me the phone,” I said, nervous the next words out of Hallie’s mouth would be we saw her bum. “You can tell her about all this another time.”
Putting the phone to my ear, I walked back to my room. “Satisfied?”
“I guess. But please call me next time, okay?” Her voice had softened. “That’s all I ask. It’s hard enough to be away from them for days at a time, and I . . . I just need to know they’re okay. And it’s so hard when you won’t talk to me.”
Great. Now she was crying. I didn’t want the sound of her sobs to affect me, but the truth was, it did. I took the edge off my tone. “Fine. If there is another allergic reaction, I’ll call you.”
“Or any medical thing.”
My jaw clenched. “Or any medical thing.”