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“Huh?” Matt looked at me, puzzled.
“Tyler Vincent’s oldest daughter’s name is Naomi,” I explained. “I was pretty far gone on him at the time.”
“How was dessert, ladies?” the waitress asked, picking up our tiramisu plate. We’d done everything but lick it clean.
“Great,” Aimee replied. “Can you bring separate checks?”
“Nope, just bring one,” Dale said, digging his wallet out. “I’m buying.”
“Big spender.” I made a face at him. “They paid him an advance but everything comes out of it. The recording sessions, the tour costs, everything.”
“We’ll make it back on the tour.” Dale handed the waitress his card. “Besides, we’re still number one, remember?”
“You’re Dale Diamond!” The waitress looked at the card and then back to him. “I’ll Always Come For You is my favorite song!”
“You can come here us live,” Dale said with a smile. “We’re going on tour at the end of August. We’re opening for Dark Wing.”
“Oh, I love them too!”
“Oh for pete’s sake.” I slid out of the booth, shaking my head at my rock star fiancé who was grinning from ear to ear. He still loved being stopped for autographs. “Go ahead and sign autographs. I’ll meet you in the car. Come on, Aimee, let’s hit the ladies room.”
“Are you okay?” Aimee asked when we were done using the facilities and standing at the mirror, fixing our make-up. “I was really scared about telling you. I didn’t want you to feel bad.”
“Bad?” I met her eyes in the mirror. “Are you kidding me? I’m over the moon for you!”
“And you’ll be there to hold my hand?” She reached out and squeezed mine.
“Every step of the way.”
Dale and Matt were waiting for us in the lobby, which had mostly cleared out. I made it all the way to the car, even waving as Aimee and Matt passed us, before I burst into tears. Dale wrapped his arms around me, stroking my hair, just letting me sob against his shirt.
“It’s so stupid,” I finally sniffed. “Crying over a baby that never should have been conceived.”
“Well that wasn’t her fault, or yours,” he reminded me softly, kissing my forehead.
“I remember thinking about keeping her,” I whispered in the dark heat of the car. Of course the stepbeast said I had to give it up. It was too late to abort the pregnancy by the time my mother told him about it. “I thought if I could run away with her and start over…”
I sat up, wiping my eyes. “I wonder if that’s what my mother did?”
He cupped my face in his hands, wiping my tears with his thumbs. They just wouldn’t stop falling.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” His lips met mine, my salty tears pressed between us. “None of it was your fault, Sara. Don’t take it on.”
“I know.” I did know. Twice-weekly sessions with Dr. Jarvis had cured me of that. I didn’t blame myself for it anymore, at least not like I used to. “I just miss her.”
“I know.” Dale held me, and it didn’t occur to me until later that he never asked, “Who? The baby or your mother?” Because of course, it didn’t matter.
I missed them both.
CHAPTER TEN
If I had to spend one more minute with Dale’s sister, one of us was going to die.
It wasn’t just that Chrissy used my moisturizer in the bathroom without asking and left the lid off so it got hard. It wasn’t just that she left her clothes and shoes at the bottom of the stairs so I tripped over them every single time I went upstairs. It wasn’t just her fashion magazines all over the living room couch—I couldn’t count how many times I’d sat down on a Cosmo—and she painted her nails in there too, leaving her nail polish and red brush marks on the coffee table.
All of those things made living with her annoying but not impossible. Even her incessant whining was tolerable if I tuned her out. It was the way she treated her father and brother that infuriated me to the point of no return. She hadn’t said more than two words to me since she’d arrived two weeks ago—and I thought those had been, “Hi, Sara.” She pretended I didn’t exist, unless she was using me to make a point.
“You told Sara she could eat in the living room! Why can’t I?” She’d complained to John.
