Chapter Four #2
This place was unreal. Within minutes, Caroline had Skye gushing about fabric colors and discussing skirt twirl preferences.
Most little girls wanted to feel like a fairy-tale princess; mine wanted to feel like that librarian from The Mummy.
Not quite a cowgirl, but a book-smart historian brave enough to go on adventures in the unknown.
Skye even had a picture of the character on her phone and asked Caroline to find a similar pin-striped blouse.
And Caroline fully indulged her instead of questioning why a tween girl idolized a fictional twentieth-century scholar.
Somewhere outside, a bell tolled, which Renee took as her signal to draw the curtains and twist the lock on the shop door. She was giving us a little more privacy.
“I wanted to take a moment to thank you.” Renee lowered her voice. “For the amazing show last night, on behalf of all of Bravetown, thank you.”
“It was a pleasure, but you should really thank Addie for inviting me.”
“Addie? Oh. Adriana. Yeah, I have, and I will a few more times.”
I hesitated, but once Skye shut the curtain to the dressing room, I turned to the theme park’s director.
She had seemed friendly with Addie during the whole planning process.
From what I’d gathered, not everyone in town felt that warmly toward her.
All because of an album she released when she was twenty-one.
“How is she?”
Renee pursed her lips. “It took a little while, but she’s better.”
Better? Better than what? Fuck, here I was, considering Addie a close friend, and I had no idea how hard the last few years had truly been for her.
“I’m glad. If there’s anything I can do…”
“You already made sure she’s got a job for another year. Between two hundred concert tickets and more people flooding to the park this week, you two have just saved us the season.” She offered me a pained smile. “Which isn’t public knowledge, so I’d appreciate your discretion.”
“Of course.”
Skye threw the curtain back dramatically and stepped out in a perfect replica of the Mummy costume, down to the little neck scarf. She bounced on her heels and shook her right hand, happy stimming. “Dad, can we please get this? Please?”
“Only if you promise to tell me if you get too hot under all those layers, and drink enough water.” Temperature regulation didn’t always come naturally to her.
She groaned and rolled her eyes, but I saw the grin tugging at her lips.
“So I have to get those, right? To help me stay cool.” She pointed at the hats atop the accessory shelves.
Not the cowboy hats they sold at every kiosk in the park, but fancy ladies’ hats with wide brims, adorned with ribbons and flowers.
“Yeah, shit, you got me there.”
“Swear jar,” she cackled.
Renee covered her laugh with a cough.
“You get one.” I wanted the world for my daughter, but I didn’t want her to turn into a spoiled materialist. I’d grown up with hand-me-downs and had turned out fine.
Once Skye was fitted with a sun hat that matched Evie, the movie librarian, Renee waved for us to leave through the staff area in the back.
“I haven’t had popcorn yet,” Skye protested.
“I can have someone bring it to your hotel room. Would you prefer sweet or salty?”
“Da-ad.” I got the two-syllable whine again, but this time it was desperate. “I don’t want to leave yet.”
“Kiddo, there’s hundreds of people outside.”
“So?”
“Any other day, we might be able to fly under the radar, but after the show last night, they’d spot me from a mile away.”
“Please, we haven’t even been to the Journey Downstream yet. It shows all the animals that people met when first settling here centuries ago.”
Explaining the concept of celebrity had taken a little while, but nowadays she was usually pretty good about understanding why we had certain boundaries in place. Apparently, that understanding disappeared once we stepped into a history nerd’s dream.
“Honey, you know why that’s a bad idea.”
Renee took Caroline by the elbow and led her into the backroom, clearly uncomfortable with the argument I was about to have with my tween daughter.
“I never ask you to go anywhere! Please!” Skye stomped her foot.
This was ridiculous. This shouldn’t even be up for debate. “I know this place is great, but we can’t just walk out there.”
“Why not? Would it be so bad for the world to see that you take your daughter to a theme park?”
“The world doesn’t even know that I have a daughter, and if you want to change that, we can have a conversation about that, talk through everything it entails and whether or not you’re ready for it. But not here, and not now.”
“Fine, then I’m going without you.” She yanked her little satchel around and pulled out the little pink box with her earplugs and sunglasses inside. She’d come prepared for crowds. She’d already decided that she was ready. “Nobody knows who I am.”
“Come on, you know that’s not happening.”
She slipped her sunglasses on and fumbled the right earplug in. “If you didn’t want me here, you could have left me with Grandma and Grandpa. You brought me here. Deal with it.”
Maybe I should have pulled Skye aside to defuse the situation, but my limbs locked up at the mention of her grandparents. If the custody battle got ugly, Skye might end up in the headlines, and I had been meaning to prepare her for that.
Maybe this wasn’t the worst idea.
I’d played a local venue for a friend, and this was a family-friendly theme park.
As far as PR went, this was probably a great way to introduce Skye to the public.
Positive atmosphere, American small-town charm, and the costumes to prove that I was a committed dad.
Plus, Renee had promised us yesterday that a couple of Bravetownees could be our security and keep us a little shielded from the crowds.
“Okay.”
“Wait, really?” Her mouth dropped open.
“Yeah, but the second it becomes too much for either of us, we head back to the hotel room. Deal?” I held my hand out.
She grabbed my palm and shook it. “Deal.”