Sage Creek by Jill Gregory

Author:Jill Gregory
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-08-16T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The morning of the baby shower, Ivy chose her outfit carefully.

She slipped on her pale green and yellow print baby doll dress and her cutest flats, fluffed her hair, then swiped on a touch of the lip gloss she’d bought yesterday with Shannon and Val at Benson’s Drugstore.

She’d picked the shiny raspberry gloss, Shannon had chosen whipped strawberry, and Val bought the sweet berry fusion.

Studying herself in her bedroom mirror, she thought she looked okay, but not great. She wished her boobs would start growing already, like Shannon’s had. And she wished her chin wasn’t so baby round, and that she was shorter by at least three inches. She bet she was already taller than nearly all the boys in her grade. Including Nate. Last year she’d been the same height as everyone else, but this year she was going to tower over them like some stupid giant.

Her stomach hurt just thinking about school.

Think about the shower, she told herself. School doesn’t start until Monday. And today will be fun.

Not only would she get to help unwrap the baby gifts and see all the cute presents for her new cousin, she’d finally have the chance to taste Sophie’s famous cinnamon buns, the ones Aunt Liss had been raving about ever since Ivy could remember.

And tonight there was a sleepover at Val’s. The last one of the summer.

Then her cell phone rang and she jumped. Even though she knew it might be Shannon or Val or one of her other friends, she rushed to grab it from the top of her maple dresser.

She’d been waiting and waiting for the next call, not knowing when it would come. Or if it would come.

What if Dad’s around? she wondered the instant before she looked at the caller ID. What if he wanted to know who she was talking to?

She might have to lie and she didn’t want to. Ivy never lied to her dad. Unless not telling him something this important about to happen in her life counted as a lie.

She was very much afraid that it did. Sometimes lately that thought kept her from falling asleep at night.

When she saw the now familiar number on the caller ID, her stomach clenched.

“Where are you?” she whispered into the phone. She was pretty sure her dad was still outside feeding the horses and working with Shiloh, like he did every morning, but he might’ve come indoors without her realizing it.

“Still in Texas, baby girl. I’m real sorry it’s taking me so long to get to you.”

She gripped the phone tight, listening to the quick, lilting, almost giddy voice of her mother.

“I can’t come yet, but I’ll be there soon, sweetie. Practically before you blink.”

“When?” Ivy choked back the lump in her throat. She wanted to see her mother so badly the pain sometimes felt like it was slicing her in two.

Her friends saw their mothers every single day. Even the ones who were divorced lived in town. They got to hug them, ask them questions, talk to them whenever they wanted.

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