Chapter Thirty-Six. Cat
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CAT
There is no better feeling in the world than waking up sober, my mind rested, my stomach not tangled up in knots.
This is what they mean by one day at a time.
In the morning light, it seems so obvious that I was mistaken.
That the Silverado behind me was just a coincidence. The sounds I heard were only the wind.
Mark dropped off Olivia and Hannah after my showing this morning, and then Melanie swung by to collect us. She was a hair late after getting stuck at the hospital.
Did you talk to Iggy at the orientation? she’d asked once we were on the road, her eyes flicking up to the rearview mirror to check on the girls. They sat in the way back of the minivan, heads bent together, whispering and giggling over their phones.
No, why?
She shook her head, eyes back on the road.
I just feel bad for her. She’s going through a lot.
Melanie is good at keeping her cards close, stuffing down her emotions, but I know she isn’t thrilled about today—the four of us shopping for pageant dresses in Austin.
She’s trying to put on a brave face for Hannah’s sake.
I turned toward the window just as we came around a bend that opened up to the heart of the Hill Country.
The green bluffs, usually gorgeous domes curving toward the open blue sky, were shrouded today.
A cold fog, like the heavy fumes of dry ice, had settled into the deep crevices that scar the terrain between the hills.
Now I’m sitting on a white tufted settee in the back of Z Couture, a boutique in The Domain filled from wall to wall with dresses for every occasion imaginable, rainbow of glitter and tulle.
The curtain of the dressing room pulls back and Olivia steps out.
Tears spring to my eyes before I can stop them.
The dress is gorgeous on her, like she’s been dipped in silver, the figurine on top of a trophy.
But it’s her face that undoes me, the sparkle of her eyes, the simple fact that I’m here to see it. My throat tightens.
She pulls at the tag and gives me a look.
“It’s really expensive.” I know exactly how much it costs.
Almost everything I’ve saved, a deposit and at least a month’s rent in a new place of my own.
“It’s perfect,” I tell her. Because I know Mark will be okay letting me stay a little while longer in the model home.
I’m lucky we’re on the same page, the page he’s always been on, honestly: We put Olivia first.
Her smile glows a hundred watts as she smooths her hands down her hips, turning toward the mirror. I’m grateful she is still young enough that something so simple can make her so happy.
The curtain of the dressing room down the way slides open, metal rings scraping along the rod, and Kennedy Claire steps out, Sarah Lynn trailing behind her.
“I thought that was your voice,” she says to me.
Her eyes sweep over Olivia before she tucks an opaque garment bag into the crook of her arm. “Isn’t that pretty?”
Olivia looks down at her dress, the smile lingering faintly. Hannah bounds over to Sarah Lynn, tugs her arm, and whispers something that makes Sarah Lynn smirk.
“You’re lucky,” Kennedy Claire says. “Finding something off the rack. We’ve been through three rounds of alterations with Sarah Lynn. But you hardly need any tailoring.” She tips me a closed-lipped smile. “See you at rehearsal, ladies.”
I watch my daughter glance back at the mirror, doubt clouding her face where joy was only a moment ago. And as the shop bell chimes, an unreasonable anger wells up inside me—that primal, mama bear instinct to claw back what Kennedy Claire just stole.