Page 30 of Deserving Maddie

"Did you move your books?"

She didn't miss the tinge of pink on the apple of her daughter's cheeks just before Charley tried to hide her face.

"No."

Something was wrong. Maddie looked around the room to see if maybe the books were somewhere else in the room. She couldn't see any, and her daughter's backpack wasn't full enough to be holding anything besides the textbooks Charley brought home for homework.

"Did you stop reading?"

She doubted that. It was the one constant in her daughter's life. Charley could devour a book a day if she was allowed to.

"Not really."

Again, her daughter was trying to hide her expression. Charley would make a horrible poker player. Her sweet daughter couldn't bluff to save her life. So whatever was going on, Charley knew if she looked at her, Maddie would quickly figure it out.

"Charley, sweetheart. What's going on? Why aren't you reading? Did someone say something to you?"

She would have some serious words if that was the case. No one picked on her little girl. Maddie hoped that sweet deposition would stay for a little while longer.

"No, nothing like that. People are really nice at my school."

"Then what is it?"

Charley let out a very teenage and dramatic sigh as she dropped onto the bed next to her backpack.

"The school library doesn't have a big selection and I've read almost everything in it. This last time I went to check out books, they didn't have anything for me to take out, so I only got one."

Maddie sat down on the bed next to her daughter with a groan. So much for her pep talk and feeling confident she could handle this single-mother thing.

"Why didn't you tell me? When did you try to check out books?"

Charley's shoulder lifted slightly before dropping down again.

"Last week."

So for a whole week, her daughter didn't have the one outlet that she both loved and needed. She was officially the worst mother. This whole time, she was self-absorbed with thoughts of Ray when she should have been noticing that Charley wasn't carrying around a different book each day.

"We'll go to the bookstore after school today and get you some books, and then this weekend we'll look into finding another public library that hopefully has a bigger selection."

"I can wait until we go to the public library. I know physical books are expensive and take up space."

Maddie wanted to smash something. That was what Charley's father always told her when she asked to go to a bookstore. It got so bad that Charley stopped asking, but Maddie never forgot which books her daughter wanted and would surprise her with them. To see the look on Charley's face was enough to warrant the argument that always happened every time Anthony found out.

"Nonsense. We'll go after school. It's been a while and I'm sure some of your favorite authors have released a book or two that you haven't gotten yet."

Her daughter didn't have to tell her she was right. Maddie could see it on her daughter's face and in her eyes. She promised herself she would do better. She would write down which books her daughter picked and be sure to make a note of upcoming releases.

Feeling better that she solved one problem that morning, she kissed her daughter on the head and steeled herself for the next battle.

"Gabe." Maddie knocked on his bedroom. "Time for breakfast so we can get to school."

She put as much happiness in her tone as she could, but it didn't seem to matter.

"Go away. I don't want to go to school today."

Maddie took a cleansing breath and tried her counting exercises. She didn't want to have a battle this morning, but it would appear her son did.

"Gabriel, this isn't up for discussion," she told him firmly. "You have school today and you will be attending. Now get your butt moving so we won't be late."

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