Page 13 of Butterfly Sisters
Leigh chewed her lip and nodded in agreement, her mind preoccupied.
“You’re not upset because Colton’s here, are you?”
Her mother’s question yanked her out of her thoughts. “Of course not,” she said, unsure why she was feeling so defensive. “It’s a free country; he can be here too.”
Shelly returned with two bubbling glasses of Coke, setting them down on the table, and then addressed another group at a table next to them.
“You two used to be joined at the hip,” Mama said, picking up her soda and taking a swig from the straw.
“A lot’s changed since we were kids,” Leigh said. “We’re not the same people we were back then.” Her gaze flitted over to him and caught him laughing at something one of the guys had said, sending a little ache through her. She wasn’t sure if the ache was from losing the boy she’d left behind or not knowing the man in front of her now.
Just then, he caught sight of her, and they locked eyes across the room. Her stomach flipped when he sent her the faintest hint of that smile of his, before turning back to the television.
After flipping through the channels that evening, and finding nothing to quiet her whirring mind, Leigh clicked off the TV and lay back on the sofa. The static patter of Mama’s shower was the only sound in the house. She closed her stinging eyes, conjuring up the smile that lingered behind Colton’s pout when she’d caught him looking at her the few times at dinner, his muscular stature, and the masculinity in his hands as he grabbed bottles of beer off the bar.Things just keep moving along, don’t they?
Even though their reunion was lackluster at best, given the circumstances, it was enough to send her on a million what-ifs. What if she’d gone to Belmont or Vanderbilt and stayed in the area? Would she be a different person now? Would she have ended up here at the lake with Colton? Would they spend their days together out on the porch swing or in twin rocking chairs, watching the sunset every evening?
Leigh shifted on the sofa, reaching around and rubbing the knot that had formed in her shoulder last night and carried on through her travels today. Her eyes burned with the need for sleep, and a pinch of tension swelled in her neck and back. It was as if eight years of not standing still was now collecting in her muscles. This wasn’t like her. Leigh relished the race to the top. She was energized by competition and the clawing it took to reach her goals. She hadn’t ever tired of it. Not until this moment.
She just needed to get back on track. To get her mind onto something more productive, she got up and pulled out her laptop, browsing jobs back in New York. With a full savings account and her severance package, she had a little time to find something else, but she’d rather not dip into what she’d worked so hard to set aside. She scrolled through a few postings, none of them hitting the mark. With another click, she checked a different site, pausing to read one that looked promising. But it required “a considerable amount of travel,” so she wasn’t sure if she wanted to commit. She’d bookmark it in case she couldn’t find anything else.
Then, suddenly, she stopped cold, her mouth literally hanging open as she read the available position:McGregor Consulting, Commercial Property Management Consultant… That was Leigh’s title. They didn’t dissolve her position. They dissolvedher. Squeezing her right out and replacing her with someone new. She stared at it, unable to make sense of what was going on. Phillip had softened the let-down with a severance package, but in the end, it was a straight you-don’t-cut-the-mustard firing. She’d done everything right.Everything. How could things have gone so wrong?
“Let’s roast marshmallows,” her mother said, coming into the room in her matching pants and T-shirt pajama set, her hair wet from the shower.
Leigh eyed her, wondering about her behavior. First the boat ride and then dinner out, now marshmallows. The same thing had happened when their father had died. Her mother began fluttering around, putting on a happy face for everyone, not daring to stop moving because if she did, she’d crumble into a million pieces.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Mama said, scooping up Leigh’s laptop, shutting it, and setting it on the desk. “I know you’re super important and everyone needs you, but give yourself at least a day before you start working.” Her mother padded into the kitchen. “We’ve got those long skewers in the pantry,” she said over her shoulder. “I’ll get them.”
Nobody needed her. Nobody at all. Rebecca was taking care of everything. Leigh got up, her head beginning to throb, her mother’s constant movement making her feel exhausted. Leigh had never seen her like this. Whatever she had to tell them must be huge. She got up and went into the kitchen in a daze.
“I’ll get the fire pit started out back,” Mama said, whizzing past her with two skewers, an armful of blankets, and a bag of marshmallows.
Leigh pulled down a glass from the cabinet and filled it with water at the tap. Then she rooted around in her handbag until she found her ibuprofen, popping two of them into her mouth and chasing them with the water. She topped her glass off and headed out to the small patio at the bottom of the stairs, below the screened-in porch, where, next to Nan’s overgrown flower bed and vegetable garden, they had a stone fire pit with a circle of white-washed wooden Adirondack chairs and a hammock on the tree line. She sunk down into one of the chairs, covering up with a blanket, just as the orange flames licked up at the night sky, sending heat through the chill in the air that always fell over the lake at nightfall in the springtime. Mama sat down beside her, threading a marshmallow onto one of the skewers and handing it to Leigh.
“How long did you take off of work?” Mama asked. She’d loaded up her skewer and had already submerged her marshmallow into the flame.
“I rarely take time off,” Leigh said, “so I can have as long as I like… within reason,” she added, so it wouldn’t be obvious that she had no job at all.
“Oh, that’s wonderful! I only got a week off at the bank, but that’s fine. I commuted from here for the last two weeks and the drive wasn’t too bad.” She pulled her marshmallow out of the flame and blew on it. “Besides, Iwantto work. It gives me purpose.”
Leigh understood. She wanted to work too. She’d only been there a day and its lulling effects were already messing with her resolve.
“You’re quiet,” Mama noted. The twinge of fear in her eyes made sense because Leigh felt it too. If she stopped too long, she’d think about Nan’s absence.
Leigh shook her head, pushing thoughts of Nan away, her own need to deny the sadness creeping in. “I’m just… unwinding. It’s been a busy day.”
“Your marshmallow’s burning.”
Leigh yanked her skewer out of the fire, the charred marshmallow smoking. She let it cool and picked at it, nibbling the inside as the stars came out in the deep-blue sky above them, the soft, swishing movement of the lake soothing her.
“You wanna tell me what’s going on?” Mama asked. “I’m not stupid. Something’s up with you.”
Mama’s assessment took Leigh off guard. Was it that obvious? And she was no one to talk. Leigh debated over dropping the bomb that she’d been fired. She wasn’t sure she could handle the embarrassment of it. She’d never failed at anything. And she’d failed at this—the biggest part of her life.
“I’ll tell you if you tell me your news,” Leigh ventured, leaning the skewer against the fire pit.
Mama frowned. “I need to tell you and Meredith at the same time.” There was a finality in her eyes that made it clear Leigh didn’t need to ask again. Mama wasn’t budging. “I’m guessing, though, that whatever it is onyourchest, you’d probably rather tell only me. Or do you want to wait and tell Meredith too?”
