Page 17 of Kiss Me Forever

The phone nearly dropped from my hand, and I tightened my grip, my throat feeling dry. “What?” I asked.

“She said you were dead, and that’s why I never got to meet you. But then later she said that you left, and you didn’t want us. But one time she said that you didn’t even know I existed. It just depended on the day. Mom liked to lie a lot to annoy Grandma and Grandpa. But it doesn’t matter. Mom’s dead now, and she’s not coming back. And now I get to stay with you until you decide you don’t want me.”

Anger roared through me, and I knew I had never been as pissed as I was in this moment. She said I was dead?

“That’s not going to happen. I’m still here. And I didn’t know about you, or I would’ve been in your life, Bella.”

“Whatever.” She went pale. “Sorry.”

So maybe there was hope for both of us yet.

“You said you had camp? Is there a reason you can’t still do it?”

“Grandma said that you didn’t want me to, so she canceled it.”

I closed my eyes, counted to five, and told myself that yelling wouldn’t help anyone. And Bella didn’t deserve it. “How about the two of us make a promise?”

She looked at me then, confusion etched on her face that looked so much like my family’s.

“We don’t lie to each other. Because I didn’t know about your camp. Just like I didn’t know about you. If your grandmother canceled it, I’m sorry. But I had no idea. It’s been a stressful few days, and I’m just trying to catch up here. Maybe we can call the camp, and I can get you back in? Is it a daily thing? Overnight?”

“It was a day thing. They had a waiting list, so I already lost my spot. But it’s okay. Whatever. It was just a few hours a day during the week anyway.”

“What was the name? We can call them. These are unique circumstances.”

“Grandma lied too?” Bella asked, her voice soft.

I reached out and gripped her shoulder, before letting my hand fall. She hadn’t flinched, and that was good, but everything was still so damn awkward. “I don’t know what your grandma said or did, but I did not know about camp. So we’re going to start over. With our truths.”

“It was the Montgomery Art Camp. The camp is in its second year and it has to do with their gallery or something. The whole family is like crazy talented, and I was going to learn to work on shadows and things.”

Relief flooded me, and I had never been so grateful to be connected to the Montgomery clan.

“Did you notice the building that you walked into when you first met me?” I asked.

She scrunched her nose. “No. I was too busy trying not to throw up.”

“Same here,” I said with a snort. Bella’s lips curled into a smile, and I continued. “I work for Montgomery Construction.”

Her gaze shot up. “What?”

“I’m a contractor and fire restoration specialist with them. It means that I try to fix things that were once destroyed. And the Montgomerys own the business. Their cousins own the gallery. In fact I’m friends with a few of them. And knowing their group chat they probably already know about some of our situation. I can’t promise you one hundred percent, but I can give you a high probability that I can get you back into that camp.”

“Really?”

And for the first time, this was a Bella that I hadn’t seen. Her face animated, she was practically dancing on her toes.

My daughter was an artist.

And she liked the color green.

“That would be amazing. I didn’t know. You really know the Montgomerys? Have you seen Leif Montgomery’s tattoos? I know I’m too young for them, but he’s so dreamy.”

I blinked at her, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with that information. “Leif is a friend and married to my other friend.” I shook my head, knowing that explaining to a kid that someone in his twenties was married with children was probably idiotic. But here I was, once again out of my depth.

“I don’t want to marry him or anything, geez. But he’s so good at sketches. And one day when I’m old enough and have the money I’m going to get a tattoo.”

Since I was equally covered with tattoos, I couldn’t really say anything, but still. I felt like I was going to throw up.