Page 73 of After Anna

“Why not? I’m being responsible. I needed a car, did the research, and bought one. And I looked into the insurance and if I didn’t have my own insurance, you’d have to put me on yours.”

“So you called James and got the money?” Maggie remembered that James had told her Anna wanted a car and barely used funds from the trust.

“No, I texted him.”

Maggie hid her reaction. She lived in a world where teenagerstexted for eighty-thousand-dollar cars. “Did you tell him what it was for?”

“Sure.”

“Did you tell him that I didn’t know about it?”

“No, he didn’t ask.” Anna pursed her lips. “Please don’t fire him. It’s not his fault. It’s my fault. I didn’t want to burden you guys.”

“It’s not a burden, it’s our job as your parents.” Maggie felt more confounded then angry. “We talked about this. We were supposed to make that decision as a family.”

“Maybe that’s the problem,” Anna said, after a moment. “I never had a family before. I’ve been on my own all my life. I don’t consult with anybody. If I need something, I get it.”

“Maybe that’s true.” Maggie felt sympathy, and guilt. Anna had learned to be on her own because she’d been abandoned, by both parents.

“Ineverspend money. But I wanted the car, I told you. I’m not a brat.”

“I’m not saying you are.”

“I thought you would think it was adult of me,” Anna said, hurt. “Remember when we went to dinner in Congreve, and you told the waiter to give you the check? You beat me to it, and I thought, that’s so smooth. So I said to myself, ‘I’m just going to beat her to the check.’ That’s why I took care of it.”

“I see.” Maggie felt touched that Anna wanted to be like her.

“I think the kids at school are really going to like it.”

“I don’t want you to get a car because you think it will help you make friends.”

“That’s not the reason I did it, but that’s okay, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t, honey,” Maggie answered, gently. “You don’t want the kind of friends who like you because you have a cool car.”

“But I saw Land Rovers in the student lot at school and on Facebook. It’ll fit in.”

“You’ll make friends. You could have given it a chance. You could have givenyourselfa chance.”

Anna sighed. “I can sell it, if you really don’t want me to have it.”

“It’s not that I don’t want you to have it, and if we tried to sell it now, we’d get a fraction of its value.”

“So can we keep it, please? I promise I won’t do anything like this, ever again. Really.”

“Only if you understand my point.” Maggie looked over when they stopped at a red light, and Anna looked back at her, her mouth turning down at the corners.

“I do. I totally understand, and I’m really sorry.”

“Okay.”

“So you’re not mad anymore?”

“No.”

“Cool.” Anna smiled.

Maggie felt better to see her happy. “Did you ever drive such a big car before?”