Late Bloomer

Thank you for downloading this Simon & Schuster ebook.

Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.

To Sara and Bob Schwager, without whom this book could not have been written.

Prologue

Indigo Valley, Pennsylvania: 1981

Ten-year-old Cady Jordan sat on the front porch swing and hugged her knees as she watched the family’s belongings being loaded into a big yellow truck with the words MAYFLOWER MOVING AND STORAGE printed on the side. She turned slightly on the swing to see if her pink bike was still behind the holly bush at the side of the house, where she’d hidden it earlier.

It was.

Her heart kicked up a beat as she tried to figure a way to cajole her mother into letting her make one last trip down to the Judas Grove to say good-bye to her friends. She ran her mother’s possible objections over in her mind. She would get dirty and need a bath. The cleaning supplies and the towels were packed already; therefore, she had to stay clean until the church supper and the final round of good-byes. The Judas Grove was a dangerous place to play was the second objection. The third objection would be that her mother didn’t care for the Hollister twins. The truth was, her mother didn’t like Mrs. Hollister because she wore skimpy clothes and lots of makeup, and one time she’d seen Mr. Hollister pinch Mrs. Hollister’s bottom in full view of everyone at the church picnic. The fourth objection, and possibly the worst, was her father. For some reason he hated the Judas Grove, as the kids called it. His face always turned red, and his eyes got mean and hard when it was mentioned.

She heard her name being called. She looked down at the Mickey Mouse watch on her wrist, a gift from her grandmother, and winced. If she was going, she had to go soon or the others would leave. She had to show up, she just had to. Even if she pedaled as fast as she could, she knew time was running short. “I’m on the swing, Mom.”

Agnes Jordan came out to the porch. “You look like you’re up to something your father wouldn’t approve of. Are you, Cady?”

Cady shook her head. “Mom, what does sanct-ta-moneus mean?”

“Good Lord, Cady, where did you hear such a big word?” her mother demanded. Cady wished there was a smile on her face. Her mother hardly ever smiled even when she tucked her into bed at night. She had never, ever, seen a smile on her father’s face. Her grandmother, on the other hand, smiled all the time.