Picturing Perfect (40 page)
"All right girls, let's clean up your breakfast, please. You guys can come up front with me and help hold down the fort while Gigi's gone."
A couple hours later, the girls and I curled up on the couch in the front room and said bye to the last couple to leave.
"Bye, Dr. Richardson, Mrs. Richardson! Drive safe," I called out, waving.
"Bye, Kacie dear, we'll be thinking about you guys. Stay safe in this storm." Mrs. Richardson waved back. "See you in a few weeks."
"How are my three favorite girls?" Alexa bellowed as she came through the front door of the Inn. Piper and Lucy hopped off the couch and ran over to hug my best friend.
Alexa had been my best friend since the eighth grade. I had just moved here with my mom after my parents divorced, I was the new kid and also pretty shy. Add that together and you don't exactly head straight to the "cool kids" lunch table. Alexa was definitely a permanent fixture with the in-crowd. She was beautiful, even for an eighth grader. She had stick straight, jet-black hair that she wore very long, all the way down to her waist. The boys practically drooled when she walked by, even the high school boys.
She sat at the table behind me in science class with a couple of jocks. One day, the guys were bored and decided to pass their time by harassing me. I think it was the fifth spitball I felt bounce off the back of my head when I heard Alexa pipe up.
"Jesus, guys, do you think you'll ever grow up?" she scolded them. I was thankful to her for saying something, but didn't turn around to acknowledge her.
"Relax, Alexa, we're just goofing around," one of them snorted back.
"Well, if you're going to continue to act like immature assholes, I'm moving."
I heard papers rustling, a book slammed and finally her chair scraped across the science lab floor.
I was dying to turn around and watch what was happening, but I didn't dare. Not to mention, I was incredibly bummed that the girl who got them to stop was now switching seats. I just about jumped out of my skin when her large science book crashed onto the open table space next to me. I looked up just in time to catch the rest of her papers from sliding off the other side of the table.
"Hi New Girl, what's your name?" she asked, smiling sweetly at me as she sat down. She oozed confidence and I was instantly envious of that about her.
"Kacie. Kacie Jensen," I replied, trying my hardest not to sound like a scared little mouse.
"I'm Alexa Campbell. Those two jerk-offs back there are Mark and Max. Apparently they have yet to learn that the way to get a girl to notice you is to be nice to her, not pick on her as though we're still in second grade."
She glanced back at them and gave an over-exaggerated fake smile, batting her eyelashes. I finally felt confident enough to turn around and take a peek. Two giant football jerseys sat there with their shoulders hung, looking down like scolded toddlers.
From that day on, Alexa and I were best friends. At first, I was pretty sure she was using me to cheat off of, but we were inseparable and everyone knew it. I wasn't as openly self-confident as she was, but I was getting more comfortable in my own skin. I even ended up being very good friends with Mark and Alex. When Zach left and I moved home with the girls, Alexa told me they offered to find him and beat him up for me.
"You guys ready for all this rain tomorrow?" Alexa handed the girls each a sucker.
"Eh, I'll believe it when I see it," I said, waving her off nonchalantly. "These weather people never know what the heck they're talking about."
"I don't know, last I heard they were calling for over ten inches of rain just in the next twenty-four hours." Her dark cobalt eyes were big and serious.
I sighed. "This is one of those times when living in the Land of 10,000 Lakes isn't so wonderful. Nor is it great living on one, not with this much rain coming. We'll be lucky if the gazebo doesn't float away."
"No shit." She quickly looked down at Lucy and Piper and then back up at me and grimaced.
"Sorry."
I rolled my eyes at her. "Girls, ignore Auntie Alexa and her potty mouth."
"Mommy, you say that word sometimes too!" Lucy said with a big grin.
"Okay, let's not talk about that right now." I turned to Alexa, promptly changing the conversation. "So are you closing the shop tomorrow?"
Alexa owned a cute little flower shop in town called The Twisted Petal. She had an amazing eye for detail and was magnificent at the designs she created. People called from all over the county to place orders with her.
"Yeah, but hopefully just for tomorrow. Wedding season is just around the corner and I have a million things to do to get ready. But, no work for tomorrow!"
She locked arms with Lucy and Piper and danced around the foyer. "Oh wait," she stopped suddenly, "I did bring a bouquet for your mom, though." She went over by the front door and took a beautiful bouquet of roses, tulips and lilies out of their paper cone.
"Suck-up." I shoulder bumped her, taking the flowers. "I'll give them to her when she gets back."
"Oh, I just saw her. She was in the garage talking to Fred. Something about sand bags."
Fred was our maintenance man who lived in the apartment above the garage. He helped my mom with most of the outside chores and various repairs around the property. He'd been there as long as we had. He and my mom worked well together and I was ecstatic when the girls unofficially adopted him as their surrogate grandpa.
