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burn her fingers. Cassie had been waiting a long time for this moment. She’d been eighteen and pregnant when she’d run away with Duke. Now, at thirty-one, Cassie was wise beyond her years.

Chapter 2

    Cassie’s tiny two-bedroom apartment was walking distance from the school where Amiee attended seventh-grade classes. It was hard to believe her twelve-year-old daughter was in junior high.
    By the time she finished with the last hair appointment of the day, Cassie was tired. She’d been up since four that morning and the day had run her ragged both physically and emotionally.
    “I cooked dinner,” Amiee announced proudly, when Cassie walked in the door.
    “Great. What are we having? Cordon bleu? Steak Diane? Don’t tell me you made my all-time favorite … lasagna.”
    “Mom,” Amiee groaned. “I don’t know how to cook any of that stuff. I made tuna casserole, only I tried to do it on the stovetop ’cause the oven doesn’t work.”
    Cassie had complained to the landlord, not that it’d done her any good. The stove was on the fritz, the faucet leaked in the bathroom, and there was only intermittent hot water that went from hot to freezing cold without warning, most often when Cassie’s head was covered with shampoo.
    “I saw a recipe on YouTube and it looked pretty easy,” Amiee explained as she stirred the pot. She beamed with pride at beingable to cook dinner, and Cassie was pleased that Amiee took the initiative.
    Cassie flopped down on the sofa and removed her shoes before she rubbed feeling back into her toes. Next paycheck she’d get new shoes. Her current ones hurt her feet.
    “How did the court case go with Maureen?” Amiee asked, as she continued to stir the pot.
    “Really well.” Cassie had gotten the phone call shortly before she left the salon. Lonny had been sentenced to a one-year prison term with a $5,000 fine. He wouldn’t be bothering Maureen for a long time. “Maureen and her children are safe.”
    Amiee studied her mother. “That’s good! Right?”
    “Very good.” Cassie set her feet on the coffee table and leaned her head back to momentarily close her eyes. She didn’t dare let herself drift to sleep, although it was a tempting thought. After dinner she’d visit Maureen and then help Amiee with her homework. “How was school today?”
    “Okay, I guess.”
    “Anything important happen?”
    Amiee shrugged. “Not really. Claudia posted an ugly picture of Bailey on Facebook and then Bailey got mad and they wanted me to take sides. But I didn’t and then Bailey put a snarky comment about Claudia on Twitter that went all over school and then Mr. Sampson got involved and called both mothers to the school.” She paused and released a drawn-out sigh. “Do you want to hear more?”
    “Not really.”
    “I don’t blame you. The whole thing was cool.”
    “Cool?”
    “Bogus. Cool can mean a lot of things now, Mom, more than just … cool.”
    “Right. It’s hard to keep up with it all,” Cassie said, doing her best not to smile, as her daughter was completely serious.
    “I like Claudia, but Bailey is my BAE.”
    “Your what?”
    “My BAE. My best friend.
B
efore
A
nyone
E
lse. Get it?”
    “Oh.” It was getting more difficult to keep up with her daughter.
    Amiee brought down two mismatched plates from the cupboard and set them on the table and then carried over the pot with tuna casserole and placed it in the middle. “You ready to eat?”
    “Ready and able.” Cassie’s half-a-banana lunch had long since left her starving. She moved from the couch to the table and noticed that the tuna casserole resembled a thick soup more than a casserole. From the time she was young, Cassie hadn’t been fond of canned tuna fish, but she didn’t have the heart to mention it to Amiee, who couldn’t get enough of it. Her daughter’s all-time favorite food, however, was KFC. Cassie swore her daughter would eat an entire bucket of chicken by herself if given the