He shrugged, gulping some Coke. “Did they agree not to see the daughters? I mean, that was Maggie’s edict, right?”
“Actually…one of the daughters was there. Tessa was staying at the house.”
His eyes widened. “Seriously? The thick plottens,” he joked. “I mean, she is at the top of Maggie’s ‘names not to mention in my presence’ list.”
“Yeah. I was shocked to see her,” she admitted. “Kind of lost it, to be honest.”
His smiled as if he knew quite well what “kind of lost it” meant for Crista.
“You have every right to be upset,” he said. “And if Maggie ever found out she’d been there?—”
“She has dyslexia.”
He stared at her, lowering the bottle, glancing at the open children’s book. “I know, Crista. That’s why I’m sitting here reading instead of working.”
“No, I mean Tessa Wylie has dyslexia.”
He leaned back. “Huh. Really. Did you know that when you were kids? Was she…different?”
She shot him a look, hating how they all thought dyslexia was some horrible disease. Maggie refused to say the word, as though that would make it go away. Anthony was obsessed with how it could ruin a person’s life. And Crista fretted over what it meant for her daughter’s future.
Based on Tessa, they were all wrong.
“She’s perfectly normal, and was when we were young. And she came right out and told me it’s ‘not a death sentence.’ I’d appreciate you remembering that.”
“I know, I know. But it can make life difficult. Starting with being older than all your peers in school, which I don’t want for Nolie.” He leaned forward, intensity in his light brown eyes. “When they hold a kid back a few years? That’s hard, Crista. And for Nolie? Well, she’s already the tallest girl in the dance class and stands out. Imagine in school if she’s?—”
She held out her hand and cut him off.
“Tessa’s managed just fine,” she said, not wanting to get into an argument about Nolie’s perfectly normal height. “She’s an event planner and starting her own business, with Lacey, if you can believe that.”
“Lacey isn’t working for Ryan?”
“She quit and went down to Destin,” she told him. “Jonah’s there, too.”
“Jonah?” He looked stunned. “Geez, is anyonenotthere?”
“Me. And Nolie.”
His brow furrowed, not understanding what she meant.
“Anthony, Tessa might be able to help.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice to make her point. “She knows…tricks. She knows how to function in the world with dyslexia and told me over and over it’s not so bad. She offered to help Nolie.” She swallowed and searched his face. “She might be the answer we need right now.”
He stared at her. “An event planner? So not a teacher or tutor with an advanced degree in childhood learning?”
“No, but she’s got real-life experience,” she said. “Honestly, I was hesitant, too. I don’t even like the woman—and I hate her father, who passed away last year.”
His brows knit together as he processed all this information with his sharp engineer’s brain. But it was his heart that put the real worry in his eyes—a father’s heart.
“I don’t know, Cris.”
“What else can we do? Nolie hates the special classes, and she really hates”—she flicked her hand at the books—“this. So what if it’s an unorthodox approach? It’s a solution that fell into our lap and Maggie is gone, so I could take her down now. We have to do something or they’re going to make her take that test, and then they are going to hold her back!”
It felt like her exclamation echoed in the quiet kitchen, bouncing off the walls like she wanted to, letting the out-of-whack emotions take over.
“I’m not opposed to unorthodox—if it works. And…” He inched closer, narrowing his eyes. “You must be truly desperate if you’ll lie to your mother. That’s a first.”
She fluttered the pages of the frog and butterfly book.
