“I think that sounds like a noble pursuit,” says Mae. “I really do. And I don’t think you should wait until you grow up either. I think you should be a very small large-animal vet. You could be that as soon as today.” Evangeline giggles again. Mae is killing it with this crowd!
Two things happen next.
Cinnamon rises and gives one of those full-body shakes that means she’s ready to rock. Then, before either Mae or Evangeline can stop her, she flicks out her tongue toward the coffee table, faster than a lizard. The tooth is gone.
In the sunroom Jordan finds Evangeline sitting on the floor between the two dogs. They’re both waiting and watching while Evangeline lines up tiny treats on the table. “Wait,” Evangeline says to Leo, and then to Cinnamon, “Wait.” She sounds exactly like Mae, commanding and patient. Then she releases them: “Okay!” And the dogs go crazy, snuffling along the table for the treats.
“Where’s Auntie Mae?”
“She went to get me a tissue.”
Jordan looks closely at Evangeline. Her bottom lip starts to wobble. “What’s going on?”
Evangeline slaps her hand over her mouth like there’s a creature in there she doesn’t want to let out. “Nothing,” she whispers into her hand.
“Are you sure?”
Her eyes fill, and she says, “Cinnamon ate my first lost tooth.” She points to a hole in her mouth.
“Oh, no! How’d that happen?”
“It was on the table. She stuck her tongue out. And now I can’t leave it for the Tooth Fairy even though I didn’t know if I wanted to.”
“I think we can write a note,” says Jordan, “explaining what happened. I can help you.” Evangeline is bringing out a gentleness Jordan didn’t know she had.
“Okay,” whispers Evangeline from behind her hand, “if you think that will count.”
“It definitely counts. I have it on good authority. Do you want to go find your mom?” Evangeline nods. “Go ahead. She’s in the kitchen with Caspian. Where’s Scarlett?”
Evangeline removes her hand and then says, “Upstairs on the iPad.”
“Ah.” Jordan knows that Natalie is very strict about the kids using the iPad. This goes with her homeschooling-farm-rearing-family-first persona. Scarlett must have spotted a loophole and decided to dive right into it, like a proper middle child, no different from what Natalie herself would have done if iPads had existed when they were kids.
(What comes around goes around,Theresa might have said, had she been here, and a sharp pain hits Jordan somewhere—her soul?—when she realizes that she isn’t.)
Just after Evangeline exits the room, Mae enters. The dogs rush up to Mae, maybe eager to share the tale of what she missed in her absence. She’s holding a tissue in one hand and her cell phone in the other. “Evangeline went to find Natalie in the kitchen,” Jordan explains.
“Okay,” says Mae. She’s looking at her phone. Jordan looks more closely at Mae. Mae wears an expression that, for lack of a better description, Jordan might call grouchy. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing is going on. Why do you ask?”
“Because you look like a dog ateyourfirst tooth.”
Mae makes an annoyed face.
Jordan remembers Mae, at twelve, getting her period for the first time three days before Christmas. Jordan had been home from college for the holiday, and she’d been the one to pick Mae up from school because Theresa had been teaching her own class and Natalie had been in school herself. She’d felt very important and motherly, showing Mae the corner of the bathroom cabinet where all the supplies were kept, giving her Advil and a heating pad in case she had cramps. But she knew the real mother would be home in just a few hours. Now she’s not the backup, she’s the main event.
“I wish Dad wasn’t selling the house. I was hoping to stay.”
“Not that again,” says Jordan.
“Yes, that again. To anyone with a heart, this is a big deal!”
“I have a heart, thank you very much. I just have a brain to go with it.” She pauses. “How long were you hoping to stay?”
“I don’t know. Until I save some money. Or forever.”
Mae flops on the couch, and suddenly she’s the defiant version of Mae. This version doesn’t show up very often, but when she does, watch out. Mae was the baby who was chill until she wasn’t, easygoing until she wanted (or didn’t want) one thing, just one single thing, and then she dug in her heels so hard she simply could not be budged. They used to call it the Storm.The Storm is brewing. The Storm is on the horizon. Hope the Storm passes quickly.(Mae hated the Storm joke, it made her furious, so Jordan is careful not to bring it up now even though she’s really tempted.)
