CHAPTER TWO
1051 Words
Lily
Hunter, my eleven-year-old brother, was in the family room, playing some Disney Infinity game with Case, my nine-year-old brother, so I patted their heads (they did not like to be interrupted during playtime) and walked into the kitchen. Rex was attached to my side, so I once again laid my hand on his head.
“Hi, Mom.”
Payton wasn’t my biological mom, but she’d adopted me when she and my dad had gotten married. She was my mom in all the ways that counted, especially considering my bio mom was a druggy and total waste of space.
“Hey, honey. How was school?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Um, totally sucky.”
“Because it’s school or for a specific reason?” she asked, sliding some kind of pie into the oven.
“Because it’s school.”
“Sorry, babe.” She opened the fridge. “I grabbed that cheese you like. Want some?”
“Yes, please.”
She handed me the wedge of Beecher’s Flagship Cheddar.
“Thanks.”
I had a small obsession with cheese. Okay, maybe not so small—but mostly because I had to have it every day. I had a few things I was passionate about and tended to also be vocal about them. Along with my obsession with cheese, I’d always wanted to visit Charleston, South Carolina. I was a sucker for antebellum mansions and American history, and it had always been a dream to explore the East Coast and the South. I’m not sure why I focused on Charleston so much, because several other places were rich in American history, but Charleston had always been my dream. Mom always said I was born at the wrong time in the wrong place. I should have been born in the 1800s and lived through the hoop skirt era.
“Cass asked me to do that showcase,” I said as I broke a piece of deliciousness off the triangle.
“I know. She told me,” Mom admitted. “It’s five thousand, baby girl.”
“No pressure,” I grumbled.
“I am sympathetic to your stage fright and the discomfort you feel having people watch you, but if you can put that aside and are chosen, it’s a nice chunk toward school.”
“What if I’m not chosen? Then I would have done all of that for nothing.”
“Valid argument,” Mom conceded. “But the likelihood of you not being chosen is pretty low.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all we ask. You know, the collective ‘we.’ The mom and dad who work hard to pay for a great education... those two. The ones who could use a five-thousand-dollar break?”
I giggled. “I hear you.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Are you making a peach pie?” I asked, changing the subject.
She grinned. “I am. Your dad requested it.”
I clapped my hands. “I love your peach pie.”
She waggled her eyebrows. “So does your dad.”
“Okay, gross. I did not need to know that.”
“How’s Maverick?” Mom asked with a laugh.
I sighed. “Not here.”
“I’m sorry, honey. This has got to feel like forever, huh?”
I nodded. I loved this about my mom. She never minimized how I felt or told me things like, “It’s only a year, or a few weeks, or whatever.” She let me cry on her shoulder and validated every emotion, distracting me when things got really tough.
I heard her gasp and then a towel was pressed against my face. “Your nose is bleeding,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, that happened when I was talking to Mav,” I said. “It stopped for a bit. It’s probably just allergies.” I held the towel against my lip again and waited.
“Maybe. I’m going to have Macey take a look. If she thinks it’s allergies, then I won’t rush you to the emergency room wrapped in bubble wrap.”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help my smile. Macey was Mom’s best friend and a registered nurse. She used to work in the emergency room at the hospital but started working in labor and delivery part-time after she had babies. Mom called her about everything more serious than a hangnail. It was the running joke, but Macey was really good at her job and could usually tell if an ailment was something minor or if a doctor needed to do tests, so everyone trusted her.
I heard the garage door go up and then Dad walked in, throwing his leather jacket and cut in the closet. My dad, Alex ‘Hawk’ James, was Treasurer of the Dogs of Fire Motorcycle Club, and tonight was their club meeting, which they referred to as “Church.”
“Hey, baby girl,” he said and hugged me as he walked into the kitchen, nodding toward the towel. “What’s up with that?”
“Hi, Daddy. Allergies, I think.”
He released me and pulled Mom in for a grosser than normal public display of affection, which I avoided by turning around and looking outside. So much for my opinion they didn’t smoosh. In my need to avoid the PDA, I almost stepped on Rex who still hadn’t left my side. I settled my hand on his head again as I kept pressure on my nose with the other.
“You call Mace?” Dad asked Mom.
“She’s coming over to borrow a dress, so she can look at Lily then.”
“Gonna go say hi to the boys.”
“Okay, baby,” Mom said.
Dad headed out of the kitchen, and I faced Mom again. “What time’s Macey going to be here?”
“I think she and Dallas are swinging by around nine.”
“Okay. I have some homework, so I’ll work on that before dinner.”
“Sounds good.”
I made my way upstairs and started on my homework. Dinner was pretty uneventful, the peach pie was divine, and then my world imploded.
Macey didn’t think it was allergies.
Macey was right.
- Writer
