Free Safe from Harm (9781101619629) by Stephanie Jaye Evans Page A

her hair and her hands. Baby Bear had roused himself when I raised my voice. He tried to push his nose between her fingers and when he couldn’t, he snaked his tongue through and licked whatever he could reach.
    â€œDad,” she said through her fingers.
    â€œI mean it.” My heart was thumping.
    â€œI know. But I didn’t. I only said it. It came out, is all.” Her breath caught.
    Okay. I needed to calm down. I can overreact sometimes. I sat on the edge of her bed and heard it groan under the combined weight of Jo, Baby Bear and me. I gave Baby Bear a shove and he dropped reluctantly to the floor. He thought he should be the one up there comforting Jo. He thought he would do the better job. He probably would have. I put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a squeeze.
    â€œI don’t care what Phoebe’s done. I don’t care what she has said. How we treat other people, that’s about who we are,
what
we are, not who they are. You are called to be better than those words.”
    â€œI
know
, Dad. It was a figure of speech, okay? I didn’t mean it.”
    â€œWords have power.”
    â€œI
said
I didn’t mean it.”
    â€œPhoebe’s had a hard time since moving here.”
    â€œDad. I was about to say that Phoebe isn’t totally awful because her life does stink, and if she’s telling the truth, it’s all her stepmom’s fault because she got pregnant with Toby and Tanner when Phoebe’s dad was still married to Phoebe’s mom—”
    â€œNow, now, Jo—”
    â€œAll over again, I’m feeling sorry for her—but who knows if she’s telling the truth? Because, Dad, I don’t want her dead, but that girl is a bald-faced liar!”
    Ahh, gee. You know, in this case, I really hoped Phoebe was a liar. I did. Divorce is wrenching and complicated no matter the factors, but to have your dad start a new family before he had stepped out of the first, that’s harsh.
    â€œWhen did Phoebe lie to you?”
    â€œShe has, that’s all! So then she starts on how classical ballet is a dead art, with nothing new to say and no new way to say it, and I was selling myself body and soul to an arcane system. What does ‘arcane’ mean, anyway? And why would anyone give up a boy like Alex to go practice toe points . . .”
    Jo got up, quilt about her shoulders, and did a spastic parody of
en pointe
. “She did it like that. I said I
wasn’t
giving up Alex and she smiles like a nutria with a can of drippings and says if I go away for the summer, maybe I
am
! And Alex smiled! But I’m
going
, Dad, I’m
going
! This has been my dream forever.” And there were tears.
    I held my arms out. “Come here, baby girl.” I wrapped my arms about my daughter, picked her up, quilt and all, and settled in the rocking chair in her room. I’d rocked her in this very chair when she was first born. Rocked Merrie in it, too. Baby Bear roused himself to stand next to his mistress, pushing at her with his wet nose and rumbling his concern.
    I said, “Jo, Phoebe is a hungry, hungry girl. I think she’s been hungry a long time, hungry for the things you have and she doesn’t. I don’t blame her for that. She’s lost her mom—”
    â€œI don’t think Phoebe’s mom was a good mom.”
    â€œJo, most
any
mom is better than no mom.” I gave her a little shake. “You
are
going to New York. You are going to take the opportunity that you have worked so hard for and God made possible for you and that your mom and I are paying out the nose for.” That got me a muffled giggle. “I think Alex has better sense than to choose Phoebe over you just because she’s available and you’re away. But if he doesn’t, then that boy doesn’t deserve you, you hear me? If Alex is that dirt stupid, I don’t want to know him.”
    Still muffled, “He’s