Page 83 of Free to Fall

I swiftly follow, catching up to her on the wraparound porch. Before we enter through the mahogany door, I wrap her in a tight hug. “I’d be a whole different me without you, Kalie.”

I push open the door inlaid with a stained-glass amaryllis just as our Uncle Phil deposits a vase of fresh flowers onto the grand entryway. Seeing Kalie with tears in her eyes, he immediately panics. “Cass! Ali! Your daughters are here! Kitchen! ASAP!”

A slow smile lifts my lips. I was right. Just like Kalie, Uncle Phil can’t keep his nose out of anything.

We’re huddled in the kitchen eating what Uncle Phil decreed as, “Emergency cake! Cori, after all these years, knows she has to keep one of them around.”

Corinna mutters, “No, don’t worry, Phil. That wedding tomorrow didn’t need that top tier.”

He smiles beatifically before causing us all to wince when he cut into the top tier with a serrated knife, decimating it in seconds. Holly perched on her favorite spot on the counter and immediately began taking photos, asking, “Where’s Gracie?”

I answer, “A dog ate a nose,” as if that explained it all.

Which it does to her mother. She lowers her camera long enough to order Phil, “Make sure you save a piece for my daughter.”

Phil flaps his hand at her as he cuts another slab out of Corinna’s masterpiece. Corinna lays her head on her arms. I pat her back as my mother, Alison, and Emily saunter through the kitchen door.

Mama comes up short. “Philip. Tell me that isn’t the top of the Beaumont wedding cake you’re desecrating.”

Corinna’s shout of “Yes!” overrides his “Uhm . . .”

Mama’s eyes narrow into slits. But before her wrath can explode, he says, “Kalie’s been crying!”

Alison gapes at her daughter before she rushes over and slips an arm around her shoulders. “Who does your father need to maim?”

Kalie points at me.

Everyone’s jaws fall to the floor. Mama turns on me and demands, “Laura Faith, what did you do?”

Kalie sniffs. “Nothing, Aunt Cass. It’s just ...”

“What, sweetie?” Alison prompts.

“Laura ... god, I feel so ridiculous for crying again.” Kalie buries her head in her mother’s shoulder.

Mama approaches me, concerned. “Honey? What happened?”

I stomp my foot. “It’s nothing. I laughed. Okay? It’s not the first time—”

“It was for me!” Kalie wails.

“Kalie said something funny and ...”

The next thing I know, I’m being mass hugged by my mother and our family. I think Emily’s boob is jamming one ear shut. The other one is right next to my mother’s lips. I can hear her clearly as she whispers thanks to her mother for answering her prayers to watch over me.

I’m about to ask for a little breathing space when we all break our little huddle. Corinna shouts, “Right, so this deserves eating the whole damn cake. I’ll bake a new one. Phil, this time, give me the knife.”

He’s too busy dashing into the walk-in cooler for the rest of the three-tier cake to answer.

Mama smooths a hand over my cheek and presses her forehead to mine. “You laughed.” The choked emotion in her voice makes the heated sting behind my eyelashes worth it. It isn’t just me Paulie Tiberi damaged. It’s my loved ones.

Knowing I survived, that I lived, is better than any punishment he could have tried to enact that horrible day.

Or any I’ve been subjected to since.

Chapter

Forty-Four

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