Page 98 of After Anna

“Right.” Anna looked away, and Maggie took her hand when they reached the top of the stairs.

“Honey, can we sit down and talk?”

“But I have so much homework and I fell asleep early last night so I’m behind.”

“Please.” Maggie sat down, tugging Anna gently beside her. “I have some apologizing to do. I’m sorry. I was concerned about Jamie.”

“I understand.” Anna looked more sad than angry. “You’re just trying to do the right thing.”

“Yes, exactly.” Maggie felt pleased. “The question is how do we accommodate Jamie’s safety and your privacy. So Noah and I are not going to call the school or her parents.”

“Good, thank you.” Anna met Maggie’s eye, pained. “I know you won’t understand this, but those girls, they never really liked me. They tolerated me, even Jamie. If you called the school or Jamie’s parents, it would be so embarrassing.”

“I get it. That said, here’s a compromise. I’m going to ask you to get in touch with Jamie and ask her to go home or, at least, to call her parents.”

“But I don’t know if I have her number.” Anna frowned. “She probably got a new phone.”

“Try her old one or ask around to see if anybody has her new number. Try and see if you can call PG, Connie, or somebody onThe Zephyr. If you get that message to her, I would sleep better at night.”

Anna groaned. “So you want me to start calling people from Congreve? They’ll just snark me.”

“If something terrible happened to Jamie and you hadn’t tried to help find her, you’d never forgive yourself.”

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Anna answered, with a sigh.

“Great, and I’m sorry things have been so rough lately.” Maggie gave her a hug, feeling close to her again.

“I know, it has beensohard.” Anna broke the embrace, her eyes searching Maggie’s. “I hate all this drama. I thought it was going to be hard at school and easy at home. But instead it’s easy at school and hard at home.”

“We’re going to fix that.” Maggie ignored the ache in her chest. Hearing Anna say it made it worse. “Listen, I have an idea. Do you like the beach?”

“I love it.” Anna perked up. “I used to go with my grandparents. They had a house in the south of France.”

Maggie smiled. “We’re talking the south of New Jersey, as in Avalon.”

Anna burst into laughter. “Hey, fine with me, I would do that.”

“We’d make it a family day, just us four.”

“Okay.” Anna wriggled her shoulders. “I can get my tan on.”

“It’ll be fun.” Maggie sensed Anna was trying. “And next weekend, on Saturday night, I’d like to have a barbecue to introduce you to our friends. You’re the guest of honor.”

“Me?” Anna smiled, surprised.

“Yes.” Maggie started to feel better. “I think it’s time that our friends met you, don’t you? Ask Samantha to come, too.”

“That’s so nice. I will.” Anna beamed, then looked past Maggie toward the street. “Oh, here comes Noah. This is awkies.”

“No, don’t worry. I have an idea.” Maggie watched as the Audi SUV pulled up in front of the house, then Noah cut the ignition and got out, shouldering his messenger bag.

“Quite the welcoming committee!” Noah walked up the flagstone path with a smile, and Maggie smiled back.

“Noah, I decided that we need a reset. I’d like you to meet my daughter, Anna.”

“Okay. Anna, pleased to meet you.” Noah grinned, extending his hand to her.

Anna hesitated, then shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you, too, Noah.”