I’d registered the fact of Eden’s mom’s fame, but with the same self-imposed distance. Now I let it sink in, what that would have meant for her. “You’re the child of pop royalty.”
“Yeah, well, Caryn Simmons is fun for the rest of the world. Not so much for me. She was always recording or on tour. I was raised by my grandmother.”
I think of her saying to MariI’ve been through worseandI’ve done it before, and I can do it again. I’ve seen her put that brave face on so many times, and I wonder if each time she puts it on, it’s harder to take off.
Also, there’s a missing piece in there—the whole story of her relationship with her mom—but if she’s not going to volunteer more, I’m not going to press.
“How’s the guest situation?” I gesture at her phone.
She sighs. “Kind of a hot mess. Why did Hanna tell people the wedding is being rescheduled?”
I hesitate, but I might as well level with her. “She wanted to leave all our options open.”
“I don’t want my options open,” she says. “I’m not taking Paul back.”
I open my mouth, but she gives me a sharp warning look and I close it again. Not only because of the warning look. Because there is no bone in my body that believes taking Paul back is a good idea.
“Short term,” I say instead, “it means you don’t have to say you were jilted.”
She ponders that. “It is kind of nice not to have to tell people the whole story,” she says. “‘Family emergency’ is kind of great.”
“Later on, you can tell them the truth if you want,” I suggest. “That your fiancé is a giant douchebag who doesn’t know his ass from his elbow.”
Fuck.
Sorry, Hanna! But he is!
She raises her eyebrows, amused. “That doesn’t say much for my taste in men.”
I stare at her.
She winces. “Yeah,” she says. “Well. I’m swearing off them permanently, so you don’t need to worry about me doingthatagain. I’m adopting your take on love and marriage.”
She goes back to her phone, and I pull out mine.
She’s swearing off men permanently.
Hanna
She’s just saying that. When he grovels, she’ll change her mind.
I don’t want him to grovel.
I don’t want her to change her mind.
What do we do if she really doesn’t want to marry him anymore?
There’s a long pause, and then Hanna sends back:
I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that.
We hitthe road as soon as we clean up dinner. My first act is to pull into a gas station. Eden jumps out of the car.
“Where are you going?”
“We need snacks,” she says.
“We just ate.”
