“Well, he’ll never know, so no worries.”
I wonder how much longer it’s going to take her to finish that glass of wine.
“Baby, you really do seem ornery. Are you starting to panic?”
“I amnotpanicked.” I take a breath. “First of all, the legend isn’t real. Second of all, even if it were, other women in our ancestral Cowherd lineage most likely have scars, and some of those women were probably the oldest child of the jailkeeper. The fact that I have a scar doesn’t signify anything. Third of all, I personally couldn’t care less about the dumb threat to the eldest daughter. You know why? Because I think all guys suck.”
Mama takes another sip of wine and glances down at the bar. Her eyes light on the divorce papers peeking out from underneath the dish towel. Before I can grab them away, she lifts up the towel and taps the papers with her long painted nails. “How’s it going with these?”
“Mama, please take off your sunglasses.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Mama, the shades.” I sigh.
She sighs right after me, but she removes her sunglasses. Her face is all done up from her audition with heavy rouge and eye makeup, but she still looks tired and worn. Older than she should. I take pity on her and tell her about my meeting with Gigi.
“She sounds like a big nightmare if you ask me,” Mama says when I’m finished. “But what a beautiful girl. Logan dropped by the theater with her to see his mother.”
I twirl a piece of my hair with my index finger. “Yes, we all know she’s a freaking goddess. You and Daddy got yourselves a great fake couple of soul mates to tout around town and boost your profits.”
Mama glances down again at the divorce papers sitting in front of me.
“I’m worried about you, baby.”
I pick up an empty glass and try to keep it steady as I pour myself some orange juice.
“Seriously,” she says as she eyes my shaky hand. “Does this news of Logan marrying sit all right with you?”
“It sits great.” I put down the glass and cross my arms over my chest. “He and I swore we’d never marry each other, anyway.”
“Why on Heaven’s earth would you do a silly thing like that?”
I’m not sure at the moment, but I can’t tell her that. “He wasn’t supposed to marry anyone. I wasn’t either. We had a silly pact.”
Mama frowns. “Well, be that as it may, it seems like things changed on his end. And I don’t want to see you end up alone.”
“Mama, I don’t need a man. I can stand on my own. I have for a long time now.”
“I know that. But you want a man beside you, don’t you?”
“No. That’s why I’m never getting married.”
At her eyes on the papers lying between us, I snap, “Again!”
“Sometimes, I still wish Daddy and I had opened that cell door.” Mama exhales loudly.
“Oh, please.”
“Mr. Darcy is a hard act to follow. Don’t you think?”
As much as I lovePride and Prejudice, reading it to Mama all those nights Daddy was gone was exhausting. She interrupted me constantly to cry over Darcy versus Daddy and how come Daddy didn’t act more like Darcy. Blah, blah, blah. I tried explaining that Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet did not have four children together and hadn’t been divorced multiple times, but she said that was all noise and not her point at all. Then, she’d lecture me on the perils of love and men. Especially Darcy men because they are the most likely to get under your skin.
“The heat, the unrelenting Texas heat,” she’d bemoan. “It just makes it harder to hear your brain sometimes. Finding your own Mr. Darcy is challenging enough. Plus, with the Queen of Romance residing in our town, there’s an aura like a heavy cloud of invisible love dust over everything and everyone. It pervades Darcy, Macey. I’m telling you it does.”
I blink my way back into the present as Mama waves her hand in front of my face. “Where’d you go?”
“To a dark past.”
