Page 133 of Finding Amanda

“Daddy!” Madi yelled.

“Where is he? Is he here?” This from Sophie.

“Come on in, but be careful. Mommy’s still recovering, and babies are breakable.”

“Grammy told us already.” Sophie barreled around the corner, her sister on her heels. They stopped at Amanda’s bedside and looked up at her. “Are you sick?”

“Just tired.”

Amanda had expected the girls to be dressed in pretty little church dresses, hair brushed and neatly pulled back—all up to the dragon lady’s standards. But they weren’t. They both wore T-shirts and shorts, just normal everyday summer clothes. Their hair was messy, as if they’d just come in from playing.

“They washed their hands in the bathroom in the hall.” Mrs. Johnson hadn’t stepped into view yet.

“Thanks.” Mark stood at the end of the bed, facing toward the doorway. “You can come in.”

Amanda wished he’d let her stay where she was. She focused on her daughters. She wouldn’t let the dragon lady ruin this moment.

Madi climbed the side of the bed. “Grammy said making a baby is hard so we should be extra nice to you.”

“She did?” Amanda probably should’ve felt bad about the shock in her voice as her head snapped up.

The dragon lady now hovered between the end of the bed and the door. She was smiling.

Before Amanda could process that, Madi was settling onto the space beside her. Sophie tried to jostle in beside her little sister.

Mark scooped their older daughter up and carried her to Amanda’s other side, where she cuddled in.

“You guys ready to meet your brother?” Amanda asked.

“Uh-huh,” Sophie said.

Madi leaned forward and peeked down at the baby’s face. “He’s so little.”

“He’s bigger than you were when you were born.”

Madi’s mouth opened in a little O. “Nuh-uh. Really?”

Amanda kissed Sophie’s forehead. “And you were even smaller.”

“Wow.” Sophie’s voice was filled with awe. “Is he always gonna be so red?”

Mark slid a knuckle over the baby-soft scalp. “Being born is hard work. He’s still recovering. It’ll be fun to watch him change and grow, won’t it?”

The girls wanted to hold him, so Mark got them seated on a small loveseat and put the baby first into Sophie’s arms, then intoMadi’s.

The dragon lady took photos of the three siblings, then directed Mark to sit next to them and snapped a few more.

By the time that was finished, the girls were done with the baby and back at Amanda’s bedside.

“Did you have fun with Grammy?” she asked them.

“Uh-huh,” Sophie said. “We went to the park after breakfast. Grammy went down the slide!”

Amanda’s gaze flicked to the woman standing beside Mark. Her back was straight, but where her face used to express disdain, now Amanda saw something else.

It was almost like she was worried.

It was so out of character that Amanda didn’t know what to think.

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