Page 67 of Mountain Target

“Val, Ren wants to see you happy. That’s my hope as well. Do something for yourself, just this one time.”

Val nodded. “You really think it’s okay?”

“Ren and I will be fine. We’ve got the movie picked out, we’ve got the popcorn. Everything’s going to be fine.”

Val winced. “That’s not what I—“

“I know what you meant, Val. And you need to stop worrying about everything. I have no idea how you managed to pass your medical exams.”

“What can I say? I have a good memory, and I’m good at identifying problems.”

“I’ll bet you are. Try not to identify any problems tonight, okay?”

“I know. It’s not like I go around looking for problems, Marie. It’s just … I have so many things going on right now. Ren has so many things going on, and I need to focus. And I don’t want to end up hurting Beau, either.”

Marie pulled her in for a quick hug—she was a surprisingly strong woman for her size.

“You’re doing it again. Stop it, Val. Clear your mind. Go out tonight, and just enjoy yourself.”

Val inhaled and exhaled slowly. “Okay. Okay. You know what, you’re right.”

“I even found a lipstick that’s not expired, I think,” Marie said, pulling one from Val’s make-up box.

“That’s very … red.” Val couldn’t even remember where she’d gotten it from. Probably a gift with some face cream or something she’d bought online.

“It sure is. It’s going to look great. Now go on and get dressed.”

Val arched her eyebrows, looking into the mirror. “I am dressed,” she said softly.

Ren chose that moment to burst through the door.

“You’re not going to wear that, Aunt Val. That’s the same thing you were wearing the other night when he dropped me off.”

“It’s still clean,” Val defended herself. “And it’s not polite to listen behind closed doors, Ren,” she added.

“Ren’s right,” Marie decided. She gave a small theatrical sigh. “Come on, Ren. Let’s help your aunt a bit.”

Val was seconds away from kicking them both out to the shout of I’m a grown woman and I can dress myself, when she saw Ren’s smile. It was a smile that Val knew well, a smile Ren used to give her all the time, from the time she was a tiny baby. A smile that said the world’s a good place. A smile that Val hadn’t seen since … since before Camille died.

And she realized now she would do anything to keep that smile in place. Because the smile coming back meant that Ren was finding herself again. And that’s all her mother would have wanted for her.

She covered up her excitement by turning around to look for her hair brush.

“What would the two of you suggest I wear, then?” she said, feigning impatience. “Do I need to go shopping?”

“No time to go shopping,” Ren said in a serious voice. “But we need something completely different. Something that tells Beau that you like him, too.”

“And you think it’s my clothes that are going to do that?”

Val forced herself to sit on the bed as four hands rifled through her hangers.

“What do you think of that?”

“And this?”

“This is not too bad.”

“Too dark?”