“Caught a cold,” Gloria said. “Can’t keep enough tissues in the house.” I put my hand on my head. It was warm. I was probably going to start sneezing any second. Then she called out to me. “Bids! You got company.”

When I went to the door Darrell was there too. He had a black T-shirt and jean shorts and black boots with laces. His ear was still red.

“Hi,” I said. I rubbed my nose. “I got a cold.”

Gloria put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me in. She was warm and soft.

“Yech,” Shar said. “You better not snot all over me.”

Darrell bumped her. “Don’t be a dick, Shar. Say what you got to say.”

Her eyes rolled around. “Aunt Erma told me I got to say sorry.” She tapped her foot and stuck out her lip. “So, there. Sorry. I said it.”

Darrell smacked her in the head. “There’s something seriously wrong with you.” Then he looked at me. “We’re sorry, Maisy. For the board and everything. Shar was just joking around.”

“For what?” Gloria said. She took her hand off my shoulder. “What board?”

Darrell coughed. “Um. They—they were just being bored, Mrs. Janes. Then Shar got rude and told Maisy to get home.”

“She said that, did she?”

Shar pulled her lip in.

“Well, Maisy won’t be needing to go over there no more. I’m going to have to stop my shifts at Stafford’s until I figure things out. And you can tell that to your mother, Darrell. Exactly what I said.”

Shar took a big step back. Darrell scritched his head. “I’ll let her know, Mrs. Janes. And I’m sorry she took off. I came to check on her, I did.”

“What do you mean?”

“Followed her down to your house.”

“You were here?”

“Yeah. I knocked on the door for ages, and then I saw lights go on inside, so I figured she was okay if she was home.”

He smiled at me. My insides got a tiny bit warm. I looked at Darrell’s arms and I could see his muscles. I bet he was strong. He wouldn’t be scared of a wolf. Maybe if he went down to the basement he could open the door and wrestle Rowan out. I smiled back at him and tugged on Gloria’s sleeve, but Gloria started to close the door.

“I don’t got nothing to say to you, Sharlene. I hope I don’t see you coming back here for a very long time.”

Shar’s mouth dropped open and I saw her two gray teeth.

“But thank you, Darrell. I appreciate you trying to look out for Maisy. She got to go back to bed now.”

Click. Our yellow door was closed. I could hear Shar and Darrell stomping down the steps. Darrell told Shar she was a real bonehead. Shar didn’t say nothing back.