Dance Away with Me(44)

Ian came into the kitchen. “You have more company.”

She regarded him quizzically. To her surprise, he reached for Wren. She gave him the damp, towel-wrapped baby and followed him out.

Two people waited in the living area, neither of whom she wanted to see. Kelly Winchester, Ava’s mother, stood next to a tall, thickly built man, dressed in suit and tie, who could only be her husband, the man Tess had heard so much about.

State Senator Brad Winchester’s broad face held angular eyebrows that nearly met in the middle. He had handsome, even features, and a full head of gray hair that was definitely premature, since she knew he was only in his thirties. Both he and Ian were imposing figures, but Winchester had the bulkier build. Next to him, his thin, blond wife, who’d been so daunting at the Broken Chimney, seemed somehow diminished.

“Miss Hartsong,” he said, in the sonorous voice of a radio announcer or a career politician. “I’m sure you’re more than aware of why we’re here.”

The time of reckoning had arrived. Tess reluctantly gestured toward the couch. “Have a seat.”

Kelly sat, but when her husband didn’t, she came back to her feet. Kelly didn’t possess her daughter Ava’s zest. Instead, there was a brittleness about her, from the sharpness of her features to the prominent bones in her neck.

“You’ve been meeting with some of our local children,” Winchester said.

“Without the consent of their parents.” Kelly clasped her hands in front of her, the diamonds on her left hand catching shards of afternoon light. “Ava has told us everything.”

Tess highly doubted that. “What specifically has she told you?”

“That you’re instructing them in sex and in birth control methods.” Considering the animosity in his voice, Winchester might as well have said Tess was teaching them how to build pipe bombs. “Are you going to deny it?”

Tess reminded herself that she had the moral high ground, or at least she thought she did. “The girls came to me with specific questions. I answered them.”

“You had no right,” Kelly exclaimed. “That’s a parent’s responsibility.”

“Yes, it is.”

Brad Winchester visibly bristled. “Are you insinuating that we don’t know how to raise our own child?”

She struggled against the sense of righteousness that a woman who’d lost her last patient had no right to possess. “Ava’s a lovely girl. You should be very proud of her.”

If she’d hoped her words would appease Winchester, his grim expression told her otherwise. “We’re a tight-knit family. And we have a close community here with high moral standards. We don’t believe in encouraging our fifteen-year-olds to have sex.”

“Of course, you don’t.”

His angular eyebrows crept closer together. “Yet you’ve been giving them all the information they need to sneak around behind their parents’ backs.”

“Our schools have a strong health curriculum in place,” Kelly said. “A curriculum that’s in line with our community values.”

Tess tried to bite her tongue but couldn’t. “Then how do you explain Tempest’s high rate of teen pregnancy?” It was a bluff. She had no idea what the town’s pregnancy rate was, but based on every available statistic tracking the effectiveness of abstinence-only education programs, she could guess.

Kelly flinched but quickly recovered. “Statistics show abstinence education in middle school significantly reduces sexual activity.”

“Your daughter isn’t in middle school.”

“Abstinent girls aren’t exposed to STDs.” Kelly crossed her arms over her chest in a gesture that seemed more self-protective than aggressive. “If you’ve seen the studies, Miss Hartsong, you’d know these girls are in less danger of being caught in abusive relationships or being exposed to STDs. And you’d understand that these same girls have higher self-esteem than girls who are sexually active when they’re too young. When my daughter practices abstinence, she knows a boy likes her for herself instead of using her for sex.”

Tess was getting hot under the collar. “I’m well aware of the studies, Mrs. Winchester, but those studies also point out the programs’ weaknesses. Teens in abstinence-only programs still have sex at the same rate as other teens, but the teens in programs like yours get pregnant at a higher rate because they’re less likely to use contraception.” She tried to soften her tone. “I know parents want to believe talking to their children about abstinence will make it happen, but teenagers have never done a great job of keeping their pants on, and all the talking in the world doesn’t seem to change that.”

Winchester puffed up as if he’d been shot full of helium. “Which is where parental influence comes in. We’re not the ignorant Southern hillbillies you seem to think we are.”

“I don’t think—”

He pushed his finger toward her face. “You’re an outsider. You’re not part of this community, yet you think you can come in here and tell us how to run our schools.”

“I don’t want to run anything, Mr. Winchester. Your kids came to me.”

“They wouldn’t have come to you if it weren’t for that display you put up at the Broken Chimney,” Kelly said. “I talked to you about it. I asked you very respectfully to take it down, but you refused.”