Oh, Baby!. Patricia Kay

      An hour later, dinner on the table, Sophie called upstairs to tell Joy it was time to eat. Hearing nothing in return, she called louder. When there was still no response, she climbed the stairs and knocked on Joy’s bedroom door before opening it, all ready to deliver a reprimand. Her mouth instead fell open. The room was empty.

      “Joy?” Sophie walked in, then checked the adjoining bathroom. Joy wasn’t there. Where was she? Sophie looked at Joy’s nightstand where her charger lay. Joy’s cell phone, which was always connected to the charger when Joy was in the room, wasn’t there, either.

      Her niece had sneaked out.

      Somehow Joy had come down the stairs noiselessly, opened the front door and left without making any noise or saying a word to Sophie.

      Sophie’s heart sped up. She was furious. In fact, she couldn’t believe Joy had defied her like this. Worse, she couldn’t think what she was going to do about it. Trouble was, she herself was only twenty-nine. She was too close to being a kid herself not to remember what it felt like to have a crush on an older, drop-dead-handsome boy. To think you’d die if he didn’t ask you out. Maybe she’d made a terrible mistake. By telling Joy she couldn’t go to homecoming with Aidan Burke, had she inadvertently pushed the girl right into his arms?

      Sighing, Sophie moped downstairs. Picking up her own cell phone, she texted Joy.

      Where R U? Pls come hm. Lets talk.

      When ten minutes had gone by with no answer, she realized Joy either had her phone shut off or was simply going to ignore her. She probably figured Sophie wasn’t going to relent on homecoming anyway, so what difference did it make? All Sophie could do was wait, and try to figure out what she was going to do now.

      * * *

      The house was dark when Aidan dropped Joy off. But Sophie’s bedroom faced the backyard, so even if her light was still on, Joy wouldn’t have been able to see it.

      Joy silently let herself in, glad there was no dog to make noise, even though she’d been begging Sophie for months to let her get a Lab. Sophie had finally relented, saying they could pick out a Lab puppy for Christmas. Joy made a face. She guessed she’d probably blown that, too, with her disappearing act tonight.

      Why had she sneaked out? She still wasn’t sure. All she knew was that when Sophie had so stubbornly refused to allow her to go to homecoming with Aidan, she was so angry she just wanted to show Sophie she couldn’t control everything in Joy’s life.

       You’ve blown it. Totally blown it. Now she probably won’t let you go to homecoming at all.

      Joy was still thinking dark thoughts when she reached the top of the stairs—thankfully, not making any noise while doing it—so she wasn’t fully prepared for Sophie’s sudden appearance in the hallway.

      “Where have you been?” Sophie demanded.

      Joy swallowed. “I was upset. I—I had to get away...to think.”

      “To think.”

      “Yes.” Joy straightened, abruptly deciding she would brazen this out. She was in the doghouse anyway. Might as well show some backbone.

      Sophie sighed heavily. “Joy,” she began.

      “I know, I know. You’re mad at me. I don’t blame you.”

      “I’m more than mad, Joy. I’m disappointed. I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing. I even bailed out on my book club tonight because I was so worried about you. I’ve been sitting and waiting all night. I know you were out with that boy, otherwise I might have been tempted to call the police and have them look for you. The least you could have done was answer my text, let me know you were safe. I don’t think I deserve this kind of treatment from you. Do you?”

      All Joy’s defiance disappeared. Instead she just felt miserable. Because her sister was right. Sophie didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. She was a wonderful person. A wonderful sister. And she’d never been anything but fair and kind and loving to Joy. In fact, Joy wasn’t sure she would have survived losing her parents if not for Sophie. Tears stinging her eyes, Joy shook her head. “No,” she whispered.

      “Then why did you do it?”

      Joy shrugged. A tear rolled down her cheek. “I—I don’t know. I’m sorry, Sophie. I really am. I—deserve whatever punishment you want to give me.”

      Sophie nodded. She reached out and squeezed Joy’s shoulder. “Look, we’re both tired and upset. We won’t make any decisions tonight. And we both have to be up early tomorrow. So we’ll talk tomorrow night, okay?”

      “Okay.” Joy was grateful for the reprieve, but she was savvy enough to know that just because she’d been given some time before she had to face the music didn’t mean Sophie was going to go easy on her.

      * * *

      Thank God it was Friday, Sophie thought as she drove to work. The week had been brutal, especially Wednesday night and last night. Thinking about last night, she hoped she’d done some good, at least for Kaitlyn, the senior who was pregnant. The meeting with Kaitlyn and her parents hadn’t been easy, but at least their beautiful, college-bound daughter was in one piece. By the time Sophie had left for home, the family was in the midst of trying to make the best decision about how to go forward. The one thing all three had agreed upon was that Kaitlyn would still head off to UT next fall. Whether she would give her child up for adoption or go another direction was still up in the air.

      Sophie was grateful it wasn’t her decision to make. The decision she had made earlier, before going over to the Macpherson home, was still bothering her. She’d taken pity on Joy and hadn’t forbidden her to go to homecoming, especially when Joy had meekly agreed she would attend with Megan, Jenna and Bethany, her three best friends—all of whom were going stag. Sophie had almost insisted upon picking Joy up when the evening was over, but she’d instead decided to give Joy another chance at trust.

      “You’re absolutely not to go home with Aidan Burke. You will stay with your friends and leave with your friends. Understood?”

      She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake, but the die was cast. And if she had made a mistake, and Joy disobeyed her, then that would be it. She wouldn’t trust Joy again.

      Driving into the teachers’ parking lot, Sophie saw a tall, dark-haired figure getting out of a black Toyota Tundra truck. Her heart skipped as she realized it was Dillon. Parking as far from his truck as it was possible, she waited until he was halfway to the entrance of the school before exiting her little Prius. She felt unsettled enough today without having to contend with another meeting with Dillon.

      By the time she entered the school, he was long gone, and she headed for her office. This was one of the days she was very grateful to be the guidance counselor and entitled to a private office—minuscule as it was—rather than a teacher who could only escape into the teachers’ lounge, where there was never any privacy.

      The moment she entered her office, she saw the note. It was propped against her keyboard, and the handwriting on the envelope was unmistakably Principal Gordon Pearson’s.

      “Oh, great,” she mumbled. “What now?”

      A quick scan of the note simply told her he wanted to see her, immediately if not sooner. She sighed.

      Dumping her tote containing the files she’d taken home, she straightened her layered tees, checked her hair to make sure it was as neat as she could make it and headed for Pearson’s office.

      “What’s up?” she said to Janie, the principal’s secretary.

      “Oh, just a homecoming emergency,” Janie said. “He’ll tell you all about it.”

      Sophie frowned. Homecoming emergency? She couldn’t imagine what that might be.

      She didn’t have to wonder long. She’d no