For today, that would be enough.
Chapter Seven
Mazzy
Now
Mychindroppingontomy chest woke me for the third time tonight.
Drat.
How could I have ever thought law school was for me when I hated studying and loved sleeping?
Oh yeah, I’d come up with the idea of being a lawyer when I was young, childless, and only needed four hours of sleep and a large cup of coffee to get me through the day.
Technically, I was still young, but I didn’t feel that way. The last few years had hit mehard. There was only so much tumultand grief a body could take before it said,Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and age ten years right now. ’K, thanks, bye.
But I kept marching on. There was no choice. My chest ached. My eyes constantly had bags beneath them. That was par for the course, as my aunt would say anytime I looked close to getting beaten down.
“A mother’s curse is to be tired but unable to sleep.”
Aunt Barb was full of all sorts of wisdom that essentially amounted tosuck it up, buttercup. I couldn’t really complain, though, not when she’d taken Katty and me in. We were living rent-free in her house while I attended law school. Even if she wasn’t exactly matronly or sweet, she was kind, and that was what I needed.
Plus, Katty thought she was hilarious, and my aunt doted on her. What more could I have asked for?
My dad.
I shook off the thought. Now wasn’t the time to—
A knock on my door interrupted me before I could get too maudlin. A second later, my cousin, Kylie, burst in.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.” She plopped down at my kitchen table, propped her chin on her fists, and stared at me.
I swiveled away from my computer to fully face her. “If I hadn’t been, you bursting in would have done the trick.”
She waved me off. “I knew you’d be studying. It’s what you doeverynight.” The corners of her eyes pinched. “You do remember you’re only twenty-four, right?”
“For a few more weeks, then I’ll be in my mid-twenties—just in time for my burgeoning quarter-life crisis.”
She laughed like I was joking, but that was Kylie. She was two years younger than me and floated through life in the way only a person with a solid support system and no worries could. I didn’t begrudge her any of it. If anything, I lived vicariously throughher. Between my job, school, and my daughter, that was all I had time for.
“Anyway”—she rolled her eyes—“guess who got a job?”
“You?”
“Yep.” She shimmied her shoulders, preening. “You’re looking at DMC’s newest content creator.”
“What exactly does that entail?”
“They send me out to hot spots, and I get paid to create content. My first campaign is Denver sports—which,lame—but it’s a start.”
“That sounds right up your alley.” Kylie’s dream was to be an influencer. To be fair, she’d put a lot of energy into her various social media platforms and had built up a decent following, so this did sound like the stepping stone to reach her goal.
“Right?” She canted toward me, her eyes widening. “My first stop on the campaign might interest you. I’m going to a Denver Mountain Lions game tomorrow night.”
I scrunched my nose. “Why would that interest me?”
“Youknowwhy.” She made her eyes even wider. “Because…Katty’s dad…”
