“He insists he must discuss it with you, the owner. He was waiting for you after Catherine’s private lesson, but your class ran late so he left. He told me to let you know he’ll be phoning you tomorrow.”

The billionth sigh of the day shuddered out of her lungs. Okay. No big deal. For some reason, Catherine Porter’s father was chomping at the bit for a few minutes of Miranda’s time. Clearly he wouldn’t take no for an answer, so she’d just suck it up and have a brief conversation with him tomorrow.

“All right. Thanks for letting me know,” she told Elsa. “I’ve got to take off now. You’ll lock up after your evening lesson?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She waved good-bye and left the office, heading for the empty studio where she’d left her daughter. When she poked her head in, she saw Sophie sprawled on a pile of blue mats, playing with the new doll they’d picked out a couple of days ago. Miranda had taken the kids to the mall after kindergarten for the sole purpose of replacing Sophie’s beloved Belinda; fortunately, Belinda’s successor, Emily, was a big hit so far.

“Time to go, Soph,” she called out. “We have to pick up your brother.”

Sophie hopped off the mats, tucking Emily under her arm as she dashed over and threw herself into Miranda’s legs with a hefty whoomp.

Miranda laughed and stared down at her daughter. “What’s this about?”

“Do you still love me, Mommy?” A pair of big brown eyes gazed imploringly at her.

“Why on earth would you ask me that, sweetie? Of course I still love you!”

Relief flooded her daughter’s face. “Promise?”

“I promise, Soph, I still love you. I will always love you. Always and always and always.”

“Pinky promise?”

Miranda promptly squatted down to the floor and stuck out her pinkie. After a second, Sophie offered a pinkie in return and they sealed the deal.

“Now,” Miranda said, incredibly disturbed by this entire exchange, “can you tell me why you thought I didn’t love you anymore?”

“’Cause you ignored me in class t’day when I tried to show you my plié.” Sophie pouted. “And yesterday you only read one story after dinner and you usually read two and Jase said maybe you were tired ’cause our house is underwater and then he said maybe we would hafta live with Sef forever but I said we wouldn’t ’cause Sef is mean ’cept sometimes he’s not mean, sometimes he’s nice, but then he stops being nice when he sees that we see he’s being nice.”

It took a few seconds to make sense of everything her daughter had said. Rising to her feet, she took Sophie’s hand, then picked up the two dance bags she’d left by the door. She decided to address one point at a time.

“First of all, if I ignored you today, I didn’t mean to. I probably just didn’t hear you, sweetie,” she assured her daughter, who was clutching her hand so tightly Miranda’s bones ached. “And remember we talked about how when there are ten other little girls in the studio, I have to pay attention to all of them instead of just one?”

“I remember.”

“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, Soph, but I promise, I didn’t do it on purpose, okay?”

“’Kay.”

They exited the building and walked hand in hand to the parking lot behind the school. Miranda tried to remember Sophie’s next complaint. Right, the stories.

“And your brother was right. I was very tired yesterday and that’s why I only read one story. Hey, know what Andre just called me?”

“What?”

“Superwoman.”

Sophie giggled. “That’s funny.”

“Kind of, but see, it’s not true.” She lifted her daughter into the backseat and buckled her up, then knelt in front of the open door. “I’m not a superhero, Soph. I can’t do everything, and sometimes I get tired and cranky. I know that might not be fair to you and Jase, but sometimes you guys get tired and cranky too, right?”

“Right.”

“So what do you say we agree not to get upset with each other at times like those? Deal?”

Sophie smiled. “Deal.”

Uneasiness swelled in Miranda’s stomach as she reached the final topic of discussion. “And I don’t want you to worry. We’re not going to live with Seth forever. He’s just being a good friend to your mom and giving us a place to stay until our apartment is all fixed up.”

Sophie brought her doll up to her chest and began playing with Emily’s silky black hair. She avoided Miranda’s eyes as she whispered, “Do you like Sef more than you like me and Jase?”

Her heart squeezed. “Oh, sweetie, of course not. I like Seth, he’s a good friend of Mommy’s, but I could never like him more than you and Jason. I could never like anyone more.”

“Promise?”

“Pinky promise,” she replied, sticking out her baby finger.

They shook pinkies again, and then Miranda teasingly tugged on her daughter’s ponytail and got up. “Okay, now we need to pick up your brother before he thinks we abandoned him.”

She slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, then pulled out of the lot and merged into the late afternoon traffic. A glance in the rearview mirror revealed Sophie playing with her doll, but suddenly Sophie’s head lifted and she locked gazes with her mother.