“I’ll bet,” Katie said, understanding how he was feeling. “Well I’ll probably see you around.” She skirted him and headed outside.
She’d had enough interaction for one day, especially considering she hadn’t been close to many people in LA. It wasn’t stifling so much as discomfiting to realize she had changed so much in the time she had been gone. Life here didn’t exactly stand still, but to her it hadn’t changed a lot, yet she had. She felt twenty years older and jaded, as if she’d packed a thousand lifetimes into six years.
“Katie.”
The mousy-brown head of Macy Reynolds popped out of a doorway. Looking up, she saw the sign above the door. Macy’s Fashions.
“Hey, Macy, this the shop I’ve heard so much about?” Katie said. Branna had mentioned it in an e-mail.
“Sure is. Come in and have a look around. Billy’s in here.”
It would have been rude of her to refuse, so she decided to get it over with. Then surely that was all the reunions done with.
Stepping inside, she found a small oasis of elegance. Two soft brown leather chairs settled around a circular glass table; on top were two fashion magazines. White display cabinets held jewelry and accessories, and racks hung suspended from the ceiling, filled with clothes of every color.
“This looks really nice, Macy. Congratulations.”
Macy looked good too. No longer the girl everyone had loved to hate, this one was real, softer. Macy had come from wealthy indulgent parents and dressed like a homecoming queen every day she left the house. All that had changed when she left her abusive husband.
“Billy, come and meet Katie.”
A little boy toddled toward her. He had a head full of snow-white curls, and wore a blue checked shirt and red shorts.
“He’s grown so much.” Katie bent to look the boy in the eye. “Hey there, little man, how you doing today?”
He gave her a wide smile that showed off several teeth before he got distracted and wandered off to inspect something bright and shiny in a basket on the floor.
“You need anything, Katie, you come and see me and I’ll give you the discount I give my friends.”
“I’m good, but thanks, Macy.” Katie had once spent a ton of money on clothes, but not anymore. She wore jeans, shorts, or her exercise gear.
“Okay, but offer’s there if you need it. Now, you need to pick one of these.” Katie watched Macy head to the counter then return with two sets of keys, which she dangled from her fingers.
“What are these for?”
“I’m not sure if you heard, but Dad’s sick now, and he can’t go to his houseboat anymore, so I have the keys, to kind of keep an eye on things. Mom hates the place and told me I could sell it and do everyone a favor, but with him still alive I don’t think that’s right somehow.”
“I’m sorry to hear he’s not well, Macy.”
“He still has his good days,” she said. “But let me get to the point. I have the cabin and the houseboat, so take your pick.”
Katie drew a blank.
“Which one do you want to stay in?”
“Oh… really?”
“Yes, really. I’m not sure how long you’re here for, but figure you could use your privacy now you’ve lived on your own for so long.”
“I’m meant to be staying with the folks tonight, after I leave Jake and Branna.”
“I know it, but like I said, it’s nice to have a place to go if you need some thinking time,” Macy said. “You don’t have to move in, but if you need a space to be alone, then one of these can offer you that. They’re both standing empty, and you’d be doing me a favor if you took the responsibility of one off my hands for a while.”
Katie thought of the concerned looks that had passed between her brother and his wife, and the worry that was etched in her parents’ faces when they looked at her. This would offer them all some space, but she’d still be here, close by.
“I’ll pay you if I use one.”
Macy braced her hands on her hips and tried to look imposing. She failed horribly; no one her size with that fluffy hair, dressed in a soft pink dress, could look intimidating.
