“Yeah,” he replied, because they hadn’t gotten around to talking about his work, not that he could talk about his work, but right then, even if he could, he wouldn’t. “You?”
“Great day,” she emphasized, giving him a look filled with meaning, then moving her attention to her daughter, which gave her look another meaning.
He touched her hip just because, but also to tell her he read and liked her meaning before he headed to his “station.”
Juno was already there.
“Okay,” Juno began to boss when he came up next to her. “The cabbage is drained. You put all that together.” She circled a hand to the bowls of filling ingredients. “I’ll get the wrappers ready and when you finish mixing that up, you can squidge it in the wrapper and we can—”
She stopped talking when a cell phone sounded somewhere in the house.
And then she was staring at the countertop, losing color in her face.
“Did I not turn off my ringer?” Pepper asked from where she was down the counter, making the teriyaki sauce.
Pepper started to move, but Juno moved faster, whirling and falling off the step so Auggie had to catch her before she took a header.
He set her on her feet, and she didn’t even notice he saved her from falling on her face.
She yelled, “Mom!”
Shit.
That was the phone Cisco had given to her.
Cisco hadn’t managed to get it back and things were such, Auggie hadn’t followed up on that.
Pepper turned to her girl.
The phone kept ringing.
“I’m just going to go turn off—” Pepper started.
“That’s my phone.”
Pepper stood still.
Yeah.
Shit.
“Dad gave it to me,” Juno admitted.
Hang on a second.
“He…what?” Pepper asked quietly.
“Iwasgonnatellyou,” Juno said, running the words together. “But then you said Auggie was coming over and we made the grocery list and went to the store and then we had to put stuff away and cut stuff up and—”
“I was there when we did all that, Juno,” Pepper said. “Your father gave you a phone?”
“Yeah,” Juno replied, her voice super soft.
And Aug wondered if she was lying to save her ass after connecting with Cisco or if something else was up.
“You guys carry on,” Pepper said in a tight voice. “I’ll be back.”
She then turned and took off.
He looked down to Juno. “Sweetheart, was it your dad who gave you that phone?”
She appeared perplexed. “Yeah. This weekend. On Satur—”
She cut herself off and her eyes got big as she understood his question and that he might know about Cisco.
He covered that by asking, “Why does your mom seem mad?”
“Because I’m not allowed to have one until I’m fifteen, maybe fourteen, if I’m mature enough.”
He nodded. “Can you mix the stuff up? We’ll fill the wrappers in a second.”
“Okay, Auggie,” she said.
He went after Pepper.
The double doors to the office were closed, and he hadn’t been there often, but in the times he had, he’d never seen them like that.
He knocked, and in about half a second, one side opened.
He saw she had her phone to her ear.
She caught his sweater in a fist, yanked him in and shut the door behind him.
“No, Corbin,” she spat into the phone, “our decision was that she’d be a lot older when she got—” Silence for a while, then, “That isn’t your choice to make.” More silence, and, “I cannot believe—” She was obviously cut off, then, “How old are you? Are you serious with this?”
She was staring unfocused at Aug’s shoulder, but after she asked that, her eyes found his and at what he saw in her face, he rested his hand on her waist, but there was nothing else he could do.
Not a thing.
She was ticked way the fuck off by whatever was happening, and it was out of his power to do anything to help.
“Right then, that’s enough said,” she stated in a final way. “Just to note, I’ll be confiscating the phone. She won’t be returning to your house with it.” Long pause, then, “As you just shared, it’s your prerogative and since Juno’s a minor, she can’t really own any property, so it will belong to you and as such, you’re within your rights to keep it at your house when she’s with me. But just to warn you, I’ll be having a conversation with her. And I swear, Corbin, if I see any shit happening, like she’s being weird about her appearance, or her clothes, or how her hair is, or falling behind on schoolwork, or her attention span takes a hit, whatever, we’re gonna have a problem. And it will be a serious one. Because she doesn’t need any of that social media shit weighing in her world right now. And you’ve introduced it. Because you’re a child. And that’s done. Good-bye.”
She took her phone from her ear and then bowed her head to turn it off.