Dance Away with Me(91)

Phish jerked his head toward the scarred wooden barstool he’d retrieved from the backroom. As she edged toward it, she remembered the information sheets still sitting on the kitchen table in the cabin.

Savannah came in through the front door, along with Quincy, the bartender at The Rooster. Tess cleared her throat. No matter how unnerved she was, she had to project confidence. But her voice wouldn’t cooperate. “Th-Thank you all for showing up.”

“Can’t hear you!” somebody shouted.

She spoke louder. “Let me . . . Let me start with a question. Does anybody here . . . Do any of you think it’s a good idea for young teens to be parents?” Fortunately, no one raised a hand. “Great. We’re all in agreement so far.”

“Doubt that’ll last long,” Phish called out from behind the counter.

The general laughter that followed eased a few of the knots in her stomach. She took a deep breath. “Parents have a big role in making these years healthy ones for their kids.”

“Tell your girls to keep their legs crossed,” Mr. Felder called out.

“How about telling the boys to keep their damn pants zipped?” Mrs. Watkins countered.

Tess raised her voice to speak above them. “I hope we all know it’s not so simple.”

Reverend Peoples stepped forward, full of disapproval. She hurried on before he could speak. “Let’s go back to Biology 101.” They mercifully quieted enough for her to offer a brief lecture on the physiology of puberty and development of the teenage brain. “Our brains don’t fully develop until late teens or even early twenties. This means teens have an immature prefrontal cortex—the exact part of the brain that assesses risk.” She slid off the stool. “This is the part of the brain that goes missing in action when a kid decides it’d be super fun to steal a six-pack and go joyriding. It’s also the part of the brain that’s likely to ignore sex education lectures that begin and end with abstinence.”

“Go ahead and tell the kids how to screw around instead!” A fierce-looking woman with a big blond bouffant rose from her chair.

Tess fought against losing her temper. “You can talk to your teens about the emotional consequences of having sex before they’re ready and give them the information they need to stay safe.”

“That’s what I did.” Mrs. Watkins fingered the crucifix at her neck. “Y’all need to listen to her.”

Emboldened by this small show of support, Tess said, “Some of your teens are struggling in ways you may not realize. Gay and transgender kids, for example—”

“We don’t have those kinds here!” a man she didn’t know shouted.

“Shut up, Frank,” Phish called out.

“I don’t know what world you’re living in,” Jordan’s mother said to Tess, “but the last thing my daughter wants to talk to me about is sex.”

“That’s why they need another trustworthy source of information.”

“Now she gets to her real agenda. Our schools.” Brad Winchester ambled forward, commanding the room. “Ever since Miss Hartsong got here, she’s been determined to ignore our values. She’s gone behind our backs, talked to our children without our permission, saying only God knows what. She sees us as a bunch of country hicks who aren’t capable of deciding what’s best for our own families. She wants our schools to do a parent’s job.”

Everything Tess yearned to say pushed at her tongue—that their school policy had less to do with a teenager’s well-being and more to do with parental anxiety—but the bouffant blonde was back on her feet. “I don’t want my kids getting an instruction book on all the ways to have sex!”

“Then you’d better keep them away from Miss Hartsong,” Winchester replied, “because that is the exact kind of information she’s handing out.”

A hoarse moan cut through the commotion as Savannah grabbed the wall and looked down at the floor in disbelief. “My water broke!”





Chapter Twenty




Savannah doubled over, clutching her abdomen as her mother had done earlier in this very same place. Kelly rushed to her side, where she was quickly joined by four other women. They crowded around Savannah, standing too close.

Just then, Ian came through the door. He looked travel-mussed and harried. Ignoring the disruption surrounding Savannah, he searched the crowd for Tess. His pace quickened as he spotted her. “I tried to get back earlier, but—”

“I want my mother!” Savannah cried from the doorway.

He turned toward the commotion. “What’s happening?”

“Savannah’s water broke.”

He took in the cluster of women. Looked down at Tess. Rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Shouldn’t you . . . Check on her?”

“No reason to.” Plenty of people were around to get Savannah to the hospital. This time, Tess was in the clear.

Savannah howled with another contraction. Tess didn’t have to look at her watch to know that barely two minutes had passed since the previous one. “She’ll be fine.”

He nodded slowly. “Maybe somebody should tell her that.”

“It’s her first,” Tess said firmly. “First babies take forever.”