Page 84 of Feast

Maddie ignored the dread in her stomach and smiled. “Pregnancy has made you violent.”

“I know. It’s kind of fun.”

“Let’s just hope I don’t have to bail you out of jail before this kid is born,” Maddie said, then paused. “Thanks, Hal.”

“Sisters before everybody,” Halley declared and leaned over to tap her pop against Maddie’s beer.

“Sisters before everybody,” Maddie agreed and picked up the remote. “What do you want to watch?”

“Something uplifting,” Halley decided. “With lots of explosions.”

“Right,” Maddie said, and for the next few hours, while things exploded in defiance of the laws of physics, and the bad guys succumbed to the sarcastic wit and superior fighting skills of the good guys, she barely thought about her possibly-about-to-be-broken heart at all.

On Wednesday night,Maddie was on her way to Spence’s with Thai food, a six-pack of beer, and a change of clothes for work in the morning when her dad called.

She’d assigned his number its own ringtone—Springsteen, of course—so she didn’t have to look at the screen to answer. “Hey, Dad.”

“Hey, kiddo,” he replied in his perpetually cheerful voice. “You in the car?”

“Yep, just picking up dinner,” she said, pleased that it wasn’t technically a lie.

“You should pull over,” he told her. “It’s not safe to talk and drive.”

“I’m hands-free, Dad,” she said, well used to this argument.

“Oh. What’s up?”

“You called me,” she reminded him.

“To find out what’s up,” he said, and she laughed.

“Same old, same old,” she said. “Work, eat, sleep, repeat.”

“How’s the job going?”

“Busy,” she said. “The guy who had this job before me was an incompetent boob, so I’m unraveling a lot of knots. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“And your sister? Has she found something yet?”

“Not yet, but she’s got an interview on Friday that looks promising,” she said and made a note to warn Halley to expect a post-interview interrogation from their father.

“Is she having any fun?” he wanted to know.

“Fun?”

“Yeah, you know. Going out, meeting people. Getting over that asshole Lance.”

“Most of her time is spent job searching,” Maddie told him. “But she did start a puzzle.”

“A puzzle.”

“Of the Grand Canyon,” Maddie continued. “A thousand pieces. It’s like a rave in my dining room every night.”

“Jesus, Maddie.”

“It’s barely been a month, Dad. She needs some time to settle in.”

“I know, but—”

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