Page 77 of Endurance

I smiled. My little sister was always an instant mood booster, no matter how bleak I might be feeling.

“Why, hello there, Miss Emma.”

“I knew it was you!”

“You did, huh? You’re up early today.”

“I was hungwy.”

“Hungry, huh? Did you have anything good for breakfast?”

“Mommy cut up some owanges and stwawbewies, and I had some ceweal. It was vewy good!”

I had to laugh. It had been a couple of weeks since I’d last spoken to Emma, and she still clearly hadn’t mastered her pronunciations during that time.

“That sounds delicious! Now you’re making me hungry too. I’ll have to find out what mommy’s secret is. Can you put her on the phone for me?”

“Sure.”

“Kallie?” my mother said.

“I’m here. God, I miss her little face. I hear she’s still struggling with the Rs and Ls.”

“Yeah. I’ve been in touch with the school about it. They’ve assured me it’s common, but they are going to start speech therapy with her next month.”

“She’ll get those pesky consonants down soon enough. Don’t worry.”

“Oh, I’m not too worried. Your father is another story, though,” she added with a laugh. “He’s already lined up a speech therapist to work with her next week when we’re at Camp Riley.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were heading there! I haven’t visited the camp in ages!” I thought back to the few summers I’d spent helping my parents and my Aunt Joy refurbish the property in Abington, Virginia. I could almost smell the tall pines and envision the rays of light that would streak through their branches as they arched over the quaint little pathways throughout the camp like a living canopy. It had once been a performing arts camp run by my grandparents, but after they died, the camp fell to ruin because my mother didn’t have the funds to keep it running. After she reunited with my father, they worked together to turn what was left of the property into a literacy youth camp for low-income families.

“Yeah, it was a last-minute thing,” my mother explained. “Aunt Joy decided to convert one of the unused cabins into a guest house and asked for your father’s help with some of the renovations.”

“That sounds like fun. Speaking of dad, is he within earshot?”

“No. He just jumped in the shower. Why?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something, and I didn’t want him to freak out.”

“What’s wrong?” my mother hurriedly asked, the concern evident in her voice. I took a deep breath and steeled myself to tell her the true reason for my call.

“I’m coming home. Sloan, the race car driver I’ve been representing… Well, I don’t think I can be his PR agent anymore. The problem is that there’s still just shy of three months left on the contract Quinn & Wilkshire agreed to.”

“Kallie, it’s unlike you to not see a contract through.”

“I know what’s at stake. Financially, this is going to hurt me. I was counting on the bonus and possibly making partner so much, but it’s not about that anymore.”

“Your father definitely won’t be happy. Why do you need to break the contract early?”

“I just can’t be around Sloan anymore, but you can’t tell dad the reasons. At least not yet. I’ll have to come up with something—say we just weren’t compatible or something. I don’t know.”

“Kallie, I don’t know what you’re trying to get at. Just spit it out. What the hell happened out there? Why can’t you be around Sloan?”

I hesitated, unsure if I should tell her how far across the line I went with Sloan. I took another deep breath, then exhaled slowly. My mother had always been there for me no matter what, and I knew this would be no different.

“Because I fell in love with him, Mom.”

She fell deathly silent and didn’t speak for a long moment.

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