Awake at Dawn (Shadow Falls #2)(75)

"You must have fallen asleep after you got here." Kylie bit her lip, realizing she'd broken one of Burnett's rules.

"Yeah." Her mom pressed a hand to her temple, a sure sign of the headache Holiday had said might come. "I was up all night at the airport hoping to get a flight on standby."

"You must be really tired," Kylie offered.

"Yeah. Gosh." She looked back at her watch and then stood from the car seat. "I hardly even remember arriving here. I must have parked and zonked out. Which is a good lesson for both of us. Don't drive while under the influence of exhaustion." Her mom reached over and gave Kylie a hug. "It feels so good to see you."

Damn it, if Kylie didn't feel herself breaking another rule. Tears filled her eyes and she hugged her mom really hard. Ahh, but her tears weren't just because of the last thirty minutes. No, they were because of Kylie's last sixteen years and the rarity of hugs from her mom. And because it brought to mind the hug she'd given her dad ... stepdad, before he'd left a few hours ago.

When her mom pulled back, she looked at Kylie. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Kylie batted at her tears. "It's just ... you don't hug me a whole lot."

"Something I guess we need to work on, huh?" her mom said, and touched her temple again.

"Yeah, we need to work on that," Kylie said. "But we're off to a good start." And they were. Kylie could feel it.

Her mom looked at her watch again. "I must have slept for an hour."

"You probably needed it," Kylie said, and started walking back through the gates.

"Yeah. I was going to call and let your camp leader know I was going to be here a little late. I remember what a big deal they made over visiting hours, but wouldn't you know it that my battery died in my phone. It's completely dead."

"Yeah. Luckily I walked by and saw your car and told Holiday you were here. But they are very strict about visiting hours." Please God, don't let me have to go through this again.

"Which I think is silly," her mom said. "It's like they are trying to hide something."

"Nope." Kylie lied through her teeth and almost felt bad doing it. "Not trying to hide anything." Except things like: people drinking blood, changing into any kind of creature imaginable like super-size bears or unicorns or wolves. Or girls who accidentally turn kittens into skunks. In other words, the usual stuff that happened at Shadow Falls.

"But they're still strict," Kylie said. "They say it's for our safety. Besides, you know, like you used to tell me. Rules are rules."

"I know and I'll try to follow the rules from now on."

Thank you, Jeezus! "Would you like to go sit in the dining hall?" Kylie asked.

"Or your cabin," her mom said.

"Sure." And then Kylie remembered Socks-her little skunk. "Uhh, I forgot that ... Della and Miranda invited a few girls over. The dining hall might work better."

"That's fine," her mom said. "Maybe I could grab something to drink so I could swallow a couple of aspirins. My head is pounding like I'm going to have an aneurysm."

An icy coldness suddenly settled around Kylie again. For a moment, she thought the ghost was back.

She looked at her mom. "Don't say that."

"Don't say what?" she asked.

"The aneurysm crap." It had been one of the many unsaid possibilities Kylie had considered happening with someone messing with your mind, and erasing your memories, and it still freaked her out.

Her mom smiled. "I'm just being a drama queen. I'm fine."

"Good," Kylie said. And when she looked at her mom, she recalled how frightened she'd been that she might never see her again. Another wash of emotion filled her chest. Kylie almost reached out to steal another hug. She didn't. Not just because it might make her mom suspicious, but because where her mom was concerned, she'd probably handed out her quota of hugs for the month.

Amazingly, thirty minutes later, they hadn't run out of things to talk about. Of course, they'd talked a good fifteen minutes about her mom's new makeover. All of which Kylie admitted liking. Sure, Kylie was still a little hesitant about the thought of her mom dating, but Kylie decided to cross that bridge when she came to it.

Then her mom noticed Kylie's "growth spurt."

"Tell me that's one of those Wonderbras making you look so big."

"'Fraid not," Kylie said. "I'm a growing girl."

That conversation led to her mom asking about Kylie's shopping trip.

But Kylie didn't want to talk about shopping, or anything that occurred during her recent trip downtown. So she told her mom that her dad had come to visit. They talked a good five minutes about him. Kylie hadn't given any details about the embarrassing scene she'd caused. She'd never even told her mom that she'd seen her dad in town.

She also opted out of telling her mom that her dad had broken up with his little girlfriend. For some reason, she didn't want to remind her mom about that.

"I'm glad you two talked," her mom said. "No matter what mistakes he's made recently, he is a good father."

"Yeah," Kylie agreed.

Then Kylie spent another five minutes telling her how much she loved camp and her interest in the cake decorating class, all prep work for getting a commitment from her mom about signing her up for the boarding school in the fall. Not that she planned to ask about it today. Face it, whether her mom remembered it or not, she'd had a pretty lousy day.