Free Hit the Beach by Laura Dower Page B

devoured chicken with mole sauce.
    After dinner, Stephanie asked if Madison wanted to play a card game or maybe Scrabble, but Madison wasn’t in the mood. Instead, she escaped to Dad’s office. She hadn’t written in her blog for more than a day, and she needed to go online—now.
    She’d been in the office for only a few minutes when she heard the front door slam.
    Dad.
    She started to get up to rush into the other room to say hello and tell Dad all about camp that day, but then she heard Dad yelling. She stopped in her tracks.
    “Come on!” Madison heard someone shout from the other room.
    The voices were like ones she had heard the night before, only louder, faster.
    “Please keep your voice down,” Madison heard Stephanie say more than once.
    This time, Madison could hear everything clearly. In fact, it was hard not to eavesdrop. She leaned against the door frame and pressed her ear to the door.
    “I didn’t plan this,” Madison heard Dad say. He sounded frustrated, angry, and tired. “This client is very important. My cell battery died and I didn’t realize it, I promise you—”
    “Save it,” Stephanie growled. “You should have found a way to call. Your daughter is here staying with us.”
    “I know. Maddie understands.”
    “That isn’t the point, Jeff,” Stephanie said.
    The sound of their voices dipped a little bit, so Madison pressed closer to the door. She could hear only bits and pieces of their dialogue.
    Suddenly, she heard a door opening.
    “Maddie?” her dad’s voice called.
    Madison shuffled backward and threw herself on top of Dad’s bed, pretending to be immersed in her work, or her laptop. She clicked a button, but nothing came on. Dad’s laptop was unplugged! She panicked: she needed to look busy. She just knew her dad was coming down the hall.
    The door opened slowly, but it was Stephanie standing there, not Dad. What was Madison supposed to say? A million things raced through her mind.
    Then she noticed Stephanie’s eyes. They were pink-rimmed, as if she’d been crying. The two of them just stood there and stared at each other blankly for a moment before Dad came into the room, too.
    “Hey, Maddie,” Dad said.
    “What’s going on?” Madison asked.
    Dad put his arms around Stephanie’s shoulders and pulled her close.
    “We’re okay,” he said. He kissed the top of Stephanie’s head as he addressed Madison. “Look, I’m sorry I was late tonight.”
    Stephanie took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, too, Maddie. I’m just a little tense these days,” she explained. “It’s work …”
    “Okay,” Madison shrugged.
    She knew something was up—way up. But she didn’t ask any more questions.

Chapter 9
    D AD ACTED SUPER NICE for the rest of the evening. After he apologized for missing dinner, he even invited Madison to use his laptop again.
    As Madison got herself set up at the computer, Dad slinked out of the room. Madison entered his password and clicked on the Internet browser key.
    SERVER BUSY.
    The TweenBlurt server had gotten busier than busy these days, with all of the new games and features offered on the site. The company had promised an update, but that hadn’t happened yet. While Madison waited for the server to come back online, she thought about all the crazy things that had happened since she’d arrived in Florida. This was the most jam-packed (or, as Gramma Helen would say, strawberry-jam-packed) vacation ever.
    Beeeeeep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
    Madison looked at the screen and grinned. She was finally online.
    After checking her e-mailbox—empty? Bummer!—Madison moved to some other areas of her favorite interactive site.
    First stop: BloggerBlurt. There were brand-new posts there from Fiona, Aimee, and Lindsay, in that order. But Madison completed her own blog entry before checking out the other ones. She didn’t want to derail her train of thought from the day at Camp Sunshine.
08-10
    I never thought I’d say this but: MANATEES ARE BEAUTIFUL. I