Page 48 of Every Star that Shines

“What’s new with me? Nothing much. You, on the other hand,” Marie said. “Holy Toledo, girl, Desmond showed me the video. It’s amazing. I knew you would pull it off.”

Delanie sat on the couch, relieved warmth blooming in her chest. Thanks to Caleb’s sage wisdom and a great deal of thought, she had finally found the words to smooth things over with her fans, and she had recorded it on her phone in her room yesterday morning. Then, several hours later—after it had finished uploading to the cloud on her parents’ painfully slow rural Internet—she had sent it off to Desmond to edit. He had texted an hour ago to say it was done and ready to go, and she had given him the go-ahead to publish it to her YouTube account. Nothing fancy, no skit, just her talking to the camera. It was about as raw and authentic as she’d ever been on her channel, and she was more than a little nervous about how it would be received.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’m glad you think I did okay.”

“Not just okay. You nailed it. No pandering, no butt-kissing, you just told it like it is. You remembered who your people are, and those people are going to love it. The rest can go crawl back into the holes they were spawned in.”

“I hope so.” Delanie caught herself chewing a nail. She tucked the offending hand behind the arm holding her phone.

Marie’s voice took on a playful tone. “So, speaking of new, how are things with Caleb?”

Marie had been victorious when Delanie had told her what Caleb had revealed about the situation with Monica all those years ago. I knew he hadn’t cheated, she’d crowed. And ever since Delanie and Caleb had started seeing each other again, Marie had been insatiable about digging for more information about him.

“He’s still fine.” Delanie grinned. “You know, maybe you should come to Peace Crossing and meet him. You could come up for the play performance. Then you wouldn’t have to keep grilling me for information.”

“I’d love that! Then I would get to see all your hard work. And see all those amazing kids in my designs.” She paused. “Isn’t that the same weekend as the Starlight Gala though? I thought you were coming here.”

“Oh. Right.”

“You still want to stick it in Josh-the-Weasel’s face, don’t you?”

“Yeeaah . . .” Though that seemed less important now that she and Caleb were together again.

“And talk to Tessa Montague?” Marie prompted.

“Definitely.” Delanie stuck the fingernail back between her teeth, then pulled it out and started twirling her finger in her ponytail instead. “If you came up a few days before, you could watch opening night with me and then we could head back to Vancouver together. It would be nice to have an extra driver, especially since it will be a marathon to make it back in time for the gala.”

“You mean Caleb’s not coming back with you?” Marie teased.

“I, um . . .” Delanie struggled to find answers she still didn’t know herself. Just then, her mother gave a loud squeal, and Delanie jumped to her feet. “Sorry, Marie, something happened to my mom. Gotta go.”

She ended the call without even waiting to hear her friend’s goodbye and ran down the hall, meeting her father and Adelaide, who had run from the other end of the hall, outside the open bathroom door. Bill was staring through the door at his wife with an expression of mixed confusion and concern.

“What happened?” Delanie asked. She peered into the room and saw her mother holding her phone in her hand, her mouth agape.

“I’ve just had a call from Murray Jones, the head of Peace Valley Community Theatre.”

Delanie’s heart leapt to her throat. Had something happened to the hall? “Was it about the funding for the new sound board?” She hoped it was that, and not that the ancient wiring had caused a fire that sent the hall up in flames.

“He didn’t mention that,” Cheryl said, then paused, drawing the moment out.

“For the love of Pete, Cheryl, what is it?” Bill asked.

Cheryl met Delanie’s gaze. “Murray and the board want the family’s approval to name the main stage of Mackenzie Playhouse after Nan. It would be the Molly Davis Memorial Stage.” Cheryl’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

Delanie’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, my . . .” She rushed into the narrow bathroom and threw her arms around her mother, tears flowing down her cheeks. Then, jumping up and down like Emma would, she turned and embraced her father and Adelaide in turn as Cheryl did the same with the other, while both of them offered congratulations.

Delanie plucked a tissue from the box on the counter and dabbed the moisture from her eyes. “Nan would have loved this.”

Bill snorted as he relaxed his hug around his wife, though they each kept one arm draped around the other’s waist. “Are you kidding? Your grandmother would have been so embarrassed, she probably wouldn’t have even attended the ceremony. They likely would have honoured her years ago, while she was still alive, if she weren’t so bull-headed about this kind of thing.”

“Oh, stop,” Cheryl said, playfully swatting her husband’s arm. “She would have been thrilled.”

Adelaide chuckled. “I don’t know. I noticed that dusty box full of awards that Delanie hauled out of the basement earlier. Molly wasn’t one to rest on her laurels or put them on display. She would rather have been out doing something useful than talking about the things she already did. Do you remember how she reacted when she got that Lifetime Achievement in the Canadian Performing Arts award? Didn’t you have to practically hog-tie her to get her to Edmonton to accept it, Cheryl?”

Cheryl laughed. “That’s true, I did. She kept grumbling about how she shouldn’t get an award like that until she’d actually lived her lifetime—and she was already sixty-eight. Granted, she lived another twelve years and never stopped serving the arts community, but that was my mother for you.”

“Huh. I guess you’re right then, Dad.” Delanie hadn’t even known Nan had received most of the plaques and awards in that box, which was now being stored in her parents’ basement instead of Nan’s. It seemed at every turn of this project, she was learning something new about her grandmother. “But it’s wonderful anyway. When are they going to announce it?” she asked her mother.

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