"They're probably freaking out over nothing. I'm still hoping those crazy weather forecasters are wrong and we won't get as much as they think," I said, crossing my fingers in the air.
"Psh, you keep thinking those positive thoughts. I, on the other hand, am heading out to get some gas for the generator, grabbing a case of beer for Derek and heading indoors. Bye girlies!" she yelled on her way out the door.
"Bye, Auntie Alexa!" they called out after her.
I left the girls munching on their suckers in the living room, while I went to the kitchen to put the flowers in water. I loved the kitchen in the Inn. It was not only huge, but also warm and inviting. My mom made a point of telling every guest to please make themselves at home, so she left the kitchen open at all times. The cabinets were full of mismatched antique dishes and every small appliance imaginable. She also kept the larger-than-normal pantry stocked with all sorts of snacks and kitchen staples for people to use as they pleased. There were shelves in the pantry lined with mason jars full of fruits and vegetables that she had preserved.
I had just finished up putting the flowers in a vase when the back door flew open and Mom came, along with a huge gust of cold air.
"Whew! It's already getting windy out there" she said, trying to close the back door with an armful of groceries. I set the vase on the island and hurried over to take the bags from her.
"Fabulous," I answered sarcastically.
She glanced at the flowers on the island. "Those are beautiful!"
"Yeah, Alexa brought those for you. She actually just left, she said she saw you in the garage."
"Oh, right," she said. "Fred and I were debating whether to put sand bags down by the shore or not. Did all the guests leave? Any problems?"
"Everything was fine. The Richardson's said they'd be back in a few weeks."
"Good. What about Alexa? Did she close up for the week?"
"Not sure, at least for tomorrow. She stopped by to bring you those and get the girls sugared up for me. She had to go and get a few things for Derek, then she's heading in for the next couple days."
Derek was Alexa's husband. They'd been together since freshman year in high school and got married right after graduation. Everyone assumed she must have been pregnant, but they were just really in love and excited to start their life together. They had been married almost 6 years and still hadn't talked about having kids. She told me once that whenever she heard her biological clock start ticking, she spent a day with Piper and Lucy and hit the snooze button for another year.
"Alexa and Derek are a cute couple, aren't they?" My mom tried to ask innocently, though I knew where she was headed. I rolled my eyes and sighed, immediately wishing I hadn't said Derek's name.
"Yes, Mom, they're adorable. Don't start."
"What? I'm not starting anything, I was simply making an observation," she said, matter-of-fact.
"Mmhmm."
"Okay fine, I was starting. I just think you would be so much happier if you found someone too," she started rambling as fast as she could, "I just want to see you happy. You deserve—"
"Stop," I interrupted her. "What makes you think I'm unhappy?"
"I didn't mean unhappy. You're only twenty-four years old, Kacie. You've been single for four years now. It's about time you get back out there. What about the Richardson's son, Cameron?"
She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows up and down at me.
"Mom, first of all, I have no interest in Cameron. Second of all, I've been on dates; I had a boyfriend last year. Remember? None of them were ... I need the right guy, the perfect guy, a
stable
guy. I need to give up on guys that are good kissers and use my brain this time. I've dated the immature, irresponsible loser before. Look where it got me."
"It got you two beautiful children, that's where," she said defensively, as she continued putting groceries in the cabinet.
"Of course they're wonderful, Mom, but I wish we had a real family. Raising two five-year-old girls alone isn't easy," I replied, rubbing my temples and quietly wishing away the impending headache.
"
Alone
?" she accused, whipping around to face me. I knew I was in trouble.
"You're
hardly
alone, Kassandra!"
Uh-oh. She called me Kassandra, she never did that.
"I didn't mean that the way it sounded, Mom. You are extremely helpful. I just meant that I wish I had a traditional family. You know, two parents…" I said quietly, tracing the raised glass decoration on the vase with my finger, trying not to make eye contact with my mom.
"Well, it's time you got out there, Kacie, for real. Zach left, he's not coming back. Is that what you're hoping for?" My mouth dropped open as my eyes shot up to meet hers. We didn't talk about him. Not
ever
. Just the mention of his name made me sick to my stomach.
She continued, her voice softer this time. "He's gone, honey, and he's not coming back. You need to move on and live your life."
I stood frozen to the ground, my stomach heavy with emotion-filled rocks. Did she think I didn't know that he was gone? I lived it, every single day, I lived it. I figured she, of all people, would understand the pain of someone walking out on you. Tears stung my eyes.
"Um, I'm gonna go lay down. I don't feel so good. Can you keep an eye on the girls for me?" I spat out, hurrying to leave the kitchen before she could answer.
"Kacie, please don't go!" she called out after me, but I didn't turn back. I was already halfway down the hall leading to our apartment and right then, all I wanted was to be alone. I heard her call my name one more time as I threw myself down on my bed and cried a deep, therapeutic cry into my pillow before falling asleep.
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Room For You
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