Page 15 of Tell Me Again
“She went looking for her mother,” Sam said softly. “And got me instead. I’ve made so many mistakes. You three know that. I’m can’t be a role model for a teenage girl.
Jenny sniffed. “No offense to your dead sister, but thank God Grace found you and not Bryce. Your twin sounds like a head case.”
Kendall smacked the redhead on the arm. “Turn on your filter, Jenny.”
“I don’t have a filter,” Jenny shot back.
“It’s a problem,” Kendall said under her breath.
Sam laughed, grateful to have friends who would support her through this change. Another thought pinged into her mind, wiping away her smile. “Would it be better if she hadn’t found me, either? Trevor kept her away for a reason. I blame him, and at the same time I understand. Drama and heartache have swirled around my mom, sister, and me since I can remember. Grace is a good girl. I don’t want to mess her up.”
“Don’t put that on yourself,” Jenny said, taking a long sip from her soda. “You want what’s best for your niece. It doesn’t matter what anyone else expects of you or the mistakes you’ve made. You’re going to do right by Grace. Don’t doubt it for a second.”
Sam stared at her feisty friend and noticed Chloe and Kendall doing the same thing. Jenny was normally snide and sarcastic, so the impassioned speech seemed out of character. Then she thought about Jenny’s twelve-year-old son, Cooper, who she was raising as a single mother, and realized she didn’t know as much about Jenny’s background as she should.
“Back at you,” she answered, because she might not understand the details of Jenny’s past, but she certainly recognized a kindred soul in the area of doubt and self-recrimination when she saw one. “Maybe you can give me some tips.”
Kendall choked on the sip of water she’d just taken.
Chloe grinned. “Did you just ask for advice from Jenny?”
The redhead only smiled. “About time.”
The waiter approached the table again, this time carrying their lunch orders. Sam realized her appetite had also returned. Even though nothing had been resolved, sharing the past with her friends had centered her. She would make this work. For Grace. Already the girl held a sacred place in her heart. The place her sister had once occupied. She wouldn’t fail Grace the way she’d failed Bryce.
“You can change your mind.” Trevor threw the truck into park and turned to Grace. “We can drive right back down that dirt road. How about we go for an ice cream? Remember when Nana would take you for a special treat after school? Or is it frozen yogurt that’s cool now? Want me to take you for a FroYo?”
Grace finished a text and glanced at him. “Dad, you’re babbling.”
“I don’t babble,” he argued. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard recently. I can’t believe you’d suggest I—” He clamped his mouth shut.
“And yet...”
“I want you to understand you have options.”
She narrowed her vivid blue eyes. “The option to keep pretending a stork dropped me off to you on Nana’s front porch? Like I have no other family but you?”
“I never said—”
“You never said anything,” Grace whispered. Trevor glanced through the front windshield of the truck to the camp’s main cabin. He was grateful, at least, that Sam hadn’t appeared from the cabin yet. “Why didn’t you tell me about all the problems my mom had?”
He’d finally sat down with Grace the night after the fiasco at Sam’s house and explained his history with both Sam and Bryce Carlton. He knew Grace had held on to a romanticized version of her mother, mostly because he’d tacitly encouraged it by his unwillingness to talk about Bryce. But how the hell could he have explained to his beautiful, innocent daughter all the demons that had plagued the woman who gave birth to her?
She’d been quiet, but he could see the devastation in her eyes as they talked. In the past few days her emotions had been all over the map. It seemed anger had finally made its way to the surface. Grace could hold in her temper for days until it exploded with the force of a cannon, leveling everything in its path—especially him.
It was one more thing about the mystery of raising a girl that he didn’t understand. It hadn’t been like this when she was younger. She’d been a sunny little girl, constantly giggling as she rode on her daddy’s shoulders back when he could do no wrong.
Those days were long gone. He wished his grandma was still here to help him navigate the perilous waters of raising a teenage girl. Right now he wanted to get through this afternoon without a major meltdown. Not that he’d deny her emotions.
Grace deserved to freak out as much as she wanted. He only hoped it wouldn’t be in front of Sam. For some reason, it was important to Trevor that the woman waiting inside the cabin think he had things under control, even if that was the biggest lie on the planet.
“Brycewassick,” Trevor argued, but it sounded lame even to his own ears. “I’m sorry I didn’t explain the whole story to you, Gracie. At the time I wanted to protect you.”
“By lying?”
“I didn’t lie,” he said through clenched teeth. “Not exactly.”
“Whatever,” she answered with a sniff and climbed out of the truck’s cab.
