“Come on. It’s not like I haven’t drank before,” she said nonchalantly.
I arched an accusing eyebrow toward her.
She tossed her hands up in surrender. “A joke, Karla. A joke. Geez. When are you going to become the cool sister who provides me with underage booze?”
“When pigs fly.”
“Well, good news! My ex wasjuston a plane the other day,” she joked.
Hearing my sixteen-year-old sister talk about her ex-boyfriend was wild to me. It felt like just yesterday she was running around with butterfly wings attached to her back. To be fair, though, she still danced around like a butterfly. She wasthe opposite of me when I was her age. I lived in the dark, and Lorelai shone in the light. She was as bubbly as any teenage girl could’ve been.
She looked just like Mom, too.
I was both jealous and happy about that fact. When I looked at her, it was like Mom was looking right back at me, too. That fact still sometimes made me cry. I wasn’t certain if they were happy or sad tears. Maybe a little bit of both.
Dad was having somewhat of a hard time raising Lorelai, too, seeing as how she danced to the beat of her own drum. I attributed most of his new gray hairs to raising my teenage sister. To be fair, I’m sure I gave him quite a few myself during my teen years.
I couldn’t be upset with Lorelai, though. She was my best friend, after all, even with our age difference. I had no doubt that Lorelai would grow into a beautiful, successful woman down the line.
That was if she could stop being so boy crazy.
To be fair, the boys were just as crazy about my sister as she was about them. She had had more boyfriends than me, which, well, wasn’t saying much because I didn’t date. I was still the totally hip, cool twentysomething who had never been kissed.Watch out, Drew Barrymore, I’m coming for yourNever Been Kissedcrown.
“This is so cool, Kar,” Lorelai stated as she glanced around the bookshop. Her eyes were wide with amazement as if she wasn’t there every step of the way with the creation of said bookshop. My little sister was dripped into every piece of the shop. From the color schemes to the furniture. From the window arches to the bookshelves. There wasn’t a choice I’d made without her input. And even though she wasn’t the biggest reader—every human had flaws, even her—she believed inmy dream more than I had myself. If it wasn’t for her, Dad, Grandma Claire, and Ellie pushing me on, I wasn’t certain that the dream would’ve ever been anything more than that—a fantasy that haunted my mind until my final breath.
Thank goodness for those who believed in you when you didn’t believe in yourself. They were the real superheroes of the world.
“Did you see the reading nook?” I asked, grabbing yet another glass of champagne out of her hand.
“No, show me.”
We walked over to the cozy corner, and Lorelai gasped when she read Mom’s name in the neon lights against the wall.
“Oh, Karla...” she whispered, growing somber. It wasn’t every day that Lorelai slowed her pace, but in that moment, everything stilled within her. Except for the tears that began falling down her cheeks. “This is so cool,” she said softly.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into my side. “It was Ellie’s idea.”
“Of course it was,” she murmured, “Freaking Saint Ellie and her freaking beautiful heart.” She wiped at her eyes and then rested her head against my shoulder. “Do you think she’d be proud of us?” she asked me as we stared forward at the nook. The whole idea of the reading corner was to take what my closet was as a teenager, my shrine to my mother, and make it available to everyone else. It had pieces of her favorite clothes, the smells of her perfumes floating through the air, and a record player with all her favorite records, too. I hoped people would take the time to pick up a book, curl up in the reading nook, and feel wrapped in love from the memory of my mother.
It was like a second chance to feel like she was there, too, giving us her love and comfort.
“Of course she’s proud of you, ladies,” a voice said frombehind us. I turned to see Uncle Landon standing there with a big smile on his face. “How could she not be?”
My jaw dropped as both Lorelai and I hurried over to wrap him into a tight hug.
“Oh my gosh! I thought you were filming in Alaska?” I questioned.
“I was, but you didn’t think I could miss the grand opening of my niece’s bookshop, did you?” He smiled, and I couldn’t help but smile back. There was something so great about how smiles could remind a person of home. Having Uncle Landon show up was exactly the support I needed. I knew how busy his life was. He was one of the biggest actors in the world, and he could hardly get a break to breathe, let alone travel, so having him there was a huge deal. He came in wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses. I would’ve mocked him for the sunglasses at night, but I knew if people noticed him, he would’ve been hammered with requests for autographs and photos. Uncle Landon didn’t live a life where he could just walk into stores anymore.
That made it even a bigger deal that he showed up for me.
“Are Shay and Ava and Lance here, too?” Lorelai asked.
Landon nodded. “Of course. They are up front talking to Ellie and your dad.”
Without a moment of hesitation, Lorelai rushed up to the front of the store to greet them, leaving Landon and me standing in front of the reading nook.
We stood there for a second, not saying a word. Uncle Landon took in the whole space and a tiny smile stayed plastered on his face. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Karla,” he whispered. When he turned toward me, I saw the glassiness of his eyes.
