Page 27 of The Amendment

“I’ve gotta go,” I said, spying Maisy’s head peering through the crowd. She had one hand over her eyes, shielding them from the sun when she caught sight of me. “She’s coming over now.”

“It’s going to be okay. Promise. Love you.”

“Love you,” I said, ending the call as Maisy pulled open the door and climbed inside.

I prayed she wouldn’t notice the tears in my eyes as I said, “Hey, baby.”

Her brows furrowed, caught off guard by the warm, unfamiliar greeting. Her cheeks were bright red from the sun and the heat.

“Um, hey…”

“Where are your brothers?”

“Somewhere.” She waved her hand casually over her shoulder, not meeting my eyes. “I told them to come on.”

“Maise, I wanted to talk to you…”

“About what?” She’d already pulled out a book from her bag, one by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and opened it to the place she had marked.

“About last night.”

“What was last night?” Now I had her attention.

“Your recital,” I played along. “Honey, I’m so sorry I forgot about it. I don’t have any excuse. It just slipped my mind… You know I would’ve been there no matter what if I’d remembered. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Her brows drew down again, her head cocked to the side, then her expression smoothed, her mouth dropping open. “Oh, no. Mom, it’s fine. I didn’t have a recital last night.”

“You didn’t?” Relief filled me, replaced quickly with confusion. “What do you mean? Why didn’t you? Did they reschedule it?” To my knowledge, they’d never rescheduled a summer recital.

“No,” she said calmly. “I’m sure they had it, I just didn’t dance.”

“But why not?”

The door to the car opened and Riley climbed inside. I smiled at him, then turned my attention back to Maisy, who still hadn’t answered me. “Why didn’t you dance?”

“You’re dancing again?” Riley asked, buckling himself in with a bag of chips held between his teeth.

Maisy cast a sideways glance at him as I processed what was happening.

“Again?What do you mean? Did you stop dancing?”

Riley’s cheeks flushed bright red as he looked between us. “She didn’t know?”

The door opened again and Dylan climbed inside, oblivious to the tension. He swiped the bag of chips from Riley. “Didn’t know what? What’s going on?”

“Hey, give those back!” Riley whined, trying to take the chips back from his brother.

“Maisy?” I called over the commotion.

She opened her book, not bothering to look at me. “It’s nothing, Mom. Please don’t make a big deal about it. I just don’t want to dance anymore.”

“Since when?”

“Can you turn up the air?” Dylan asked. “It’s a million degrees in here.”

I wasn’t listening. “You can’t just stop showing up to practice and recitals, Maise. Your team is counting on you.”

“You’re dancing again?” Dylan asked, making it clear I was the only one out of the loop.

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