The Perfect Daughter by Anna DeStefano

Author:Anna DeStefano
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2007-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

WHEN LISSA got home from work on Monday, Maggie was on the phone.

“You haven’t seen him since Friday?” Maggie was asking. She winced at whatever answer she received. “Any idea where he might be? I’d like to speak with him again about tutoring. He’s throwing away his chance to advance with his peers next year, not to mention violating the conditions of his probation.”

Lissa had been relieved that morning when her friend seemed her usual self. Maggie had said she’d spent the weekend making decisions about the Wilmington Trust. She’d smiled as Lissa admitted that she and Martin had mostly ignored their action movie Saturday night and engaged instead in some satisfying theater groping. Everything had seemed fine as Lissa headed off to another day at the bank.

Now, it sounded like they were back to square one.

“I understand,” Maggie said into the phone as she turned her back to Lissa. “You have my number. Please call me if you hear from him? I don’t know how long I can hold off his PO, but I’ll do my best. Javier was making real progress. He’s got a good shot at catching up with the kids in his class, if he’ll just stick it out and do the work. He’s a bright boy and—”

Her shoulders slumped as the person at the other end evidently hung up.

“If this Javier kid wants to self-destruct,” Lissa said, wiping at the puddle of crumbs left over from the girls’ afternoon snack, “you might just have to get used to the idea of letting him.”

Maggie finally faced her, resignation and guilt dragging down the corners of her mouth. Her slow blink and not you, too expression didn’t exactly bode well for the rest of what Lissa was about to say.

She’d done a lot of thinking since Saturday, about her friend’s determination to handle everything by herself. And her increasingly alarming mood swings, which so far Lissa hadn’t mentioned to anyone. One minute the woman was sweet as punch with the girls, the next she looked ready to tear something up or burst into tears.

It had to stop.

Lissa had been so sure that Maggie was starting to see that.

“Sometimes things are just going to end messy,” she said now. “And that’s okay. A little mess isn’t so bad. Everyone’ll learn to deal with the mess. So will you. Unless you drive yourself crazy fighting something you can’t change.”

“If I could just talk to him one more time, or maybe—”

“It doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen. Who was that on the phone, the parents?”

“No, Javier lives with his aunt. She hasn’t seen him since Friday.”

“Then that’s that. Call Needa Cross. Let her contact the parole officer if you don’t want to.”

“No, there has to be another way to deal with this. I don’t just give up on kids because it stops being easy to reach them!”

“How about when it starts being dangerous?” Lissa sputtered.

If she didn’t watch it, she was going to have to find herself a new nanny, and a new friend.

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