Free Out of the Shadows (Bellingwood Book 12) by Diane Greenwood Muir Page B

Heath and see what's going on and let you know. Thanks for telling me," she said.
    "We'll be fine here this evening without him. No worries."
    "Thanks." Polly hung up and looked at her phone. She knew it had been too good to last.
    After scrolling through her numbers, she landed on Heath's and swiped the call. It rang and rang and went to voice mail. "Heath?" she said. "This is Polly. You can't not show up and not tell me either. Call me as soon as you hear this. You don't want me to worry, right?"
    She swiped the call closed and then re-dialed. If he was ignoring her calls, she was going to pester him. How in the world did her dad live without knowing how to reach her? She remembered Mary telling her that it wasn't fair of Polly to make her father worry about finding her dead in a ditch. It had only taken one incident of him being white with worry when she showed up late one night. She'd discovered that making a quick call was better than the other consequences.
    This time Heath picked up. "Hello?"
    "Heath, it's Polly. Are you okay?"
    "Yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
    "Where are you?"
    "Still at school."
    "Are you doing something?"
    "Yeah. I'll catch a ride back to Bellingwood. No biggie."
    She took a deep breath. "Are you going to tell me what you're doing? You do know who you're talking to, right?"
    "It's cool. I'll talk to you later."
    "No, Heath. That doesn't work. Around here you ask permission before doing something, you don't ask forgiveness later. Eliseo was expecting you at the barn and you aren't there. That's irresponsible."
    "Sorry."
    She took a breath. "When do you expect to be home?"
    "I'll be there before supper."
    "You know we're talking about this tonight, right?"
    He sighed. "Yeah. Okay."
    The second conversation she'd had like this in ten minutes. High school boys were going to make her nuts.
    "Be safe."
    "Bye."
    She glanced at the kids around her table. The cats were sprawled out in a sunbeam on the floor beside Rebecca and both dogs were asleep on the sofa. Polly was so frustrated at the last two conversations she'd had, she wanted to scream. She knew she shouldn't let those stupid boys get to her, but dang, they drove her batty.
    "I'm going out," she said to Rebecca. "I'll be back."
    "Where are you going?" Rebecca asked.
    Polly scrambled to think. She didn't know. But she needed to say something. "Maybe to the grocery store, probably to the library to see Joss. Do you need anything?"
    The kids shook their heads and Rebecca looked up at her. "Everything okay?"
    "It will be," Polly said. "I'll be back in a while."
    Rebecca followed Polly to the back stoop. "You know it's Monday, right?"
    Polly turned and looked at her. "Yeah. Why?"
    "The library isn't open. The little kids are downstairs."
    "That's right." Polly dropped her head. "I'm going to run to the grocery store to get inspiration for supper tonight." She patted Rebecca's hand on top of the newel post. "I'll be back later."
    "Believe the best about him, okay?" Rebecca said.
    Polly chuckled. "Go back to your homework, Miss Intuitive. I'll see you later."
    She ran down the steps and out the door to her truck. In just a few minutes, she parked in front of the grocery store and went in. Nothing sounded good right now, so she hoped great inspiration would overtake her before she'd gone through the aisles.
    "I understand you made a new friend today."
    Polly spun when she heard Lydia's voice behind her. She stepped into a quick hug, holding two tomatoes in her hands. "I didn't see your Jeep," she said.
    "It's in back. Gotta keep you on your toes. I stopped at Sandy Davis's house and she said that you invited her to join y'all on Sunday nights." Lydia patted Polly's hand. "That was a nice thing to do."
    "I like her," Polly said. "She'll have fun with us. Camille is coming, too. Soon we'll fill the place with young career women."
    "As opposed to us old stay at home ladies?" Lydia asked with a chuckle.
    Polly clutched her heart. "Oh, you got me.