Page 9 of The Next Mrs. Parrish

“Absolutely not. You’d have to cancel your trip, and I’m not going to let you do that. You’ve been counting the days. You’re going on that trip in two weeks.”

“I can travel anytime. This is more important, Daphne.”

My mother has been planning this vacation with her friends for the last two years—seven weeks in South America starting in Quito, Ecuador, and the Galápagos Islands and on to Peru and Bolivia. It’s the trip of a lifetime for her and one she and my late father always dreamed about. “No, Mom. You’ve been looking forward to this for so long, and your friends will be hugely disappointed if you don’t go. Not to mention that at this point it’s nonrefundable. I can’t let you do that.”

She starts to object, but I stop her. “Look, Meredith is there. I’ll be sure she’s with me whenever Jackson’s around. You need to go and not worry about me. I’m a big girl.” The one good thing about going back to Bishops Harbor will be seeing my best friend, Meredith. She was the only genuine friend I made when I lived there. It was Meredith who first discovered that Amber was a fraud. And even though at the time I couldn’t let Meredith know that I was investigating Amber and had to pretend to believe Amber’s lies, she respected my choice. That’s one of the qualities I love best about her—it’s never about getting her way, or being right, but rather being supportive.

My mother shakes her head, but says no more, and I’m grateful that she’s stopped trying to convince me otherwise. I look up when I hear footsteps and see Tallulah walking towardme.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. But you don’t know how hard it is. It’s like he’s dead. I really miss him.” A tear rolls down her cheek and my heart breaks. I open my arms, and she collapses againstme.

“We’ll go back for the summer. I’ll make the arrangements.”

She pulls back and looks at me. “Really? You mean it?”

I nod. “All I want is your happiness. We’ll go back to Bishops Harbor for the summer. But you can’t see him without me being there, and you’ll just have to trust that I have my reasons. Everything I do is to protect you even if you don’t believe that. Can you do that?”

A smile lights up her face, and she jumps up and down then hugs me again. “Yes, yes! Thank you, thank you!”

I close my eyes, hugging her tight, and hope with all my might that her gratitude doesn’t one day turn into reproach.

– 5 –

DAISY ANN

Daisy Ann Briscoe, née Crawford, swam the last two laps of thirty in her backyard pool. It was four o’clock on Saturday afternoon in Dallas, and the temperature still hovered around the ninety-degree mark, with humidity at an unbearable 80percent. She’d worked in her office for two hours this morning, then taken her sons, Tucker and Greyson, to their tennis lessons at the country club where she’d met her husband, Mason, for lunch. Afterward, they’d all come home and dispersed. As she climbed out of the pool and dried off, all she wanted was to take a cool shower, put on some comfy loungewear, and chill for the rest of the evening. Instead, they’d be leaving in an hour for her mother-in-law’s seventy-fifth birthday bash.

As she went from the terrace into the conservatory, the drop in temperature made her shiver and pull her robe more tightly around her. She’d always hated air-conditioning, but without it, the hot muggy Texas climate could be insufferable. The Saltillo tile was warm on her bare feet, as she walked through the sunny room to the central hall and stairway. They’d lived in this modern home in Highland Park for over eleven years, from the time Daisy Ann was pregnant with Tucker, their first child. Mason, at six feet six and almost a head taller than Daisy Ann, had felt like the massive house was made for him, with its twelve-foot ceilings and tall wooden cantilevered front doors, and so she’d agreed to the purchasewithout looking further. Not that there was anything to complain about. The home was vast and spectacular, all stone and wood, with notable attention to detail throughout. It sat on almost an acre of property.

Daisy Ann, however, had grown up in quite different circumstances than her husband and was as far from a city girl as one could get. Her father’s ranch in Denton County spanned over a hundred thousand acres and was over an hour away from Dallas. Her childhood had been full of adventure and exploration. She’d been a free spirit, an only child, with room to run and roam, to sit under a tree and dream undisturbed. She still missed the freedom of those endless vistas, the big sky, riding her horse like the wind. It was the place she loved most in the world, and her boys loved it too. The family spent lots of time at the ranch throughout the year. It delighted Daisy Ann to see Tucker and Greyson exploring her favorite old childhood haunts. How many nights had they all sat in a circle around a campfire under a sky full of stars, sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows and telling stories? She could still hear her father’s deep belly laugh, the kind of laugh that was contagious. He would never see her boys grow into men, and they’d been robbed of a wise and bountiful grandfather. He’d been a healthy and vital sixty-five with so much to live for.

The house was quiet as she climbed the stairs, which meant that Mason was most likely in his office working and the boys in their bedrooms on their PlayStations. When she reached the landing, she went first to Tucker’s bedroom. The door was open, and he was, as she suspected, on his computer. She glanced over at his bed, where two yellow labs were dozing, and smiled. Buck and Shot had been her father’s dogs and while they had bonded with the entire family, the connection with Tucker was special. No matter how often Greyson tried to get them to sleep in his room, they always ended up back in here. “Hey, sugar. Time to get ready for Mimi’s birthday party. We have to leave soon.”

He swiveled the chair around to face her. “I’m already dressed,” he said.

Eyeing her eleven-year-old son, she said, “You arenotgoing to your grandmother’s party in shorts and a T-shirt. Now change into long pants and a dress shirt.” She could just picture Birdie’s face if Tucker walked in dressed so casually.

“Aww, Mom. Why can’t I go like this?”

Truthfully, she wondered that too, but her mother-in-law, Birdie, was old school. Old money, old manners, old Dallas. “Come on, Tuck. You know how Mimi is. Don’t be difficult.”

“Jeez. That’s so stupid.” He huffed and made a great show of getting up from his chair.

She chuckled to herself as she continued past Greyson’s bedroom to her own. Without being told, her nine-year-old would already be in pressed khakis, a white button-down, and a plaid tie. He was a Briscoe through and through.

“Oh, you surprised me,” she said as she entered the bedroom and saw Mason. “I thought you were still working.”

“I probably should be, but I figured I’d better leave it before I got too involved. Don’t want to be late for Mom’s.” Mason raised his eyebrows and made a mocking fearful face.

Daisy Ann laughed and went up on tiptoe to give him a kiss. “You’re funny. I just got some lip from Tucker when I told him to change his clothes.”

“He should count his blessings that you’re his mama. I had to dress up all the time. I’m gonna jump in the shower. Want to join me?”

“Just how late do you want to be?”

Mason sighed and shook his head. “Right. Catch you tonight,” he said, running a hand through his thick black hair and throwing a towel over his shoulder.

Blowing him a kiss, she relished the thought of making love with him later. She knew lots of couples cooled off after so manyyears together, but happily, that was not the case with her and Mason. After showering in her own bathroom, Daisy Ann went into the dressing room and pulled out a turquoise pantsuit, sleeveless and backless. It was flowy and summery, and the monochrome made her five-foot-eight frame appear even taller. The color had always been a great complement to her warm skin tones and white-blond hair. Scanning the shoe rack, she decided on her red Ferragamo sandals. Her mother’s silver and turquoise drop earrings would be all the jewelry she’d need. Birdie would approve, Daisy Ann decided as she dressed. Although she and Mason often joked about his mother’s eccentricities and her adherence to strict social protocol, Daisy Ann loved and respected her mother-in-law. Underneath Birdie’s commanding and grand exterior was a warm and empathic woman who was able to make anyone feel comfortable. And despite the fact that she wanted things a certain way, she had a charisma that drew people to her. How often had Daisy Ann heard her say,Charm is making the person you’re talking to feel like the only person in the room.

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