Page 73 of Pierced Pages
“All right,” Lila said. Then, she held her bare foot in the air from behind the coffee table. “But I’ll need a little help.”
“Get your shoes and let’s?—”
Danielle stopped short as she realized what Lila was trying to tell her. Or rather, show her. From across the room, she spotted white tape wrapping Lila’s last two toes and some bruising on the tiniest one.
“What happened?” She tried and failed not to shriek, and the sound roused Kim, whose body shot up as she blinked herself back into awareness.
Melanie shook her head. “Poor kid was chasing Prince and had a ramming contest with the patio post. The post won.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” A flurry of emotions swirled around Danielle, everything from panic and fear to disbelief and slight anger that she hadn’t been informed of the accident.
“It wasn’t a big deal. We didn’t want to bother you with it.” Melanie picked up the melting bag of peas Lila had placed beside her on the floor.
Kim sat up a little straighter. “I had the same thing happen last year. Jammed my toe pretty good against the sofa leg chasing him when he got hold of a bagel I’d dropped. Went to the clinic, and they gave me a prescription for ice, ibuprofen, and rest. Not much else they can do for it. Can’t splint it, so tape is the next best thing.”
“And since the clinic is closed by this time, we figured the last thing anyone wanted was to see the poor girl waiting in the ER for who knows how long on a Saturday night for x-rays to tell her the same thing they told Kim. You can take her to the clinic in the morning if you feel you need to.”
The logic was sound. Danielle knew that. Still, she couldn’t help being annoyed.
“You still should have called.”
Melanie looked stricken. “I’m sorry. I really thought it wasn’t a big deal. And we wanted you to have fun. Especially if there was nothing you could do about it that we weren’t already doing.”
“But I should have known.”
More to the point, she should have been available to know. If she hadn’t been out and if they hadn’t thought the night was so important, they would have let her know. Even if she couldn’t do anything about it, she should have known. She would have come home immediately.
And that’s why they didn’t tell her.
“Come on. Let’s get you home.”
She grabbed Lila’s backpack and reached a hand to help her to her feet and hobble toward the front door. Melanie and Kim watched wordlessly before Melanie opened the door for them.
“Thanks for watching her,” Danielle said.
She tried not to sound bitter. Really, she did. But her emotions seeped through the words, anyway.
Chapter 33
Morgan
Still in her plaid cotton pajama pants, Morgan pulled out a stack of jeans from her dresser. One after the other, she tossed three pairs onto her bed. One skinny dark-wash. One distressed light-wash. One medium-wash boot-cut. She scanned the sea of denim, trying to figure out which pair said brunch date with possibly the most perfect woman and her kid.
It was official. She was dating a woman with a kid. If you’d asked her two months ago if that was even in the realm of possibility, she’d have shrugged off the notion with a laugh.
Now?
Now it seemed like a natural next step in her life. If she could just push through her fears, thisfeltright.
Less natural was stressing out over what pants to wear. She had always been a grab-whatever-was-clean person, but now she was having a crisis over brunch jeans.
And she’dplannedthis brunch. Only just a night in advance, but still. She’d planned something.
Reginald hopped onto the bed and immediately plopped his big, floofy body onto the boot-cut pair.
Perfect. They were the most comfortable ones.
With half of her outfit now planned, she picked up her phone and sent a shaky-handed text.
