Not My Daughter

Ellen nodded her thanks.

'I understand why my mother is so good.'

'Oh, she didn't get it from me. Whatever I made when my children were young was purely functional.'

'When did you start making things like this?'

'Just recently.'

'Nana?' It was Jack's daughter, eight-year-old Emily, looking warily from Ellen to Lily. 'Daddy's looking for you. He's worried. Are you all right?'

Ellen tucked both socks in the bag. With a soft, 'I'm coming,' she pushed herself up.

The moment was lost. Lily didn't know what she'd been looking for, but felt a quick resentment. Having stepped back the instant her cousin appeared, she preceded Ellen to the door. The girl, Emily, watched her with the same dislike she had shown earlier, when Lily had tried to get her to talk. What grade are you in? Do you play sports? Do you like Hannah Montana? Third, no, and yes. Unspoken, but definitely there in the girl's eyes, was a defiant, Want to make something of it look?

The child was rude, inhospitable to someone who had traveled halfway across the country-and who was her first cousin!

Vowing that her own daughter would never be like that, Lily came to within a foot of the girl and bent swiftly. 'Boo!'

The girl jumped.

That was the extent of Lily's satisfaction. She never found her grandmother alone again, and they didn't stay late at the house, which was just fine. Lily hated casseroles. They had dinner at a steak place, and though Lily wasn't eating red meat, the salad greens were fresh and the company of her parents and Big Rick far preferable to the people at the house.

Back at the hotel, Lily closed the door to their room and said, 'Want me to bunk with Grampa tonight?'

Her mother looked at her, startled. 'What?'

'Dad can sleep here.' When Susan drew back, Lily smiled. 'I know you guys sleep together. It's nothing to be ashamed of. You're grown-up, responsible adults, and if you haven't gotten pregnant all these years, I assume one of you takes precautions.'

'Where did this come from?'

'Haven't you told me that sex between grown-up, responsible individuals is beautiful?'

'What makes you think…'

'Doors, Mom. Closed. You don't close your door when it's just us at home, and I know you're not closing it to keep him out. Besides, there's that creak in the floor you say always gives you advance word when I'm coming in. Well, it gives me advance word, too.'

Susan looked upset. 'How long have you known?'

'A couple of years. It's okay. He's my dad. If you're going to be with someone, I'd rather it be him. So. Should I take my pillow next door?'

Susan stared at her. Then, for the first time since Lily had said she was pregnant, she gave her a spontaneous hug. 'Absolutely not. Rick snores.'

Lily didn't know whether her baby was responding to the hug or the sheer relief of heading home. But when they were sitting in the plane, waiting to back away from the jetport, she felt a flutter.

'Oh wow,' she whispered with a hand on the spot and eyes on her mother. 'Something moved.'

Susan looked frightened. 'Moved?'

'I just felt it.' She pushed her seatbelt a little lower, but there was no repeat motion.

'A cramp?'

'The baby.' She turned on her phone and before Susan could argue, said, 'Mary Kate and Jess need to know.' She texted the news and shut down the phone. By then, the plane was rattling enough on its way to takeoff that if the baby moved again, she wouldn't have felt it. They were late landing in Chicago and had to run to make their connection, so she was breathing too hard to feel it then. Nor did she notice anything while they were in Philadelphia, waiting to board the flight to Portland.

'Do you think something's wrong?' she asked when they were in their own car, leaving Portland for Zaganack, and still the baby was quiet.

'No,' Susan assured her. 'You're not even four months along. It's early to be feeling the baby move.'

'I wasn't imagining it.'

'It may not have been the baby, only your body doing a little inner twitch.'

Lily was beginning to think Susan was right when, back home in bed, the feeling came again. The sensation was so small that she might have missed it if she hadn't been waiting.

She smiled in the dark. She didn't rush to tell her mother this time, didn't even text Mary Kate or Jess, both of whom said it was too early, too.

But Lily knew what she felt.

Chapter 19

Susan tried to be excited, but she seriously doubted Lily had actually felt the baby, and she had more pressing worries. Evan Brewer had gone ahead and imposed a three-day suspension on Michael Murray, which meant that the boy would miss even more school, just what Susan didn't want. She learned of Evan's action while they were waiting to leave Chicago, and though she e-mailed him to express dismay, e-mailed Phil, e-mailed Michael's parents, it was done.

That weighed on her.

Likewise her mother's parting words the evening before. They had never had a good chance to talk, and suddenly it was time to leave. 'Thank you for coming,' Ellen had said, as if Susan were no different from a dozen other guests.

But she didn't regret going. It was the right thing to do. Being with Rick and his father had been a solace; the four of them were a little family independent of the Tates. And she did feel closer to Lily.

Still, Zaganack was her real world. She had hoped that, in her absence, the uproar caused by the pregnancies would have died. Instead, here was Evan.

Evan Brewer was forty-nine. He had resigned as headmaster at a private school when they wanted him to commit to a major building campaign. He didn't like raising money, he explained at length when Susan interviewed him, and she could commiserate. She didn't like fund-raising; fortunately, her job required little of it.

To his credit, Evan was an excellent teacher. He had a command of his subject and presented it with an authority that made students sit up and listen. It was the way he conducted himself at faculty meetings and approached parents that made her uneasy. He was full of himself, she decided. And he wanted her job.

He was five minutes late for their meeting Thursday morning. She sensed it was deliberate, because when he finally arrived, he neither apologized nor even expressed condolences on her father's death, simply launched into a defense of his action on the Murray boy.

'He blatantly disregarded the rules. I don't know whether he thought the holiday would have people looking the other way, but he's been caught cheating three times this year alone. Where I come from, three strikes and you're out.'

Susan was bristling well before he stopped. 'Not here,' she said. 'He's a senior, Evan. A suspension on his record now raises a red flag for college admissions officers. This is a bright boy who is struggling to keep up with even brighter older siblings and parents he desperately wants to please.'

Evan arched a brow. 'By cheating?'

'He cheats when he thinks he's failing,' Susan explained as she shouldn't have had to with a man of Evan's experience, 'but we're working with him. He and his parents are in counseling. Surely, you read that in his file.'

'I did, but the case for leniency just wasn't there. I had to make a decision.'

'I asked you not to. You knew I'd be back today.'