“It’s not the same.”
“We can go to Destin every summer like you did as a kid and stay somewhere else. But you need to break the news to Eli and Vivien that your vote is ‘sell’ and, Cris, honey, you guys need to come home. I miss you so much and we’re just frittering away these great weeks without Maggie.”
She flinched at the words, sad that he felt that way about her mother.
“If you leave tomorrow morning, Nolie won’t have missed much school, and she can still make the recital. That’s the only dancing she needs to do.”
“Miss the bridal show event? She’d be brokenhearted!” She squeezed her eyes shut, struggling with the rise of her emotions. “I don’t think you realize how happy she is, Anthony. She’s blossoming down here.”
“I don’t doubt that, but she will not be happy when she is the only eight-year-old in second grade. Or, worse, in high school when she’s a sixteen-year-old freshman.”
“That’s not going…” Her words faded out, knowing her arguments wouldn’t hold up against his. Nolie did need to stay with her grade level.
She dropped back on the bed, feeling sick and like she couldn’t grab hold of all her emotions.
“Mommy?” The door opened a crack and instantly Crista shot up and tapped the speaker button on her phone. She didn’t want Anthony to break this news to her. Crista had to do that, but not tonight. Not when she was this happy.
“Hey, I gotta run,” she said to Anthony. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Tell Nolie I love her,” he said. “And, Cris, I love you, too. Don’t forget that.”
She let out a sigh. “I won’t. Bye.” As she disconnected the call, Nolie came in.
“It’s just me,” she said with a giggle in her voice. “Figsworth.”
Crista laughed and reached for her, giving her way too tight a squeeze. “Figsworth needs to get her PJs on, brush her teeth, and get some sleep.”
“I will, Mommy. Can we read tonight?”
She drew back, not expecting that. “You want me to read?”
Nolie smiled up at her. “Let me try it tonight, okay?”
Her heart rolled around. “Of course. I can’t wait.” She bent over and kissed her daughter’s silky dark hair, fluttering a few locks in her fingers. “I love you so much, Nolie-bird.”
So much that Crista would once again be the odd man out in Destin.
* * *
Crista wokeat almost one in the morning, with Nolie next to her, her quiet breaths the only sound she could hear. The weight on her chest increased with every second she got closer to tomorrow when she had to face the task of breaking her daughter’s heart.
Back to Atlanta? Miss the fashion show? Leave the beach?
Nolie would wail.
No, no. She’d cry quietly—Crista was the wailer in the family. Nolie would just let the tears roll down her cheeks with shuddering sighs and…silence.
She flipped back the comforter and climbed out of bed, unnaturally hot and heavy with discomfort. Her chest burned like she’d had one too many bites of Jonah’s salsa.
Walking to the window, she peered out to the long view of the dunes and a slice of the beach, drawn to the moonlight and the sand.
Turning, she checked Nolie, who wouldn’t wake until six in the morning, when she would burst to life and rush downstairs, ready to be…Figsworth, the Junior Joy Coordinator.
Quieting a whimper that rose in her stinging chest, Crista walked silently to the door and slipped out, not really sure where she was going. She paused at the door to Eli’s bedroom and looked down the hall to the primary suite, where Vivien and Lacey were sound asleep.
Tessa slept on the main floor in the guest suite and Jonah was down on the first floor.
No one was awake to help her, and she didn’t have the heart to knock on one of these closed doors and have a breakdown. Or ask for a Tums.
