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“Your mom was the coolest.” Jenna stared into the fire, now ugly crying.
“Yeah, she was,” Brad agreed.
“She was my most memorable patient.” Sawyer didn’t want to be left out.
I gave him a meaningful look. If it wasn’t for my mother, I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t have had the worst and best year of my life with the man who owned the amber eyes that looked so dang sexy in the fire.
Sawyer gave me a closed lipped smile. “I know I didn’t know her well, but I do know how much she loved her daughters. I don’t know if she would want me to say this, but I think you were her favorite.”
“Oh, hands down,” I laughed through my tears. I knew that wasn’t true. My mom always said she loved us equally but differently. I do believe, though, that she and I had more in common, so it made our relationship easier. Don’t get me wrong, my mom could dress up just as fine as my sisters, and boy could she wow, but she was most comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt like me. She didn’t mind getting dirty, in fact, she encouraged it.
I noticed Shelby got awfully quiet and curled into herself, staring into the distance as if her thoughts were a million miles away. I almost asked her what was wrong, because despite the fact that my mom wouldn’t have liked that she was impeding her plans for me, Mom never overlooked the opportunity to help someone, even if she didn’t like them.
Before I could, Brad jumped up. “I say we have some cake and toast Shannon Carrington, mom to us all and mother of one of the best people I’ve ever known.” Brad gave me his most charming smile.
I waved him off. “You’re a goof, but I love you.”
Brad pointed at me. “For that, you get the second biggest slice of cake.” Brad was one person who could eat more cake than me, though I was always ticked that he seemed to lose weight from the effort while I was guaranteed to have another dimple on my butt tomorrow. Oh, well. No one was seeing my naked butt anytime soon, so I might as well enjoy myself. I knew Mom would want me to, and she’d think my dimples were cute no matter where they were.
~*~
After the lovely night of tributes to my mother, it was time to hit the hay. This was where things got awkward. Since Shelby didn’t have a sleeping bag and no one had brought an extra one, Aspen and I put what we had together for the three of us to sleep together. We laid my bag unzipped on the bottom and used Aspen’s bag for the top, as well as two blankets, one of mine, and one Sawyer had chipped in for the cause. He was the cause, so it was only right.
We had to put Shelby in the middle because she had no body fat and basically no pajamas, unless you counted the fire red negligée she’d brought. Did she think she was going to parade around in that in front of Sawyer? Feelings of hate were starting to bubble up again even though she was super grateful I let her wear my sweatshirt to bed. I, on the other hand, was wearing thermal underwear with pandas all over them. I wasn’t planning on showing those off to Sawyer. Aspen was more cutely dressed in hot pink flannel pajamas.
I was more than ready to go to sleep by the time we settled into our makeshift bed in the flashlight-illuminated tent and got way too cozy for comfort, but Shelby had other ideas.
I had just closed my eyes when I heard the sniffling. She even did that cutely.
“Shelby? Are you okay?” I whispered.
“I’m so sorry.” Shelby turned toward me. “It’s just, it sounds like you had such a nice momma. I wish I could have known her.”
Aspen sat up a bit and even in the dark I could tell she was giving me a look like what should we do?
I wasn’t sure what to say. Sure, Mom would have been nice to her, but she also would have done her best to make sure Shelby kept her paws off Sawyer. “What about your family? They’re from Roswell, right?” It was the best I could come up with.
She sniffled and nodded her head. She had to take a minute to think and compose herself. “Well, to be honest, my family, we . . . well, we don’t always see eye-to-eye.”
“Is that why you moved here?”
“Not exactly, but it has something to do with it.” She seemed hesitant to say anything.
It made me all the more curious, especially considering where she lived and her current job. I didn’t want to act nosy though, so I closed my eyes, thinking that was the end of it. Nope.
