Blitzed(70)

"Not good," I admit, exchanging hugs with her. "I could use a little advice, Harley."

Dani immediately reaches back and pulls her long blonde hair into twin high ponytails, securing them with rubber bands that she had looped around her wrist. "Well then, sweetie, come on in," she says in a horrible New Jersey accent that still makes me smile. Dani has always known how to make me smile. "What's up, puddin'?"

"Do you keep those rubber bands on your wrist all the time just in case someone gives you a chance to break out that accent?" I ask as I follow her into the house. Pete's in the living room and gives me a wave before he sees the look on Dani's face and the hair, and he grabs his book, getting up to leave. "Thanks, Pete."

"Don't mention it!"

"He's a sweetheart," I tell Dani as I sit down. "You've got him trained well already."

"Nah, we just have that psychic link that old couples get—we just got it early," Dani jokes, going back to her normal voice but leaving her hair up in the ponytails. "So talk to me."

"Well, let's see. I wake up late because I slept like crap last night, rush Laurie to school and get to work only to snap at Colette for giving me a pitying look, and as soon as that's over, I get a call from the preschool."

"Oh? What happened?"

I feel my emotions start to waver, but before I can cry, Dani pulls me in for a hug and holds me for a moment. "Wait right here. I have the secret medicine to help with the blues. Just a sec."

She disappears for two minutes, actually, reappearing with twin steaming hot mugs of cocoa, the type with the little marshmallows that float on top. "Here. Nothing better for calming nerves and making a bad day look good."

"Is this what you give your patients?" I ask, still smiling. She's heated it up to the perfect temperature, warm enough to soothe but not too hot as to burn the roof of your mouth. I relish the flavor and find myself calming. "Seriously, it's good stuff."

"Thanks. As for your question, no, but then again, I can't prescribe drugs anyway. Gotta have an MD for that, and I'm still working on the PhD, you know. But it does work well, doesn’t it?"

"It does. But you were asking what happened. To put it simply, Laurie bit another little girl and got suspended for a week."

"Damn. Any root cause?"

"Bullying, but I've never seen Laurie react violently like that before. Especially not biting. I thought I did a good job so far of raising a little girl, not Cujo."

Dani takes a sip of her cocoa and sets her cup down. "Sounds like she's angry."

"I know. Bullying always sucks."

Dani shakes her head and picks up her cup again, drinking half of it in one long draw. "She got bullied?"

"The other girl called her abandoned, a left behind puppy," I said, shaking my head. "Then when I tell Mom, she says that it's because I left Troy! Like it's all my fault somehow!"

"So you came here in order to get, what? A second opinion? A sounding board? A friend who will tell you the truth of things?"

"I could use the truth," I say, and Dani nods again. "You don't look happy about that."

"Sometimes, Whit, the truth isn't easy to say. We've been friends for how long now?"

"Eighteen, nineteen years," I say, thinking back.

"Exactly. And in all those years, I have stood by your side, and sometimes, pushed you in directions that you weren't exactly ready for.”

"Like cheerleading."

"And good comic book characters, remember that too," Dani says before her smile disappears. "But no matter what, I've stood by you, Whitney. You're my best friend and sister, and I love you. But this isn't an easy truth to say, and you’re probably going to be angry at me."

"Then say it,” I reply, knowing what is coming but still loving her enough to keep my cool. "Say what you need to say."

"Your daughter is angry at you, Whitney, not the bullies. She is angry at her mama and she doesn't know how to deal with that. You're her mother, the woman who has raised her and always been there for her, and you hurt her when you cut Troy out of your lives."

"I did it for her own good," I say woodenly, and Dani gives me a frustrated look.

"Her own good? Fighting and biting is her own good? And what about you? You've lost what, ten pounds since he left? And it's not a good weight loss either, it's a stress and heartbreak weight loss. Never mind what it's doing to Troy as well."

"What do you mean?" I ask, despite myself. "I . . . I've intentionally avoided keeping up on the football news."

"Hold on, let me show you," Dani says. "It's all over the Football Network."

Dani reaches out and snags the remote control for her TV, turning it on and punching in a number. The channel changes to the Football Network, which is pretty busy as it is a Monday night, although the game is on a regular cable station and not a premium one like FN. In its place are the normal pundit shows and highlights of Sunday's games. "Just a minute, I see it coming up."

I see it on the sidebar of the program too: 'T. Wood Troubles?' I blink, feeling a stab in my heart at just seeing his name. "What is going on?"