“Hilarious,” I say and roll my eyes.
She steps into the front hall and slips out of her shoes, not bothering to put them in the shoe storage. I casually shove them in that general direction and she watches with amusement, tilting her head and smirking. “You know that we should always leave one pair of shoes out, in case of an earthquake.”
“Says who?”
“Every single survival guide,” she replies. “Glass breaks in earthquakes, Nash-Hole. You need your feet for your job.”
She’s probably right but I won’t admit it until I’ve done my own research and probably not even then. “I always have some slides near my bed.”
“And if you aren’t in bed.”
“Everyone knows Mother Nature is a drama queen and the big ones hit in the middle of the night,” I joke and head into the kitchen. “Northridge was four in the morning.”
As soon as I flip on the light in the kitchen I see the ring box on the coffee machine. Right. There is still that elephant in the room. Tenley sits on a stool at the island, staring at her phone. “I’m glad your dad is going to have the lawyer file a cease and desist to the network about Anne-Marie’s footage. And one for her.”
“He’s not kidding when he says it will be her only warning either,” I reply and grab two of my pre-cooked meals out of the fridge. “Salmon Orzo pasta or garlic-herb chicken on crispy kale?”
She wrinkles her nose. “I’ll order Chipotle.”
“Your loss,” I mutter and pop the chicken in the microwave for the allotted time. The crispy kale part comes with a spicy avocado dressing I swear I could drink, which would be okay according to my dietitian because it’s low fat.
I look over and assume she’s ordering her million calorie burrito I refuse to let myself be jealous of, but then I catch a tear swimming in the corner of her eye. I flashback to what feels like a lifetime ago, Tenley with a tear streaked faced. “Now should we talk about whatever tore your heart out earlier today?”
“No.”
“It has to do with your aunt Callie,” I prompt and her eyes lift from her phone to glare at me. “I didn’t eavesdrop on purpose. I came home and thought you weren’t here and when I heard you talking I…”
“Eavesdropped because you’re nosy?”
“Froze because you sounded so upset.”
She inhales slowly and then exhales fast. “I can’t talk about it but I found out something that is the worst news ever… or might be and I just… I can’t talk about it.”
Tears start to fall freely, streaming down her cheeks like a pipe burst behind her eyes, and I full-on panic. I rush toward her and swing her bar stool to the side so she’s facing me. I wrap my arms around her back and she kind of collapses on my chest, pressing her cheek to me. A tiny but violent sob shakes her body and I pull her in tighter and smooth her hair with my palm. “Tenley, whatever this is, you need to talk about it.”
“My aunt… Callie…” Tenley swallows. “People joke that I’m her kid and not my mom’s… because…”
“Callie is annoying?” She smacks my back. “Sorry. Not the time to make jokes.”
“Callie is like… who I always aspired to be.” She sniffles. I can feel my shirt getting damp from her tears but I don’t care. “She is just so… sure of who she is and gives zero fucks if you don’t like it.”
“Wifey-poo, if that’s your goal, you nailed it,” I say before resting my chin on the top of her head.
“No. I still… I’m not as brave as her. I don’t fight for myself the way she did… does for herself.” She pulls back a bit and tips her head up to look at me. “But she’s doing something that isn’t fair. To the family. To Liv and Conner and Mayhem. And my mom and aunt Rose.”
“What?”
“She has…” Her eyes flood with tears again and she blinks wildly and they tumble down her cheeks. I pull her close again. “Callie has a… solid mass…”
She doesn’t need to finish the sentence. Anything that starts with solid mass never ends well.
“Where?”
“Ovary.” She takes a gulp of air and spits out the next horrible bit of information. “My grandma… their mom… died of ovarian cancer when they were little.”
“Oh. Fuck.”
“Don’t say that!” she demands, furious. “If you say that, then it makes it more serious than I already know it is!”
