Moon Dance by V. J. Chambers Read Free Book Online Page B

do is lie here
with your eyes closed until I come back for you, okay? You can stay
awake the whole time.”
    “ Well, maybe I will.” Piper
gave her a defiant look.
    Dana shrugged. “Okay, then.”
She crossed the room and switched off the light.
    “ Not gonna sleep,” called
Piper from the bed.
    “ Fine,” said Dana, shutting
the door to her daughter’s bedroom. Piper would be asleep in five
minutes. But Dana had learned that arguing with the little girl
about whether or not she was actually tired was an exercise in
futility. Anyway, children were fighting for independence from day
one. With every passing day, they got closer and closer to being
able to do things on their own, which was what they all desperately
wanted. Allowing Piper to feel as if she had agency over something
as small as a nap was probably not a big deal in the grand scheme
of things.
    Dana walked up the hall and
began picking up toys off the living room floor. She still had the
lunch dishes to clean up, too. One room at a time. If she was
lucky, she could have the whole apartment spick-and-span by the
time Piper woke up to destroy everything all over again.
    Dana deposited the toys into the big,
wooden toy box against one wall and then went back for another
armful. She gathered up dolls and blocks and a toy
phone.
    There was a knock on the
door.
    That was strange. No one
ever came to her house. Besides that, everything was a
mess.
    Sighing, she went to the door, still
with the armload of toys.
    It was Ursula King, her former
boss.
    Dana felt self-conscious.
She was in a pair of ratty jeans with a stained shirt over top of
them. She hadn’t washed her hair in three days, and it was gathered
into a sloppy ponytail on top of her head. Plus, the house was
still reeling from Hurricane Piper. “Uh, King. Hello.”
    Ursula smiled. “Hi, Gray.
Wondered if I could come in for a chat.”
    “ Uh…” Dana moved away from
the door to let her in. “The house is a mess.”
    Ursula waved it away as she
came inside. “Where’s Piper?”
    “ Sleeping,” said Dana. “I
just got her down for a nap.”
    Ursula nodded.
    “ Please, um, have a seat.”
Dana gestured at the couch.
    Ursula sat down. Something squeaked.
Ursula pulled a toy horn out from underneath herself.
    Dana flushed, darting
forward to grab it. “Sorry, I just—”
    Ursula smiled. “Oh, please,
Gray, don’t worry. I popped in on you unannounced. Besides, I think
your apartment is cleaner than mine, and I don’t have a
two-year-old to worry about.”
    Dana seriously doubted that,
but it was nice of Ursula to say anyway. Dana stuffed the toys in
her arms into the toy box. Then she came back over to the couch and
sat down. “So, what can I do for you?”
    Ursula clasped her hands
together in her lap. “I, uh, wanted to talk to you about doing
something that I know you’re uncomfortable with.”
    Dana furrowed her brow.
“What are you talking about?”
    “ Well, I’m talking about
Randall, of course.”
    “ Oh.” Dana felt a jolt go
through her at the mention of Cole. “Avery said that you’d traced
his phone and picked him up.”
    King narrowed her eyes. “Did
he say anything besides that?”
    “ Uh… no, he was in a rush
last night to go and talk to him, and then he didn’t get back until
late. Then he just wanted to go to sleep. He didn’t want to talk
about it.”
    “ So, he didn’t tell you that
Randall was asking for you?”
    Cole wanted to see her. Her
heart leapt. But she forced herself to stay calm. “Well, I guess
that would be typical of him, wouldn’t it?”
    “ Typical of
whom?”
    “ Of Cole,” said Dana. “I
mean, he always wants to see me.”
    “ So, Brooks did, in fact,
keep this from you?”
    Dana smoothed the legs of
her pants. “Avery gets… worked out about Cole. There’s a lot of bad
history there. I wouldn’t imagine he would tell me
that.”
    “ To be clear, though,” said
Ursula, “if you had known, would you have gone to see