Page 55 of The Best Kind of Bad

RayAnne sweeps up, looking darling in an antique lace wedding gown.

She’s got tears in her eyes.

Uh-oh.

Missed the mark. The bride isn’t happy.

Her mother trails behind her with a solemn expression on her face.

I reach out to touch her arm. “RayAnne. Is everything okay?”

“Okay?” She pauses in front of me, then drags me into her scratchy bodice. “It’s perfect.”

RayAnne pulls back, dabbing at the tears threatening to ruin her makeup. “Would you take a photo with the cake?”

“A picture of the cake?” I look around, wondering where her photographer is. As it happens, he’s lingering by the cake table, waiting for us.

“No, I want a picture ofyouand the cake.”

Well, this is a strange request.

And now I’m really and truly wishing I’d bothered with makeup. “I’m a mess.”

She pauses, scanning my face. She gives me a dry laugh. “Honey, you could go roll around in the straw over there and still look better than everyone in here.”

“Not counting you, my dear.” Barb inserts.

“Sure, mom.” RayAnne looks at me, offering me her elbow. “Coming?”

“On one condition.” I snag my phone. “You let me take a picture ofyoufor my Instagram account.”

She glances back at her mom, grinning. “Oh my God. I’ve seen her Instagram account. It’s beautiful.”

I hook my arm around hers. “Shall we?”

We take a few photos with her photographer, and then a few selfies for social media.

They’re my first customers after what seemed like the end of the world.

And thanks to a single wedding cake, I’m starting to feel like my old self again.

I post the photo of the three of us and the cake to my feed with the captionThe Phoenix Rises.

36.

Dusty

I’m on cloud nine.

Nothing can touch me.

My biggest fear, the thoughts that have haunted me since Gus passed, just disappeared.

I’m going to be Sienna’s guardian. That takes the need to find a job, a new home, from nuclear threat, to general disaster. I can work with disaster level. That’s when I do some of my best improvising.

It’s nothing compared to what I was worried about.

The worst thing, the thing I wouldn’t be able to recover from, would be having my last family member removed from my life. I can keep her. And she can keep me.

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