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“I’m Cami.” She extends a slim hand over the counter and mine rises to shake hers automatically. She holds my gaze and my hand just a second longer than people usually do. It occurs to me that what would normally be weird... Isn’t. I just feel... Welcome.
“I’m Lai.” I finally say. She releases me, but her dark blue eyes linger on my face.
“Sweet or savory?” she asks, and there’s a brief stutter in my brain before I realize she’s asking about my preference in pastries.
I decide on one of each and take her recommendations. She places my choices on a sky-blue plate with tiny clouds flitting across it and brings it with a glass of passionfruit tea over to the table.
“Join us?” she asks. The other ladies add to her request, and I’m introduced around the table. Madison with an obvious baby bump, and Morgan. The two have identical features and short-cut strawberry blonde curls. Serena, with an elegant black bob and surprising violet eyes peering from behind thick framed glasses.
They ask about my stay at the B&B and tell me a little about their lives. Madison starts to ask more personal questions about where I came from, but Cami steers the conversation back to baby shower planning with a small smile in my direction.
There’s a slight pause when Cami’s cashier comes in, and everyone teases her about her latest date with a guy Morgan works with. She’s full of blushes but hands out a few gems in response to their questions. They all sigh aloud when she says he asked her to take his arm when they walked to the mall food court before the movie.
As they talk, she bustles around, cleaning up little areas I hadn’t even noticed needed straightening. Everything she touches seems to want to shine brighter for her. She refills my tea glass right when I was thinking of leaving them to their planning. Gracie. Her name is Gracie. She brings a tray of tiny cookies that are dusted with a dusting of sweet cocoa powder that seem to melt on my tongue.
Morgan produces a few color schemes for the baby shower. She prompts me for my top choice when I don’t automatically give it, and they all listen like I’m a part of the group.
I learn that Madison owns the boutique where I’d invested in two deceitfully neutral-colored blazers. They're lined with glorious silky prints. When I tell her how much I love them, she beams at Serena. She tells us those blazers were part of a new line Serena’s little sister, Jessi, was helping with.
Serena is visibly proud of her sister but tells Madison to let her focus on school. It seems to be a commonly repeated conversation. Madison just scrunches up her nose and says, "Jessi can do her homework at the shop.” Morgan laughs, “That’s her idea of a compromise, ladies.” They all laugh, and I can’t help but chuckle, too.
Madison asks how I intend to pair them, and when I tell her I’ve been looking for some loose slacks that will work with the up and downs and sticky fingers of the preschool but still look professional, she gets a glint in her eye. When I tell her they also have to tuck into my motorcycle boots, she seems ecstatic with the added challenge, and claps her hands. She tells me to give her a week and she’ll have a mockup.
Morgan starts talking about the most recent rescue escapade with her team, and I realize she's the Morgan who works with James. I freeze. I miss half of her story because the feeling of being an imposter in this life creeps into me like worms crawling through soil. I manage to shake it off, but I notice Cami watching my reaction with eyes that see more than they should.
By the time Madison’s boyfriend sweeps in with a rogue grin to steal her away and the group breaks up, it’s almost dinner time.
Somehow, I end up with all their numbers in my phone.
Cami insists I join their monthly dinner coming up in a few weeks.
Madison pulls a creamy, calligraphed invitation out of her bag and presses it into my hand. It’s to a fashion show she’s putting on with some of the local high school girls as models on Tuesday night.
Gracie passes me a Cloud Nine take-out bag, and I start to argue, but Cami just says “Welcome” and surprises me with a tight hug.
I’m normally a loner, and community events have never sparked an interest. But I’m suddenly excited to go to this fashion show.
Chapter 22
~~ James ~~
Emilie is kneeling in a chair at the dining room table coloring while I mix sauce into spaghetti noodles in the kitchen. Her chatter is background music until I hear her telling Sadie and Freckles about her new teacher at school.
“Mizzz Mills’s hair is purtier than yours even,” she tells Sadie. Sadie the Unicorn’s rainbow mane and tail have been Emilie’s pride and joy for several months now. Sadie is propped up in Emilie’s booster seat so she’s table height.
“She didn’t get mad at me when I spilled my paint. And she told Jonathan he's snot 'lowed to pull my hair anymore.” She leans over and pushes some of the crayons in front of Freckles, who has her own coloring page.
Emilie stage whispers, “It’s the longest hair I ever saw!”
I’d received the email from the school asking parents to welcome the new Director, Ms. Mills, of course. It had touted her majors in Child Psychology and Education from a prominent women’s college. I hadn’t had the chance to meet her, but apparently the stodgy, gray-bun image I had in my mind was incorrect.
I pull garlic toast from the oven and start spooning some sweet peas onto Emilie’s favorite-of-the-month Princess plate.
“She wears boots under her pants, too. I seen them when she sat on the floor at Story-time. I want some boots like that.”
“Daaaaaad!” she yells like I’m not right on the other side of the counter.
“What, baby girl?”
