Emma stood under the porch roof.
“Are we going to be late?”
“Maybe.”
Then I remembered Vanessa. Four houses away. Brand-new SUV. Same school. Same morning.
I called her. She answered on the fourth ring.
“Are we going to be late?”
“Hey.”
“Vanessa, my car’s dead. Could Emma ride with you and Sophie just this once? I’ll figure out the car today.”
A beat of silence.
“Fine,” she said. “Have her ready.”
“Thank you.” I hung up and looked at Emma. “Vanessa’s taking you.”
“Fine. Have her ready.”
Emma blinked. “Really?”
“Why do you sound surprised?”
She shrugged and reached for her backpack.
By the time Vanessa’s SUV pulled up outside our house, the rain had gotten worse.
Emma was waiting by the curb under the umbrella. The wind kept blowing rain underneath it, so her jeans were dark below the knees.
“Why do you sound surprised?”
One sneaker had gotten splashed when she stepped too close to a puddle.
Vanessa slowed beside us. The passenger window lowered.
“Thank you so much!” I said.
Vanessa smiled thinly. Then she looked at Emma’s shoes, and her face dropped.
“Oh. No. She’s soaked.” Her eyes flicked toward the cream leather behind her. “I just got this car. I can’t have mud all over the seats.”
Vanessa’s SUV pulled up outside our house
Emma quietly moved one foot behind the other.
I stepped closer to the window. “I’ve driven Sophie every morning for two years. I’m asking you for one ride.”
“Sarah, don’t make this into some huge thing. I didn’t spend this much on a car to have someone else’s kid ruin it.”
“I can’t have mud all over the seats.”
From the back seat, Sophie said, “Mom—”
“Sophie, stay out of it.”
Emma’s face went red. “Mom, it’s okay.”
That hurt more than Vanessa’s words. My daughter was trying to make herself smaller over a wet pair of shoes.
“Mom, it’s okay.”
“Okay,” I said. I put a hand on Emma’s shoulder. “Come inside.”
Vanessa drove away. Sophie was turned around in the back seat, staring at us through the rear window.
Inside, Emma took off her wet sneakers by the door.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “If I hadn’t stepped in the puddle—”
“Emma, you did nothing wrong, honey.”
Vanessa drove away.
Her eyes filled anyway.
