Page 81 of Own the Eights
Had her father known this? Had he hoped that the heroines in these novels would inspire her to be her own woman? Did some benevolent twist of fate send her those books, days after his death, at the exact moment she needed the steadying hand and the reassurance her father had always provided?
Her mother smiled. “I’m sure that would make your father very happy. You two shared so many common interests. I tried to find something for us with pageants, but well, you turned out to be a bigger fan of doughnuts and Dostoyevsky. Did I say that correctly?”
Georgie nodded. “Yeah, you pronounced it perfectly.”
A gentle breeze picked up, and silence stretched between the women.
“You know, I did love your father very much when we were younger. I was completely crazy for him back in high school. He was everything in our tiny town—handsome and smart,” her mom said with a faraway look in her eyes.
Her mother rarely discussed her father, and Georgie quickly decided to take this rare opening to ask a question she’d been mulling over for years.
“I never understood what happened between you two. It wasn’t like you guys fought or were cruel to one another, at least, not in front of me,” she said, watching her mother closely and saw her not as the socialite caricature she’d pegged her as, but a woman, as complex and as nuanced as any other.
They’d always talkedateach other. Today, they were actually talkingtoeach other.
Her mother sat back and folded her hands in her lap. “We were so young, and we didn’t know ourselves, not yet. And then you came along. You were such a beautiful baby. We killed it in the baby pageants.”
Georgie cocked her head to the side and bit back a smile.
“You don’t remember, but we did,” her mother said with a sly grin before her expression grew pensive. “Your father and I had a different view of what we wanted our lives to look like. He was content with his books and fixing cars, and I had always dreamed about traveling and living well. Sometimes, two people can love each other but still not be right for each other.”
Love each other but still not be right for each other.
Her mother must have caught wind about the blowout at the gala.
Georgie fiddled with the hem of her running shorts. She hadn’t gotten online, so she had no idea how much of the exchange Barry had caught on camera, except for the part when she’d turned to him and spouted out how she never wanted to see Jordan again. She’d spoken those harsh words straight into his camera.
Did the whole world know of her humiliation? She’d told Becca and Irene she didn’t want any information about the blog or the contest, but surely, they would have made her listen if she were the laughingstock of the internet.
She stared at the ground. “Is that why you’re here? You want me to understand that Jordan and I are too different to ever be happy together?”
Her mother laughed her million-dollar tinkling trill. “No, I’m here because I think that you and Jordan Marks love each other.”
Wait, what?
Georgie’s jaw dropped. “Why would you say that? You met him once, and we hadn’t told anyone about us.”
A knowing look sparked in her mother’s eyes. “The ladies in my Pilates class are following your blog contest. They showed me the video of your recent foray into aqua adventure pageants.”
Georgie’s brow knit together.Aqua adventure pageants? Then it hit her. “Oh sh—” she half cursed, but her mother raised a hand.
“No, profanity, pumpkin!”
Georgie could feel the hot blush creeping up her neck. “Mom, if I even thought for a second that you were reading my blog and would see that footage, I would have warned you.”
“Warned me? Why would you have done that?” she asked.
Georgie cringed. “Because it was a wet T-shirt contest at a bar that got broadcast across the globe.”
Her mother waved her off. “No, no! I was actually quite pleased to see you on the stage. Your foot placement was perfect. Your makeup was spot on. Minus the fact that your breasts were on display, your posture rivaled that of a Russian ballerina. I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder.”
Georgie continued to scan the ground, searching for a sinkhole to swallow her up and save her from this conversation. But the earth didn’t move. Thanks a lot, planet!
Georgie sighed. “What would make you think that Jordan and I love each other?”
Her mother’s coy expression was back. “That wasn’t the only video I watched. You helped that man hold a goat, and then he was there to catch you when you fell off that stage,” she added.
Georgie shook her head. “None of that matters now.”
