NINE

She got out of the car, her head wrapped in a turquoise scarf, wearing sunglasses as big as the whole state of Georgia, and lipstick that matched the Mustang. When she saw all of us standing there, including the mule, she lowered her sun shades and raised her eyebrows. My stomach dropped to my feet. This was going to be awful.

“Is that your mom?” Biz could barely breathe. “She looks like a movie star!”

Mama made her way around the side of the car and sashayed across the yard, waving one arm in the air. “Well, hi, y’all! Sugar, do we have our first guests?”

Her pointy high heels sank into the grass, almost causing her to trip and fall. “Oops, silly me!” She slipped off the shoes one at a time and tiptoed barefoot toward us. “I hope that dog of Deacon’s has its own private place for you know what other than in our grass!”

Lucy and Kendra giggled. Sonnet pulled the pencil from behind her ear and scribbled in the tiny notebook again. Biz’s eyes popped.

“And she’s so nice!” she said.

Wait for it, I thought. Just wait.

Mama stopped short when she saw James’s leg. Or no leg. Or thing that was there instead of a leg. And she stared. With her mouth open. Just the way she’d always said made me look like trailer trash. I pleaded with my eyes for her to stop, but she didn’t see because her attention was aimed only on the titanium stick attached to the black sneaker.

“Mama. Mama!”

She startled and looked around, like she’d just noticed all of them. “Oh! Excuse me.”

“This is my mom, Mrs. Baird,” I said.

She untied the scarf and pulled it off her head. Masses of wavy hair fell past her shoulders.

“This is James,” I said.

He reached out and shook her hand. “James Parker, nice to meet you. These are my sisters.”

The girls said their names one at a time. Mama looked from one to the other, her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide. “Y’all are all from the same family? Well, it’s so nice to meet you. Isn’t it nice to have new friends, sweetheart?”

“We came to see if Maggie wanted to swim,” James said.

“And an invitation to swim, too!” she exclaimed.

That was not what I expected. First of all, I didn’t know these people were already my friends. Except for Biz, I couldn’t remember which sister was which. And second, shouldn’t I be able to use the Georgia rules to my advantage on an as-needed basis? Like now? In Georgia, Mama would have to meet their parents before I’d be allowed to go off with them. She didn’t even know about the two-moms part yet.

Mama plastered a smile on her face. “I didn’t know there was a pool nearby. Is there a country club I haven’t sniffed out yet?”

“Around here, families swim in the river,” James said. Emphasis was on families.

Silence.

Mama looked from girl to girl, then right to James’s leg without even stopping at his face.

“I see. Well,” she said slowly, “my only problem would be there’s no lifeguard at a river, and we’re used to swimming under the supervision of a trained professional.”

Maybe this was going to go my way. Maybe Mama would save me from an outing to a river with all these people I didn’t know, who talked about things that were never even whispered at the country club. At least not in front of me.

“James is our lifeguard,” Biz said.

“Yeah, James is our lifeguard,” Lucy echoed. The other two girls nodded.

Mama’s eyes focused on his leg again. “I don’t—”

“I understand,” James interrupted. “But I’m still a better athlete than most of the kids in my school. And I’m CPR certified.”

Maybe Mama felt a little ganged up on. Or maybe she thought I wanted to go with them, because she let it go, right then and there.

“I suppose if you’re certified and all, you ought to be able to watch over my precious for a swim in the river.”

“Yay!” Biz high-fived me.

Lucy raised her china-blue eyes, which made Mama’s whole face soften. “Is it okay if afterward we go to the store for ice cream?”

Mama bent down and got close to her face. “Well, aren’t you just the most adorable thing ever? And what store do you mean, sweetheart?”

“We own the country store near town,” James said. “Little over a mile up the road from here. Sue and Kori will be there. I can drive Maggie back if it’s too late.”

“Who are Sue and Kori?”

Here it comes.

“My moms,” James said without hesitating. “We have two of them.”

On behalf of this family who would now be judged mercilessly at our dinner table, I flinched. Visibly.

Mama’s shoulders rose so slightly no one else probably saw it. But I did. I knew her body language as well as I knew the name of the hair color she used every month to keep her roots from showing.

“Two moms. I see. Is there a father involved?”

OMG. “Mama, that’s none of—”

“It’s okay, Maggie,” James said. “We all have different fathers. Sonnet, Biz, and Lucy are adopted. Haily and I are from when our moms were married to husbands. Kendra is a foster.”

When James singled her out, Kendra scowled and turned sharply away.

“And how many does that make altogether?”

“Six. Five girls and me. Haily’s working at the store today.”

“Is that so,” Mama said slowly. She cocked one hip and pulled the scarf through her fingers, looking suspiciously at each of them, one at a time. Then she caught my eye. I don’t know what she misunderstood about my expression, but she uncocked the hip, tied the scarf around her neck like a cowgirl, and said, “Well, James, all I have to say is that Vermont is a very interesting state.”

Then she waltzed back across the yard, stopping at the new Mustang to gather her purse and shopping bags.

“I’ll take you for a ride in the new car later, sugar,” she called. “In fact, I’ll take all of y’all! Isn’t it exciting? I’ve waited my whole life for a red Mustang convertible.”

She kissed the tip of her fingers and pressed them onto the hood of the car before disappearing inside the house. This time it was Biz’s turn to drop her mouth open.