Chapter 2

"Danny?" I hear Mom say, "Danny who?"

"I don't know," Stephen answers, "he just left his first name, said he knew you from your days in New York."

I see Mom breathe a hard breath and turn away from him. I guess she knows you Danny is, and she doesn't like it.

"Maddie, go to your room," she tells me. She has that look on her face. The look that says "Us grown-ups have something to talk about and we don't want you to hear it." But it doesn't matter. My room is so close to everything else in the house I can hear everything. Just to make her happy, I leave, and I close my door.

I press my ear up to the painted wood on my door. On the other side, Mom and Stephen sit on the couch. It's muffled, but I can still hear what they're saying.

"Lindsay, who's Danny?"

"Danny… was someone I knew a long time ago. I was a crime scene investigator in New York, and Danny was a colleague."

"A CSI?" I hear Stephen's shocked reaction. "And you came back to Montana to work as a waitress? Lindsay, with your background you could be making so much more of yourself!"

"Well a CSI just wasn't what I wanted. After Danny broke my heart I couldn't stand to be in that line of work anymore."

This Danny guy broke Mom's heart? Where?

I tiptoe out of my bedroom and into the bathroom. I open up the medicine cabinet and find a Band-Aid. I take it out to Mom, who looks at me, confused.

"What's this for?"

"For your heart, Mom. You said that Danny guy broke it." I tell her in my most innocent voice.

"Oh baby," she wraps me in her arms, hugging me. I can tell she's crying as she giggles at my offering. I don't usually do that sort of thing, but Mom said Mr. Elkins yelled at her again today, and I thought she needed some cheering up.

Stephen is just watching. I think he just likes to watch how Mom and me are when he's there. He's a nice guy, sure, but sometimes I just want him to go home! He spends too much time here anyway.

I go back to my room after kissing Mom on the cheek. I press my ear up to the door again after I hear them start to talk again.

"So who is Danny anyway? Was he just a colleague, a friend…" I hear Stephen ask again.

This is getting good. I want to know. Why does this guy get Mom so worked up if he's from New York and she hasn't seen him for a while?

"He's Maddie's father."

WHAT?