Page 67 of Beached Wedding

I stepped out of the elevator and immediately came across Fliss in the lounge, curled into a corner of the sofa, reading a book.

“I thought it was lady time on the lanai?”

“They’re all getting drunk.” She didn’t lift her eyes from her page.

“Perhaps I won’t rush in there, then.” I dropped onto the other end of the sofa, still nursing my protein drink, relieved.

But was I? Maybe Ash was telling her sister and Izzy that we’d made out. I didn’t care what the other women thought of me. Not really. But I cared if Ashley was hurt and angry enough to talk down about me.

I glanced at Fliss to see if she was giving me the stink-eye.

She was watching me over the top of her book. The cover had gold embossed lettering and a scene of a misty pond with a band of robed sorcerers. A huge eye was superimposed above them.

“I won’t bug you if you want to read.”

She dipped her nose into her book, but almost immediately dropped it into her lap.

“How did you feel when your foster mom got married? Did sheaskif you wanted to move to Australia? Or did she just take you there against your will?”

“Does Oliver want you and your mom to move?” That was news. “Where?”

“No. Mom said we’ll stay in Pine Grove and I don’t even have to change schools, but I still have to live with a guy I don’t know. And now I’ll have a stepbrother who’s like, four. What if Mom gets pregnant? Then I’ll be like Auntie Ashley and have to look after a baby that isn’t even mine. And I know I’ll love it and everything. I don’t even mind Ryan. He’s cute, but kids are a lot of work. Everyone thinks babysitting is just watching TV and making sure the stove is off. It’s not. Babies cry and you have to figure out why. And stinky diapersstink.”

“Babies are messy,” I agreed. “Families are.”

“Iknowfamily is messy. Have you seen mine? This is one long week of diarrhea.” She rose to make herself a coffee. “But I think that’s what Mom is trying to do, make us look like a ‘normal’ family. It’s, like, the only thing she’s ever wanted in her life because Grandpa was a deadbeat and my dad flaked out on her. But I don’t care if I don’t have a dad. Ilikeliving with Auntie Ashley. I don’t care if people think it’s weird.”

“People give you a hard time about that?” My big brother protective instincts leapt to their feet and growled.

“Not really. Just this one girl asked me if I had two moms and laughed. I don’t even like her and so what if I did? I mean, read the room. We’ve moved on.” She rolled her eyes.

Damn, I liked this girl.

“What do you like most about living with Ash? What do you think will change if you live with Oliver?”

“Everything.” She tasted her coffee and stirred another sugar into it. “With Auntie Ashley, she stands up for me against Mom. Mom never lets me forget that I’m her kid and half the time she acts like Grandma and says I should listen and do what I’m told because she said so. But Auntie Ashley treats me like I’m allowed to have a say and makes us talk things out. Now Oliver will have his own opinion and who do you think Mom will side with? He doesn’t even know me or what I want.”

“It takes time to get used to each other, that’s for sure.”

She came back and curled a leg beneath her as she sat.

I’d seen Ash sit like that a thousand times. Fliss was so like her, it was laughable. Endearing. It made me picture a little girl with Ash’s big brown eyes chirping back at me over some adults-know-better edict, melting my heart while she tested my patience. The idea was so sweet, my throat ached.

I shook my head to clear the vision. “For what it’s worth, Oliver seems like a good guy. Like he wants to be a good parent.”

“I should still get a choice over whether I want him to bemyparent.”

“You know that almost no one gets that choice, right?”

“I guess,” she mumbled against the rim of her cup.

“I always wanted a ‘real’ parent,” I said, using my fingers to quote around the word.

“You didn’t feel like you had one?” She was wearing Ashley’s exact look of compassion, chin tucked and eyes wide.

“Not really.” I didn’t tell her it would have felt different if Vicky and Gary had been fighting to keep me, rather than fighting over who had to take me.

“But you must have been stoked to see kangaroos and koala bears in real life, when you went to Australia?”

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