Page 44 of Hot Puck
“She didn’t!” Deanne shakes her head. “We’ve tried for a few years to have her removed from the position but her late husband’s family are the major supporters of it, financially. And there hasn’t been anything like this come to light that might have made it possible.”
“What did she tell her staff? The thing that you came here to tell Chase?” I ask. I don’t want to get us off track. The girls are going to wonder where we are sooner than later.
“Oh, yes, sorry. She told the staff at the start of summer to not include the twins, to discourage the other kids from hanging around them. When someone mentioned bringing in a grief counselor, she shut it down and told them the girls were to be left out of group activities as much as possible.”
“She told me they weren’t—wouldn’t—take part in group activities.” Chase’s fists are clenched tight at his sides now and I stand, move to him.
With a hand over one of his, I say, “Take a breath. Dinner just got here. Take it inside and I’ll finish talking to Deanne. We can’t do anything about this tonight. Not without a plan.”
“I should be in on any planning. They’re my sisters.”
“You will be,” I reassure him. “I’m only going to gather more information, like name and contact details of the camp organizers. You and I will talk about it after the girls are in bed. Tomorrow, you will do what needs to be done to protect your sisters and anyone else this woman sets her sights on.”
“I have a list of people willing to go on record. I also have the names and contact details of the camp board,” Deanne pulls her phone from her pocket. “I can email them to you right now.”
“Chase?”
His gaze meets mine.
“I promise you. I won’t make any decisions regarding the girls without you.” I lower my voice. “I know it seems like I’m taking over a lot, but I’m not, at least I’m not trying to. I only want to help.”
“Hey, did you order two large pepperonis and a cheese pizza?” The voice of the delivery guy pulls Chase’s gaze from mine.
“Yeah.” He moves away from the railing and turns toward the front door. “Let me get your tip.”
“Don’t worry about that, man. It’s already paid.”
The look Chase shoots me has me laughing. “Sorry. Habit. I don’t carry cash most of the time.”
Shaking his head, he takes the three pizza boxes and thanks the guy. When he turns back, I can see he’s still warring with what to do, but Deanne takes the decision out of his hands.
“I’ll get going. Leave you to eat your dinner. Can I get an email for one of you before I go?” Deanne stands, phone in hand. “I’ll send this list now, and you’ll have my contact information if you need it. Although you already have my cell number, Chase.”
“I do. And thank you. For coming over. For telling me what you found out.”
“I couldn’t not tell you. Those girls, you, you’ve all got enough to deal with as it is. And your mom was someone I thought of as a close friend. I won’t lie and say we were best friends, but we were close. Hearing what that woman—” She shakes her head. “I know your mom would have done something if the situation was reversed.”
Chase seems lost for words and instead of letting the silence drag out I nudge him along by saying, “Take the pizza into the girls before it gets cold. I’ll give Deanne my email.”
“Yeah, okay, thanks again.”
I wait until he’s inside, the door pushed shut behind him, before I give my information to Deanne.
“That’s my personal email. I can count on one hand the number of people who have it. Please don’t abuse it.”
“He’s going to move them, isn’t he?”
Her question takes me off guard but I’m not going to lie to her because her daughter is close friends with the twins. “Probably. After today I’d say he’s leaning more toward it than against.”
Deanne nods. “It might be good for them all to have a fresh start. The number of times I’ve overheard conversations about them since Sienna died is ridiculous. And disheartening. No one has anything nice to say about that boy taking on his three sisters.”
“He’s hardly a boy.”
“No. I guess not. But this community doesn’t see him any other way. We expected Sienna’s death but to lose Mitch the way we did…”
“Theylost him.”
“Yes. Yes. Sorry. I’ve wanted to help but other than picking up the twins and taking them with Melody I haven’t known what to do.”
