I trail off after her, trying to figure out how to deal with a second crisis. I can hear their voices, and it soothes every worry inside of me.
Mom goes in first, and both girls call out to their Gigi. I’m standing behind them, eyeing Harper.
She looks miserable, ghostly white. There’s a smallbutterfly bandage on her forehead and a brace around her wrist.
I’m so sorryshe mouths to me.
“What in the world is going on here?” Mom asks.
Now that the girls have hugged her, they’ve made their way over to me. “Are you two okay?”
I push the hair out of their faces. They look fine, as far as I can tell.
“It was scary,” Sam tells me, her lip quivering. “We were going to get ice cream after school?—”
“Ice cream after school?” Mom huffs. “They’re not allowed to have ice cream after school.”
“Mom, that’s not important right now.”
“Harper said it was a special day,” Sam continues. “Sadie beat the fifth grader, so we were going to get ice cream to celebrate and then someone crashed into us.”
“It was loud. Bags exploded in the car.”
“Bags?”
Sadie nods.
“Airbags,” Harper confirms. “I’m sorry. I was turning and it was a teenager?—”
“It’s okay. You’re all okay.” The last thing I want is for her to worry. It wasn’t her fault.
“No, it’s not okay!” Mom snaps. “Does she not realize that she has to take better care of Sam and Sadie?”
“Mom!”
“No, she’s right.” Harper’s voice is small. She looks scared and I can’t blame her.
“See? She should not be around the girls.” Mom’s eyes flit between mine and Harper’s. The girls are huddled together in my arms. They don’t have any clue what’s going on, other than Gigi is angry. “How long has this been going on?”
“This is not a discussion we need to be having right now. Not in front of the girls.”
It’s that moment a nurse walks in. “Everything okay in here?”
“I think we’re fine right now.”
“No, we are not fine!” Mom snaps. “I want to know what is going on right now.”
I look to the nurse. “Are you able to stay with them while I talk to my mother and Harper, please?”
“Sure.” She looks hesitant, but I set the girls down.
“I’m going to talk to Gigi for a minute, okay?” They both nod at me.
Mom drops a kiss onto both of their heads and heads out into the hallway, Harper following her.
“I’ll be right back, okay? Then we’ll go home and I’ll make pancakes for dinner.”
That earns me the first smile I’ve seen from them all afternoon. “With chocolate chips?”
