Page 42 of Seven Days in June

Eva did want things. She wanted the world for her daughter. She wanted to see her characters on the big screen, racially intact. And deep down—fathoms deep, where she buried her weightiest wants—she wanted to go to Louisiana and research her dream book. The one that might turn her and Audre’s life upside down. The one uncovering the truth about her bloodline, the incorrigibly untamed, dangerously wild Mercier women.

Eva wanted things. She’d just forgotten how to get them.

She used to be brazen. Where was that girl who’d run away from her mother, to Shane, to Princeton, and then to New York? Who was that girl?

There was only one person who remembered. And he’d been texting her since she’d fled the diner.

With trembling hands, she pulled her phone out of her purse.

Today, 11:15 AM

S.H.

Call me.

Today, 11:49 AM

S.H.

Please, Genevieve.

Today, 12:40 PM

S.H.

Just wanna make sure you’re okay. Please.

Today, 2:10 PM

S.H.

Okay, I have no right to know anything about you anymore.

Today, 2:33 PM

S.H.

Fuck it, yes I do.

Today, 2:35 PM

S.H.

I’m staying in the West Village. 81 Horatio Street. I’ll be here till Sunday. Please come, if you want to talk. Any day, any time. But if you don’t, I get it. And I’ll leave and never bother you again. Just know that I wish you the most brilliant, weird, and wonderful things, every day of the world.

Eva stared at her phone. Like if she looked hard enough at it, it would burst into flames. And she’d be rid of him forever.

Brilliant, weird, and wonderful.When was the last time she’d experienced any of those things? She didn’t know.

But she did know she’d do anything for Audre.

She also knew that Genevieve had always lurked on the outskirts of her personality—muted by motherhood, career, self-preservation, and common sense, butthere. Eva was older, but the same bones were under her skin. The same flame, dulled to an ember, waiting for a spark to set her ablaze again.

And most importantly? She knew an English teacher.

Chapter 11

An Aggressive Act of Personal Reinvention

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