Winter's Tide by Lisa Williams Kline Read Free Book Online

you when I’m not even there to defend myself. Well, I was going to invite you down during your spring break but under the circumstances, maybe that just won’t work out.”
    He had been thinking about inviting me down to Florida for spring break? Why hadn’t he said so before?
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I could hear my voice rise. I was crying now. “I’ll come down!”
    The door of my bedroom cracked open, and Stephanie’s concerned face appeared. “Are you okay?” she mouthed at me.
    â€œI’m sure you don’t want to spend time with a hothead,” he said, “so just forget it. And maybe you don’t want to keep a cell phone from a hothead, so maybe I should just cancel your plan.”
    â€œDad, no!”
    He hung up. I threw the phone down on the bed and buried my burning, wet face in the comforter. I hated him, I hated him!
    â€œDiana, what happened? What did he say?” Stephanie was next to my bed, and she put her hand on my shoulder. I was shaking. I just shook my head. I couldn’t even put it into words.
    I tried to think about last spring when Dad and I had gone parasailing, and we’d flown, attached to parachutes, high above the sound in the Outer Banks. Dad had taken my hand, and I’d felt so very happy.
    â€œDiana?” I heard Stephanie’s quiet voice and felt her soft hand rubbing my shoulder. “What did he say to make you cry?”
    I sat up, wiped the tears from my cheeks. “I’m so mad. I feel like breaking this stupid phone he gave me. Why does this always happen with Dad?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Stephanie said.
    â€œI told him I got suspended, and he just started yelling at me. He didn’t even bother to ask me how my Christmas was. He said he’d been thinking aboutinviting me down to Florida for spring break but now just to forget it.”
    â€œThat wasn’t very nice.”
    I lay down on the bed. Nobody could make me feel bad the way my dad could.

4
S TEPHANIE
    I sat with Diana for a long time, until she stopped crying. I don’t know how late it was when I finally went back to my room.
    I pulled the covers up to my chin and curled up on my side, thinking. Is it bad for me to hate Diana’s dad? Once before, I had comforted Diana, when we were at the ranch and Daddy had told her she couldn’t ride. I sometimes could feel Diana’s emotions like they were my own.
    What a strange Christmas it had been, with Diana suspended and Matt in the hospital. And Diana’s fight with her dad. I felt like I should be especially good to balance out everything else.
    When I woke up, I had a stomachache. Daddy and Lynn had to go back to work today, so Diana and I were here alone. I decided I’d get up and make waffles for us, even though I didn’t really feel like eating them, and headed downstairs in my pj’s and got out the waffle maker.
    While I was mixing the batter, Mama called.
    â€œHey, sugar,” she said. “How are you doing? I am so sorry we can’t go shopping today the way I promised you.”
    â€œThat’s okay.” I plugged in the waffle maker, then stirred the batter while squeezing the phone between my ear and my shoulder.
    â€œThey’re still waiting for Matt to wake up,” she said.
    â€œThat’s awful,” I said. I told myself that nobody deserved to have such a terrible thing happen. What if he never woke up? I shuddered. I poured the batter onto the hot griddle and shut the waffle maker, watching as a puff of steam and a glob of the yellow batter popped out around the edge.
    â€œBarry is just a mess,” Mama was saying, “pure and simple. I have to be the best wife to him that I can. I hope you understand that, sugar.”
    â€œOh, I know,” I said. “We can go another time.”
    Diana’s footfalls sounded on the stairs, and she wandered into the kitchen. She sat on a stool at the