Page 90 of The Twelve Months of Christmas
“I think you look great. But then I’ve always thought you look great,” she added.
“That’s one of the things I like about you,” he said. “You look beneath the surface.”
“I need to do that more with my customers,” Molly admitted.
“Only if you stay.”
“Which I’m going to.”
“One of these days you may decide you don’t need to,” he said, and pressed the elevator button. The doors opened and he stepped in after her. “Going up.”
Arianna hated seeing her mother so miserable. It was two days after Mia’s latest chemo treatment, and that was when the body aches and exhaustion hit. Arianna gave her a back rub and tucked a blanket around her.
“I wish I could do more,” she said. If only she could make some of her mother’s favorite foods or...something.
“You’re doing plenty,” Mia said. “I feel terrible that you had to quit work to take care of me.”
“I didn’t quit. It is just a leave of absence.” Her supervisor had been so understanding. Everyone had. “And we’re doing fine. The GoFundMe money has helped a lot.”
Mia made a face.
“This is temporary,” Arianna assured her. “I’m getting more followers on my social media, so pretty soon we’ll have more money coming in from that. I just got contacted by a health drink company, who want to pay me a nice sum for promoting their product. It won’t be long before I won’t need help.”
“You wouldn’t have had to take it if you still had your job,” Mia said, and Arianna could hear the motherly guilt in her voice.
“My job will still be waiting when we’re past this. Meanwhile, we’ll be fine without it,” Arianna said. “I’m happy with how the website is doing. I feel like I’m, I don’t know, getting somewhere in life. Getting...bolder.”
Before the divorce she’d been perfectly happy living small. No big dreams. There’d been no need to dream big. After all, she’d had Wyatt and Sophie, a good job. Wyatt had been the big dreamer, the man with the plan. He was going to make their fortune investing in cryptocurrency. No, real estate. No, Tesla. (He’d bought high and sold low each time.) He was going to make something happen.
Funny, he hadn’t made anything happen. He was still at his same old office job, selling heating systems. He was still looking for someone better than Arianna. He was probably still talking about taking the world by storm. Whatever.
“I’m proud of you, darling,” Mia said.
Arianna wasn’t taking the world by storm, but she was doing something purposeful with her life. She was moving on, and she felt good about it.
“You know what, Mom? I’m proud of me, too.”
Sunny was enjoying basking in her fifteen minutes of fame thanks to the article in theKitsap Sun.
“It’s lovely to see your genius appreciated,” her mother had said.
Her, a genius. Who’d have guessed it?
“Pretty cool that your stepdaughter was finally impressed with something you did,” Molly said to her as they dug into their meals at Horse and Cow.
“Yes, Tansy actually admitted to Travis that Bella’s been walking around school puffed up like a toad. All her friends think I am rad.”
“If enough of her friends say it, she might start to believe it,” said Arianna.
“Here’s hoping.” Although Sunny wasn’t holding her breath.
“I’m glad,” Molly told her. “You’ve been waiting long enough.”
“Now, instead of the wicked stepmother, maybe she’ll see you as a fairy godmother,” said Arianna.
Maybe she was going to be more than a fairy godmother or stepmother. She’d stopped at the drugstore on her way to buy a home pregnancy test.
“We need to toast to our success,” Arianna said. She frowned at the sight of Sunny’s glass of water. “You going to order something to toast with?”
