Page 107 of Break Your Fall

“Of course,” she says, still putting on a show, dangling her false promises, treating me like the fish always seeking her hook.

I blink away the tears, the sting in my eyes having moved to my chest, a sharp reminder that my mother is fickle, and even if she showed to support me, that would be fickle, too. After the lights go down in the gallery, we would end up back here in our push and pull.

“D. Wescott Gallery and Studio,” I say through those blinks, straightening my spine, pointing my guns directly at her.

Mom slinks back from the blow, controlling her face as she tilts it more toward me, hidden from Aspen’s eyes. She has the nerve to mouth,Now who’s taking advantage, and I snap my next words for all to hear.

“I like to call it, having something I’ve earned. I like to call it, having a parent who recognizes what he has in his daughter, and wants to help her and see her succeed—”

“I get it,” she cuts me off, stressing each word, her hand reaching out again in her attempt to stop me. Her look says,We don’t talk about that man in front of Aspen. Or ever.

And no, my mother doesn’t get it. She never gets it, but before I can argue more, she plasters on a smile and snaps out her news.

“We’re planning a wedding.”

I immediately eye Riley as he steps up and sits a plate filled with bacon on the bar, thinking he’s a little too young to be getting married, but I say anyway, “Who’s the lucky guy?”

His eyes, which I’m now noticing are gray, spring up to mine, then glance toward Aspen and my mom, releasing a sigh that precedes an apologetic stare. “Not me.”

“We’replanning a wedding, Reyna,” Mom says, and I can see her finger wagging between herself and Aspen in my periphery as my stare stays on Riley’s back when he moves to the stove, everything inside me stilled. “I’m getting married!”

Riley’s glance back at me over his shoulder snaps me from my stupor, and I shoot a look at my mother, letting it glide past her to Aspen who’s as elated as she is about this.

“I can’t believe you proposed to her,” flies from my mouth in all my shock and disappointment. My mother gives him a bouquet of red flags and he gives her a ring.

“Reyna,” Mom scolds me, placing her hand over Aspen’s as his face falls, and my guilt is a faint pinch that I rub away. “He didn’t,” she says next. “I proposed to him.”

“Right,” I say with a nod, because of course this was her idea.

Aspen tries to defend this decision. “Now, we know this seems a bit crazy, but—”

“A bit?” I cut in, feeling myself starting to flip out, my skin hot and my muscles tight.

“Reyna,” Mom scolds again.

“I love being with your mom,” Aspen continues. “And we know this is a risk, but—”

“It’s a risk we’re willing to take,” Mom cuts in this time, sounding frustrated at Aspen’s explanations. According to my mother, they shouldn’t have to explain themselves. “We’ve been given a second chance, and we’re not letting it go.”

He’s my second chance.

As if that reason alone erases all of the issues with this.

“Sodate,” I argue. “Don’t getmarried.”

Mom sighs and exchanges a look with Aspen. Riley has faced us again, agreeing with me behind their backs with a pointed stare under his lashes and a shake of his head. He’s probably tried to talk our parents out of this, too, and also failed.

“So, we’re assuming you won’t be in attendance?” my mom says, trying to sound prim and proper, twining her fingers through Aspen’s over thewedding bookI’m now noticing is under their hands.

“Oh my God,” I exclaim as I spin on my heel and rush to escape this twilight zone.

32

August Fools

Reyna

“They’re getting married,” I exclaim now as I pace the kitchen at the Fowler home. “Married.”

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